Steel Heart (Historical Western Romance) (Longren Family series #2, Chloe and Matthew's story) by Amelia Rose Page B

this special time with my new husband.  I knew that.
                  I just didn't believe it.  Being in Reno felt different.  Everyone we met was a stranger and—although that might grow exhausting, while I might, if we were to stay, miss my parents, Maggie, Hutch, Annie, Issy, everyone I knew and liked—there was also no chance of running into any of the Seths or Cynthia or Violet.  There was no animosity from anyone who thought Matthew and I might have been closer before we were married than we ought to have been and no one judging my new sister for her midwifery skills.
                  It was a new start.
                  "Let's go for a walk," Matthew said, interrupting my thoughts.
                  My thoughts turned to rather more indoor pursuits, but he held his hand out and I accepted.  We followed the river some distance from the hotel, enjoying the peaceful, warm April afternoon.  We stopped in a bakery and drank coffee and ate cake, then walked into the center of town, where the V&T Railroad arrived and departed.
                  We were looking at trains again.
                  Matthew walked along the train, noting parts of it that all looked the same to me—heavy, dark, and metal.  But I listened and asked questions and would have had no idea had he simply made up the answers, but answering me made him happy.
                  His answering me also attracted the interest of one of the engineers, who came over to nod deferentially to me and to invoke conversation with Matthew, which was peppered with phrases like air-cooled hot steam engines and pounds of torque and estimates of speed and sparks and wheels and comparisons to coal and so on.  I wandered away to pet some horses standing patiently tethered and waiting for their masters.  The day was bright and cool, with high clouds playing chase with the sun.  Children walked with their mothers, or ran screaming around them.  Gentlemen and cowboys mingled on the streets.  I saw as many men with rolled up shirt sleeves, corded forearms, and side arms on their hips as I did men in suits and hats.  The town was faster than Virginia City and, though I didn't know if it was larger, it was appealing to me with its different scents and unfamiliar faces.
                  Matthew returned to me after some time, his expression light but distracted.  We walked in silence for some time before returning to our room and changing for dinner.
                  Over the years, I'd watched my mother with my father, who tends to be taciturn and thoughtful.  Matthew was neither of those things but tonight he was, at least, distracted.  Throughout dinner, he looked out the restaurant window and, over coffee, he looked at the window and when he finally looked up at me, as if I'd just appeared out of nowhere, I probably startled him by laughing.
                  "What's so funny?"
                  I shook my head.  "If I have to tell you, it won't be."
                  The fact he let that stand was enough for me to expect what he had to say was serious. 
                  "I've been doing some thinking," he said, and though I could have laughed at the obviousness of that, I didn't.  "Chloe, your home is Gold Hill.  I know that."
                  "My home is with you," I said.
                  He smiled, but motioned for me to wait.  "You say that and I appreciate it.  But you have both your parents there and they don't have other children.  You have your friends and Annie, and it seems you've been becoming pretty close to Maggie."
                  I nodded.  I wanted to rush into speech.  I knew where he was going and I could have saved him a ton of worry.  But, the fact that he had taken the time to think it out and to do the worrying, that deserved