A Sweet Life-kindle

by Andre, Bella

“Sorry. No one answers to that name,” he said after a few seconds.

  “Can I talk to Roy, then?”

  “Roy White?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Just a minute.”

  Another music-filled pause and then Roy came on the line.

  “Roy? It’s Delaney.”

  “Something wrong?”

  “I’m looking for Conner,” she said. “He never came home tonight.”

  “He didn’t?”

  The surprise in Roy’s voice heightened Delaney’s anxiety. “I thought maybe he went to the Honky Tonk with you,” she said.

  “No, we left him near the south pass. He was going to check on some cattle that came up missing. But that shouldn’t have taken him more than an hour.”

  “What do you think happened?”

  “I don’t know. But I’ll be right there.”

  “Should I call the police?”

  “No, I’ll take a flashlight and go out and look for him.

  I’m sure he’s fine.”

  The phone clicked and Roy was gone, leaving Delaney even more worried. The concern in his voice had belied his words. Conner could be hurt. He might need help....

  Delaney couldn’t bear to waste another second. Scribbling a quick message for Roy, she tacked it on the front door, grabbed a lightweight sweater and slipped out the back. She’d go after Conner herself.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  CONNER WAS EXHAUSTED. Stamping the mud off his boots at the back door, he stepped into the house to find a light burning and his dinner waiting for him in the refrigerator. “Thank you, Dottie,” he murmured, sliding his plate into the microwave. The smell of steak, potatoes, peas and garlic bread soon filled the kitchen and made his stomach growl, but he was almost too anxious to wait for his food to heat. This time of night, Delaney would be asleep, curled up on her side, all soft and womanly with her small round belly, and he couldn’t wait to slip into bed with her. Somehow, when he held her in the dark, all the worries that came with the light of day—the frustration, the anxieties, even the past—seemed to disappear....

  The telephone rang just as the microwave buzzer went off. Conner grabbed the receiver to keep the noise from waking Delaney, then pressed it to his ear as he retrieved his plate. Who the heck would be calling at nearly one o’clock in the morning? he wondered.

  “Hello?”

  “Conner?”

  “Rebecca?”

  “Yeah, it’s me. Thank God you’re home. When did you get back?”

  “Just a few minutes ago. Why?”

  “You don’t normally come home so late.”

  “I went up on the mountain to look for a few calves that were missing. I didn’t think it would be difficult to find them, but one had fallen down a gorge and it took me quite a while to get it out.”

  “Delaney left five messages on my answering machine while I was out tonight. She was afraid something had happened to you.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “That’s good. Tell her I’ll call her in the morning, then.”

  “Just a minute,” he said, carrying the phone as he hurried along the hall. If Delaney had been upset, had she calmed down enough to sleep? Because she certainly wasn’t up and around.

  The door to their bedroom stood slightly ajar. Conner pushed it open the rest of the way, hoping he’d find his wife safely asleep. But he didn’t even need to turn on the light to know Delaney wasn’t there. The same full moon that had been his salvation out on the range illuminated a bed still perfectly made.

  “She’s not here,” he told Rebecca. “Where could she be?”

  “What do you mean she’s not there? Every message said to call her at the ranch.”

  Conner kept the phone to his ear but ignored everything Rebecca said as he jogged through the house, calling Delaney’s name. He’d thought there might be a chance she’d become frustrated with his tardiness and gone to sleep in her old room or on a couch. But only darkness and silence greeted him.

  “Where would she go if she was angry with me? Would she go back to Aunt Millie’s?” he asked, but something niggled, telling him he was missing an important detail. Had all the horses been in the barn when he’d put Trigger away? He’d been so tired he hadn’t even noticed. Someone, probably Roy, had already put some hay out for Trigger, and he’d simply removed the saddle and bridle and turned the horse into his stall before flipping off the light and heading wearily to the house.

  “I don’t think she was angry with you,” Rebecca was saying. “She was worried. I’m angry with you, but that’s a different story.”

