Angel smiled as he carried the empty tins downstairs. He’d never been happier in his life. He loved Jemma to the moon and back as his dad always said about his mom. He knew it’d only been five months, but he wanted this to be forever, and after speaking with his dad about it last weekend, he’d made the biggest decision of his life. He was going to propose. Soon. He didn’t know when, but he’d purchased the ring yesterday in San Antonio.
He might wait and do it on the 4th of July. Tarpley was having another blowout shindig. He could take her up to the top of the Ferris wheel and do it there. But he didn’t know if he could wait that long. The black box was burning a hole in his pocket. The ring was custom designed. He knew she would love the princess cut stone surrounded by a cluster of small blue diamonds that reminded him of her eyes. Just beautiful. Like her. He was nervous about proposing. Still wasn’t sure how he would do it. But she was it for him.
He’d dropped the empty paint tins that he’d carefully sealed into Jemma’s rented dumpster when he heard the bang of the screen door.
“I have lemonade,” Jemma announced.
“Sweet.” He brushed off his hands and followed her to the dock that extended over a good portion of the creek. He joined her on the bench her grandfather had built.
“Ah, I’m so tired,” Jemma sighed.
“I know. We’ll grab something on the way to my place so we can rest. I think the steam shower is in order tonight.”
“Definitely.” Jemma craned her neck to get rid of some of the tension from being hunched over as she painted baseboards.
“You know you may need to build up that area over there.” Angel pointed at the right bank next to the dock. “If you get a lot of rain and the rivers rise, it could flood the barn and make the condition worse.”
“I know. I was planning on tackling the exterior next year.”
“Good plan.”
Angel had convinced Jemma to keep the barn, though it would be costly. He would make that his project once they were married. He needed an at-home clinic for the locals to bring their pets, too, and he would move his base to Tarpley instead of Banderas. He would miss his ranch, but it was just a place. This would be their home. His home with Jemma.
Six months ago, Angel had been playing the field. No woman had caught his eye in a long time. Not someone worth settling down with. Until he’d met Jemma. He couldn’t believe his good fortune. She was different from the other women he’d met. Special. He loved everything about her.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Jemma asked, noticing Angel had this faraway look in his eye.
He laughed before answering. “Nothing. Just thinking about how best to fix that bank. Just be sure to stay off it when it rains. I’d hate for it to collapse on you, and I haven’t had the chance to teach you how to swim yet. You don’t want to find yourself in the middle of the creek, do you?”
“No, definitely, not. That wouldn’t be good. I should really learn how to swim.”
That gave Angel a sudden idea. He put his glass of finished lemonade down on the bench beside him and got up from his chair. Jemma watched in fascination as he stripped off his shirt. “No time like the present, Miss Haner. It’s hotter than Hades and I could use a dip.”
“Oh no, really!” Jemma watched in shock as Angel stripped down to his skivvies.
“Come on, Beauty. Let’s dive in. If you get good enough at swimming, I’ll even take these off.” He snapped the waistband of his briefs for effect, which made Jemma laugh.
“Well, when you make an offer like that!” She laughed, stood up, and gave Angel her hand. “But it might not be easy. I mean I can walk across if someone holds my hand in the dry season. I can dog paddle, but that’s about it. My dad tried but I would always panic and freak out.”
“How deep is it?” Angel asked.
“In the center, very. I can’t touch the bottom with my feet. Maybe you can?”
“Well, take those darn clothes off, woman, unless you want to put on a bathing suit. I’ll go see how deep it is.”
Jemma began to take off her blouse and shorts as she watched Angel make the quick trip across the creek. The water never went over his head. When he began the return trip, she stood on the dock in her panties and bra.
“These will do.” She sashayed about to show him her pink undergarments.
“They sure will.” He winked, grinning at her as he waded back to Jemma. The water in the center went to his neck. “I can still touch. Good. If you ever go down, which you won’t today because I will be holding on to you, just remember to let yourself sink then push off the ground below. We will practice that another day. There are some rocks, but they’re pretty smooth so you won’t hurt your feet. Just push hard and you’ll come bobbing right up.”
“Gotcha. Sink, push, and jump.”
Jemma started down the ladder to the river and loved the feel of the cool water on her feet. Her first step in went just up to her knees. When she was a kid, she had dropped off the ladder and remembered it reached her waist.
“Wait there. Let me come get you,” Angel cautioned. “I don’t want you to slip and get skittish on me.”
“Okay.”
Jemma waited until he reached her and then took his hand when he held it out to her. With him as an anchor she was able to make her way about a quarter of the way in. Angel stopped her when she was waist deep.
“This is fine. Today, I’ll teach you how to float on your back and maybe how to hold your breath.”
“Okay.” Jemma agreed. She had always been skittish in the water, but with Angel there, she felt safe and followed his directions.
“We can do a little each day after dinner. In two weeks, you will be swimming like a fish.”
Jemma just nodded as Angel instructed her how to float and positioned her to do so.
“I’ve got my hands on you the whole time. You won’t float away or go under.”
“Promise?” She smiled knowing what his answer would be.
