Where the Heart Leads (19 page)

“Yeah, but your father has that prerogative.” He chuckled, like a man who knew he’d already lost the argument. “All right, fine. I’m late. But what I’m really sorry about it how you badgered Aumaleigh. When I told you not to.”

“I didn’t badger her, Pa. Honest. I didn’t bring up a single topic you forbade me to talk about. Can you believe he’s that kind of a tyrant, Miss Aumaleigh? It’s terrible. I’m glad I’ll be rid of him when I get married.” With a big grin, she looped her arm through his. “Okay, I’m done teasing you now. So, how is the sheriff doing? Is he still doing better?”

“Milo is resting and healing. He’ll be fine, but he’ll be sore for a while.” Gabriel turned, searching in the dark.

It’s a sad thing when the night can’t hide you from the man you most wanted to avoid. She felt his gaze like a touch, as she untied Buttons from the hitching post. After all they’d been through, after all the opportunities they’d missed, what else was there to do? She went on her own way.

He said nothing, watching her go, as if he felt the same.

Junior felt sick, just plain sick to his gut. He huddled beneath the grain sacks they’d taken with them after sneaking into Aumaleigh’s garbage for food scraps. It hadn’t been enough. His stomach growled.

“I’m still cold, and it’s your fault.” Surly, that’s what Giddy was, and mean-spirited too without booze. “I wanted to break into the bunkhouse and steal some blankets, but you said no.”

“Do you want the law around here to know where we are?” He shivered as the wind picked up, driving the night’s cold through the cracks in the line shack.

The old cabin was abandoned this time of year, but not for long. Soon as calving season was done and the calves old enough, the Rocking M’s cowboys would be driving the herd to the summer pastures. But it would do for now.

Junior scowled. “After what you did to the sheriff, the law’s gonna be all het up. They’re gonna wanna catch who did it. You don’t wanna let them know we’re close.”

“Then we steal from the other side of the valley, idiot.” Giddy lifted his lip, sneering. “Oh, wait. We can’t do that. Cuz those rotten deputies got our horse. How are we gonna make the McPhees pay if we don’t got a horse?”

“I told you, it’s the old lady we got to worry about. She’s the one that owns the ranch now. The one Pa was promised part of.” Junior heard his voice go high. Emotional.

He winced. Had Giddy noticed?

Giddy shoved off his gunnysacks and lunged off the bottom bunk. “What’s it to you? You got a soft spot for them all of a sudden?”

“No!” He grimaced, mad at himself. He’d said that too fast and too high.

He’d tipped his hand for sure.

“I thought so.” Giddy grabbed the edge of the top bunk and glared up at him. The single lantern burning in the corner cast an orange glow on him, making him look like a monster. “You got sweet on that old sister, didn’t you? That quiet little Iris. I never should have tole you to try and beau her.”

“That’s not true!” Junior denied that too hard, too. He couldn’t wish away the soft spot in his heart. “She was kind to me, Giddy. You weren’t there. She wasn’t like the rest of those rich people, lording it over the rest of us like they’re so much better. She’s different from ‘em.”

“Ooh hoo! Sounds like you’re in love with Miss Iris.” Giddy’s laugh was cruel. “Now that the sheriff’s probably dead, you’ll have a shot at her again.”

Junior’s stomach twisted up again. It felt squishy and bad. Sick in a worried way. “I’m not in love with her.”

“You’re a disgrace, that’s what you are. A disgrace to our Pa.” Giddy stomped away, making the wick jump in the lantern so that it flickered eerily around the room. “What would he think if he was here right now? He’d be as disgusted as I am. Next thing you’ll want to leave that old lady be. Let her keep makin’ all that money off the ranch that by rights should be ours.”

“Partly Pa’s,” Giddy corrected softly, knowing he’d gone too far, knowing he should have just stayed silent. But no, he’d gone and spoken his mind and now Giddy reared up like an agitated bear.

“What’s Pa’s is mine—I mean, ours.” Giddy’s fists clenched. His face turned ruddy. “Do you know what I found out? Do you know how much that ranch is worth? And here I am, living like this, like a rat in a hole, when that old witch has everything, and it don’t even belong to her. It just makes me so mad. I could just—just—”

“Giddy, calm down.” Junior’s heart started to beat fast. “You know I didn’t mean it. Don’t get like that. Please.”

“I ain’t gonna calm down. I’m mad now.” Giddy kicked the wall so hard, the window rattled in its frame. “Nothing’s gonna stop me.”

“Iris, sweetheart, you’re hovering.” Milo took a sip from the teacup she’d brought him.

“I am not.” Her chin shot up in the air. She had to deny it. They weren’t married yet, so she technically wasn’t his wife, but if anyone thought she was going to leave and not take care of the man she loved, they had another thing coming. She grabbed a wool blanket by the quilt stand next to the door and made a beeline to his bed. “I’m exhibiting the exact right amount of not-quite-hovering behavior.”

“Is there some kind of official measurement of that?” One side of his mouth quirked up in an attempt at humor.

How the man could joke when he’d been shot through the side of his chest and was suffering from a mild skull fracture was beyond her. There was nothing funny about this. Not one thing.

“I could have lost you today.” She unfolded the blanket. “If that bullet had been an inch higher, we would be planning your funeral.”

“Iris.” The comfort in his voice, the love in it, was something that could never be measured.