  Conner didn’t know what Rebecca was talking about, and right now, he didn’t care. “Delaney?” he called again, but every room he checked was empty. He hurried to the front door to see if all the cars were still in the drive, and they were.

  Just as he turned around to go and check the barn, he found a yellow piece of crumpled paper lying on the floor. Picking it up, he ironed it out to see his wife’s handwriting. Roy, I couldn’t wait. I went after him myself. Don’t worry. I’m a good rider, and I’ll be back as soon as possible. Laney.

  I went after him? Oh God! That meant at least one horse had been gone when he’d put Trigger away. His pregnant wife was out in the mountains in the middle of the night by herself. What if her horse tripped and went down? What if the animal spooked and threw her? What if she lost control? She hadn’t ridden since she’d come to the ranch. She didn’t know these horses.

  “I think I know where she is,” he said to Rebecca. “I gotta go.”

  “Wait! Should I come out there?”

  “No, stay put. I’ll call you as soon as I find her,” he said and hung up.

  He ran to the barn and checked the stalls. Two horses were gone.

  So Roy was out there, too. Maybe he’d already found her.

  THE CIRCLE OF CONNER’S FLASHLIGHT bounced as he urged his horse into a full gallop and headed for the south pass. The moon bathed the open range in mercurial silver, but the evergreen trees towering around him on this hilly section of the Running Y blocked all but the most meager natural light. Cicadas chirped a constant, rhythmic chorus, and small animals, alarmed by the beating of his horse’s hooves, scurried away in the underbrush. But Conner’s attention was on scanning the landscape on either side of him for his pregnant wife. Delaney was out in the dark alone. He had to find her before something happened.

  Problem was, he couldn’t be sure he was even looking in the right places. Delaney didn’t know the ranch. Not like he did. She wouldn’t have known where to search for him, which meant he didn’t know where to search for her. With so many miles of raw land surrounding them, she could be anywhere.

  And she could be hurt....

  Conner felt sick at the thought. What if she lost the baby?

  Would she give up on him? Leave him?

  Just last night when he made love to her, he should’ve told her how much she’d come to mean to him. He should have gambled it all when he had the chance. But he hadn’t. He’d kept the most private part of himself from her, and now it might be too late....

  “I’ll have another chance,” he muttered, hoping the sound of his words would convince him. But he couldn’t help imagining the worst, couldn’t help wondering what he would do if he lost her for good. Suddenly, all his efforts to keep her at an emotional distance seemed foolish. He couldn’t stop himself from caring because he already did. He loved her. He loved her more than anything.

  “Delaney?” he yelled, his words whipped away by the wind. He’d been riding for almost an hour and wasn’t far now from the south pass, where he’d been looking for those calves—but he didn’t know if she was aware of that. And he heard no response. “Delaney?”

  He came to the campsites he and Roy had organized, and found a couple of men sleeping in a tent.

  “Hey, wake up,” he called, not caring who they were or whether he dragged them out of the depths of sleep.

  A tall unshaven man fina
lly stumbled to the tent door, dragging a rifle and squinting at his light. “Who is it? What do you want?”

  “It’s Conner Armstrong. I own this land, and I’m looking for a woman. Have you seen anyone tonight? Heard anything?”

  “Haven’t seen a woman, but a fella came by ’bout half an hour ago, wanting to know the same thing.”

  Roy. They were on the same track. Conner used his flashlight to scan the surrounding area, just in case. A creek ran alongside the campsite, gurgling over moss-covered rocks, but everything else remained silent and still.

  “Thanks,” he said, and started following the creek upstream. But he wasn’t so sure he should be heading upstream. Maybe he should go downstream instead. Or to the north or east side of the ranch...

  Delaney. He could search all night and never find her.

  Did she need him? Was she okay?

  He rode for another two hours without seeing anything other than a few deer, so exhausted he could hardly remain in his saddle. He was about to head back to the house to see if Roy had found her and planned to gather a search party if not, when someone finally answered his call.

  “Delaney?” he cried again, adrenaline chasing away his fatigue.

