by B. J Daniels
“The not knowing had to be the worst.”
She nodded. “I knew she was gone, but now I know why she didn’t come back for me. I’ve spent a lot of years angry at her and my father and myself. Am I awful for feeling...freed?”
He shook his head as he cupped her cheek for a moment. “You’ve been dealing with a lot since the night your mother left. Now you have the answers that have haunted you for so long. I just saw your father and Allie leaving...”
“They eloped. That’s why they left. To get married. I think Dad was worried that he’d be arrested again,” she said. “It’s been years since he’s looked that happy.”
“Marriage does that for some people,” Jake said and met her gaze.
She chuckled. “Is that so? What are you—”
“Blaze McClintock,” he said as he dropped to one knee beside her bed.
Leaning over the side of the bed, she looked down at him, her eyes wide. But he didn’t see fear in them anymore.
“I’ve thought of dozens of romantic ways to ask you this.” He chuckled as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the small velvet box. “It doesn’t matter where I do this, I realized. We don’t need candlelight and soft music. It’s what’s in our hearts. Will you marry me?”
* * *
BLAZE COULDN’T HELP but laugh at the sight of him down on one knee beside her hospital bed. She could hear a doctor being paged over the intercom and a squeaky wheelchair moving slowly down the hallway outside her room.
But her gaze was on Jake Horn and the look in those green eyes of his. She knew what was in her heart. “You really want to marry me?”
He blinked. “You are going to seriously ask me that right now?”
She laughed again, then smiled down at him. “I thought you would never ask.”
Jake shook his head. “You are an impossible woman, you know that, Blaze?”
She did. And he knew it as well, and yet he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. For someone who didn’t believe in happy endings, she definitely liked the thought of this one.
He rose from the floor to take her left hand and slip the most beautiful ring she’d ever seen onto her finger. “I chose agate because it is one of the oldest healing stones. It protects the wearer from storms and calamities.” She chuckled at that. “Also because it is a stone of many colors that forms in the spaces other rocks leave.”
“It’s beautiful,” she said on a breath, her eyes filling with tears. “It’s our story, isn’t it?” He nodded. “And the story of our children. Oh, Jake.”
She would have said more, but the doctor came in then with her release papers. She felt as if she was floating on air as she looked at her ring and at her future husband.
“I should get you home,” Jake said.
Home? “If you mean the ranch, my father and Allie will be there.”
He rubbed his neck for a moment, his gaze locking with hers. “You have a better suggestion?” She nodded. “You sure you’re up for this?”
She laughed and said, “Just get me out of this hospital.”
“I’m not making love to my fiancée in some cheap motel,” he said.
“Of course not. Why would you when you have a perfectly good pickup?” Jake opened his mouth, but she didn’t give him a chance to argue. “Oh, come on. It wouldn’t be the first time. Or, hopefully, the last,” Blaze said. “I want you, Jake Horn. And I’m damned tired of waiting.”
He laughed and shook his head. “You are one contrary woman.”
She smiled. “You know me so well.”
* * *
BUD HEARD A tap at his door and looked up from his desk to see Monte and Allie standing in the hallway.
“We heard you were looking for us,” Monte said.
A little late, Bud thought but waved them in. “Have a seat. I’m tying up loose ends on your wife’s murder,” he said to Monte. “My condolences, by the way. I assume you’ve already heard.” The man nodded solemnly. He didn’t look surprised that his wife was dead. He just looked sad.
Bud sat back down and pulled out his notebook and pen. He no longer needed this information, but this time, he wanted to cross all his t’s and dot all his i’s. He’d planned to put in for his retirement, but LJ had talked him out of it. “You’re too young. What would you do?”
He’d seen the wisdom in staying on, but only if he could leave a better legacy in this town for his son. He was determined to change.
“The night Bethany left, do you remember where your husband might have been?” he asked Allie.
“Frank had gone into town that night,” Allie said and stared down at her hands in her lap. “I thought it was odd at the time because when he came back he said he’d never made it that far. He said he’d gotten a flat that he had to change. He didn’t return until almost daylight and his clothes were dirty and he had a scratch on his face. He told me it was from a wild rosebush beside the road where he’d changed the tire.”
“Did Frank know that Bethany as leaving that night?” Bud asked.
Tears welled in her eyes. “He might have suspected. I was heartbroken, afraid I couldn’t go on without her as a friend. I’d promised her I would leave Frank but without her nearby, I feared that I wouldn’t have the courage. As it was... I didn’t.”
“Frank’s DNA was found in Bethany’s car on a bloody rag. It appears that she had a flat tire as she was leaving. Frank must have come up on her on the road.”
“He hated her,” Allie said, her voice breaking. “I’m sure he blamed her for me being unhappy. Said she was bad for me. I figured he’d be glad she was leaving, but he must have found out about my plans to join her later with Blaze.” Allie began to cry. Monte put an arm around her.
The sheriff looked at Monte. “Seems you’re off the hook.” He cleared his throat, finding this harder than he’d even imagined. “I need to apologize. I was wrong.”
