Being Emma (21 page)

The children were all getting grumpy and
sleepy, so their parents picked them up and started for home.
Jeanne and Sam said farewell and left for their home. Meg and
Carter were staying at the ranch house for the roundup, so Carter
took Sofia off to bed as Meg helped her mother. With Janie’s help,
soon all the platters of food were inside. Sandy and Craig managed
the shut down and cleanup of the outside area. After a while and
with Meg and Lily working in the kitchen, Janie slipped out to find
Craig. When her dad walked into the house, Janie took Craig’s
hand.

“… Fancy a walk?” She grinned at him, which
tugged at his heart. They started walking by the corrals in the
moonlight, when he stopped. “What?”

Craig didn’t say a word, but reached over to
her ponytail and took the elastic out. Her hair fell softly around
her face that he caressed. He kissed her soft lips and then took
her hand. Heading for the barn, she laughed.

Glancing outside, Lily saw them go in. “That
barn has seen more action, Meg.” She laughed at her mother’s
comment.

“Yep… If those walls could talk…”

Inside the barn, Janie started to say
something, but Craig shushed her.

“Before you begin to guess anything,
sweetheart… It’s my turn to say something first.” He reached inside
his jeans pocket to pull out the diamond engagement ring. Craig
held it out to her.

“You mean to tell me that you’ve had that in
your pocket all night long?”

He smiled. “Yup.”

They looked into each other’s faces for a
long minute. Janie saw the Carter face that she knew would always
be there for her. Drowning in her eyes, Craig cleared his throat
and found his voice.

“Janie Johnson, would you do me the honor of
marrying me just as soon as humanly possible? You know I’ve loved
you your whole life so far… I want to love you for the rest of it
too…” He put the ring on her engagement finger.

Tears sprang to her eyes. “Yes, I’ll marry
you, Craig Ferguson.” She collected herself and glanced around. “So
this is the romantic place where you wanted to propose?” She
laughed and Craig took her in his arms.

“Any place is romantic with you, sweetheart,
except maybe for the parking lot at the federal building,” he
whispered in her ear. He kissed her with the horses moving in the
background, hay drifting through the air around them and starlight
coming in the cracks of the barn walls. She pulled back to look at
him.

“When I was a little girl, I didn’t think
that love would be for me. I thought it would stifle me.”

“ And now…”

“And now I think love will help me grow. It’s
only going to be better with us together, and I can’t even imagine
my future without you.”

“Let’s go home, sweetheart. I want to
continue this discussion in our bed.” She laughed and he took her
hand. Walking out of the barn, she stopped and looked up at the
night sky. She pointed…

“What is it?” He looked up in the direction
she was pointing.

“It’s Venus, the Goddess of Love.” A slow
smile crept on her face. “I didn’t understand what she was about
when I was young…”

Craig smiled back at her. “You probably have
a pretty good idea now, don’t you?” She put her hand on his
face.

“Only because of you…” In the moonlight with
Venus shining down, they smiled a while at each other, and then
made their way to the house. Saying their goodnights, Craig and
Janie walked out together into the cool, night air and into an
exciting, new future.

EPILOGUE

Another Johnson wedding, with most of the
town attending, took place nearly two months later. Once Lily
discovered that Craig and Janie were officially engaged, the
wedding preparations began in earnest and, as usual, snowballed.
She thought it possible that this would be the last wedding of her
children to occur, since Joey and Miles kept making messes of their
relationships. Lily and Sandy wanted to do this one up big…

So a wedding planner had been hired, a local
cowboy band was found, and all the food would be catered from a
company in Lake Tahoe. A party company had come down from Reno to
decorate the ranch house and surrounding areas, including back and
front yards. In fact, Sandy wanted to decorate part of Naples as
well.

