Desiree met Carter’s eyes and begged him for an explanation that a five-year-old could understand.
“He was just a man who got lost and scared,” Carter said.
“Where is he now?” Nicole asked.
“He’s in your mother’s room. He had an accident.”
“Is he all right?”
Carter reached out a hand to smooth Nicole’s bangs from her eyes. “No, Nicky. He’s dead.”
“Oh. Can we still go see Maddy this afternoon?”
Carter and Desiree exchanged a look that expressed their gratefulness that Nicole was too young to understand the horror of what had happened.
“Maybe we’ll have time to go see Maddy after the police are gone,” Carter replied.
But it was well after dark before the police had finished their investigation, collected Burley’s body and warned Carter not to leave the neighborhood. Desiree’s room was cordoned off, and she had instructions to stay out of it until the police had another chance to look around in the morning.
Desiree had retreated to the kitchen and prepared a meal that she was loath to eat. She pushed the food around her plate, washed the dishes after dinner, then headed upstairs to bathe Nicole and put her to bed. She couldn’t help shuddering as she passed the closed door to her bedroom.
It was over. The years of horror, of dread, were finished at last. She was free.
Carter joined her at Nicole’s bedside and put his arm around her as she read her daughter a story from the book Nicole had given Carter for Christmas. It had only been a few short months, but it felt as though she had known the man sitting beside her for a lifetime.
When the story was done, Carter leaned over and kissed Nicole on the forehead. She threw her arms around him and hugged him. “I love you, Daddy,” she said.
Desiree saw the moistness in Carter’s eyes, and fought to keep from crying herself.
“I love you, too, Nicky,” he said.
Abruptly Desiree rose and left the room, heading for the deep, comfortable chair in the parlor. She sank into it wearily and waited. It wasn’t long before Carter joined her.
“We have to talk,” she said as he sat down on the sofa across from her.
“Yes, we do,” Carter agreed.
“The reason I married you no longer exists,” she said tentatively. “As for the reasons you married me—”
“I married you to have a place where I belong. That holds as true now as it did the day we married.”
Desiree felt her heart sink to her toes. She had known he only wanted roots. She had confirmation of it now. She couldn’t bear staying married to him, when all he really wanted was the ranch. “Now that I’m no longer in danger, there’s no reason for us to stay married. We could just be business partners,” she suggested.
“Is that so?”
Carter realized that he had to reach for happiness with both hands, or he was going to lose it. “There are a few things you might like to know before we change things around here,” he said.
Desiree cocked her head. “Such as?”
“I’ve found everything I’ve been searching for my whole life right here on the Rimrock,” he said.
“You mean you’ve put down roots.”
“Yes, I have. Only what I’ve discovered is that roots aren’t a particular place or a thing that can be bought. All the money in the world—” He paused and flushed before he continued. “And I have quite a bit—won’t buy roots.”
“You’re rich?”
He ignored her and went on, “Roots are a sense of belonging. Roots grow wherever the people you love are. This is where you are, Desiree. And Nicky. I could never give you up now.”
Desiree lifted her eyes to meet Carter’s intense gaze. She discovered that he was looking right back at her, and that his loving gaze didn’t avoid the scar on her cheek, but encompassed it. She suddenly realized that her terrible scar no longer existed for him, except as a beloved part of her. Desiree launched herself from the chair into Carter’s open arms.
“I love you, Carter. I have for so long!”
“I love you, too, Desiree, but I was too damned scared to admit it.”
They headed upstairs together, smiling. Actually, they were grinning like idiots. Once in Carter’s bedroom, they undressed each other slowly and carefully. His lips found the teardrops of joy at the corners of her eyes and followed them down her scarred cheek to her mouth, where his tongue joined hers in a passionate exchange.
They spent the night loving each other, reveling in the knowledge that their lovemaking was an extension of the feelings they had for each other. They were still twined in each other’s arms the next morning—like the gnarled roots of a very old oak—when Nicole joined them there.
She climbed under the covers and stuck her feet on Desiree’s thigh, only it turned out to be Carter’s, instead.
Carter yelped. “How can your feet be so cold in the middle of summer?” He grabbed for them to warm them with his hands.
Nicole giggled as she snuggled down under the covers. “My friend Shirley has a sister,” she said. “Do you think if I asked Santa, he would bring me a sister for Christmas?”
Carter chuckled.
Desiree laughed.
“It is entirely possible,” Carter said.
“Entirely,” Desiree agreed with a knowing smile.
Birds sang outside the window as the sun rose on a new day. They were a family, Carter thought, with roots and branches and little buds. It was a great beginning for a solid family tree.
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ISBN: 9781488025402
Hawk’s Way: Carter by Joan Mertens Johnston
First published as The Cowboy Takes a Wife by Harlequin Books S.A. in 1994
This edition published 2016
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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Carter Page 13