McKettrick's Pride

by Linda Lael Miller

  Echo’s heart fluttered, and she tugged at his collar. Kissed the cleft in his strong McKettrick chin. “Way too soon,” she said.

  “I love you,” he told her.

  She sat bolt upright, stunned.

  “I know, I know,” Rance said, before she could get a word out. “It’s too soon for that, too. But I’m in love with you, just the same.”

  “Rance,” she said reasonably, “you’re just overwrought. So much has happened and—”

  He laid a finger against her lips. “No,” he said. “It isn’t what happened down there by the creek, or the puppies being born, or any of that. I love you, woman.”

  Echo’s heart picked up speed, hammered at the base of her throat. “Are you trying to seduce me?” she asked.

  He grinned, and the flash rivaled the lightning bolts still ripping the dark sky over their heads. “I wasn’t, but that’s not such a bad idea, either.”

  “Rance McKettrick, your children are in this house.”

  “They’re asleep. Zonked. Out like lights.”

  “Still,” Echo said, ashamed of how much she wanted to lie in Rance’s bed while the storm raged, and give herself up to his lovemaking.

  He put his hands on either side of her face. “Do you love me?” he asked.

  She swallowed hard. “Of course I do,” she said.

  “You do?”

  “Yes.”

  “When did you know?”

  “When I saw you coming down over that bank a little while ago. I thought to myself, ‘Everything’s going to be all right now, because Rance is here.’”

  He smiled, shifted beneath her, gave her a nibbling kiss on the mouth. “If you’re planning to hold out until we’re married,” he told her, “it’s going to seem like a really lo-o-ong engagement.”

  Her eyes widened. “Married?”

  “When I love a woman,” Rance said, still grinning, “I like to marry her.”

  “Just how many women have you loved?”

  “Two.”

  “You want to get married—now?”

  “Well, that depends on whether or not you’re willing to sleep with me in the meantime.”

  She punched him in the chest, but not very hard. That was when she realized that he was still wearing wet clothes. He’d been so busy looking after Maeve, Rianna and her—not to mention Snowball—that he hadn’t gotten around to changing.

  “You’re going to catch your death,” she said.

  “I guess I could use a hot shower.” He paused, wriggled his eyebrows. “In the bathroom by the pool. Long way from the girls’ rooms. Long, long way.”

  “Are you suggesting…?”

  “That you join me? Yeah. That’s what I’m suggesting. Among other things.”

  Echo squirmed. Except for a breath of air, when she’d been struggling to get hold of Rianna in the creek and the water kept splashing her face, she’d never wanted anything so much as she wanted to get into a shower with Rance.

  He slipped a hand inside the bathrobe, cupped her breast. Chafed the nipple with the side of his thumb.

  “Jesse and Keegan will probably be back any minute,” Echo fretted, with a little shiver.

  “They’ll figure it out.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” Echo said.

  Rance laughed. And then he stood, lifting Echo with him as he rose.

  Ten minutes later, making love with Rance under a blessedly hot spray of water, Echo stepped into her real name.

  Stepped into her real self.

  And it was a strange and wonderful place to be.

  *

  SATURDAY MORNING, ECHO awakened to the mewling of puppies.

  Smiling, she got up, stretched and bent over the airbed to watch as Snowball nursed her babies.

  “I’m thirty,” she told the dogs.

  Snowball eyed her with the usual adoration.

  Echo patted the dog’s head, caressed each of the puppies in turn and went to the sink to wash her hands and get the morning coffee started. She stood at the front window while she waited for it to brew.

  The streets were quiet, and as Echo looked out over the town, she speculated that everybody must be sleeping in that day, resting up for tonight’s dance.

  The telephone rang, and she hurried to answer it. If it was a last-minute order for a love-spell, she’d provide one, but it would be a gift. She’d already closed down the Web site, and when the last of her supplies were gone, that was it.

  She was out of the spell-casting business. It seemed there was magic under way in Indian Rock, but she didn’t want to be responsible for so many hearts. She had enough trouble managing her own.