“I appreciate that, Bud. I know how you felt about Bethany.”
The man’s words took him by surprise. He looked away, swallowed and pushed to his feet. “By the way, I heard congratulations are in order.”
* * *
JAKE PARKED IN a spot overlooking the valley. He left the pickup engine running and heater going since it was winter in Montana, but made a point of engaging the emergency brake before turning on the radio to the local station. A country song came on as they climbed into the back of the king cab. He pulled her into his arms. “You’re really going to be my wife?”
Blaze snuggled into him. “You best believe it.” She kissed him. “I like the sound of Mrs. Jake Horn.”
“Blaze Horn,” he said. “I like the sound of that, too.” His gaze met hers and held it. She knew what he was looking for. He was afraid that she might change her mind about him. Not a chance.
“I love you, Jake Horn.”
He smiled. “You know what that means. Till death do us part.”
“If this pickup rolls off this mountain it could be sooner than later,” she joked and then turned serious. She’d needed this man for so long. She couldn’t bear waiting another minute. “Make love with me, Jake Horn.”
She didn’t have to ask him twice. He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her deeply. Blaze felt heat rush through her veins to her center. She wanted this man. She’d always wanted Jake, but on her terms, not his.
But after almost dying, she’d realized how foolish she’d been. She loved him. Wanted to be his wife. Wanted his children. On any terms. She’d been afraid to love too deeply for fear of being devastated like she had when her mother had left and hadn’t come back for her.
She was seeing a lot of things more clearly, she thought as Jake trailed kisses down her throat and slowly began to unsnap her Western shirt. She couldn’t bear another moment without being naked in his arms. She grabbed his shirt and pulled each side, mak
ing the snaps sing, making him chuckle as he did the same with the last few snaps on hers.
“So that’s the way you want it,” he said, grinning.
She laughed as she shrugged out of her shirt and jeans and he did the same. He pulled her to him, unhooking her bra and peeling it off before pressing his warm, hard chest against her aching breasts. She groaned with pleasure. As he laid her back on the seat, his mouth dropped to one breast and then the other as he laved them with his tongue. His hand slipped beneath her panties. She was wet and aching and when his fingers caressed her, she came at once, crying out as she clung to him.
She reached for him, guiding him into her, and lay back as he leaned over her, their gazes locked in a silent bond as he took her even higher before they both collapsed in each other’s arms.
“Next time in a bed,” Jake said as he pulled on his clothes.
Blaze chuckled knowingly as she struggled into her jeans. “If we can make it that far.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
BLAZE WAS RIGHT about her father and Allie waiting for them. She felt like a teenager as she and Jake entered the house, both of them flushed and too happy. But Monte and Allie only congratulated them when Blaze showed them the engagement ring.
“If you want a big wedding...” Monte began, but Blaze cut him off.
“I want to elope like you two did,” she said and looked at Jake. “Tomorrow will work.” He laughed but nodded. He’d give her anything she wanted and she knew it.
They hadn’t been at the ranch long before neighboring ranchers and their wives began to stop by with food and condolences and ultimately congratulations. If anyone thought it strange, they didn’t show it. Actually most everyone seemed relieved that as somber as the occasion could have been, there was good news, as well.
The Garrisons, along with their son, Ty, who still had his arm in a cast, stopped by with a freshly baked pie. As more and more people showed up, the atmosphere took on that of a party for a while. When everyone had left, Blaze saw her father’s pleased expression and the tears in Allie’s eyes. The community reaching out to the two of them had come as a surprise, but a pleasant one.
“What are your plans now?” she finally asked them after the four of them sat down in the living room.
“Well, now that you mention it,” her father said with a guilty smile, “I was hoping that one day you would come back here and take over the ranch. You and Jake.”
“You aren’t really going to try to talk me into raising buffalo, are you?” she asked him with a laugh.
“Actually, to be accurate, they’re bison. The American buffalo was misnamed.”
She gave him an impatient look.
“And I’m not raising bison just to upset area ranchers.”
“But it’s a plus, right?” Blaze asked, grinning.
Her father gave her a wry smile. “I’m trying to be serious here.”
“Sorry, please continue.”
“Bison have more protein, more iron, more of the good fatty acids and less fat, less cholesterol and fewer calories.”
Blaze laughed. “I’ve heard this.”
He smiled at her. “Then I don’t have to tell you about the other benefits of bison, all the vitamins it contains.”
She shook her head. “You can save your sales pitch.”
“I’d be interested in raising bison,” Jake said and grinned over at Blaze. “I’ve actually looked into it down in Wyoming, where I have a small herd of Black Angus.”
Blaze didn’t know which of the men surprised her more. She turned to her father. “You really didn’t just start raising bison out of spite?”
He gave her a disbelieving look. “I’m a businessman, as well as a rancher, my lovely daughter. Because the bison market is so small, it’s quite beneficial financially to raise them. I’m not a fool, Blaze.”
She shook her head as she studied her father. He was a lot of things, stubborn, obstinate, mule-headed, opinionated, but mostly strong and intelligent. She looked from him to Allie. Her father was finally happy. She could see the two of them together for a very long time.
