Rogue Stallion (14 page)

T
he petition was drawn up by their attorney. It was filed in the county clerk’s office. A hearing was scheduled and placed on the docket. Then there was nothing else to do except wait.

Jessica went to work as usual, but she was a different person now that she was married. Her delight in her new husband spilled over into every aspect of her work. She felt whole, for the first time.

They both went out to the No Bull Ranch to see Maris Wyler and Keith Colson. The young man was settled in very nicely now, and was working hard. The homebound teacher who had been working with him since the summer recess was proud of the way he’d pulled up his grades. He was learning the trade
of being a cowboy, too, and he’d gone crazy on the subject of wildlife conservation. He wanted to be a forest ranger, and Maris encouraged him. He was already talking about college.

“I couldn’t be more delighted,” Jessica told McCallum when they were driving back to town. “He’s so different, isn’t he? He isn’t surly or uncooperative or scowling all the time. I hardly knew him.”

“Unhappy people don’t make good impressions. If you only knew how many children go to prison for lack of love and attention and even discipline…. Some people have no business raising kids.”

“I think you and I would be good at it,” she said.

He caught the note of sadness in her voice. “Cut that out,” he told her. “You’re the last person on earth I’d ever suspect of being a closet pessimist.”

“I’m trying not to be discouraged. It’s just that I want to adopt Jennifer so much,” she said. “I’m afraid to want anything that badly.”

“You wanted me that badly,” he reminded her, “and look what happened.”

She looked at him with her heart in her eyes and grinned. “Well, yes. You were unexpected.”

“So were you. I’d resigned myself to living alone.”

“I suppose we were both blessed.”

“Yes. And the blessings are still coming. Wait and see.”

She leaned back against the seat with a sigh, complacent but still unconvinced.

They went to court that fall. Kate Randall was the presiding judge. Jessica knew and liked her but couldn’t control her nerves. Witness after witness gave positive character readings about both Jessica and McCallum. The juvenile authorities mentioned their fine record with helping young offenders, most recently Keith Colson. And through it all Jessica sat gripping McCallum’s hand under the table and chewing the skin off her lower lip with fear and apprehension.

The judge was watching her surreptitiously. When the witnesses had all been called and the recommendations—good ones—given by the juvenile authorities, she spoke directly to Jessica.

“You’re very nervous, Mrs. McCallum,” Kate said with teasing kindness and a judicial formality. “Do I look like an ogre to you?”

She gasped. “Oh, no, your honor!” she cried, reddening.

“Well, judging by the painful look on your face, you must think I am one. Your joy in that child, and your own background, would make it difficult for even a hanging judge to deny you. And I’m hardly that.” She smiled at Jessica. “The petition to adopt the abandoned Baby Jennifer is hereby approved without reservation. Case dismissed.” She banged the gavel and stood up.

Jessica burst into tears, and it took McCallum a long time to calm and comfort her.

“She said yes,” he kept repeating, laughing with
considerable joy of his own. “Stop crying! She may change her mind!”

“No, she won’t,” the judge assured them, standing patiently by their table.

Jessica wiped her eyes, got up and hugged the judge, too.

“There, there,” she comforted. “I’ve seen a lot of kids go through this court, but I’ve seen few who ended up with better parents. In the end it doesn’t matter that your child is adopted. You’ll raise her and be Jennifer’s parents. That’s the real test of love, I think. It’s the bringing up that matters.”

She agreed wholeheartedly. “You can’t imagine how I felt, how afraid I was,” she blurted out.

Kate patted her shoulder. “Yes, I can. I’ve had a steady stream of people come through my office this past week, all pleading on your behalf. You might be shocked at who some of them were. Your own boss,” she said to McCallum, shaking her head. “Who’d have thought it.”

“Hensley?” McCallum asked in surprise.

“The very same. And even old Jeremiah Kincaid,” she added with a chuckle. “I thought my eyes would fly right out of my head on that one.” Kate checked her watch. “I’ve got another case coming up. You’d better go and see about your baby, Jessica.” She dropped the formal address since the court had adjourned. “I expect you new parents will have plenty of things to do now.”

“Oh, yes!” she exclaimed. “We’ll need to buy formula and diapers and toys and a playpen—”

“We already have the crib,” McCallum said smugly, laughing at Jessica’s startled reaction. “Well, I was confident, even if you weren’t. I ordered it from the furniture store.”

“I love you!” She hugged him.

He held her close, shaking hands with the judge.

From the courthouse they went around town, making a number of purchases, and Jessica was in a frenzy of joy as they gathered up all the things they’d need to start life with a new baby.

But the most exciting thing was collecting Baby Jennifer from a delighted Mabel Darren, the woman who’d been keeping her, and taking her home.

Even Meriwether was a perfect gentleman, sniffing the infant, but keeping a respectful distance. Jessica and McCallum sat on the sofa with their precious treasure, and didn’t turn on the television at all that night. Instead they watched the baby. She cooed and stared at them with her big blue eyes and never cried once.

Later, as Jessica and McCallum lay together in bed—with the baby’s bed right next to theirs instead of in another room—they both lay watching Jennifer sleep in the soft glow of the night-light.

“I never realized just how it would feel to be a parent,” McCallum said quietly. “She’s ours. She’s all ours.”

She inched closer to him. “Sterling, what if her mother ever comes back?”

His arms contracted around her. “If her mother had wanted and been able to keep her, we wouldn’t have her,” he said. “You have to put that thought out of your mind. Sometimes there are things we never find out about in life—and then there are mysteries that are waiting to be solved just around the corner. We may solve it, we may not. But we’ve legally adopted Jennifer. She belongs to us, and we to her. That’s all there is to it.”

Jessica let out her breath in a long sigh. After a minute she nodded. “Okay. Then that’s how it will be.”

He turned her to face him and kissed her tenderly. “Happy?” he whispered.

“So happy that I could die of it,” she whispered back. She pushed her way into his arms and was held tight and close. As her eyes closed, she thought ahead to first steps and birthday parties and school. She’d thought she’d never know those things, but life had been kind. She remembered what McCallum had said to her—that bad times were like dues paid for all the good times that followed. And perhaps they were. God knew, her good times had only just begun!