Bucking The Odds (Dancing Moon Ranch Book 9)

by Patricia Watters

  ***

  The days between the family meeting at the Dancing Moon Ranch and the wedding were a blur of activity—Jeremy and Josh setting up the bucking chutes at Josh's place, which closed in the stock pens, then moving the cattle and Billy's horses. The horses, along with Jeremy's horse, would be picked up at a later date by stock haulers and delivered to their final destination. Billy was to remain at her place, where Mario could monitor her and her father, during which time Mario spent pacing, checking windows, and talking to headquarters for updates on the status of the relocation.

  Billy only saw Jeremy briefly during that time because he was working long hours while tying up loose ends before terminating his job, and when he did stop by, they'd sit on the couch in a room where Mario and her father were also present because, at this point, she wasn't allowed to leave the house without Mario at her side, so just being able to sit together with Jeremy's arm around her, and a brief goodbye kiss, had to hold them.

  But the day of the wedding she didn't see Jeremy until shortly before the service, because he left for Burns early that morning to turn in the county truck and keys, which finalized, in Billy's mind, that he really was going through with it, that there would be no turning back.

  On arriving at the church—a small, wooden, century-old building that was still in use, and which sat on a low hill—what first caught Billy's attention was the plain white bus that was part of the U.S. Marshals Service fleet of vehicles, and which sat in a gravel parking lot along with several Kincaid Ranch trucks. The only people outside the church were four U.S. Marshals, two of whom stood at the entrance of the church, and two on either side of the bus.

  But inside the small church, the short pews were filled with Jeremy's entire family, including Jack's twin brother Sam and his wife and their extended family, as well as everyone from the Kincaid Ranch. Billy, who was wearing a pair of tan slacks, a plain white blouse, and a lightweight, buff-colored sweater that Genie had given her, looked around anxiously for Jeremy.

  "He's almost here," Annie said. "Josh just called and said Jeremy wanted to stop at the resale shop in Pine Grove to buy a suit, and they'd be here in a few minutes. Here's your bouquet. Genie and I selected it at the florist when we got the guest book, but we rode the horses into the hills and picked some wild wheat and sage and bunchgrass to add to it as insurance that you'll get back here someday."

  "And this is for you too," Genie added, holding up a wreath of daisies, which she placed around Billy's head. "Now you look like a bride."

  Billy glanced beyond Annie and Genie and saw her dad standing with Jack and Grace Hansen, who appeared to be welcoming him into the family, but what struck her was that her dad had shaved off the beard, and his hair was trimmed, and he was wearing a suit. For the first time in months, not only did he look like the professor of entomology he was, but he looked happy. She was about to go over and talk to him, and the Hansens, when Jeremy came rushing into the church, and spotting her, went over to where she was standing, and for a moment just stood staring at her, like he was completely taken aback, maybe because she had flowers in her hair and was holding a bouquet. "Honey, you look beautiful," he said, with an appreciative gleam in his eyes, "and in about ten minutes you'll be my wife."

  "Then you took care of everything in Burns?" Billy asked.

  "It's done," Jeremy replied. "Harney County has to find three new inspectors."

  As Billy thought about the extent Jeremy was going to in order to be with her, it was almost as if she were in a dream that was about to end, and she'd be back on her grandfather's ranch, and Sal would never have gotten involved with Joseph DeLuca, and she'd go through life not knowing that her soulmate was living on a ranch in Harney County, and she'd settle for someone who could never be the man Jeremy was, yet Jeremy would find someone who would be okay for him and be happier than he was now because he'd always have his family…

  "Honey, are you okay?" Jeremy asked. "You're staring at nothing and frowning."

  Billy blinked a few times to refocus. "I guess my mind strayed for a few moments."

  Jeremy took her hand and laced his fingers in hers, and said, "No doubts, Billy. This marriage is meant to be."

  Billy studied Jeremy's calm face. The relaxed set to his jaw, the quiet, unwavering look in his eyes, even the way he held himself, tall and straight, with his shoulders squared, she knew he had no doubts about marrying her. When it's right, it's right, he'd said, and he truly believed it.

