The Kissing Stars by Geralyn Dawson Page B

yourself?”
    She shut her eyes and a moment later, tears began to trickle down her cheeks. Gabe melted. This woman’s tears had always knocked his legs right out from underneath him. Probably because she so seldom cried.
    He took a couple of awkward steps in her direction, uncertain how to respond. When the little whimper escaped her lips, he knew he’d had enough. “Never mind, darlin’. That’s enough. Don’t cry. We can talk about this later. I think we’ve both had all the revelations we need for now.”
    She looked at him, then, the film of tears sparkling in the morning sunlight. “Gabe, I—”
    Squeal .
    The animal’s pain-filled shriek halted Tess mid-sentence.
    Squeal. Squeal. Squeal.
    Sounds like the butcher is getting to that hog , Gabe thought.
    “Rosie!” Tess cried, shoving to her feet. Without so much as a word to him, she ran for the path down the hill hollering.
    Gabe remained seated, his gaze trailing his wife’s mad dash. “Saved by the pig,” he observed, relief washing through him. It wasn’t like him to run from problems, but this situation was different from any he’d experienced before.
    Discussing the past with Tess was like strolling across a desert filled with cactus. One misstep could result in a nasty stick.
    Down in town, the pig squealed again and Gabe rolled to his feet to watch the action. Then, to his utter surprise considering recent events, he started to laugh. Soon he found himself laughing so hard he couldn’t have run ten yards to save his soul.
    What else was a fellow to do when he watched the citizens of Aurora Springs chase a pair of camels loping after a fleet-footed pig coated in molasses and feathers?

    “I’M NOT giving that pig a bath.”
    The afternoon sun and Gabe’s indignant voice filtered through the window of the pig-ravaged storeroom In the midst of the cleanup, Tess couldn’t help but smile. God bless Rosie. The pig’s antics had pulled Tess from the nightmare conversation with Gabe up on Paintbrush Mountain and restored Tess’s good humor. She considered the mess that had awaited her in the storeroom a fair price to pay.
    After she had managed to catch Rosie, but before Gabe dragged himself howling with laughter down the bluff, she had spoken with her Aurora Springs family and impressed upon them the importance of keeping certain details about their community quiet. Twinkle, who knew more of the details about Tess’s relationship with Gabe, stepped up and declared her intention to take the man beneath her wing—whether he liked it or not.
    From the sounds of it, he didn’t care for the job she had in mind for him at the moment.
    “Now, Gabe-dear,” Twinkle scolded. “One of the few rules we have here in our community is that everyone pitches in to help. I don’t know what’s gotten into Rosie today; she’s normally quite well-behaved. First Tess’s star shed and now our storeroom— we need the extra pair of hands to help.”
    “I don’t mind helping. I’m just not scrubbing down that undercooked roast with lavender soap.”
    “It’s honeysuckle soap, not lavender. I alternate fragrances on a weekly basis. I think variety in a soap adds a touch of excitement, a little allure to one’s life. And everyone else has other chores that need doing. You’re the only one here with extra time on your hands.”
    “Better time than a sudsy porker,” Gabe grumbled.
    “Would you rather see to Castor and Pollux? The dromedaries. I’ll warn you, they do like to spit.”
    Gabe muttered something Tess couldn’t make out. Wanting to hear better, she deposited glass from a broken jar of canned peaches into her box of trash and moved a little closer to the window.
    “Ma’am,” Gabe said. “This ham-on-the-hoof stinks. A little scent in the soap isn’t going to make it any nicer to be around. The only thing that will make the animal smell alluring is a frying pan and a fire.”
    Tess scowled. Twinkle inquired, “Frying pan and a