Conner stood over him. It took him only a second. “Doc! Mel! Over here!” Then he gave Dylan a little support under one arm. “Christ, man, you got mauled. Here, sit down—let’s get you looked at.”
“Don’t look,” Dylan rasped out. “Bet it’s awful.”
Cameron Michaels was assisting Dylan on his other side. “Easy does it,” he was saying. “We’ll get the gurney over here.”
“I can walk,” Dylan said, more than aware how weak his voice was. “And don’t tell me what it looks like.”
“I’m going to wet your shirt before I cut it off,” Cameron said. “I want better lighting than this.”
“Better than this?” Dylan croaked. “I thought it was daylight with the cars.”
“If we help, think you can make it to the cabin?” Cameron asked. When Dylan nodded, Cameron said, “Let us do the work. You’re weak.”
“That five-year-old is heavy,” Dylan said. “Big for his age. Plus, he had to pee.” The men chuckled as they pulled him up. “God, I’m out of shape,” Dylan muttered, letting them lead him to the porch.
“Mel, will you grab my bag and a set up for IV Ringers?”
“Gotcha,” she said.
“Tell Katie…” Then his voice trailed off.
“Tell me what, Dylan? I’m right here.”
He looked around until he saw her, his eyes watering from the pain, stress and weakness. “Katie,” he said. “Blow that horn, honey. Bring in the searchers.”
Dylan had an impressive four furrows down his back, from his left shoulder blade to his right lower side. A mean slash. Deep enough to bleed heavily and leave an impressive scar, but once an IV had been started and he was rehydrated, he was no longer so weak. A tetanus shot, some IV antibiotics and morphine put him on the right side of the living. And all the men who had come to search for Andy admired his wound.
“That is shit hot,” Jack said. “I don’t think anyone around here has been mauled in twenty years.”
“Not bad, for an actor,” Preacher said.
“He was acting dead,” Andy pointed out to them for at least the tenth time. “We were acting dead together. But that bear didn’t like us anyway.”
“That bear’s days are numbered, I’m afraid,” Jack said. “Unfortunately for her, you can’t get away with that, even though that is a very shit-hot scar. I have a battle scar, but it’s nothing like that.”
“It’s on your ass,” Preacher reminded him. “And it’s the size of one round. Like maybe as big as a dime.”
“Yeah, but I bet Dylan can still sit. It was no picnic, let me tell you.”
“He’ll never let me hear the end of it,” Conner sulked.
“Got any more of that morphine, Doc?” Dylan asked. “Poor old Conner here could use a little something to ease his pain.”
“We played dead,” Andy said yet again. “Dylan was on the top, that’s why he got the scratch. That bear isn’t friendly.” He looked up at his mother. “Are you mad?”
“Yes,” she said. “I’m going to hug you all night long, but tomorrow I think I might yell at you all day long.”
“You don’t have to,” he said. “I’m not going to do that again.”
“I might still yell....”
“I think I’m going to have to break up this party,” Cameron Michaels said. “Dylan, I want you overnight in the hospital. Just one night, though the wound will probably bother you for at least several days, maybe a couple of weeks. I want to watch you for fever, infection, bleeding. I think we got ahead of it, but humor me. One night.”
“Can’t I just call you if I feel infected?” he asked.
“One night,” Cameron insisted. “We don’t know where those bear claws have been.”
“Someplace nasty—she had a terrible smell about her, like she’d been feeding in the dump. I was going to take Katie to Montana on Friday.”
“That might have to wait a week or so. I can write a letter so you get transfer credit on your tickets. You want to walk to the Humvee and lay on the gurney on your stomach?” he asked.
“After I have just a minute alone with Katie,” he said.
“You two kiss good-night, then let’s get going,” Cameron suggested. “We can give your grandmother a call from the hospital and tell her about all your excitement and that you’re fine.”
“Boys, come with me,” Conner said.
“Dylan?” Andy asked. “Are we gonna ride the horse?”
“Maybe next week,” Dylan said. “As soon as my scratch feels better.”
And slowly the cabin emptied of people. The sound of trucks and SUVs departing began to fill the night.
Dylan sat backward on a kitchen chair, straddling the chair so as not to disturb the antiseptic wash on his wounds. Katie stood in front of him. “This is not what I planned,” he said.
“This isn’t what anyone planned, Dylan. You saved Andy’s life, I’m sure of it. I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you.”
“That’s not what I meant, but you don’t have to worry about thanking me. See, I was holding a little something back because I had this grandiose plan for Montana. I was going to show you the place, the ranch, the airport, and you guys were going to have such a good time. I’d see you fall in love with it like I did. I’d get to watch the boys experience new things and get all excited. And then at night, when they were tucked in and asleep, I’d take you out on the back patio. I was going to show you that big, black sky at night—you can’t believe how many stars there are. And then I was going to tell you—I can’t live without you, Katie. I just can’t.”
“Dylan,” she whispered.
“I love you, Katie. I’ve never loved anyone before, not like this. I can’t be away from you for a day without thinking about how much I want to get home. And I don’t really care where home is—you can pick the moon for all I care. But, Katie, please, pick me. Marry me. Because you’re my life.”
