by Cora Seton
“Not worried. Just…” He shrugged his shoulders. “Just got word that I’m to receive an honorable discharge. I won’t be in the Army much longer.”
“Does that make you sad?”
“No, not sad. But I served a long time.” He leaned against the wall. Tugged her closer until she stood between his legs. “Will you still be hot for me when I’m not in the military?”
“Always.” She went up on tiptoe to kiss him. “Are you sure you’re ready to be done with it?”
“I’m sure. I’m ready to stay here—with you.”
“Good.”
Brian came up the stairs and stopped when he caught sight of them. “Sorry—don’t mean to intrude. I just got word—”
“An honorable discharge?” Jack asked.
“Yeah. You, too?”
“Yep.”
“He didn’t even wait for the wedding,” Brian pointed out.
“Guess he’s pretty sure I’m going to carry it off.” Jack cupped Alice’s chin and kissed her.
“More like he’s sure I’m going to carry it off.” She kissed him back.
“I’m going to find Cass.” Brian kept going.
“Alone at last,” Jack said to Alice and pulled her into his room.
Their lovemaking was slow and thorough, even though Alice felt guilty neither was helping with chores.
“Relax,” Jack told her finally. “There’s a lot of hands on this ranch making the work light. They won’t miss us.”
When he began to move inside her, Alice decided she didn’t care if they did. As always, Jack spun her desire tight—and her release when it came nearly overwhelmed her. Like Jack had said before, this worked, and she was so happy she’d have a lifetime to make love to this man.
Soon he’d be hers forever.
When they were done, they lay side by side until a hunger inside Alice had her tracing Jack’s muscles with a fingertip. He turned to her.
“I want you,” she told him again.
“Okay.”
“I want… to stop using birth control.”
Jack went still beside her. “You want a baby?”
“Yes.” She hadn’t known how much she wanted one until now.
Or until her visions had started to show their baby to her.
It had been their baby she’d seen—she was sure of that now.
“What about your career?”
“I want that, too. But from now on I’m going to take more care with the contracts I choose, and I’m not going to let them interfere with my family. With you. What about you?” she asked. “Do you want children?” She held her breath.
“Hell, yeah.” Jack gathered her in his arms. “I can’t wait. How many are we going to have?”
Alice tried to close off to the vision that swamped her, but she was too late. “Three,” she told Jack.
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Let’s get busy then.”
Later that afternoon Alice entered the kitchen and found the General alone there. “Everything okay?” she asked him.
He grunted. “Everything’s fine if you like sitting on your ass all day. Which I don’t.”
“It must be hard to be home—for all kinds of reasons.” She moved to the fridge, took out a soda and popped the top of the can.
“It’s harder and easier than I expected,” the General said. “Easier because it’s good to be with my girls, even if they are a pain in the ass. Harder because I can’t imagine what I’m good for anymore. My hip’s shot. So’s my knee. Can’t ride for months, if ever, the doctors say—”
A vision hit her. A phone call. A military uniform. Her father barking orders.
She smiled. “I know exactly what you’re good for,” she said over his continued grumbling.
“Oh yeah? What?” He sounded wary, as if afraid she might use the occasion to get in another jab. Alice supposed she and her sisters had been hard on him.
“Your job is to be a grandfather. Cass is pregnant. Jo’s working on it, I think. I’ll be pregnant soon. And the Army isn’t finished with you either.”
“The Army can’t wait to be finished with me—”
“General? Phone call for you.” Emerson appeared in the doorway and handed the General his phone.
“Hold that thought,” he said to Alice. “General Reed here.” He listened a moment. “Oh yeah? What’s that?” He was silent again. “You sure about that? Can’t get around like I used to. The drive? That doesn’t bother me. I got five sons-in-law at my beck and call. Yes. Yes, you do that. Speak to you next week.” He handed the phone back to Emerson. “Well, I’ll be damned. You were right; the Army does want me. That was the reserve base in Billings. They’ve got a position for me. Part time, of course.”
“Of course,” Alice said. “Sounds perfect.”
“As you were.” The General got up and limped from the room.
Emerson lingered. “Do you think Wye will be all right? She seemed pretty down last night.”
“She’ll bounce back.” Tabitha came into the room and wove around Alice’s heels. “Wye is strong. She’s just hurt because she misread Will so badly. Cass said she convinced her to stay the rest of the month. Told her she would need help cleaning up again after the wedding.”
“Do you think she could ever—” Emerson didn’t finish the sentence.
“I don’t know, Emerson,” Alice said. “But I sure hope so.”
Emerson shrugged. “I’m glad the General’s going back to work. That means I’m going back to work, too.”
“Guess that is a good thing.”
“You know what they say. A bored General is never a good thing.”
“They say that?” Alice asked.
“They do now.”
When her phone buzzed in her pocket, Alice was shocked to see it was Landon calling. She answered reluctantly.
“Hello?”
“Don’t hang up,” Landon hurried to say. “I’m not asking for any predictions.”
“Good thing. I’m not making any,” Alice said tartly.
“I’m calling to thank you.”