But she felt it with all the pieces of her heart. Tears flooded her eyes again, those pesky tears, and she blinked hard, fighting against them.

There was a clink as he set down the teacup and his hand—large and warm, covered hers.

“Fortunately, I don’t get shot at often, and I rarely get hit.” Steady that voice, dear those words. “When I hit the ground after I’d been shot, I couldn’t catch my breath for a minute. I was stunned. The gunman stood over me—”

“You mean, George Klemp’s son.” Anger flashed in her eyes.

Yeah, he knew how she felt. “The youngest son. Not Junior. It was Giddy who pinned my gun hand and pointed his weapon at me. He wanted me dead. I could see it in his eyes. And the only thing on my mind was you and the girls. All I could think about was wanting to live and be with you.”

A sob caught in her throat. Hot tears scalded her eyes, and she had to blink harder.

“After the Klemp brothers left and I came to, I just wanted to get to you. Iris, I’ve been waiting to live my life with you. I’ve been looking forward to all the things we are going to share together. Easy days and hard days, sunny days and stormy days, the good and the bad. I’ve thought of the babies we’re going to have and what it would be like if they were all girls, and what it would be like to love you through the years of my life.”

Sweet, that’s what it would be. She knew that beyond all doubt. “You’re making my heart hurt. Those are the things I want so much.”

“Me, too. All this wedding stuff is just fine with me, but when I was at the doc’s house and I heard your footsteps in the hall, I knew I couldn’t wait to marry you. Let’s move the date up. We’ll have your family and the girls and my mom. I know it’s not the wedding you were probably planning—”

“No, it’s not.” She let the tears fall, unable to stop them. “It’s better. All I want is you, Milo.”

“Now, pretty lady, that’s a good thing. Because all I want is you. That makes us a good pair.”

“The best.” Her heart melted more when he brushed the tears from her cheeks. Happy tears now, tears that kept coming as she let him pull her nearer.

He brushed her tears away with the pad of his thumb. His
touch
[Ma1]
, his comfort, his caring hit her deep, just wrapped around her. Theirs was a forever, once-in-a-lifetime love. A dream come true.

His kiss was magical, like stardust and moonlight and grace. For one sweet moment. And then pounding footsteps in the hallway disrupted them.

“Sadie, give it! Pleeeeease!” Sally begged. “It’s my sword.”

“You poked me with it. I’m telling Iris.”

“It wasn’t me. It was Mitsy. She’s just a baby. She can’t help it if she pokes you with her horns.”

“It was your sword. I saw you do it.”

A dog’s happy bark echoed in the hallway. Fluffy had rushed up to join in the fun.

Milo rolled his eyes. “I hope Mitsy isn’t coming to the wedding. Do you think we can institute a no-dragon rule for the ceremony?”

“Sorry, I’m pro-dragon. Not only is Mitsy attending, but she’s standing up with us and the girls.” Iris laughed out loud. This is what she wanted, a good man who loved her and a house full of laughter.

“Iris!” Sally dashed into the room, trailed by Mitsy. “Sadie took my sword. She took it. And now I can’t defend my realm from the evil dragon invaders. They’re gonna come and eat
everybody.”

“Oh, no! Not everybody.” Iris opened her arms and Sally ran into them. Such sweetness, and she hugged the girl tight. “Tell you what. It’s the evil dragon invaders bedtime.”

“Noooo! I don’t wanna go to bed.” Sally snuggled against Iris. “Can we get a story instead? Here with Pa?”

“Yeah, we wanna stay with Pa,” Sadie chimed in, rounding the doorframe (after she’d set the stolen sword down with a thunk) and burst in with Fluffy panting at her ankles. “Pa can tell us a story about a terrible outlaw.”

“No terrible outlaws tonight,” Iris decided, releasing Sally so the little girl could jump onto the bed beside her father. “There’s been enough shooting for one day.”

“Then you tell us a story, Iris.” Sadie crawled onto the other side of Milo and snuggled in against him. “Do you know any stories?”

“There’s one my ma always used to tell me and my sisters when I couldn’t sleep.” Iris turned down the wick on the bedside lamp so it was darker. A faint glow flicked on the wick, giving her just enough light to see her Milo, and her Sally and Sadie.

Her family.

“Tell us! Tell us!” The girls chanted.

“And sit with me!” Sally scrunched closer to Milo to make room.

“Okay, let me get settled in on this nice soft bed. Are you girls ready for a thrilling tale?”

“Yes!”

“A story with danger and excitement and true love ever after?”

“Yes!”

Iris smiled. Love from times past filled her right up, adding depth to the love she felt right now, for Milo and for their daughters. Love wasn’t a place in time, and memories weren’t anchored in the past. Love and time were fluid, borne on the wings of memory. For an instant, she remembered sitting in her mother’s bed, cozied up against her sisters, eagerly listening to the exciting tales her mother spun.

She looked at the eager faces as Sadie wrapped an arm around Fluffy (who wanted a story too) and Sally who clasped her hands in anticipation. Her heart had never felt so full.

The secret to life was easy. No matter the hardship, love could still happen. The best of dreams could come true, and the best of dreams weren’t about money, gold or fame. They were right here, in this room, the people she held in her heart.

“It all started with five little princesses…” Iris began, reciting the same words to her daughters that her mother used to say to her.