by Carol Devine
She had to give enormous ground in the negotiation to make it a pre-requisite. But what Shane wanted most, aside from the church, was fun at the reception, and since he had the corner on fun, she'd let him have his way with pretty much everything. There were benefits to being a slave to his desires.
Next to Shane was Bird. He'd shaved, his hair was combed and he'd found a decent navy blue suit to wear. He looked like a baseball had hit him right between the eyes, not drunk but definitely in a faraway place. It came from another time, a different church with a different woman.
A woman named Mariah.
Mariah wanted to believe it might be true, anyway. Her mother was here in this sunlit place, within the two minds who knew her best and loved her most, and the bit of sweetness Bird showed in being sober for this day meant a lot.
But Mariah's purest gratitude belonged to Shane. That he stood there, poised and calm, that he squeezed her hand when she reached him, that he nodded at Jose Garcia to give her away and waited until she handed her bouquet of lilies to Ana; these were things he knew how to do with special, masculine grace.
And when he finally took both her hands together and smiled down at her, she felt the world fall away. It became only the two of them like it always did, naked eyes and faces, speaking words their bodies could not. Not at this particular moment at least.
She didn't remember much of it, time sped by so fast. Shane kept his notes hidden up his sleeve, eschewing the vows he had slaved over and refused to share. But instinct told her that he was speaking from his heart, off the cuff like he did every day, only more nonsensically and earnestly than usual.
She could match him in that department. When it came to the vows she'd written and memorized, she started by saying how much she loved his blue boxer shorts and red wool socks, which got a laugh out of the audience.
She also mentioned why she wanted to marry him under the bright blue sky, because it was the color his eyes were when he asked her to marry him. She quoted something about being lost and then found by a man who made her heart sing, which was goofy enough to make Shane grin. Then she was done.
The minister said words that they echoed, the same words couples throughout the world promised.
"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness this man and this woman come together in Holy Matrimony. From this day forward, we promise to have and to hold, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, honor and cherish for the rest of our lives and after, forever and ever, Amen."
Shane needed her to say the traditional vows more than she needed to hear him say his. He already cherished and honored her and she felt it deep in her bones. She didn't need it confirmed in front of a hundred guests. But if he needed her to speak what was tried-and-true, so be it. At this point, she'd do pretty much anything to make him feel like they were well and truly married.
During the reception, she couldn't dance every dance with him, much as she wanted to. Not six and a half months pregnant, loaded with twenty pounds of baby, while wearing heeled white cowboy boots.
But he got her up for the line dance. By then, he'd discarded the required tuxedo accouterments. What was left was a starched white shirt, sleeves rolled to the elbows, black pants and new black cowboy boots. She was sure they hid a pair of new red wool socks.
He was a marvelous dancer. Athletic and confident, he whipped partners around the dance floor, young and old, when Mariah had to rest and sit down.
With her he was gentler, making their moves like a choreographed ballet, easy to follow. She had the wicked thought more than once as he whirled her around, that she was going to have to order her love slave to dance for her naked sometime. Sometime soon.
They were taken away on their honeymoon by an open carriage drawn by four matching horses. The journey was longer than she had anticipated, for Shane had planned the honeymoon, too, and she had absolutely no idea what to expect.
Due to the demands of both their jobs, it had to be relatively brief, and Mariah was pretty confident that Shane couldn't get too over the top if confined to a time period of six days and five nights.
But she still had some things to learn about her husband. When fed a diet heavy on sexual fantasy, he could be inspired to demonstrate that he had quite the romantic imagination.
He'd rented a place on the water, on a pond fed by a good-sized creek. He had her fishing gear there, and two more of his horses, too, the two they usually rode when they followed local trails.
However, in these six days, they didn't follow any trails. They sat on the horses bareback while the animals tore at the grassy land.
Sometimes they talked or more often listened to the sounds bubbling from the creek or bursting from the birds that chattered from the trees. Sometimes they made love in the shade or kissed, only kissed, when Mariah was in charge and made all the rules.
It was decadent to lie on grass with him at night, comfortable on a patchwork quilt. She followed his hand as he traced the velvet black, identifying constellations all over the star-pricked sky. Later, she discovered he'd made a lot up, turning Orion into a cowboy looking for a long lost love, or the Gemini Twins into an example of how inspiring the look of a woman's breasts must have been to the eyes of ancient astronomers.
She loved when he talked nonsense, loved it to her core. It made her feel like a girl again, lying on her own quilt under the cottonwood tree next to the camper, watching the clouds skim by, forming animals and her mother's face and angels with wings.
She couldn't bring herself to confess such childish secrets to him, not yet, but she relived the buoyant feeling and the dreams she once dreamed. She remembered that in most biblical stories, God made such dreams come true.
Their time together ended as it began, with a short ceremony next to the creek. On this occasion, he wore blue jeans rather than a tux, and one of his favorite plaid shirts. She decided to wear much the same, including her regular, everyday cowboy boots.