Janie’s dress was purchased from the wedding
shop in San Francisco, like Lily, Audrey, Mandy and Meg before her.
Janie found a glamorous dress from a famous designer that she
loved. She wasn’t usually a girly-girl, but decided to be one for
her wedding. The white, floor length ball gown was of multiple,
frothy layers of tulle, with a square neckline and beaded
embellishments. She had worn a diamond brooch at her waist given to
her by her grandparents. Craig’s parents had given her diamond
earrings to wear. When she had walked down the aisle with her
father, Craig could hardly believe the vision Sandy handed to
him.

Diane, her maid of honor, bought her dress at
the San Francisco wedding shop as well. Sandy had paid for her
sheath dress of ivory chiffon, also floor length that was made by
the same famous designer. Craig and his best man, Colt, with
groomsman, Jesse, rented tuxedos in San Francisco too. They had
chosen black tuxedoes with flat front trousers, black bow ties and
crisp white shirts. Colt had kidded Craig about wearing a kilt, but
he said he was saving that for a visit with his grandparents.

The reception after the lovely ceremony had
been fun with some startling developments. Meg, of course, had made
the multi-layered wedding cake. Janie had specifically asked that
no fish appear anywhere in her design.

Diane was there on John Marston’s arm. They
looked happy enough to have an announcement in the near future
themselves.

A bit of a shocker was that Deputy Ethan met
Sharon Anderson at the bar and shared a drink together to the bride
and groom. The last time Janie saw them, Ethan and Sharon were
dancing slowly to a rather fast western song. And they were
smiling. Hmmm…

Craig and Janie honeymooned in Edinburgh,
Scotland, staying not far from his grandparents, Malcolm and
Aileen. Aileen was absolutely thrilled that Craig had finally
brought a woman home to meet them. The Ferguson clan in Edinburgh
held a post-wedding reception and naturally Craig wore his kilt.
All his Ferguson relatives were in kilts and Aileen gave Janie a
Ferguson plaid shawl to wear.

Malcolm wanted them to observe a few Scottish
customs at the reception, so he gave Janie a sixpence coin to place
in her shoe. The clan danced a version of the Lang Reel, a
traditional dance that began at Malcolm and Aileen’s house and
continued until they arrived at the reception house. Once they
arrived, Craig’s relatives stopped dancing, while the bride and
groom were left to dance the last dance alone.

It was a fun and exhausting time with his
grandparents. As they were packing to leave and continue their
honeymoon elsewhere in Scotland, Janie received a telegram. She
opened it…

“Who’s it from, Janie?” asked Craig. He saw
that she was mesmerized by the telegram’s contents.

Janie continued reading and then read it over
again. Finally, she looked up into Craig’s curious face.

“I’ve been offered a position with the U.S.
Secret Service in the counterfeiting section. They want me based in
the Reno field office for my three probationary years and then I
could be transferred overseas after that. I’m to report to Georgia
in a month for the fifteen week training period.”

She looked up into his smiling face with her
heart in her mouth. Craig laughed and lifted her up to twirl her
around.

“Congratulations, sweetheart! Your dream’s
come true…” He reached his arms around her while she clung to him.
She even became a little teary.

“Both dreams, honey, both dreams…”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeanne Harrell lives in Nevada with her
husband. They are both long time Nevadans mired in the Old West
spirit. Traveling to different places in the country, especially
the western states, gives Jeanne ideas for her books.

FROM JEANNE

THANK YOU
again for reading my work. I appreciate it more than you know.
There’s not enough love out in the world, so these are my attempts
at adding more. If you have any comments, please write on the blog
page of my website –
www.jeanneharrell.com
. I would love to hear from you.

Jeanne
Harrell’s next book is entitled
The Darkest Hour
. It continues the life and work of Janie
Ferguson, formerly Janie Johnson.

Janie is newly married and a new U.S. Secret
Service agent working in the counterfeiting section. It’s not easy
juggling job demands with being a bride, so Janie’s work is cut out
for her. Her training period with the Service ends abruptly as an
international case lands in her team’s lap. They have to find
counterfeiters before an international monetary crisis occurs.
Unfortunately, her job crisis parallels a personal one.

Watch
for
The
Darkest Hour
– coming
soon.