  Nothing. “Delaney?”

  Finally he heard his name. Kicking his horse into a trot, he followed the sound. It led him farther up the mountain, where the forest grew denser and rocks, foliage, fallen limbs and rotting logs made progress difficult. He recognized the voice that answered him. But it wasn’t Delaney. It was Roy, and it wasn’t difficult to tell that something was terribly wrong.

  CONNER’S CHEST constricted until he could scarcely breathe when he saw his wife lying on the ground. Roy was kneeling over her, but he got to his feet when he heard Conner’s horse burst through the trees.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Conner demanded, his voice sounding oddly strangled to his own ears.

  “She’s having cramps,” Roy told him. “Probably from all the riding. Or maybe she’s just too tired or cold or...I don’t know.” He shrugged helplessly.

  “Dammit!” Conner cried. “What did she think she was doing coming all the way out here?” Pulling on Trigger’s reins, he jumped down before the horse had even stopped moving. “She could’ve died. She could’ve lost the baby.”

  Conner knew she could still lose the baby, but he wasn’t willing to face that.

  “Conner?” Delaney’s eyelids fluttered open when he bent and touched her cheek. “Conner, are you okay?”

  God, she was worried about him? “I’m okay, babe,” he said gently. “Tell me what’s going on with these cramps.” She rubbed the lower part of her abdomen. “It’s probably nothing. Anyway, they’re getting better,” she said, but her smile faltered when their eyes met, telling him she was being more optimistic than the situation warranted. “We’ve got to get her out of here,” he told Roy. “Go get the wagon and bring it as far as you can. I’ll get her out of the trees and meet you by the road that leads to the campsites.”

  His foreman quickly mounted his own horse and trotted off without a word.

  “And hurry,” Conner called after him.

  “I thought maybe you’d been hurt,” Delaney said when the beating of Roy’s horse’s hooves died out. “I couldn’t stand waiting—”

  He pressed a quick kiss to her temple. “Shh, it’s okay. I was only saving a stranded calf. I’m fine, and you’re going to be fine real soon.”

  Please make it true, he prayed, wishing Roy Godspeed. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing Delaney or their baby. He wanted to get her to a doctor as soon as possible. “I didn’t mean for anything like this to happen,” she said, trying to get up.

  Conner pressed her back down. “Just rest.”

  She relaxed but clung to his arm. “I’m an excellent rider. The horse wasn’t the problem. It was just that the baby didn’t like the rough ride and I...I couldn’t turn back without you.”

  “You should never have come,” he said. He knew his words sounded too gruff, but he couldn’t staunch the deep emotion that turned them so harsh.

  She glanced away from him. “I’m sorry for all the trouble.”

  She’d just risked the child she wanted more than anything in the world—for him—and she didn’t know he loved her. She didn’t know because he’d never told her. Maybe he hadn’t even realized how much a part of him she’d become until this moment. “Laney, it’s not the trouble you’ve caused that upsets me,” he said. “You could have destroyed my whole world tonight, you know that?”

  Confusion flickered on her face. “But you’ve never been happy about the baby. You’ve never wanted it—or me. Not really. I hate that I trapped you into all of this. I was crazy to think you’d eventually love me—”

  “Laney, don’t talk like that.”

  “It’s true. You’ve never said anything more meaningful to me than, ‘You’re beautiful,’ or ‘I love to touch you,’ or ‘You make me crazy.’ You—”

  “I’m saying it now,” he said, feeling more vulnerable than ever before in his life. He was frightened of his own revelation, frightened that he could love someone so much, frightened that she’d now realize how much power she held over him.

  But somehow he didn’t matter as much to him as she did. “I love you, Laney. I was stupid not to tell you before.” He kissed her forehead, her cheeks, each eyelid. “Nothing means more to me than you do.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “Does that mean you forgive me?”

  “For what? For coming out here?”

  “For Boise.”

  “Are you kidding? There’s nothing to forgive. You’ve made me the happiest man on earth.”

