“What are you doing, Cisco?”
He took another step forward and she had nowhere to retreat, with the horses behind her. She suddenly couldn’t look away from the warmth blazing from his dark eyes.
“What I should have done five years ago. Hell, what I should have done ten years ago. I want to come home, East.”
Goose bumps spread at his words and her heart did a little leap of joy. She was afraid to trust his words, though, too wary of more pain that might be in store for her.
And then he reached a hand out and touched her cheek and everything hard and frightened inside her seemed to melt.
“I love you. I’ve loved you as long as I can remember. Last night, you told me you fell in love with me when I climbed out of the pickup truck with Guff. Guess what? I’ve got you beat by about five minutes, maybe. I can still remember driving up the road with Guff and seeing you standing there by the house. The sunlight was dancing in your hair and you were grinning as you played with Guff’s old dog and you were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.”
A tear leaked out before she could stop it. She wanted so desperately to believe him, to let these flutters of joy inside her break free. But she was so very afraid to hope.
“I love you, Easton. I want a home, a family, with you.”
Another tear leaked out and he caught it with his thumb and then lowered his mouth to hers with aching tenderness. She tasted regret and sorrow and apology and she soaked up every drop.
She imagined this was how the flowers in Jo’s garden felt when she finally remembered to water them after a July heat wave—relieved and joyful and desperately grateful that all was suddenly perfect with the world.
Belle giggled and reached a little hand up between them to make her presence known. Easton eased away from his mouth. “What about Belle?” she asked.
A faint wash of color heated his cheeks and he scratched the back of his neck. “Okay, I’ll admit, I wasn’t thinking very clearly about that. Um, I probably should have talked to you first before I stopped at her aunt’s house. But that woman has her hands full, East. You saw how it was with her and all those kids. In a few months when she has one more, things will only get worse.”
He twisted one of Belle’s curls around his finger, earning her big, gummy smile.
He gave Easton a hesitant grin that reminded her painfully of the boy he used to be. “I guess I was hoping I could convince you to continue the proud Winder tradition of opening your home and your heart to a couple of lost souls who desperately need them.”
His gaze met hers and she felt more tears trickle out as his grin slid away, replaced by raw emotion. “Starting with me and with Belle.”
This was a crossroads, just like the one that led to Windy Lake, she realized. He was waiting for her to decide whether to be guarded and wary, afraid of more pain along the journey, or whether to seize this chance to have everything she had ever dreamed about.
Could she trust that he wouldn’t decide in a month or two that his feet were too itchy, that he wasn’t cut out for the steady, quiet life she offered?
Belle gave one of her happy little squeals and beamed at Easton. She looked from the baby to Cisco, who watched her silently.
She had no choice, she realized. She loved them both fiercely. The trail ahead might be full of screes and slick patches, briars and rock falls, but what life wasn’t? The alternative, while safe, would be bleak and desolate.
Ride on through, darlin’. She could almost hear Jo’s voice in her ear.
A shadow of uncertainty slid across his features. “I should have talked to you about Belle first,” he said again.
She shook her head and smiled at him, unable to contain the joy bursting through her.
“No. It’s perfect.”
He went still for a moment and then he smiled, looking younger and less hard than she’d seen him in years. He wrapped his arms around both her and Belle and Easton couldn’t contain a little sob of happiness as he kissed her again.
“I couldn’t bear it, Cisco. All morning I didn’t know how I would endure.” She laughed a little, though she heard the echo of her pain. “I was thinking maybe I would just have to sell the ranch and chase after you.”
“Not that. Never that. I’m only sorry it took me so long to drive to Boise and back.”
“What did you tell Sharon?”
“That we both already adored Belle and I knew we could give her a good home here. She cried a bit, but then told me she knew John and Soqui would have wanted their daughter to grow up in a place filled with love.”
Easton rested her head on his shoulder, unable to still believe this was real, that he was here, that he wanted to stay.
“You’re going to have to marry me, you know.”
How could it be possible to be so insanely, completely happy when she had been in the depths of despair just minutes ago?
“Am I?” she asked.
He laughed. “Damn right, unless you want Brant and Quinn to hang me up by my, uh, thumbs from the hay hook in the barn. You know they’re going to insist we make it legal.”