  “Echo’s Books and Gifts,” she said, even though she was upstairs and still in her pajamas. It was just easier that way. “May I help you?”

  Rance’s low chuckle rumbled in her ear. “I hope so,” he said. “It’s been a couple of days.”

  She blushed and laughed at the same time. After she and Rance had made love in the shower, they’d gone to bed and made love again.

  In the morning, they’d tried to pretend it was normal for Echo to be in the ranch kitchen making pancakes and still clad in Rance’s bathrobe, and while Rianna had seemed to buy the story, Maeve was thoughtful.

  Rance and Echo had agreed to give the dust a few days to settle.

  “Still in love with me?” Rance asked now.

  “Ridiculously,” Echo answered. “How about you?”

  “Ready to buy a ring and round up a preacher,” Rance said. “I’m taking you to breakfast, so get dressed. Maeve and Rianna are going to Cora’s to spend the whole day getting ready for the dance.”

  “I’m supposed to open the shop in less than—”

  “It can wait,” Rance said. “Can’t it?”

  She smiled. “I guess so.”

  “Good.”

  They said their goodbyes, and Echo hurried to shower and get dressed. After fortifying herself with fresh coffee, she went downstairs to see if there were any customers waiting on the sidewalk.

  Ayanna was just letting herself in.

  “I’m going out to breakfast with Rance,” Echo said. “Can you hold down the fort for an hour or so?”

  Ayanna smiled. “Sure,” she replied. “How’s the new mama?”

  Snowball and her puppies had made the front page of the Indian Rock Gazette a few days before, with a full account of Rianna’s rescue in the article beneath, and they’d been holding court ever since. Echo usually moved the airbed downstairs every morning, then carefully carried the puppies down, too, one by one. Snowball, of course, followed. Today, they’d been resting so comfortably that she hadn’t wanted to disturb them.

  “She’s bouncing back,” Echo said.

  “How about you?” Ayanna asked. “Are you bouncing back?” She was referring, of course, to Echo’s plunge into the water to get Rianna.

  “Couldn’t be better,” she said, but before the words were out of her mouth, a giant RV pulled up in front of the shop.

  She knew, even before the door opened on the passenger side and an older, balding man climbed down, that the Ademoyes had finally arrived to reclaim their lost dog.

  Tears sprang to Echo’s eyes.

  “Echo?” Ayanna said, giving her a concerned look before glancing back to see the RV.

  The man hurried toward the front door of the shop, beaming with anticipation. Echo stood rooted to the floor, wondering how a person could be happy at the same time as their heart was breaking.

  Herb was on the threshold when Marge appeared, a plump, middle-aged woman in pastel pedal-pushers, espadrilles and a ruffled blouse. Her smile was even broader than Herb’s.

  “Is she here?” Marge asked breathlessly when they were both inside.

  Upstairs, Snowball gave an uncertain woof.

  “Snowball!” Herb whooped.

  The dog barked joyously and shot down the stairs and across the shop.

  Herb and Marge, on their knees a few feet inside the
open door, enfolded Snowball in their arms, while she wriggled and lapped at their faces, making a soft, happy whining sound.

  Behind them, Rance stepped in. His gaze went straight to Echo’s face.

  She nodded, because she couldn’t speak. She surely looked like a crazy woman, she thought, smiling while tears wet her cheeks.

  “You must be Echo,” Herb said, when he’d recovered enough to notice her. Marge was still on the floor, her face buried in Snowball’s neck, weeping with relief.

  Echo nodded, swallowed. Put out her hand.

  “We can’t thank you enough,” Herb told her.

  “It was a pleasure,” Echo said, and she meant it. Snowball had come along when Echo needed a friend, and they’d made a journey together that had little to do with the miles they’d covered getting from Tucson to Indian Rock. As reluctant as she was to part with the dog, she knew the time had come, and that it was right.

  Rance cleared his throat. “Did you tell them about the puppies?”

  Marge, swabbing at her face with a handkerchief, brightened.

  Herb’s smile widened.

  “Puppies?” the two of them chorused.

  “Four of them,” Echo confirmed. “All healthy and beautiful.”