His boots were gray today, like his new hat. A plain felt cowboy hat, steamed and shaped to his size, made different by a braided hatband that distinguished it from all the other cowboy hats in the world.
She kept thinking his hat was like the man himself, different than every other, chock full of beliefs and plans and wisdom she didn't even know about yet.
Because it was his idea, he repeated the vows they'd made in church, the vows that came from tradition, long spoken hundreds of years in the past. Sharing clasped hands, they faced each other.
Speaking the old-fashioned phrases, ones she'd heard in different stages throughout her life, still felt hollow to her, like a canned speech. But since they were memorized, and said recently, Mariah smiled at Shane as they said them together.
"Dearly beloved, we have gathered here together to witness this man and this woman come together in Holy Matrimony. From this day forward, we promise to have and to hold, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, honor and cherish for the rest of our lives and after, forever and ever. Amen."
CHAPTER Four
Mariah handed Shane her nine page, single-spaced birth plan, then lowered herself onto the sofa, palm on her 32 weeks of pregnant belly.
"I want to hire both a doula and a midwife in case we need someone to run interference with the doctor and obstetrical staff."
Shane riffled through the birth plan. How did one baby's birth get this complicated? "I thought you liked the doctor because she favors natural childbirth."
"She does. But like any obstetrician, she has other patients. She doesn't come to the hospital until the late stages, when the baby is about to be born. I need to have more advocates early on."
"Why can't I do that?"
"You're my husband, my cheerleader and the man I will blame when I can't stand to be in labor anymore."
"Seriously, Mariah. Having extra people around seems like it'll be too much. I don't want to have an audience."
"Most new moms ha
ve their mothers to help them. I want to have the right people in place to give us the full range of advice needed to make the right decisions, just in case."
Shane consulted the plan, forehead furrowed. "From the looks of this, I'm sperm donor on standby."
"Without you, there would be no baby, I'd be husbandless and terribly bored."
Shane gave her a skeptical glance.
"Listen, I know I'm going overboard. If I was certain it'd be safe, I'd have this baby in a field with only you there."
"There has to be a happy medium."
"You're right. There's a possibility we will get conflicting advice. If there is an emergency, I need you to help me understand what's going on and where we are in the process."
Nodding, he carefully folded the plan. "You've got this down to a science, a manifesto of everything you want and everything you don't want. If it lessens your worries, have at it. I'll memorize it and keep it in my pocket. This process is supposed to keep you from worrying. That's what I'm here for, too."
Relieved, she laid her head on his shoulder. Shane was a master at keeping an open mind, something she aspired to herself. "We're in this together."
"Yes," he said. "Absolutely."
* * * * *
"Great to have you here, Shane."
Shane alighted from his truck and shook his older friend's hand. "Thanks for having us, Dan."
Dan Wainwright was a Silicon Valley billionaire turned gentleman rancher, with a love for horses and the ski slopes around Aspen, and the lifestyle that went along with it, including the expansive views and rolling aspects of the frontier west. His giant log home was nestled on 50 acres of the most expensive and sought-after real estate in the western United States, mere minutes from the outskirts of town.
Shane helped Mariah negotiate the steps from the passenger side of his pickup. "I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking Mariah and I in for the next six weeks or so."
Dan welcomed Mariah with open arms. "Heard a lot about you, Mrs. Youngblood."
"All good, I'm sure. It's Mariah, by the way. Shane has told me how much you helped him get established when he first started out."
"We go back a ways. But it's been a privilege to watch him succeed well beyond his rodeo days. And he's done plenty to help me train some champion horses of my own. Will you be commuting to your office while you're here?"
"I won't have to. I have three people who work for me, the latest being a retired FBI colleague who is manning a satellite office in Denver. I'll keep my hand in after the baby's born but only to oversee the caseload. I won't be going back to work anytime soon."
"Glad you were involved in breaking open the Ponzi scheme headed by Kevin Douglas. Loads of people in my tax bracket thought he was a wunderkind and tried to suck me in, too."
"All I did was encourage the whistle-blower to come forward. She was worried about being implicated herself. Immunity for investment schemes isn't always a given, even for witnesses. But once the U.S. attorney's office knew the amount of dollars involved and the size of the investors' pool, negotiating a deal became possible. She's the one who deserves credit for breaking the case. People that courageous need to be applauded."
"Do you expect him to go to prison?"
"Yes. The additional charges of securities fraud by the SEC guarantees it. The evidence is overwhelming. He victimized a lot of people, wiped out entire life savings for some. I'm glad you weren't one of them."
Dan slanted Shane a significant glance. "Just so you know, Douglas's daughter boards three horses here. She's a neighbor. Felicity acts like it hasn't affected her, but she is a trust fund baby. I noticed one of her horses is for sale. Might be hurting for money."
Shane turned to Mariah. "That was a tough case. Do you think it'll be a problem?"
Mariah shook her head. "He kept his immediate family in the dark about his activities. Besides, I don't see why she'd even know I'm here. I'm too far along to be riding."
"Thanks, Dan. We'll keep an eye out in case she says something," Shane said, cutting the conversation short. He hoped Mariah didn't notice. He offered an elbow. She tucked her hand in, easy as you please.