“Why?” She noticed Emerson was sticking close. Gathering intel for the General?
Let him, she decided. The General was on her side.
“You got me back on track. Alice, I haven’t been entirely honest with you.”
Somehow she wasn’t surprised.
“I did make my money in cryptocurrency. Thing is, the market is volatile. I’ve lost half my net worth since we started talking.”
“H-half?” She couldn’t imagine it.
“I’ll probably earn it back in a few more weeks. And then lose it again. I don’t know—it’s the nature of the beast. I thought I was prepared. Turned out, I wasn’t. When the numbers started going down, I panicked. And then someone said you were psychic. Like, for real. I mean, normally I would have laughed, but—”
“You were desperate,” Alice said.
“I lost my cool,” Landon agreed.
“Thanks for letting me know what was really going on, but what does all this have to do with me?”
“I’m not panicking anymore. I still have plenty of money. I need to follow my heart and make a movie. I’ve got a new idea. It isn’t a Civil War drama this time. It’s an action flick. Set in the near future. There’s been a pandemic—”
“And you’re telling me because—?”
“You’re still the champ when it comes to costumes, Alice. No one else I interviewed even came close. I was wondering—”
“No,” she said gently. “I’m not looking for a contract at this time.”
“But—”
“Sorry, Landon. Good luck, though,” she said without a qualm. Landon was a man who was all vision and no follow-through. She was well rid of him. “I do have a favor to ask you, though.”
“What’s that?” he asked warily.
“I’d like my dresses back. I think you owe me that much.”
He was quiet for a long time. “Yeah. Ok
ay. I guess I do. The thing is… I already gave them to someone else.”
Alice got a flash of an older woman with a wide smile and bright eyes—
“I checked out that movie you told me about. The Passing Hour. Called up Kate O’Dell to see… well, to see if I could hire her.”
“You were going to dump me for Kate O’Dell?” That would have been ironic. “What happened?”
“She let me in on a little secret. She’s already been hired to do a Civil War drama for a major producer with a major budget. Trying to compete with that would be a disaster. We got to talking about talent. I mentioned you. She was interested in seeing your work.”
“You sent my gowns to Kate O’Dell?” Alice squeaked.
“Yep. You’ll probably be hearing from her,” he said glumly. “You’ll probably say yes to her.”
“I probably will,” Alice said truthfully. “If she likes what she sees.”
“She will. Well, guess I’ll see you around.” Landon didn’t sound happy.
“Good luck with your movie.” Alice could only pity him.
“Thanks.”
Chapter Twenty-One
‡
“What does the future hold? Any more attacks?” Jack asked when he and Alice were alone again that evening, curled up in her bed.
“No more attacks.”
“Good. We could use some peace and quiet around here. So what happens next?”
“Like… now?”
“Exactly.”
“That doesn’t take a clairvoyant,” she said dryly. “We’re going to have sex.”
“We are?”
“First you’re going to kiss me.”
“Like this?” Jack edged closer, tilted her chin up and covered her mouth with his. He took his time with it, as if they had all night. Which they did, Alice supposed.
“Then you’re going to touch my breasts.”
“Like this?” Jack palmed them both and squeezed like a teenager.
“Hey! Like you know what you’re doing!”
“Oh. Sorry.” He lightened his touch and spent a long time caressing her, teasing her with his hands and then his mouth, enjoying the way his touch made her respond. “Now what?”
“You’re going to explore the rest of me,” she said contentedly.
He did so, and soon Alice was clutching the sheets in her hands, her head thrown back, her hips lifting, legs opening. She moaned, and Jack struggled to stay in control. He wanted to make this encounter last.
Wanted to surprise her, too.
“But did you know I was going to—”
“Yes. Get in me. Now!” Alice commanded him.
“You know everything before I do it,” he complained, but he got in position between her legs.
Alice pushed up on her elbows and regarded him seriously. “Okay,” she said. “I’ve turned it off.”
He hesitated. “Really? You can do that?”
“I can now.” Alice lay back. Opened to him. “Go on and surprise me.”
And he did.
Alice couldn’t say how she’d learned how to shut off the flow of her visions of the future. Maybe it had to do with concentrating on Jack. Last night the pressure of his hands on her skin had offered her relief. Today his caresses were doing the trick. As long as she stayed present, her mind on his hands, everything else faded away.
They’d have to make love a lot.
She still found her own future to be hazy, and she was all right with that. She didn’t want to know everything that would happen to her. For now, Alice sank into the pleasure Jack was giving her, reveling in each sensation as his movements sped up. She knew he was concentrating on pleasing her. Knowing he was trying to make her feel good made his every touch that much more potent.
She wouldn’t conceive today, but she would soon, and Alice looked forward to every attempt, knowing that the more they got to know each other, the better their lovemaking would be.
It was pretty good right now.
As she moved with Jack she realized they already knew a lot about each other. When they’d set a date, they’d both been worried they were jumping the gun. Now that seemed silly. It wasn’t the length of the acquaintance; it was the depth of it. She understood Jack’s fears, and he understood hers. Their goals matched. So did their desire to live here at Two Willows, to build a life with the others who lived here—and to throw themselves into their work.