“I was so angry with you, believing that you had run my mother off,” she said and met his gaze. Jake reached over and took her hand. “You were really going to let me go.”
“I knew I had to,” her father said. “You were so miserable and you’d started getting into trouble. As much as I love you, I wanted the best for you. And that was your mother.” He shook his head, tears filling his eyes again. “I loved your mother.” He squeezed Allie’s hand. “Allie knows how hard it was on me when she left. I loved her so much that I thought if she loved me...” He shook his head. “I tried to keep her here. It was wrong. I could see her fading, like a rose denied water. I couldn’t do it anymore. It broke my heart but I knew she had to leave. I loved you both too much to deny either of you any longer. Your mother wanted to introduce you to ballet and opera and Broadway shows. She talked about culture as if it was fine crystal.”
Blaze studied her father. She might look like her mother at this age, but she was her father’s daughter. She felt at home here on the ranch. She would have hated urban living and she suspected her father had known that.
When she’d first told him about her mother being found, he’d taken it hard. He’d looked broken in a way he hadn’t, even facing life in prison. But the closure seemed to have done him good. He’d bounced back with the help of his new bride.
She smiled at the two of them, happy for them and sad about the years she’d lost with her father as well as her mother.
“I’m sorry, Dad,” Blaze said and swallowed. “I’m sorry I mistrusted you on so many levels.” She reached over to cover his large, weathered hand with her own.
He shook his head, a large, shaggy head reminding her of the bison he raised.
Blaze looked to Allie. “You were my mother’s best friend, her only friend. I can’t imagine what you’ve gone through, as well. It must have been hard when she didn’t come back for either of us.”
Allie met her gaze. “I knew something had happened to her. She’d promised to help me. She was going to contact me as soon as she was settled. She’d actually thought that you and I could travel together. She wouldn’t have broken that promise unless she was dead.”
“You were going to leave Frank?” Blaze asked. “But then you changed your mind?”
Allie looked away for a moment. “When I didn’t hear from Bethany... Then Frank’s mother died and he begged me to stay. He was so lost...”
“Did he know you were going to leave him?” Monte asked.
“I think he suspected because of what we know now. He knew I wasn’t happy. Maybe that’s why he was better for a while. Or maybe it was guilt over what he’d done.” Tears filled her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Blaze. I had no idea.”
She moved to the woman and hugged her. “We can’t undo the past. You and my father have such a bright and happy future.” She pulled back to look down at Allie’s ever-growing stomach and smiled. “And a baby on the way.”
Allie wiped at her eyes. “It’s a girl.”
“A girl?” she said and turned to her father. “Are you disappointed? I always thought you would have been happier with a son.”
“Where do you get those ideas?” he asked, shaking his head. “You are my pride and joy. I’m delighted to have another daughter.”
“Well, the past is over now.” She cocked her head at him as she removed her hand from his. “You don’t have any more skeletons that will be falling out of the closets, do you?”
He laughed. It was a wonderful sound. She realized she hadn’t heard that hearty laugh of his in years. Not since she was a girl. “Not that I know of.”
Blaze looked over at Allie. “So you’re staying here?”
“We thought about leaving, starting over somewhere else, but after everyth
ing that has happened...” She looked to her husband.
“We’re going to stay here and run the ranch until the two of you decide you’ve had enough of the private detective life and want to come back and raise your children here. Then we’ll build ourselves a place on the ranch to give you space.”
“Dad—”
“Or maybe you won’t want to come back here,” he added quickly. “Then we’ll see. We’d probably sell the ranch and move closer to you and my grandchildren.”
“That sounds like a threat,” Jake joked. He turned to Blaze. “They are going to spoil their grandchildren rotten.”
“You’d better believe it. I also want our daughter to be close to her family,” Monte said. His gaze seemed to take in the room and the ranch beyond it. “I think this ranch will be good for the two of you,” he said, his gaze taking in Jake. “If the two of you decide to come back. You’ll take care of my daughter?”
“I will, sir.”
“No more sir. It’s Monte. Or...Dad. We plan to have Christmas here,” her father continued. “I was hoping the two of you would come back. This house wouldn’t be a bad place to get married, if you haven’t already eloped.”
Blaze looked at Jake, who smiled and nodded. “I’ll think about it.”
Her father got to his feet and helped his new bride to hers. “In the meantime, we need to go back over to Allie’s. We have some packing to do, so this place is yours as long as you want to stay.”
“Thank you, but we need to make some decisions, as well,” Jake said. “No matter what we decide, we have to return to the lives we left, at least for a while.”
* * *
AFTER MONTE AND Allie left, Jake asked, “Did you call the judge yet?”
She nodded. “You know him. He’d already heard most everything.” She grinned. “Except for the part about us being engaged. He wished us well.”
Jake chuckled. “I bet he did.” He saw how exhausted Blaze was. “If you want to take a hot bath, we could watch a movie. I’d make popcorn,” he suggested.
She stepped to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her inviting curves against him. “There’s a bed in my room.”