  She shook her head. “No, I don’t deserve your love, Conner, not after what I did.”

  “I don’t deserve you, either, Laney,” he said. “And that’s the truth. But we’re together, and we’re going to stay together, okay?” He smiled down at her. “I’m just glad,” he whispered, “that mercy is as much a part of the world as justice.”

  “YOU’RE WHERE?” Rebecca asked.

  Delaney propped up the phone and snuggled closer to Conner, even though it was nearly three o’clock in the afternoon.

  “In bed,” she said.

  “With your workaholic husband?”

  “Last I checked, it wasn’t the telephone man.”

  “How are you feeling? Has the cramping gone away?” Conner had called Rebecca last night when they’d finally reached the ranch to tell her Dr. Hatcher was meeting them at his office, and she’d shown up there, too.

  “Yeah, the muscle relaxants he gave me are doing the job. The baby and I are going to be fine.”

  “You’re sure?”

  Delaney had donned Conner’s T-shirt a few minutes earlier to go to the kitchen and bring them both some orange juice, but his hand had already found its way beneath the fabric to caress her belly. “Better than I’ve ever been.”

  “You sound good. Now you know why I’m mad at Buddy for postponing our wedding.”

  “Is it still going to happen in August?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then, it’ll happen soon enough. Sure you don’t want to wait until after the baby’s born?”

  “I’ll come back.”

  “Okay.”

  “Delaney?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You can tell Conner I’m not mad at him anymore.”

  “I’ll pass on the good news,” Delaney said. Then Conner kissed her, and she couldn’t remember later if she’d even said goodbye before she hung up the phone.

  CONNER HAD A DIFFICULT TIME keeping his attention on his dinner. “Say it now,” he said, nudging Isaiah under the table with his knee.

  Isaiah looked up at Delaney, who was busy frosting the cake she’d made them for dessert. “Laney, did you remember to feed the bunny today?”

  “The what?” she said, sounding preoccupied. “The bunny.”

  She stopped with the frosting. “What bunny?”

&nbs
p; “Haven’t you seen it?”

  Delaney frowned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “It’s back here.” Isaiah jerked his head toward the door. “Come see.”

  Delaney sent Conner a curious glance, but he shrugged as though he didn’t know what was going on, and Dottie and the others did the same.

  “What’s this all about?” she asked. Her face showing a trace of suspicion, she followed Isaiah into the backyard, and Conner slipped out behind her so he wouldn’t miss her reaction.

  “Oh, my gosh!” she said at her first sight of the fluffy white bunny nibbling a carrot inside the cage that now stood next to the chicken coop. “This is the cutest bunny I’ve ever seen.”

  “It’s for you,” Isaiah said. “It’s a late wedding present.”

  Roy, Grady, Ben and Dottie crowded behind Conner on the back stoop as they all watched Delaney unlatch the door, scoop the little bunny into her hands and rub its soft fur against her cheek. “Isaiah, it’s just what I wanted. How did you know?”

  He grinned. “I didn’t. It’s from Conner. He wouldn’t even let me help him build the cage.”

  Delaney turned and gave Conner a brilliant smile, and he felt his heart melt. She did that to him, unexpectedly. Sometimes he’d look at her, and his spirit would just soar. She was so beautiful, so pregnant, so...his.

  “I love you, Conner Armstrong,” she said, loudly enough for everyone to hear.

  Conner crossed the lawn, put an arm around her and, even with Grady, Ben, Isaiah, Dottie and Roy looking on, lifted her chin with one finger. “I love you, too,” he said, and gave her a kiss.

  “Now beat it,” he growled to the others, who had started to clap.

  Epilogue

  CONNER SAT ON HIS HORSE, partway up the mountain, and watched the tractors in the valley below start to grade and level the dirt where the lodge would soon stand. He could hardly believe it was happening. The ground-breaking was a little later than he’d scheduled—he’d run into problems with the engineering of the golf course—but construction was now under way, and if everything went according to plan, they’d have their grand opening in May of the following year.