Alice linked her legs around Jack’s back and urged him on. Soon she could think of nothing else except the sweet friction building between them. When she cried out and clung to him, waves of pleasure rippling through her, Jack grunted and bucked against her, coming too. They rocked together until they were spent, then collapsed, Jack still inside her.
“This is where I want to spend forever,” he said. “Right here with you.”
“I want that, too.”
Jack was positioned in front of the mirror, fighting with his tie two weeks later when someone knocked on the door of the guest bedroom. He turned as it opened, and his parents came in.
“Pop! Ma—you made it!”
“Wouldn’t miss your wedding for the world,” his mother said. “Look at you, so handsome! No wonder Alice fell in love with you.”
“We’re proud of you, son. I hope you have as happy a wedded life as I’ve had,” Richard said.
“You’re not mad I’m not coming back to DC with you?”
“Can’t say I’m not disappointed. I was looking forward to getting the chance to work with you, but after seeing this place, I guess I can’t blame you. Must remind you of home.”
“From the pictures I’ve seen it’s even better in the warm weather,” Jack said, “But I’ve already fallen in love with the place. And you’re right; it does remind me of home. Guess ranching is in my blood.”
“Guess so.”
“Also…Cab Johnson came by and had a word with me the other day.” He hadn’t even told Alice this yet, because he wasn’t sure what his answer would be. “He made it clear there might be work for me in the local sheriff’s department if I’m interested.”
“Are you interested?” Janet asked.
“I’m not sure. Maybe. After I get this ranch stuff figured out. Right now I want to concentrate on Two Willows.”
“And your wife,” Janet put in.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate everything you two have done for me, or that I love you any less. You know that, right?”
“Of course he does,” Janet said firmly. “We really are proud of you, you know. You’ve served your country, and now you’ll serve your family. That’s how it should be.”
“You’ll have to visit as often as you like. Alice says there’ll be grandkids around soon enough.”
Richard beamed. “Another generation to train.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Janet told him. “Another generation to love. That’s what’s important.”
“You said a mouthful,” Richard admitted. “Better let this generation get ready for his wedding. Good luck out there, son.”
“Thanks, Pop.”
“Your folks would be proud, too, you know,” Richard said. “I’m sure they’re with you today.”
For a second Jack thought he was right. His memories of his parents had gotten hazy, but he could almost feel his father’s hand on his shoulder, his mother’s cheek pressed against his.
He nodded, suddenly finding it difficult to speak.
When they left, Logan slipped in. “Ready?” he asked. “It’s nearly time.”
Jack looked in the mirror. Gave his tie one last tug. “I’m ready.”
“A hoopskirt wedding was genius,” Wye said, “except we need more mirrors.”
She craned her neck to try to see herself in the large mirror Alice stood in front of, but when she tried to move closer to see the rest of her body, their hoopskirts pressed together, making the far side of their dresses flare up.
“Are we going to fit down the stairs?” Jo asked. Al
l Alice’s sisters were her bridesmaids, and she’d invited Wye to participate, too. Alice had worked her fingers to the bone taking the spring green dresses they’d worn to the other weddings and turning them into period-accurate gowns. They couldn’t all fit into the same bedroom, so they were taking turns moving from room to room.
“I sure hope so,” Alice said. “Or the guests will have to come up here. Wye, you about ready?”
“I’m ready.” Wye beamed at her. “This is so much fun. I always wanted to be a Reed,” she confessed. She preened in her spring-green, hoopskirt bridesmaid dress.
“If you want to be a Reed, you’ll have to take the oath,” Alice said. “Pledge to stay here all your days. In front of the standing stone.”
“I’m game,” Wye said. “Not like there’s anything else for me to do. Plus, I’m going to run out of money if I don’t get a job pretty soon. I’ll have to mooch off you all.”
“Something will turn up,” Alice told her. “Or else we’ll put you to work on the ranch.”
“It’s time,” Cass said, sticking her head in the room. “Line up. Wye first, then youngest to oldest. Jo, you’re after Wye.”
“As if I didn’t know,” Jo mumbled but followed Wye out into the hall. Sadie lined up after her, then Lena and Cass. Their wide skirts touched both sides of the hall as they made their way to the head of the stairs.
“Here we go,” Wye said.
Alice waited her turn, her heart in her mouth. This was a new beginning. A new chapter at Two Willows. Soon their family would expand. Her business, too. Her experience with Landon had taught her she wanted new challenges. When the time was right, she’d go looking for them.
For now, she couldn’t wait to meet Jack at the altar and start her life with him.
“Ready?” Cass whispered when it was her turn to walk down the stairs.
“Ready.” Then Alice was alone. But not for long. She felt her mother’s presence as she descended carefully, one step at a time. When she reached the bottom, her father was there to take her arm. He regarded her gravely before he did so.
“I keep waiting,” he said in a low voice so only she could hear.
“For what?” she asked.
“For you to come at me the way your sisters did. Isn’t there something you want to get off your chest before you move on?” He nodded at the altar at the far end of the room.