Joan Johnston - Texas Woman

Beaufort arched a disbelieving brow, but in true diplomatic fashion agreed, “I’m sure you’re right. You can count us gone within the week.”

Sloan tried again to leave Cruz’s lap, and this time, after he had covered her with his shirt, he let her go. Shoulders back, she stalked away from him and out the door of the adobe house past her two grinning brothers-in-law and her smiling half brother without looking back.

She had not gotten far when Cruz caught up to her and turned her around to face him. “Do not run away from me, Cebellina. Not now. There is no reason for it.”

“You don’t call deceiving me a good reason?” Sloan said.

“I had no choice,” he said, his voice low and insistent. “I wanted to tell you a hundred times, but I was under strict orders of secrecy.”

“Oh, Cruz…” Sloan’s stoic facade crumpled and she threw herself into his arms. “I’m so sorry I doubted you. I’m so sorry I believed the worst of you. I’m so sorry I compared you to Tonio!”

“I am not my brother, Cebellina. I will never betray you. I love you more than my own life.”

He pulled her into his arms, but grunted in pain when she squeezed the place where he had been nicked by Alejandro’s bullet.

“We have to get you home,” she said. “We have to take care of your wound.”

Cruz sighed. “And where is home? Will you help me rebuild Dolorosa?”

“Of course I’ll-”

Sloan was cut off by Luke’s appearance at her elbow. He was shifting from foot to foot, and he wouldn’t meet her eyes. “What is it?” she asked. “Did something happen to Tomasita while I was gone?”

“No, no, she’s fine,” Luke said. “But I’m afraid I have bad news for you.”

Sloan held her breath waiting for the ax to fall.

“It’s Rip. The doctor checked him after he looked at Tomasita. Rip’s cold is more than a cold. It’s pneumonia. And it doesn’t look good.”

Sloan was worried by Luke’s news and filled the ride back from Alejandro’s hideout with talk to help keep her mind off what she would find when she arrived at Three Oaks.

“Did Cricket come with you?” she asked Creed.

Cricket’s handsome husband, who had been Luke’s boss before he left the Texas Rangers to take his place at Lion’s Dare, flashed her a grin and met her gaze with chagrined amusement in his topaz eyes. “I couldn’t keep her home.”

“But she must be-”

“-ready to deliver any second. I know. She wanted to be here to help,” Creed said. “We brought Jesse along so you could see how much she’s grown. She’s nearly two now.”

“Did Bay come, too?” Sloan asked Long Quiet.

“I could not keep her home,” he said with a grin that matched Creed’s.

“Did you bring Whipp? It must be getting close to his first birthday.”

Long Quiet’s gray eyes softened, and there was nothing of the fierce savage in the half-breed’s voice as he said, “He will be a year old when the moon is next full.”

Sloan dropped back to ride beside Luke. She slowed her horse until they were far enough behind the other riders that they would not be overheard. “Did you know Cruz was working for the Texas government as the Hawk?”

“Sure did.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“Brothers can’t tell their sisters everything,” he said with a grin.

“I guess not.” Her expression sobered as she asked, “How is Tomasita? Is she feeling any better?”

“A little.”

Sloan saw the guilt in Luke’s face. “It was an accident, Luke. Tomasita and the baby are both fine.”

“If I’d just taken no for an answer, neither Tomasita nor the baby would have been in any danger in the first place. But the ladies don’t say no to Luke Summers. They never have. Not until now, when it really matters.”

He turned bleak eyes to Sloan. “I love her. I think I’ve loved her all along. I just couldn’t admit it to myself. When I think of spending my life without her, it’s a cold, lonely future I see.”

“So ask her to marry you.”

“I’ve already done that. She said no.”

“Did you tell her you love her?”

There was a long pause before Luke answered, “No.”

Sloan snorted in exasperation. “No wonder she said no! The woman’s crazy in love with you, Luke, but she has her pride, too. She isn’t about to let you marry her out of pity, and until you declare your real feelings, that’s all your offer can mean to her.”

“She might have loved me once. But after everything that’s happened-”

“That’s enough of that! When we get back to Three Oaks, we’re going directly to Tomasita’s room, and I’m not leaving until I hear those three words come out of your mouth. Then if Tomasita says no, you can moan and groan and I’ll be more than glad to hold your hand in sympathy.”

Sloan spurred her horse to catch up to Cruz at the head of the column of riders. “I just realized I haven’t thanked you for saving my life,” she said.

Cruz smiled. “My pleasure, Cebellina. But tell me, why did you go riding off in the middle of the night in the first place?”

Sloan ducked her head so he couldn’t see her eyes. “I wanted to be alone to think.”

He arched a brow but didn’t ask the obvious question. Perhaps it was because he didn’t ask that she offered to share her thoughts.

“I wanted to think about us. About our marriage. About our future together.”

“I can see why those thoughts might keep you awake,” he said with a teasing grin. “They have kept me up many a night, I must admit.”

It was the easy grin of a man who knows his love is returned, who knows that whatever doubts existed in the past no longer exist.

“Did you always believe we would end up together?” she asked suddenly.

“Life with you is never a certain thing, Cebellina. That is why I am so looking forward to it.”

“Stop your horse,” she said.

He pulled his bayo to a halt.

Sloan grasped his neck with her hand and pulled his head down so she could kiss him on the mouth. His lips were hard at first, then gradually softened as the kiss deepened. The feeling she was being watched eventually caused Sloan to break the kiss. She opened her eyes to discover four grinning faces surrounding her and Cruz.

“Can’t we get a little privacy here?” she asked.

“Sure, Sloan,” Creed said, kneeing his mount past her.

“You bet,” Long Quiet answered.

“Far be it from me to interrupt the course of true love,” Luke said.

“Pardon me, madam,” Beaufort LeFevre said, tipping his hat as he rode past.

When they were alone again, Cruz said, “May I ask what inspired you to kiss me here in the middle of the trail?”

“Do I need a reason to show you how much I love you?”

“Do you love me? The forever, enduring kind of love?”

“I think so,” she said, her expression troubled. “That’s what I thought about on my ride-whether love is forever, and enduring. I think that no matter what tried to tear us apart now, my love for you would endure. But I can’t see the future.”

This time it was Cruz’s mouth that captured Sloan’s. It was a kiss of possession, a kiss that said, I will love you forever-no matter what .

“Nothing can tear us apart,” he said, his voice hoarse with feeling, “so long as we are determined to be together.”

“YOU CRACKBRAIN JOBBERNOLL! WHAT WERE you thinking to ride out in the middle of the night like that. You had us all worried sick,” Cricket greeted her eldest sister.

“Oh, my,” Bay said, hugging Sloan, a gesture becoming less awkward for them as they grew older. “You’re a mess. What happened to you?”