  Giving her hand a little squeeze, Jeremy said, "I'll see you at the altar," then turned and walked up the aisle to take his place in front of the pastor, and sandwiched between Josh and Ryan on one side, and Annie and Genie on the other.

  Grace and Jack sat in the front row with Jeremy's grandmother and her husband, and Billy's father walked over to stand beside her at the far end of the aisle. Reaching up, Billy brushed her finger along her father's jaw, and said, "I didn't expect you to shave. Is Mario okay with it?"

  "I don't know," Bill replied, "I didn't ask. But when I walk you up the aisle and deliver you to your future husband, it will be as Dr. William Fuller, not an old ragtag buckaroo who can't bother to shave in the morning."

  Billy stood on tiptoe and gave her father a kiss on the cheek, and said, "Thank you, Daddy."

  Moments later the organ music started, everyone stood, and the Wedding March rose to the heights of the ceiling in the little church. Taking her father's arm, and with her eyes focused on the man she was about to marry, Billy walked up the aisle and stood between her father and Jeremy, and in front of the pastor, who said, "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?"

  "I do," Billy's father replied, then turned her over to Jeremy, who took her hand in his.

  "Love is a miraculous gift," the pastor started in, "and a wedding is a celebration of that love, and today we are here with Billy and Jeremy to celebrate, witness, and honor their love as they are joined in holy matrimony. Marriage is the incubator of love, the protected environment in which love can grow. In marriage we say not only, I love you today, but also, I promise to love you tomorrow, the next day, and always…"

  Billy had been to weddings, but the words had simply been those recited by an official who'd said them many times before, but for the first time in her life, as the pastor spoke and Billy held Jeremy's steady gaze, the words had meaning. Yes, she loved Jeremy today, and yes, she'd love him tomorrow, and the next day, and until the day she died. She could feel Jeremy's love for her too, so strong there was nothing that could come between them…

  "Repeat after me," the pastor cut into her thoughts, and she found herself looking at Jeremy as he made vows she could feel deep inside her, like a true bonding, as he said, "I, Jeremy Edmund Hansen, take Billy Bree Fitzsimmons to be my lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer…"

  And she found herself repeating those same words to Jeremy, words she felt deep inside, ending with, "… in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth."

  "May I have the rings?" the pastor asked.

  Josh reached into his pocket and retrieved two gold bands, and Billy found herself looking down at her hand, which was scrubbed clean and had neatly filed nails, and was being held by Jeremy's big, sun-bronzed hand as he slipped the ring on her finger, while saying, "With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow…"

  Billy repeated the words and hoped Jeremy knew how much she loved him, because after weeks of lying to him, every word she spoke was true, as she slipped the ring on his finger, and said, "With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow…"

  The pastor, looking directly at them, said, "With the power vested in me I now pronounce you husband and wife." Taking both their hands, he raised them, and announced, "I give you Mr. and Mrs. Jeremy Hansen," then to Jere
my, he added, "And you may now kiss your wife."

  Jeremy pulled Billy into his arms and kissed her as the music again rose, and with tears of bittersweet happiness streaming down her cheeks, Billy smiled, took Jeremy's arm and walked with him down the aisle.

  Immediately the family swarmed around them in the small vestibule of the church, where on a table was the cake Ruth had baked, and Annie and Genie decorated, and nuts and mints and little tea sandwiches that Billy knew the women had spent the day putting together, and there were stacks of clear plastic wine goblets and several bottles of Whispering Springs wine ready for toasting.

  Grace and Jack were the first to wish them well. To Billy's surprise, Grace gave her a long hug, and said, "Honey, I wish we could have had a little time to get to know you before you and Jeremy leave because you have to be a very special young lady to have captured Jeremy's heart the way you have, but I guess we'll just have to wait until you come home."

