Judy smiled. “Me, too.” Her smile seemed different, more authentic somehow. As if it came from a deep pool of self-confidence and hope. Probably because she and Johnny had settled their differences.
Tía wanted Judy to know she had expected it, actually wanted it. “I’m glad things worked out for you and—”
“I just wanted to tell you that I do forgive you for lying to me,” Judy said, interrupting. “I’m sorry I waited so long to tell you. When I realized you had gone and might never come back, I felt awful. If you had died…” Judy shuddered.
“Thanks.”
“Did El Gato…hurt you?”
Shame flushed through Tía, reminding her why she had to leave this place. Johnny had probably told Judy what Papa had done. Images of herself in Papa’s arms would be burned forever into Johnny’s mind. She seemed unable to see herself from any other perspective—only Johnny’s.
“No,” Tía said finally. “He didn’t hurt me.”
“I’m glad. I was afraid Andrea had lied to me so we could leave the ranch without worrying about you.”
Tía tried to think of something witty and outrageous to say so Judy would know how unaffected she actually was by the thought of Johnny and Judy leaving Rancho la Reina.
Judy was talking, but Tía was so busy thinking of something to say she didn’t listen. Actually, she thought, I’m stronger than ever, far better equipped to deal with losing Johnny now that I saved his life. I owe him nothing. And he owes me nothing…
Judy was animated, speaking. “…married this morning.”
At last Tía heard her words.
“We’re going to Atlanta to meet his parents. We’ll probably stay there.”
“Married?” So…Johnny had married Judy. It was done. Tía felt cold inside, cold and empty.
Judy laughed gaily, mischievously. “Yes. Isn’t it amazing? I never dreamed I could make up my mind so quickly.”
“I’m happy for you,” Tía murmured.
Judy lifted her arms and stretched. “I can see myself now—mistress of an Atlanta town house…I hope Grant knows how to hire good help. I have the feeling I haven’t changed that much. But I did warn him. It’s not like he doesn’t know me.”
Tía could not imagine why Judy and Johnny would take Grant along, but then Judy could do anything she wished. Johnny would probably not object. Poor Grant…how would he feel living on the fringes of Judy’s life?
Suddenly Tía’s room was too bright. She would rather be in the barn surrounded by horses. She liked horses better than people.
Judy hugged Tía good-bye. “We aren’t leaving until tomorrow. I hope you feel well enough to visit with me this evening. Of course, I suppose he’s going to want to go to bed early…” Judy’s back felt warm and damp, and her skin smelted sweet and fresh as she hugged Tía. Johnny would hold Judy like this, Tía thought. He would feel her shoulder blades under his hands…the warm, firm flesh alive and supple.
At last Judy left. Tía had promised to visit with her. She and Johnny would leave tomorrow, and Tía would no longer have to worry about seeing Johnny and being reminded of those tortuous moments in Papa’s arms.
Tía felt stifled. The urge to get out of her room came over her suddenly.
She avoided the parlor, where she could hear voices, and slipped outside. Quickly she cut around the west side of the house to avoid having to walk past the bunkhouses, then headed north toward the orchard. She would slip all the way around…
“Tía…”
Johnny’s voice stopped her. “Hi, Johnny. Sorry, I can’t talk right now. I’m real busy.”
“There’s always something to do, but you owe me an explanation,” he said quietly.
“I owe you my congratulations.” The sound of her voice sickened her. She hated falseness, especially in herself. He was the one who had gotten married. He was the one who couldn’t even wait a day. He was the one who couldn’t even wait to hear her side of the story.
Johnny tried to hide his pride and pleasure at her wanting to congratulate him. If Tía was impressed that he hadn’t fallen down and begged El Gato to spare him, then it had all been worthwhile.
“Aw, it was nothing,” he said, grinning.
Tía shook her head, “Nothing, huh?” She wanted to ask him if he married every day. But she would not give him the satisfaction. “Reckon it changed your life.”
“You think so?”
She wanted to pick up a two-by-four and hit him in the head. That should point out quite clearly that something had indeed changed for him. But she did nothing. “Why take Grant?” she asked.
Johnny frowned.
Tía flushed, realizing that she had let slip what was probably Judy’s surprise. Obviously he didn’t know about Grant. “You didn’t know.”
“Know what?”
“That Grant is going to Atlanta.”
“I knew that.”
Tía knew he was pulling a bluff now, cutting a typical cowboy shine. He didn’t want to admit he hadn’t known.
“Well,” Tía said, “three’s a crowd.”
Johnny scowled in puzzlement. Tía had a way of saying things that seemed reasonable on the surface but didn’t relate to anything he’d thought they were talking about.
“Why are you letting him go?” Tía demanded.
“Why am I letting Grant go to Atlanta with Judy?”
“That’s real astute, Johnny Brago. That knob on the end of your neck ain’t just a decoration after all.”
“That’s what you want to know?”
“Yes,” she said as patiently as she could.