She ran a hand along his cheek. Tears came to her eyes. “I thought you were more hit and run.”
“Yeah, what do I know,” he said with a laugh. “You amaze me every day, Katie. I want you in my life forever, through everything. I swear, I’ll make you happy or die trying.”
“No dying,” she said, shaking her head. “Been there, done that.”
“Marry me,” he said. “Let me take care of you and the boys and whoever you have in there. Love me. Choose me. Let me be your one.”
“Dylan, you are The One. You sure you want me? I don’t travel light.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” he said, pulling her mouth down to his for a kiss. “I’ve been wanting you since I found you in that wet T-shirt on the side of the road. You make my mouth water and my brain freeze—you are almost too much for my heart. I love you so much. I want you and your twins and your brother and Charlie’s medals. I want all of you. I want everything that’s part of you—your past, your present and your future. And I want you to be
mine.
”
She smiled despite the tear that rolled down her cheek. “I love you right back. Love you too much to even say how much, it’s that big. It’s bigger than you can imagine. And once I say yes, you’re totally stuck. I’ll tell everyone I know, including Conner, and there is absolutely no way out.”
He grinned at her. “I don’t want out, baby. I want
in.
”
Epilogue
I
t took three weeks for Dylan’s back to heal enough for him to fly with Katie and the boys to Montana and by then it was already well into August. They were picked up at the airport by Sue Ann Langston, or Mrs. Lang as Dylan liked to refer to her. She called him “D.” Sometimes she called him Big D because her two-year-old son was Little D. “Sorry to have appropriated the name, Katie,” she said. “I didn’t think Big D would ever get around to it!”
Katie found Sue Ann to be a complete delight—happy, friendly and very, very talkative in her excitement at meeting Katie and the boys. She told Katie everything she could think of about Payne on the ride from the Butte airport, including, “The weather has been awesome, the kids have been swimming at the lake whenever they can talk me into taking them and Lang is already working on a couple of charter bids out of L.A., trying to figure out what type of equipment is most cost-effective to put there.”
“Already?” Dylan asked.
“And nothing from your friend Jay, yet. Two of the industry people from your list jumped right on the opportunity. Dylan, this might just work out.”
Katie thought she was prepared for the beauty of the landscape since Dylan had described it so thoroughly and given her many comparisons to Virgin River. But she was stunned by the magnificence that was Montana and overwhelmed by the majesty of the mountain peaks and rich, green valleys. The drive to the valley that was Payne over the mountains gave views that caused her to gasp every time they came around another curve.
“And you look at this every day?” she asked Dylan.
“When I’m in town. Flying in here is awesome,” he said. “Sue Ann, pull over at the next lookout.”
A few minutes later Sue Ann brought the car to a stop at a wide space on a mountain road that overlooked a broad expanse of valley dotted with ranches. A stone wall bordered the lookout to keep people like crazy five-year-old boys from diving down the side of the mountain. Dylan jumped out and held the door for Katie, then the boys.
She stood at the wall and looked down. “My God,” she whispered reverently. “It looks like a postcard.”
He came up behind her, slipping his arms around her waist. Sue Ann joined them.
“See that small house at the far end of the valley?” Dylan asked her, pointing. “Just a small house, a barn, a couple of storage sheds you can barely see, a corral…that’s my place. And way down there on the other side of the pasture, way past the house, you can see the runway, hangars and a few planes.”
“All that is yours?”
“Kind of,” he said. “It’s mine and Adele’s. I borrowed from her to build the airport though I paid her back for that. She still owns the house and land, and put my name on the deed along with hers. You know her, she won’t take rent. I tried to buy it from her and she said if I argue any more, she’ll take her name off the deed altogether. She wants me to be here because I built the business here—she wanted to do something for me. It’s the only thing I’ve ever gone along with.”
She turned around to face him. “Why have you been so stubborn?” Katie asked.
“I had a lot to prove,” he said. “I wanted to show Adele that I grew up, that I could be responsible. I didn’t want her fixing things for me.” He kissed her.
One of the boys made a gagging sound and Sue Ann laughed.
“They never stop doing that,” Mitch said.
Andy looked up at Sue Ann. “He’s gonna be like our dad. Not our real dad, who died and went to live in heaven, but
like
our dad.”
“You okay with that?” Sue Ann asked with a smile.
“Yeah,” the boys said in unison. “We like him,” Mitch said. “He’s fun when he’s not kissing all the time.”
Dylan looked at Sue Ann over Katie’s head. “It’s a tough audience.”
Katie had turned back to the view. “Dylan, do you have a lot of cars?”
“Just a truck and a Harley,” he said. “It looks like an invasion down there.”
Sue Ann cleared her throat. “Yeah, there was really no keeping people away, once they figured out you were going to be in town. I could apologize, but there was nothing I could do, so I asked Lang and Ham to just get out the grill.”
“Who are they?” Katie asked.
“Oh, you know,” Sue Ann said. “The town.”
