Cassie pushed through the crowd surrounding
her, yelling his name, then saw another crowd gathered a short
distance away and ran toward them. She elbowed through to find Luke
laying unconscious on the ground as two men worked on him.
His face was gray and soot covered and it
didn't look like he was breathing. Cassie sobbed loudly then ran
over to slid on her knees beside him. She ran her hands over his
thick black hair and asked them in a frantic whisper, "Is he
breathing?"
"Yeah, he's breathing, but not evenly...he's
still unconscious. Hopefully the oxygen will bring him around in a
second. Doesn't look like he was burned anywhere, but he definitely
has some smoke inhalation going on. An ambulance is on the way to
take ya'll to the hospital to make sure you're okay."
Cassie glanced over at the barn about a
hundred yards from where they were and saw only smoldering ashes.
She sobbed, for Luke, for her horses who were alive, but homeless.
This was all James Barton's fault. She'd seen the weasel with a gas
can and gun in his hands before the smoke got the best of her and
she passed out.
"Did anyone see James run out of the
barn?"
Cole pushed through the crowd and knelt down
beside her, his eyes flicking over Luke then back to her. "Was
James in the barn?"
"Yeah, I saw him standing by Titan's stall
when I made it over there to let him and the mare's out. He had a
gun and a gas can...I don't know anything else because I passed out
from the smoke right after I saw him."
"Luke ran in after you and carried you out,"
his eyes traveled to Luke then back to her. "You shouldn't have
gone in there Cassie..." he told her fervently.
"I know...but I had to. My horses were going
to burn up. At least they had a chance if I could let them out of
their stalls. There was no way I could stand there and do nothing
to help them..." she told him and felt her lower lip tremble as
tears started down her cheeks at the same time the rain that had
been threatening all day started to fall from the sky in big warm
drops. The crowd around them scattered moving swiftly toward the
tent that had been put up for their reception. Her horses were
safe, but Luke wasn't. Again this whole mess was her fault.
Cole's eyes glittered with understanding
then he hugged her to him and kissed the top of her head. "I know
why you did it, and don't blame you, sugar. I'm just worried about
Luke, just like you are...but you need to stay calm for the
baby."
Cole might not blame her, but she sure as
hell blamed herself. If she hadn't been so stupid as to get hooked
up with James back in Phoenix, and even invite him here to her
home, Luke wouldn't be hurt...her daddy's barn wouldn't be burned
to the ground.
Cassie didn't know what James had hoped to
accomplish by burning down the barn, but he'd accomplished
something, hurting her and Luke, even if he'd died in the
process.
He'd also accomplished making her doubt her
decision to marry Luke. She'd caused Luke nothing but trouble since
she'd been back in Bowie. It was the indisputable truth, he'd even
admitted it. Luke probably wouldn't even want to marry her after
she'd been the cause of him almost getting killed trying to save
her. That thought made her cry even harder.
Cassie swiped at her tears and the raindrops
with the back of her hand and came away with black smudges, which
made her cry even harder. Her beautiful dress was ruined...as
surely as her future with Luke. She got on her hands and knees and
leaned to Luke's face to kiss his cheek. "I'm so sorry, darlin',"
she told him in a shaky whisper near his ear then told him repeated
she loved him, and begged him to wake up and kiss her.
Just as she heard sirens wailing in the
distance, he opened his red rimmed whiskey-brown eyes and looked
into hers, then smiled under the mask over his mouth and croaked,
"You're alive, cupcake..." There was relief and disbelief in his
raspy voice then he lifted a hand to cup her cheek as tears filled
his eyes. "James Barton won't ever hurt you again, sugar. He's
dead."
Cassie sobbed as relief washed through her
that James was no longer a threat, and Luke was alive, "That's good
news, darlin', but don't talk..." She put her finger to his lips
then leaned down and placed an emotional kiss there.
Luke sat up and pulled the mask off of his
face and handed it to the medic, telling him to cancel the
ambulance because he wasn't going anywhere. Then he stood up and
pulled Cassie into his arms and hugged her tightly against his
chest, softly weeping into her hair. She was crying just as hard
now, and both of their bodies were quaking with the emotion raging
through them.
Carl Bellamy, Bud, Cole, Sabrina, and Imelda
all came over and circled around Cassie and Luke joining in on the
hugging and crying. They stayed like that a long while, until the
clouds parted overhead and the sun came peeping through.
The all looked skyward and then Carl said,
"Looks like a good day for a wedding," then gave a watery chuckle
pulling out a white handkerchief to wipe his eyes and blow his nose
loudly. Cassie was the first to start chuckling at the ridiculous
statement by her daddy, then Luke joined in, and before long they
were all laughing loudly.
Her daddy was the only one not laughing, she
noticed and raised an eyebrow at him when they finally settled
down. "I'm serious, darlin'. You're not going to let James Barton
win are you?"
Cassie considered his challenge for a
minute, then stiffened her backbone and looked up at Luke who was
staring down at her intently. He shrugged then smiled at her his
teeth glowing whitely in his handsome soot-stained face. "Crowd's
still here," he rasped.
She laughed at that. Yeah, they were still
here because of the fire and excitement, not because they thought
there'd still be a wedding today. "Is the preacher still here?"
"Yep, he's making sure the food is well
protected," Cole said with a twist of his lips.
The portly preacher who was the pastor of
the church where Cassie was baptized, and where her mama and daddy
had been married was well know for his love of free food. He was in
heaven at the Sunday Socials after church.
Cassie leaned her head back against Luke's
chest and looked up into his eyes, "You really still want to do
this, Luke?" She looked down at her singed, dirty dress and wanted
to weep wildly, "I'm a mess...and all the trouble..."