Johnny shrugged. “It’s the least I can do. I figure since he loves her…”
Tía expelled a frustrated breath. “You think that’s a good reason for taking him along?”
“And his folks live there…”
“Could you stand in the sunlight? I want to see if your head has holes in it. Maybe—”
“And he married her…”
Tía blinked. “Who married her?”
“Grant married her.”
“I knew that,” she said angrily. “Judy told me that this morning.” The world jerked sharply into focus, and Tía felt instantly lighter. So that was what Judy had told her! A smile started at her toes and spread into every nook and cranny in her body.
Johnny was still talking. “Rutledge dropped the charges against Grant. He didn’t even notify Behan about the shooting. Grant was the one who shot Morgan Todd, you know. They’re leaving for Atlanta so Grant can take over for his father, who had a heart attack. His family has a store or something there.”
Tía couldn’t stop smiling. “I’m real happy for ’em,” she said, meaning it. She’d never meant anything more in her life.
Johnny leaned back against the barn. Tía was smiling at him as if she didn’t have a care in the world. She confused him so bad he had almost forgotten what he’d stopped her for. “I still think you owe me an explanation.”
Tía felt so good she could easily have floated over the barn without a push. But Johnny’s question sobered her. “What do you want to know?”
Johnny looked north, toward Wyoming. It was a hard question for him to ask. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer. But he had to ask it, and he had to hear what she said. Anything would be better than not knowing. “Why wouldn’t you come with me when he said you could?”
Tía leaned back against the barn beside Johnny. “That was a trick,” she said softly. “He didn’t mean it.”
“You weren’t free to leave?”
“Only if I wanted you to die.”
“You stayed with him to save my life?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why he let me walk out of there?”
“Yes.”
Johnny breathed a sigh of relief. The tightness in his chest relaxed. “I thought it was because I was such a cool hombre,” he said, grinning.
Tía shrugged. “El Gato was real impressed with you. He said he’d never se
en a man’s pants dry as fast as yours.”
Tía laughed, and Johnny swelled with pride momentarily and sobered. Tía had been willing to sacrifice herself to save him. The wonder of it was more than he could contain. This slim, magical creature had put his survival before the thought of her own life.
He wanted to say something to her, to thank her, but the enormity of what she had been willing to do for him left him speechless. He could not all at once comprehend it. Or her. Tía’s long blond hair was tangled as if she hadn’t combed it all day. Her face was sunburned from riding, but her blue eyes were round and sweet as she looked up at him. She was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen. He could never hope to deserve her, and yet she had risked everything for him. Johnny felt choked with love and gratitude.
At a loss for words, Johnny took her hand and led her into the barn, past horses in stalls, over to the ladder leading up into the hayloft.
“I can’t climb up there in this gown,” Tía protested.
“Sure you can. Just put your skirt in your mouth…”
Johnny climbed up and pulled her up beside him. He settled her on a pile of loose hay. “Andrea told me the whole story—yours and your parents. She asked me to give you time. Well, I’m not willing to give you time. I love you now. I want you now. Time may heal, but it robs you as it does. I’ve never waited for anything that turned out to be what I thought it would be when I started waiting for it. We have something now, something special. Maybe we’ll still have it in a few weeks, maybe we won’t. I’m not willing to take that chance.”
“What if I don’t want to get married?”
“Because you don’t love me?” he asked.
“Maybe,” she said, refusing to look at him. Because I can’t stand seeing myself from your eyes.
“Look at me,” Johnny commanded, forcing her chin up.
Tía sighed and lifted her gaze. His intent, plundering eyes stabbed into her. She felt exposed, to him and to herself. His knowledge shamed her, and she felt herself blushing.
“Since you aren’t sure,” he said, his voice husky, “maybe we’d better test the waters.”
“No!”
Too late. His strong arms enveloped her. His lips found hers, and he kissed her softly, sweetly. The sensation was delicious and blissful. Tía wanted the kiss to go on forever, but too soon he lifted his head and pulled her into a warm hug.
“That doesn’t change anything.”
“Did for me,” he said sighing.
It had for her as well, but she was terrified it wouldn’t last.
He kissed her again. “Tía, Tía, Tía,” he crooned softly, “I love you so much. I think I was born loving you, waiting for you.”
Tía had to tell him. “You don’t understand,” she said guiltily. “The deal I made with him—I would have kept it.”
Johnny shook his head. “I’m a man, Tía. I know what he wanted to do. I know what you believed you had to do…and now I know why.
“There’s no way I can ever repay you for what you did. If I live to be six thousand years old, working every day in your service, I’ll still be deeply in your debt,” he said sternly. “You’ve put me at a terrible disadvantage. No woman should do that to a man,” he said.
Tía searched Johnny’s eyes. “I knew you’d be mad,” she whispered.
“You actually believe a man would be dumb enough to be mad at a woman for saving his life the only way she could?”
“Maybe.”