When they finally arrived at Dylan’s house it was almost dinnertime and there seemed to be a huge community there to greet them—employees from the airport, neighbors, friends. Katie was introduced to a couple of teachers from the town elementary school, two pilots who worked for Dylan, their families, a rancher who used Dylan’s pasture for grazing along with his wife and kids, and many others. Ham, a grizzled old guy with fingers bent from arthritis, merely nodded and gave a grunt when introduced and Dylan said, “He does speak, but not overly.” But apparently he knew child-speak because her boys wandered off not ten minutes later and she found them in the corral, each on his own horse with Ham managing the lead. There were a lot of other kids sitting on the rail, cheering and shouting instructions.
Most of the welcoming party was gathered outside because the weather was beautiful—seventy-five degrees with a pleasant breeze. The grill was lit, burgers and hot dogs cooked away, lots of side dishes were put out and there was plenty of lemonade and tea to drink, brought in huge thermoses. There were a few women in the kitchen, making sure things were cleaned up and tidy, and Katie slipped past them to take a look at the rest of the house.
Dylan had been honest, it wasn’t fancy, but she was charmed by it just the same. He had collected the kind of rustic furniture that would be at home in a log cabin, including a plush leather sectional in the living room. He had a big TV—he must like either movies or sports. His bedroom held an ordinary double-size bed—nothing of the hit and run bachelor here—no king-size bed or mirrored ceiling. This house had what people called a mother-in-law plan—another master bedroom on the other side of the house. This was probably a requirement for the old days when Adele and her grandson shared the house and Katie bet that Adele took the master with the bath. There were two bathrooms—one small master bath with a shower, and a hallway bath with a tub. And although there was a large kitchen table and breakfast bar, the dining room was void of furniture. Apparently Dylan didn’t entertain much.
Still, she liked the house. She liked the big, clear, beautiful land it sat on and the mountains that rose to the west. When she went back outside, her boys came shrieking and shouting toward her, barking dogs following them. “We rode horses,” they were yelling.
She crouched. “Did Ham talk to you?” she asked.
They both nodded. “He told us everything we had to do,” Andy said.
“He made us brush them after,” Mitch added. “And stay away from their feet.”
She laughed. Bribery, she thought. Clever.
The two things most of the town wanted to see were the claw marks on Dylan’s back and Katie’s ring. Since they’d had time before they could travel, Dylan took her to Eureka to shop for a ring—he couldn’t get her locked in fast enough. It wasn’t a real big ring, but it was a ring she picked for herself and she thought it beautiful. And the claw marks on his back had healed into a mean-looking, slightly raised red welt and won the admiration of the men here just as it had in Virgin River.
“Awesome,” someone said.
“Very cool,” said another.
“You’re going to get a lot of mileage out of that.”
The sun began to sink over the mountains in the west and suddenly, without warning, the party was over. Everyone packed up, wiped countertops, swept off the patio, closed up the grill, put outdoor chairs back where they belonged. They said quick, unfussy goodbyes. Like a parade, trucks and SUVs drove away from the property.
Two hours later, Katie had her boys showered and settled in the mother-in-law room. Dylan had lit a fire in the pit on the patio and he was waiting for her, his long legs stretched out in front of him, taking in the big sky. When she joined him, he pulled her chair close to his.
“Tomorrow I’ll take you to the airport first and give the boys a ride. Then to town. Not much of a town, but we like it. There’s a couple of good schools—elementary and high school. We have some excellent parks—soccer and football and softball. This town really gets into their sports, especially those the kids play. I’ll take you guys into the mountains and some of the national parks, just to see. If we had more time, we’d check out the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Jackson Hole. I’ll show you where Ham took me to camp the first time. I thought it was the end of the world but now I realize it’s ten minutes up the road. By the time we’ve done that, we’ll have to get back to Virgin River.”
She looked up at the sky. “What if we didn’t?” she asked.
He sat up straighter. “You want to stay a little longer?”
She turned toward him. “What if we just called Conner, Leslie and Adele and asked them when they’ll have time to come up here? What if we just stayed?”
“Stayed?”
“Stayed.”
“Katie, you have a car, I have a Harley, and there’s all that stuff in the cabin. All the clothes, TV, toys…stuff. Enough to fill up a U-Haul, at least.”
“What if I asked Conner to gather up that stuff and bring me my car and your Harley. We can afford to fly Conner and Leslie home, right?”
“I think I can swing that. Are you saying…?” he asked softly.
“We should settle in. I should start nesting before it snows, which I’m told happens kind of early here. They were kidding when they told me August, right?”
He laughed. “I hope so.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever get the boys away from the dogs and horses.”
He smiled. “I knew those animals would come in handy eventually. I love you, Katie Malone. But you have all that precious stuff—Charlie’s medals, wedding pictures…”
“What if we made some new wedding pictures? Something simple, sweet and as soon as possible.”
He smiled at her and pulled her a little closer. “Sounds like a plan.”
“And it’s Katie Malone Childress,” she said. “If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure,” he said. “This is the life I’ve always dreamed about. The life I didn’t think I could have.”
“Oh, you can have it, Big D. Just try to get away.”
* * * * *