Luke turned her around in his arms to face
her and lean down close to her face and whispered. "I would marry
you if you were wearing a burlap sack, cupcake," he growled and
then pulled her to him for a kiss that told her how much he loved
her, soft, gentle, sweet and so hot her toes curled inside her
boots. He pulled back just millimeters from her mouth and said, "I
love you, Cassie...always and forever...no matter what. You're my
kind of trouble, sweetheart, and I want a lifetime of it."
All of her fears and doubts fled and she was
filled up by the love shining in his eyes. She put her hand on his
cheek and whispered, "I love you too, Luke...always and
forever...let's go get married."
He held her away from him a moment and told
her with serious eyes. "Only if you promise to go to the emergency
room with me after we're done here. I want to make sure you and the
baby are okay."
"I promise," she told him then leaned up on
her toes and put a kiss on his lips, "On the way to our honeymoon
destination, which I still am in the blind about by the way, we
will stop at the first emergency room to get
all
of us
checked out."
She heard her daddy let out a whoop behind
her and then it was followed by one from Cole and Sabrina, with a
final "
Yee-Haw"
from Imelda. As a group, they walked over to
the reception tent and told their guests that there would be a
wedding after all, and asked them to take their seats.
Cassie and Sabrina ran back in the house and
hurriedly washed their faces and reapplied a minimal amount of
makeup, then combed out their hair and put it up in a ponytail,
then finally changed into jeans and dressy western shirts Cassie
had in her closet.
Cassie cleaned up her white boots with a wet
rag and then put them back on, and then cleaned and dusted off her
white wedding hat, the one Cole had rescued from the yard, before
putting it back on her head. She had another white straw Stetson in
her closet and took it down for Sabrina to wear.
They hugged each other then ran back
downstairs, grabbed their bouquets from the kitchen table, then ran
out the back door where her daddy was waiting to walk her down the
aisle. She put her fingers between her teeth and whistled loudly to
signal the fiddle players by the gazebo to start the music.
Her daddy laughed then mumbled under his
breath, "You can take the girl out of the country...."
"Amen to that daddy," she smiled at him then
put her arm through his.
Cole took Sabrina's arm and they started
down the white carpeted aisle that led to the gazebo, where Luke
stood waiting for her looking disheveled, but more handsome than
any man had a right to be. After Cole and Sabrina reached the
front, and split to stand on separate sides of the gazebo, she and
her daddy started walking and her eyes met Luke's. Her heart
twisted inside her chest and she felt like she was floating toward
him.
As they moved past each aisle of guests,
applause sounded behind them, until the whole crowd was standing
and clapping by the time she reached the gazebo. Her daddy took her
hand, then kissed her cheek, before he placed her hand in Luke's
with tears in his eyes. "Have a good life, darlin'," he said in a
choked whisper then walked over to stand in front of his chair,
beside the empty chair with a bouquet of white roses, her mother's
place.
Cassie swallowed down the emotion churning
inside of her and turned to face Luke and look up into his eyes. He
gave her a sexy relieved grin, then leaned down next to her ear and
whispered fiercely, "You look beautiful, cupcake."
The pastor stepped forward to the top step
of the gazebo and raised his hand to quiet the crowd, then he
proceeded to say the age old words that would make Cassie and Luke
one forever. When he was done, and they'd made their vows, the
pastor told Luke to kiss his bride.
Luke grinned at her and then gave the crowd
a show they'd be talking about for a long time, as he bent her back
over his arm and kissed her like there was no tomorrow. When he
finally swung her back up the crowd erupted in laughter and
applause.
EPILOGUE
Cassie moaned loudly then hissed out between
her teeth, "Luke Matthews,
you
---are a
dead man
," she
said bearing down and gritting her teeth. "You did this to me."
"Calm down, cupcake...." Luke told her then
picked up a few chips of ice from the cup in his hand and put them
to her lips, "Here have some ice chips."
"I'm going to shove those ice chips up your
a--," she grated and sat up, then moaned, and fell back against the
bed clutching the sheets with beads of sweat dripping into her
eyes. Her hair was wet and stuck to her face, and she was
panting.
Luke took the chance of moving closer to her
and then rubbed her belly, "Just breathe darlin', that'll make it
better."
He thought her head was going to spin around
on her shoulders when she leaned her face up to his and said in a
low fierce whisper, "How the hell would
you
know?" Her eyes
were wild and glazed.
"It's what the book said, sugar." Luke was
doing everything he could to keep her calm and focused, but he was
way out of his element here. He'd read the books, but none of them
said he'd be dealing with a possessed madwoman who wanted to kill
him...or cut his nuts off as she'd said earlier. He squeezed his
legs together and swallowed hard.
"I want you to go find every one those
damned books, and
burn
them.
Now,
" she said on an
inhale as she pressed down again, then huffed out a breath and then
panted.
He'd read about six books on pregnancy and
childbirth, so he could help Cassie, but they didn't anyhow prepare
him for what he was seeing her go through. Luke almost felt every
contraction that racked her body. "What can I do to help you then,
darlin'?"
"Get me drugs...lots and lots of drugs."
"The book says those aren't good for the
ba--"
She leaned up to him again and pinched his
cheeks with one hand. "Say it and you really are going to die," she
hissed and Luke believed her...she was that convincing. She gasped
then let go of his face and clutched her belly, moaning through
another contraction.
"Go get the nurse, I think it's time," she
said in a breathless whisper, her face was a mask of pain.
Luke stood and almost ran from the room to
go find the nurse. She was behind the round station right outside
the door. "She's ready, come quick," he said desperately.
The fiftyish nurse glanced up at him then
back at the chart she was working on and said, "I'll be there in a
second."
Luke walked up to the counter and slammed
his hands down. This time the woman looked up at him startled. "You
don't understand--I need you to go check on her
now
. She's
in pain."