“Of course.”
“Have you done this before?” Jemma asked. “You know, teach someone how to swim. You seem to be very good at it.”
“Thanks, and yes. Growing up in Corpus Christie we spent a lot of time in and around water. It’s why my bothers joined the Coast Guard. They love the water. All of us did stints as lifeguards for a few summers and taught classes.”
And Jemma had to admit, he was a good teacher. Within an hour she was floating by herself and even managed to do some back strokes to get across the creek a couple of times. When they climbed out of the water, she thanked him.
“I’ve never felt safer in the water.”
“You just needed the right teacher.” He kissed the top of her wet head.
“Yes, I guess I did.” She laughed, drying herself off with her shirt so she wouldn’t drip all over the floor.
“How about we conserve a bit of water and take a shower before we head out?” he suggested.
“We?” She raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, we!” he pronounced, and chased her across the yard to the front door.
Chapter 20
That weekend Angel suggested they take a break from the remodeling projects and invited her to Medina for its annual Folk Music Festival. With his help, she was far ahead of schedule so she jumped at the chance to go out and have some fun. Those that attended the popular annual festival sat on blankets to listen to great music under the stars.
“I’ll even pack us up a nice picnic basket,” Angel offered.
“How can I refuse?” Jemma loved how thoughtful he was.
As the day of the festival grew closer, she began to worry the event might be canceled. They had experienced a couple of sudden summer storms the last few days, so Jemma was glad for the sunny and bright weather the day of the festival. Because Angel had to oversee some work on his own ranch that day, he’d left the night before, so she volunteered to drive to his house and meet him there, and they would drive to the festival together.
T
he lights around the park created a romantic ambiance. Once again, Angel had packed a fabulous basket of food for them. Jemma kicked off her sandals, placed them on one corner of the blanket, and then sat. Angel handed her the plates as he joined her on the soft blanket she’d brought from home, and they listened to the music playing in the background.
“The potato salad is fantastic.” She dug into that first. It was one of her favorites.
“Oh, shoot. I forgot drinks,” Angel declared, looking at the various vendors that had set up tables around the path that circled the field. “I’ll run and get us something. I saw a concession on the way in that looked like they sold drinks.” Angel set his plate down. “Soda or beer?”
“Soda, please.”
“Be right back.”
After he departed, Jemma nibbled on her piece of fried chicken and watched other patrons of the music festival settle in and take their places in the field. Many musicians would be performing folk music and country throughout the evening. Jemma loved that Angel enjoyed music and dancing as much as she did. His parents, he’d told her, had loved being a part of a community, and he felt the same way. They had never missed a parade or a festival. Family, and doing things with them, were very important to him. It made Jemma happy. Her father had been the same way. For a long time she had avoided events like this because they reminded her of the family she had lost.
She watched the other couples sitting on blankets, some older and some younger. There were families there, too, and they further reminded her of her father who loved dragging her and her aunt to any community event within a hundred miles. As she glanced around, everyone looked happy. Jemma hugged herself. She was happy, too. Happier than she had been in a very long time. She looked to the left to see if Angel was returning but didn’t spot him. However, Jemma noticed a familiar man walking along the edge of the field. She gasped when she recognized him. Frank. However, he was accompanied by a woman. She breathed a little easier knowing he had brought someone, and that he hadn’t attempted to sit by her or approach her while Angel was off getting them a drink.
“What’s with the face?” Angel asked, surprising her and handing her a can of Coke. She hadn’t noticed him approaching.
“I spotted Frank across the field,” she told him and indicated with a tilt of her head the direction he should look.
“Where?” Angel’s neck craned to see if he could spot the man. “I told him not to be anywhere you are.” He felt his ire rise, but Jemma put a restraining hand on his arm.
“Please don’t. He’s with someone. He’s far away. Not near us. He probably doesn’t even realize we’re here. These are small communities. We can’t expect to never run in to him.”
She heard Angel’s sigh of frustration. “Fine, but he better stay on that side of the field.” Determined to push thoughts of Frank out of his mind, Angel focused on Jemma once more. “Let’s forget about him, and try to enjoy ourselves while we can. It looks like we’ve got some bad weather headed our way. I heard the guys talking about it by the concession where I got the drinks. I’m glad the festival wasn’t canceled, but the old timers there said it may let loose anytime.”
“The skies looked clear before it got too dark. I hadn’t heard it might rain tonight.”
“Well, these old timers know a thing or two about the weather. I don’t see any stars, so you never know. There is probably some cloud cover.” He glanced up at the sky.
“Well, I hope it doesn’t rain anytime soon. We just got here.” Her eyes followed his, but she saw no signs of an impending summer storm in the darkness.
He settled onto the blanket. “Me, too. I love folk music. They tell such beautiful stories.” Angel picked up his plate of food and resumed eating.
“That’s why I like it, too. The stories. Country and folk music really do tell great stories. So much better than the stuff they sing about today.”
“Except the ‘Git Up’! You know that’s going to be classic, right?” he teased.