  Jeremy hugged his mother after that, and said, "We'll be home before you know it, Mom, and then you can get to know this wonderful woman I married."

  Billy knew Jeremy understood the reality of it, but she also realized that his mother needed the added assurance that they would be returning sooner rather than later, even if it was a small white lie.

  The rest of the reception was a blur of cutting the cake, and Billy and Jeremy hooking their arms together and toasting each other, and family members drinking to them and wishing them well, while offering sage wisdom, and finally, Billy standing with her back to the family and tossing her bouquet. There was a rustle of laughter, and when she turned around she saw that Tyler, the youngest of Grace and Jack's boys, had caught it. Looking embarrassed, he quickly passed it to Maddy saying, "Okay kiddo, you're next."

  Maddy laughed, and replied, "No way. Not until I'm at least thirty."

  "Smart girl. I'm with you," Tyler said.

  Jeremy, who was standing with his arm around Billy, looked over the top of her head and said, "Come on. We need to talk to my grandmother."

  Taking Billy by the hand, he led her over to where his grandmother and Howard were sitting in a couple of chairs off to the side while observing the gathering.

  After shaking Howard's hand, Jeremy bent down and kissed his grandmother on the cheek, and said, "Grandma, I finally found her."

  Maureen Hansen Barker looked up at Billy, and said, "That comment of Jeremy's goes back a ways. When he was in his teens and decided being married was tantamount to being in jail, I assured him that when the right woman came along he'd be ready to go to the ends of the earth with her."

  "I'm afraid he's doing that," Billy said, sadly.

  Maureen reached out and patted Billy's hand, and said, "You're bringing Jeremy the kind of happiness a man truly needs, because if he's willing to go to the ends of the earth with you it's because you're his soulmate, and nothing else matters. Of course we'll miss having you with us, but we'll know Jeremy is happy in a way he'd never be if he let you go. You'll have a happy life together. But to make sure you return to the Dancing Moon Ranch, I want you to have this. It's something my first husband commissioned a Hopi artist to make for me on our honeymoon." She raised a small white box from her lap and offered it to Billy. "It's silver overlay, and it represents the harvest moon the night my Adam asked me to marry him. Clouds were dancing around the moon that night, and that's how the ranch got its name."

  Billy took the box and opened it, and in it was a silver bracelet with a moon with flames dancing around it. "It's beautiful," she said, while gazing at the bracelet, "but I feel bad accepting it because you might not ever see it again."

  Maureen smiled, and replied, "Giving that bracelet to you is the best insurance I know that you two will be back. It's an old Nez Perce belief that if you give something dear to your heart to someone when they leave, they will return."

  Billy slipped the bracelet on her wrist, then bent over and gave Jeremy's grandmother a hug, and said, "I'll keep it close to my heart until we do get back."

  In the distance came a thrumming sound, and as it drew closer, Billy realized it was the sound of a helicopter.

  "Folks!" Mario called out above the din of voices. "You have ten minutes to say your goodbyes." It was some moments before everyone realized Billy and Jeremy would be taken away by a helicopter, which was landing in the wide open field beside the church.

  Giving his grandmother one last hug, Jeremy said, "Good bye, Grandma. I love you and take care of yourself and live a long healthy life because I want you to be around to meet your great-grandchildren when we come back."

  Billy saw tears in the old lady's eyes, which brought tears to her own eyes.

  There was little time after that to feel anything, and within minutes she and Jeremy were out of the church and surrounded by the family, everyone giving them last minute hugs before she and Jeremy and her father were ushered into the helicopter, where she sat next to the window in one of four seats across the back, with Jeremy beside her, and her father next to Jeremy. The last to board was Mario, with Diesel on a leash. The door shut tight behind them, and moments later the helicopter lifted off, made one circle around the church, which was just long enough for Billy to look down and see Jack with his arm around Grace, who was obviously sobbing, and the rest of Jeremy's family standing and looking up, and maybe seeing him for the last time.

  With that thought, Billy broke out crying.