She studied him. “Are you worried about their reaction if we’re together?”
He kissed her forehead. “I think they’ve probably just been waiting for me to finally figure out this is right where I belong.”
“It always has been,” she murmured.
He lifted Belle out of her arms, then slung his other arm over her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.
“Come on, then,” he said with a smile that curled her toes and warmed her heart and settled all her fears. “Let’s go home.”
Epilogue
“Come on, honey. You’ve got to hold still for the picture.”
“No. Doggies!”
Cisco hitched his daughter more tightly in his arms as she tried to slither to the ground toward where Suzy lay in a patch of sunlight with her new batch of puppies wriggling just like Belle.
They were apparently an irresistible attraction—and when Belle wanted something, she wouldn’t stop pushing until she figured out a way to get it.
Standing beside him in a bright sundress that made her look as fresh and lovely as Jo’s garden all around them, Easton kissed Belle’s cheek and adjusted a curl. “You can see the doggies in a minute, honey, I promise. We have to take a quick picture first to remember our big day. Go on, Mimi. Take it. Hurry.”
Brant’s wife adjusted the focus of her camera lens, then clicked it a few times while Cisco did his best to keep a firm hold on Belle.
Mimi adjusted her angle and fired off a few more shots, then moved in for a close-up. “It’s kind of fun being on the other side of the camera for a change, especially with this perfect light right now. These are going to be fantastic.”
“Thanks, Mimi.” Easton smiled radiantly, something he really hoped Mimi could capture on the image. “It will be wonderful to have something to remember Belle’s official adoption day,” she said.
Adoption. The word still made him swallow, Belle was really their daughter now. A year after that insane trip from Bogotá to Cold Creek Canyon, he still couldn’t quite believe it was real. Yet here she was in his arms, plump and busy and adorable.
And beside him stood his wife—that was another word that made him swallow hard—of nine months.
The last year had been more of an adventure than anything he had encountered with the agency.
“Just a couple more,” Mimi promised.
But Belle apparently had decided she’d endured more than enough. “My doggies!” she said, her chin jutting out with plenty of East’s stubbornness.
She squirmed and fought, the ruffled yellow dress Easton had dressed her in for the occasion proving too slick for him to keep hold of her very well.
“Let me try,” Easton said.
He willingly surrendered his squirmy armful. Easton took their daughter, her sleek blond hair brushing Belle’s dark curls as she leaned in close to whisper something in her ear.
What she said must have tickled Belle. She giggled, just about the sweetest sound he knew, but obediently froze in her mother’s arm until Mimi could snap off a few more shots.
“These are perfect. Okay, now give Belle to Tess. I want to take a few of you and East alone,” Mimi ordered.
“You don’t need to do that,” Easton protested.
“I want to. When you have nothing but gray hairs from keeping track of your teenager, you might want to look back on the day you officially became parents.”
They officially became parents six years ago. He thought of that memorial up in the mountains and the tiny grave in Denver he and Easton and Belle had visited together at Christmastime.
And they were going to give Belle a younger brother or sister again in roughly seven months, though nobody else knew that yet.
He watched Easton carry Belle over to where Tess played with her and Quinn’s son, Joe, and Mimi and Brant’s daughter, Abigail. The three toddlers shrieked and giggled and headed immediately toward poor Suzy and her puppies.
His heart swelled, watching them all. He and East had talked about waiting another year or so before adding to their family, but her unexpected pregnancy still had thrilled both of them. They had decided not to tell anyone else for now and he loved this secret between them, the shared glances, the furtive smiles, this low hum of anticipation that seemed to follow him everywhere.
He would be here through every stage of this pregnancy, unlike her last one, and he intended to savor every second.
“Nice turnout, isn’t it?” Mimi said
He followed her gaze to the crowd filling the Winder Ranch back garden, at all their friends and neighbors who had turned out for the party.
“It’s wonderful,” he said. This impromptu fiesta hadn’t exactly been planned either. But Quinn and Brant had surprised them and brought their families in from Seattle and Los Angeles as a show of solidarity during the final adoption proceedings. Mimi and Tess between them had worked out the details of throwing a big barbecue.