“Of course, for us, at the very least.” Jemma loved that about him. He was all man, but when he said things like that, he proved to her he was a romantic, too.
Angel interrupted her thoughts with a question. “Oh, I wanted to mention Pops is rearranging the duty schedule because of these storms coming in next week. We’re all hands on deck if something happens. So, I may crash at your place next week if you don’t mind, just to be closer. My hired hand is loving all the extra shifts.”
“Of course. I’d love that. The perks of being with a Tarpley volunteer firefighter is you are close by in the event of an emergency.”
“See, it’s not all bad,” he teased.
“No. Not bad at all.” She put her plate away, throwing the remains of what she hadn’t eaten into the Ziploc bag Angel had brought and wrapped her plate in a towel before returning it to the basket.
She watched while Angel finished his meal and then sat up, putting her weight on her knuckles as she kissed him in full view of the world to see. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, Jemma, but God, woman, please, all these people are watching. So embarrassing!” He joked with her, though he loved it when she spontaneously kissed him out of nowhere. She’d been doing that a lot lately. She was a passionate woman and demonstrative, but it didn’t bother him in the least.
“I don’t care if the entire world is watching.”
She kissed him again, and that was when he realized that right now was the perfect moment. He didn’t need fireworks on the Fourth of July or explosions or a Ferris wheel to propose. He just needed Jemma.
“Then you wouldn’t mind if I did this.” He pulled the little black box out of his pocket that he’d been carrying with him for two weeks.
Jemma gasped sharply when she saw the box. The sound carried and caught the attention of the people on their blankets sitting closest to hers. “Angel?” she questioned and tears immediately sprang to her eyes. Jemma couldn’t believe it when Angel got on his knee before her on the blanket. Her throat closed tightly, almost painfully. She felt the tears drip from her face onto her chest.
“Jemma Haner, I knew the night we met how special you were. And it didn’t take me long to realize you were the woman I was meant to find, the woman, I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. You are beautiful, smart, funny, loving. Each day with you brings me happiness and pleasure, and I would be so incredibly honored if you would agree to become my wife. I promise to always love, cherish, and protect you, to be there for you, to be your family.”
“Yes, yes!” Jemma answered breathlessly amidst her tears. “More than anything, yes!”
After Angel slipped the beautiful ring on her finger, he sealed his promise to her with a kiss. He felt like he was on top of the world.
The crowd around the happy couple began to cheer loudly. Several people nearby encouraged the couple to seal their promise with a kiss. The tall cowboy was happy to oblige, and Frank felt his stomach churn with anger and disappointment. Jemma was a fool. For years he’d pined for her and attempted to get her to go out with him. All the time she’d politely rejected him, his desire for her had grown. She was beautiful and smart. Everything he’d ever wanted. And now she belonged to another man.
“Let’s get out of here. I think it’s going to rain,” he told his companion.
“But we just got here,” the woman whined.
A colleague had set him up with her, and he choked back a scathing response. The sound of her voice grated on his nerves.
“I don’t feel well. I have to go. Do you want a ride home or not?” he barked, already getting up from the ground and practically yanking the blanket out from under her.
“Fine,” she said, standing abruptly.
He didn’t care about the disappointed look on her face. Or what she would tell her cousin, the social studies teacher, on Monday. He just had to get out of the park now before he did something he would really regret
Chapter 21
“Man, it’s raining buc
kets out there.” Jemma peered out her window for the hundredth time that day. It hadn’t stopped, and she was worried about Angel. He’d been gone all day dealing with emergency after emergency. She felt as if she was going crazy. “You’d think people would heed the weatherman’s warning and stay home when the weather gets this bad.” Yup, stir crazy, because she was talking to herself, too. Heck, she didn’t even have a cat she could blame it on. She needed to get one. Heck, she’d have a ton of animals on her ranch when Angel moved in.
After proposing just days before, they’d already discussed wedding dates, his moving in, and fixing up the barn so he could bring his animals and create a space as a reception and examination area. She’d readily agreed to it all.
When she’d mentioned expenses, he’d told her not to worry about it. “Beauty, we are getting married, and what is mine is yours. I do very well as a vet, and what I get for my ranch, I’m planning on putting into this place. Our home.”
“Our place,” Jemma whispered as he kissed her into silence last night.
“Yes, my love. Our place where we will raise our family.”
The future looked bright.
Well, except for the gray sky and rain for the past three days. It started raining the moment they left the festival and hadn’t stopped since.
Pops had called Angel first thing that morning about a car wreck. He was needed to help get the injured people out of the damaged vehicle. He’d texted her mid-morning saying he had to report to the station; Pops was concerned about possibly more accidents and local flooding in the roads. She’d texted him back.
Jemma: Stay safe. Love you.
Angel: Stay inside. So many crazy people out driving.
He added a few emojis and funny faces.
Jemma: I promise. I’ll stay put.
When the rain stopped in the afternoon, Jemma turned on the television to try to relax. As she listened to the news, the weatherman announced that more rain was headed their way. She didn’t want to bother Angel while he was busy, but shot him a text anyway.
Fighting For Jemma Page 17