  Jeremy took her hand in his, and said, "It's going to be okay, honey. We'll make a new life together and have a place of our own where we can ride our horses into the hills, and before you know it, we'll have some kids to take along on rides with us."

  "But they'll never know your family because you're leaving them all behind," Billy said, in a ragged voice, "and your mother and grandmother are brokenhearted, and it's all because of me."

  "Honey, stop it. My family will adjust. Our ancestors moved from the old country to the new and made lives for themselves and kept in contact with their families by mail, but back then it was a letter a year. We can call and write everyday if we want. We'll never be cut off."

  "I suppose you're right." Deciding it was unproductive to be crying on her wedding day, Billy took a couple of tissues out of her handbag and blotted her eyes and blew her nose, and said, "It's strange, because today is both the happiest and the saddest day of our lives."

  "At least it balances out," Jeremy replied, "but starting tomorrow our sadness will begin to fade and our happiness will just keep growing." Then he whispered in her ear, "And to get the happiness started, tonight we'll have our own little celebration, but it won't be while sitting on a couch with your dad and Mario staring at us, it will be in our own room, under the covers."

  "And maybe Diesel staring at us," Billy said. "He sleeps on the bed."

  Jeremy looked at Diesel, who was sitting with his nose pressed against the window in the door of the helicopter while staring out, and said, "Not anymore. Wife in bed. Dog on floor."

  As if he'd understood, Diesel turned from the window and glared at Jeremy, who laughed and said, "Okay pal, I get the message. We'll get a king size bed, but Billy sleeps next to me."

  Billy couldn't help smiling because the look on Jeremy's face was so endearing, and he had such an optimistic attitude about their future together...

  If he's willing to go to the ends of the earth with you it's because you're his soulmate, and nothing else matters…

  Those words, spoken by a very wise woman, seemed to make it all okay, and as Billy glanced out the window and saw the sage-covered hills, and rugged buttes, and wide valleys of Harney County slipping by, she decided to focus instead on the journey ahead, wherever it would take them, and the joy of a life of love and adventure as Mr. and Mrs. Jeremy Hansen, because in her heart, that's who she would always be.

  Almost as if he'd read her thoughts, Jeremy squeezed her hand, and said, "Mrs. Hansen, when we get settled we'll start planning two houses. One will be a cabin on the parcel of land my folks s
et aside for me at the Dancing Moon Ranch, and the other will also have a cabin on it, but that will be for my folks when they come to visit, and our house will be large enough to accommodate us, your dad, and a bunch of noisy kids, and we'll build a stable with enough stalls to house all the horses our kids will need, and your dad will teach them all about bugs, and the house will have a big front porch with a view of Steens Mountain and a nearby grove of aspen so when the kids are in school we can race our horses there and have a love fest under the trees. And when the kids grow up we'll give them each a parcel of land, and we'll spoil the grandkids rotten so they'll want to stay around too, and—"

  "Wait a minute," Billy cut in. "You said, a porch with a view of Steens Mountain."

  "That's the parcel reserved for us," Jeremy said. "We're buying four-hundred acres from Ryan and Annie, and it will butt up to Josh and Genie's place, and we'll have the best bucking bull breeding facility in the Pacific Northwest, and the Sullivans will be the Hansens again."

  "Are you serious?" Billy asked.

  "Dead serious," Jeremy replied. "You're wearing a bracelet that insures we'll have a place at the Dancing Moon, and I talked to Ryan about the land and it's a done deal."

  Billy reached up and kissed Jeremy on the cheek and said, "I love you, sweetheart. You are absolutely the love of my life," then she rested her head on Jeremy's shoulder and allowed herself the luxury of dreaming big dreams, as an image of what Jeremy proposed began to settle in her mind. And with the gift of time, they'd sit on that big front porch, their hair going a little gray, and watch their grandchildren playing, and look out at Steens Mountain, and every night of their lives they'd fall asleep in each other's arms. Yes, she thought. It will be like that.

  CHAPTER 17

  Cody, Wyoming – two months later