He was amazed at all the people from Pine Gluch who had come out to celebrate with them. All the Dalton brothers were there and Jenna and Carson McRaven and their family. Even Nate and Emery Cavazos had brought their daughters, though Emery, the Daltons’ adored half-sister, was hugely pregnant and looked ready to go into labor any minute.
East had also insisted they invite Belle’s aunt, Sharon, and her husband and children and John’s mother, Judy, with whom they had stayed in frequent contact this past year. He had wondered if John’s family would feel uncomfortable around these people they didn’t know, but they were currently deep in conversation with Caroline Dalton, who could put anyone at ease.
Children shrieked and laughed as they played boccie ball on a stretch of lawn, a couple of old-timers were arguing local politics at one table and the women setting out the buffet table were laughing hard at something Maggie Dalton’s mother, Viviana, said.
It was crazy and chaotic and noisy and he couldn’t imagine anywhere he would rather be.
Brant and Quinn were busy at the big half-barrel barbecue, grilling up some of the Winder Ranch prime grade A steaks. Any minute now, he expected them to start nagging him to get over there and help them out.
Despite his assurances to Easton when he asked her to marry him, he hadn’t quite known what reaction to expect from his foster brothers. Brant had stared at him for a long moment and then gave that slow, solemn smile of his before reaching out to shake his hand. Quinn, on the other hand, had been the one to smack him on the back of the head and ask what the hell had taken him so long.
He had worried things might be awkward between the four of them with the new dynamic of him and Easton being together, but they had all slipped into the changing relationship as easily as one of Guff’s hand-tied gray nymphs at the end of a fly rod dancing into the waters of Windy Lake.
Easton returned from settling Belle and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him, inhaling the springtime scent of wildflowers that always clung to her hair and her skin.
“Perfect.” Mimi smiled, her camera clicking rapidly. “You two are perfect just like that.”
They were, he thought, as they posed for a few more photographs. The last year had been full of more joy than he ever thought possible.
“Did you get enough?” Easton asked a few moments later. “I should probably go make sure everything’s running smoothly in the kitchen.”
“For now,” Mimi said. “When things settle down a little, I want to get some shots of just you and Belle and then maybe Cisco and Belle. I’ll find you later. I want to get some candids of Belle with her cousins and those adorable dogs before Suzy loses her patience.”
“Thanks, Mimi.” Easton smiled at her, then sighed with relief when the other woman walked away.
“I hate cameras,” she muttered. “You’d think Mimi would have a little compassion, after all those years of having the paparazzi chasing after her.”
“A little sacrifice will be worth it,” he answered. “Won’t it be nice to be able to remember today?”
Her blue eyes softened. “You’re right. You’re so right. It’s been a great day, hasn’t it?”
“The best ever.”
She wrapped her arms around him for a quick embrace and he rested his chin on her head for just a moment, at peace here with her in his arms as he was nowhere else. “The best day so far in a year of best days,” she answered softly. “And something tells me we’ve got plenty more in store for us.”
She was right. He could look ahead to more parties like this one, to more moonlight rides up into the mountains, to roundup and spring planting and the magic of the first winter snow.
“Today I’m content with this one,” he murmured and kissed her. As always, her mouth offered sweet, warm welcome.
After a moment, she pulled away reluctantly. “As much as I’d love to stand here all evening and do this, I really have to go see what’s happening in the kitchen.”
“Yeah, and I’d better help Quinn and Brant with grill duty or I’ll never hear the end of it.”
He watched her walk through the crowd gathered at Winder Ranch, her smile bright as she paused now and again to greet people, to kiss old Guillermo Cruz on the cheek, to laugh at something Carson McRaven said to her.
As he watched her with their neighbors and friends, he touched a finger to the E at the edge of the tattoo on his forearm, something he realized he rarely did anymore.
He supposed he didn’t need a compass rose to show him the way home anymore.
He was already there.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6988-4
A COLD CREEK BABY
Copyright © 2010 by RaeAnne Thayne
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††The Cowboys of Cold Creek
**The Women of Brambleberry House
§The Wilder Family
‡Fo
rtunes of Texas: Return to Red Rock
*Outlaw Hartes
†The Searchers
A Cold Creek Baby Page 17