  Snowball, as if on cue, started for the stairs. Paused and looked back at Marge and Herb.

  “It’s all right,” Echo told them. “Go ahead. Snowball wants to show you her babies.”

  Herb and Marge followed Snowball upstairs.

  “I wish I’d made the bed,” Echo lamented.

  Rance crossed the room, took her in his arms and propped his chin on top of her head.

  “I think I’ll go out and buy a newspaper,” Ayanna announced, even though one had already been delivered, and vanished.

  “You okay?” Rance asked Echo.

  “Yes,” she said, burying her face in his shoulder. “And no.”

  Presently, the Ademoyes came back down from upstairs, into the shop, each carrying two tiny white puppies. Snowball was at their heels.

  “You’ll need the airbed,” Echo said. “Snowball loves the airbed.”

  Tears filled Marge’s eyes. “I’d give you one of these puppies,” she said, “but they’re too little to be away from Snowball.”

  Rance went upstairs to get the airbed.

  “I know,” Echo said, stroking one warm little ball of fur, then another.

  “We’ll come through next spring,” Herb said, his voice hoarse all of the sudden. “We’ll bring you a pup then, if you want one.”

  “I want one,” Echo replied.

  Snowball went to the door, turned and came back. Looked up at Echo with what she would have sworn was a smile.

  Echo sat on her heels, ran her hands lightly over Snowball’s ears. “Goodbye, sweet dog,” she said. “Thank you for everything.”

  Snowball licked her face, gave a yearning little whimper.

  “You have to go now, huh?”

  Snowball whimpered again. Went back to the door.

  Echo stood.

  Rance returned with the airbed, went outside with Herb to put it in the back of the RV. Snowball followed eagerly and didn’t once look back.

  Marge lingered, still cradling two of the puppies in her arms. “I know it’s hard,” she said.

  Echo nodded.

  “We’d be glad to pay you a reward of some kind.”

  “One puppy,” Echo said. “Come spring.”

  “Come spring,” Marge agreed. Then she crossed to Echo and gave her a motherly kiss on the cheek. “We’ve got two daughters, Herb and I,” she said. “They’ll each want one of the puppies. We’ll keep one for ourselves and Snowball, and bring one to you. I promise you that.”

  “Thank you,” Echo told her.

  She followed Marge outside. Watched as the other woman handed the puppies through the open door at the side of the RV. Rance came out, stood on the sidewalk with Echo, one arm around her shoulders.

  The Ademoyes drove away.

  Echo trembled.

  Rance gave Echo a light squeeze.

  Echo lifted her hand and waved.

  Marge honked the horn in farewell.

  And then the big RV rounded the corner and disappeared.

  “Still want breakfast?” Rance asked quietly, after a long time had passed.

  People going by in cars glanced curiously their way.

  “Yes,” Echo said with a sniffle, because life went on. Because Snowball was back with her people, where she belonged, and because, despite it all, she was ravenously hungry.

  After they’d eaten pancake specials at the Roadhouse, Rance drove Echo back to the shop and returned to the ranch. Both of them had work to do, after all.

  The store was busy that day, which helped, but there was a hollow place in Echo’s heart, just the same.

  At six o’clock, just as she was about to close and force herself upstairs to dress for the dance, Rance’s SUV whipped up to the curb out front.

  Maeve and Rianna spilled out, wearing their pretty new dresses.

  Cora came over from next door, along with Ayanna, who had told Echo she was going home to get ready for her date with Virgil Terp.

  Echo smiled.

  “Happy birthday to you!” Rianna crowed, flying into her arms for a hug.

  Echo embraced the child, looked up again.

  And there was Rance, standing in the doorway, with a sizable white box in one arm and a small, squirming dog in the other.

  Echo gasped and put a hand to her mouth.

  “He’s an ugly little critter,” Rance said, of the dog, who was gray and short-haired, a mixed breed of some kind, and sporting a red neckerchief for the occasion. “But the folks at the pound said he really needed a home.”

  Echo laughed and cried, both at the same time.