"What's going on with your stable, Dan?" he asked.
"When you take a look at my ladies and gents, you tell me. They keep me on my toes."
"If you let me take my pick, I'll make you a sweet deal," Shane said, only half-kidding. He'd trained some great horses over the years. Dan owned a good dozen of them.
"Felicity has a broodmare for sale. Might want to check her out. She's only been bred once because of the number of competitions she's entered in the past two years. But she's placed consistently high and her colt turned into a good hunter prospect that was bought by one of the Olympic riders. She's priced to sell, too."
"I'll take a look later. Right now, we'd like get settled in, let Mariah put up her feet."
Dan directed them through the grand entrance of his house. "My staff will take care of your luggage. I expect you'll want to oversee the unloading of your horses yourself."
"In a few minutes."
"My housekeeper will show you the way. Feel free to look around if you wish. We serve dinner fairly early, at seven, but if you'd rather dine in your own rooms, let my housekeeper or chef know and it will be arranged."
Mariah raised her eyebrows in something akin to awe. She graciously answered for them both. "It may not happen every night, but we'd enjoy joining you and your family for dinner."
"You'll be staying in our Triple Crown Suite. It's got a bathroom the size of… well, you'll see for yourself."
Ten minutes later, Shane and Mariah were surveying a bathroom the size of the upper level of their home in Grizzly Springs. Not only did it have twin room-sized showers and separate spaces for spa whirlpool bathtubs, there were also side by side massage tables, two toilet closets with bidets, twin walk-in closets complete with washer and dryers, heated floors throughout, warming drawers for towels, an under-counter refrigerator, coffee maker, cocktail bar and ice maker, and flat-screened TV's that rose from the bath surrounds at the touch of a button.
Shane stood next to a bathtub, marveling. "Must take a helluva water heater to fill these babies. We can go swimming."
Mariah tested one of the taps. "Experts say warm baths can help with labor."
"Don't tell me our baby will be born underwater. I don't care what the experts say."
"The lungs of newborns are filled with amniotic fluid. They're accustomed to a liquid environment. Being born in the bath is supposed to smooth the transition between the warm cocoon of the womb and the dryness of real life."
"It made sense when I read it in the book. With the time getting closer, it hardly makes sense now. I'm telling you, this tub could be a pool for rehabbing horses. What did we get ourselves into here? We might get spoiled to the point where we won't want to leave."
Mariah linked arms with him. "I love our house. It's your house really, since you're the one who bought it and made it into a home. You have good taste for a cowboy."
"That's kind of a left-handed compliment. My mom helped me decorate the house."
"Don't tell her I said anything. Daughter-in-laws need to stay on their mother-in-laws good side. But I like the coziness of our place. On the other hand, this place feels surreal. No offense to the Wainwrights, but can you imagine raising children here?"
"I can imagine making children here."
She wagged her finger at him. "You and your legendary appetites. They are out of control."
"I was hoping you'd want to take advantage. But I have two colts to unload and they still need some practice at it, so it may take awhile to get them settled in. What do you say we meet in one of these bathtubs after dinner? I'll bring the bubbles and you can bring the… what? My imagination is failing me."
She rubbed her rounded stomach. "You can play with this. The biggest bubble of all."
"Nope," he said, rubbing, too. "It's the cutest and prettiest."
"Don't make me say 'thank you,' A compliment must have some grounding in truth, otherwise, I can't bring myself to believe it, even if it is coming from you.."
"Say it and get it over with."
"Slave driver," she murmured against his ear.
He kissed her cheek, lingering there. "Yep, that's me. Say it."
She laid her hand alongside his face. "Thank you, Shane."
"You're welcome. I'm off to work. Do we have a date?"
"Yes. However, there better be a huge number of tiny bubbles in the bathtub because as far as I'm concerned, full coverage is needed."
"Your body is perfect."
"To me, it like a hot-air balloon, except upside-down."
"Mariah, when will you see yourself the way I do?"
"Maybe if we live long enough." She wrinkled her nose at him. "Can't make promises, though."
"You already promised. Remember our wedding vows?"
"Forever and ever, amen? Is that what you're referring to?"
"After checking this place out, richer or poorer is what I was thinking. But I can live with forever."
"When we get to forever, I'll be the epitome of perfection. I'll even admit it."
"And I'll know when to keep my mouth shut."
"I happen to like your mouth. It's extremely versatile."
She twined her arms around his neck, revealing her dazzler of a smile.
"Imagine the two of us, line dancing around heaven together," she said. "What a pair we will be."
* * * * *
Shane brought the bay gelding to a sliding stop, its front hooves landing in the soft earth of the arena precisely, mere inches from its owner's snakeskin, gold-tipped boots. Dan Wainwright's face creased with delight.
"I can't get over how quickly you were able to bring him to the next level."
Shane dismounted and handed over the reins. "He's a handsome, well-turned out seven-year-old with the basics already ingrained. Fine tuning a few things is what he needed."