“I never saw a hostage that got to dictate the terms before. Of course El Gato didn’t have but them two little guns and those five hundred or so bandidos. I realize that ain’t nothing compared to a hundred pound woman with a mouth of her own, but tell me, how’d you get in charge?”
He scowled at her with mock seriousness and raised a questioning eyebrow. Tía blinked. Johnny knew she hadn’t been the one in charge. She’d stood there in front of Johnny. He’d seen papa…
Johnny read her confusion in her eyes. “The more he demanded of you, the more I have to pay back,” he said gently.
Tía struggled with that.
“I want things right between us, Tía. What happened between El Gato and you has nothing to do with us.”
Tía felt like crying. “But it had something to do with me, and I’m part of us.”
Johnny took her by the shoulders and shook her gently, with restrained fierceness. “I love you, Tía. I love you so much I’m aching all over with it. I want to pick you up and squeeze you so hard you’ll squeek. And another part of me wants to just sit and look at you because there’s no way on this green earth I’ll ever be fit to touch you. Not even the hem of your skirt.”
His dark eyes filled with such fierceness and love Tía almost dissolved into tears. He meant it. He wasn’t just saying it. A hard ache swelled and throbbed in her throat. She wanted to tell him she understood, but nothing worked. She just looked at him, mute and grateful and tear choked.
“I love you, Tía.”
“Don’t love me,” she whispered.
“I love you, and you love me.”
Tía tried to turn away, but Johnny wouldn’t let her. “It’s no use, Tía. I love you, and I’m not going to stop.”
“How long you think you can keep it up?”
“Forever,” he murmured, touching her cheek with his finger. “I’ve loved you since the minute I saw you in that silly bonnet you stole.”
“I didn’t steal it. I just forgot to pay for it.”
Johnny laughed as his warm lips closed over hers.
Tía pulled away from him, searched his dark face. “How are you going to forget I let him kiss me? That he touched me?” she asked. She couldn’t surrender herself to him without an answer to that question.
Johnny drew away in order to look down at her. “I don’t need to forget. How are you going to forget?”
“I don’t know if I can,” she whispered.
She was so young! So incredibly young to think that a kiss or a touch could diminish her in some irrevocable way. Johnny wanted to shake her.
“You saved my worthless life, woman,” he said gruffly. “And I’ll never forget how much you had to love me to do that. To risk everything a woman holds dear to save me from certain death. You’re braver than any man or woman I’ve ever known. How do you forgive yourself for that?” he asked gently, wiping the damp curls away from her face.
Her shaky laugh surprised Tía. “Blamed if I know,” she said, sniffing.
“Tía?” he whispered against her cheek.
Slowly she opened her eyes.
He pressed his lips against her cheek and his warm breath caressed her temple and stirred the hair at her ear. “Do you know yet?”
“What?” she murmured, drawing away so she could focus on his dark, intent face.
“If you still love me.”
She nodded.
“Well?” he prodded.
“I love you,” she whispered. “You’ve always known that. That’s why you kept badgering me.”
Johnny laughed. “Badgering you? Girl, I’ve been dying of love for you. All you did was run from me. You’ve been as touchy as a teased snake ever since you set foot on this ranch.”
“I suppose you’ve been nothing but light and sunshine.”
“I don’t like to brag, but…”
Tía poked him in the ribs.
“Owww!”
Johnny cupped her face in his hands. “And I thought Judy Foreman was the mischievous one.” His tone was light, but the look in his eyes told her that she belonged to him, only to him, for always.
Johnny gathered Tía into his arms gently as if she were the most precious treasure imaginable. As usual, it took her a while to catch on, but at last she realized what he had in mind. He wanted to make her his, to wipe out all memories of the past forever.
But Tía knew she didn’t need Johnny’s embrace to do that. The warm smile of loving acceptance in his dark eyes had already done it. She was his—and his alone.
More from Joyce Brandon
The Lady and the Lawman
Life on the Western frontier in the 1880s is filled with risks and danger—a fact Angie Logan quickly relearns upon arriving back at her family's Arizona ranch, home from college back East. To help quell the riots against Chinese immigrants that have settled in Durango, Angie relies on her education and wits in appealing to the governor for assistance. The governor sends help in the form of Lance Kincaid, a charismatic gentleman who became a ranger to avenge the murder of the woman he loved. While working to resolve the current upheaval, Lance catches the trail of the murderer. Nothing will stop him from catching the killer and bringing him to justice, except perhaps Angie, the mysterious woman who looks eerily like his lost love.
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Adobe Palace
After the deaths of her parents, Samantha Forrester was raised with the Kincaid children. She fell in love with Lance Kincaid as he protected her from childhood bullies. Now they’ve both grown up and Lance has married another. When the devilishly charming Steve Sheridan rides into Samantha’s life, she sees her chance to build the house of her dreams, save her son’s life, and claim Lance’s heart for her own. But life doesn’t always go according to plan, and fate will take them all on a journey as wild as the land they live on.
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