  “You do want Scrappers, don’t you?” Maeve asked, looking worried.

  “I want him, all right,” Echo said.

  Rance set the dog down, then put the box on the counter. “Open it,” he said.

  Echo crossed the shop, lifted the top of the box and looked inside.

  It was a cake, and there was writing on top.

  Echo gazed at Rance, loving him more than she’d ever believed she could love any man. Scrappers, meanwhile, sniffed at her shoes and licked her ankles.

  She lowered the sides of the box.

  There were candles, a 3 and an 0, but it was the words, scripted in blue frosting, that almost made Echo’s heart stop.

  Happy Birthday, Emma.

  “Emma,” she said. “My name is Emma.”

  Maeve and Rianna were delighted to have the mystery solved, but Scrappers quickly distracted them.

  “Darned if I didn’t forget the plates for the cake over at the Curl and Twirl,” Cora said, her eyes gleaming with happy tears.

  “I’ll help,” Ayanna told her.

  They both rushed out.

  Rance took her hand.

  “Will you marry me, Emma Wells?”

  She nodded, too stricken to speak.

  He lifted the 3-candle off the cake, and Echo—now Emma—gasped.

  An engagement ring lay beneath it.

  Rance slipped it onto her finger, frosting and all.

  “Whenever you’re ready,” he said, and then he kissed her.

  When their lips parted, Emma dabbed a bit of frosting onto Rance’s mouth, and kissed it off again.

  Some things, like wonderful white dogs found outside a truck stop in the rain, were meant to be loved for a while, and then given up with as much grace as humanly possible. Other things, like the land that made up the Triple M, and like Rance McKettrick’s love, were made to last forever.

  Whenever you’re ready, Rance had told her.

  Well, Emma was ready.

  She was ready to love and be loved.

  She was ready to trust.

  She was ready to raise two beautiful little girls, now watching her with shining eyes.

  “You’ll be our stepmom, righ
t?” Rianna asked hopefully.

  “We promise to be good,” Maeve added.

  Echo-now-Emma embraced both girls, leaned to kiss the tops of their heads. “I’ll be proud to have you two for stepdaughters,” she said. Then, knowing her heart was shining in her eyes, she looked up at Rance. “What do you say we make some history, cowboy?” she asked.

  Rance grinned, jutted out his elbow. “Don’t we have a dance to go to?”

  She laughed. “We do,” she agreed.

  The gym at Indian Rock High was decorated to the hilt, with streamers and balloons dangling from the ceiling, and a live band on stage. It was, Emma thought, like going back in time, like attending all the proms she’d missed, rolled into one.

  Rance led her to the middle of the dance floor, turned and opened his arms. Emma moved into them.

  And it was a perfect fit.

  EPILOGUE

  June 29

  Jesse’s Ridge

  THE CLEARING ON TOP OF the mountain was jammed with people in wedding-going clothes. Some had ridden up in SUVs, others in horse-drawn buggies and carriages. A few had even traveled on horseback.

  Jesse and his lovely bride, Cheyenne, stood with their backs to the assembly, facing the minister, a long-time family friend of the McKettricks.

  “Dearly beloved,” the preacher began. “We are gathered here…”

  Rance and Keegan stood proudly at Jesse’s left side, looking wonderfully out of place and breathtakingly handsome in their tuxedos. Rance glanced back at Emma, who was standing with Cora, Dr. Swann, Rianna and Maeve, and winked.

  She smiled, and her face warmed.

  Rance’s diamond glinted on her left hand, and she took a moment to admire it.

  A soft breeze ruffled the branches of the ancient pines lining the clearing, and the sky overhead was a heartbreaking shade of blue.

  The ceremony passed in a blur—Emma heard little of it.

  She thought of her estranged uncle, who had passed away peacefully in his sleep a few days before, at the care center, and been buried without any fanfare at all.

  And then there were Della and Bud Willand. The prosecutor had decided to give Bud a second chance, and according to Della, he’d started his new job as a welder and was behaving himself.

  The Ademoyes called regularly, with updates on the puppies. All was well with Snowball.