Charlene Sands (18 page)

Laura beamed her a smile. “You did it, Theresa.”

She had. She felt certain fulfillment now. She’d made the first step in gaining the town’s trust. But with their trust or without it, nothing would stop her from building the HELP home. “It’s a start anyway.”

“Those ladies are so excited they’re bound to speak about it. They’ll bring their menfolk around. And I betcha the ladies who didn’t come to this meeting will regret not being here. They’ll show up next time, for certain. They can’t help but see the good thing you’re doing.”

“I hope so, Laura.”

Then Theresa turned to take a look at Abby. “The little angel slept during the whole meeting.”

“She is an angel, isn’t she?” Laura agreed, bending to bestow a kiss in the air just above the sleeping baby’s head. She fluffed the blanket up and lifted the basket. “But we’d better get her home before she wails for her supper, which will be anytime now.”

Theresa and Laura were just leaving the hotel when they bumped into Sonny Blackstone. He’d come in while they were going out the door.

“Oh, Sonny! Hello.”

Sonny had a frown on his face. He seemed shaken and unsure and older than she’d ever seen him look. “Mrs. Hayworth, I need a word with you.”

Immediately her thoughts flashed to Clint. “What is it? Did something else happen on the ranch? Is it Clint? Is he hurt?”

Sonny looked at Laura, then back at her. “No, ma’am. Nothing’s happened at the ranch. Clint’s fine.”

“Well, thank goodness.” Laura excused herself. “I’ll leave you two to talk. I’ve got to get the little one home. I’ll see you there later?” she asked Theresa, waiting for her reply.

“Yes, I’ll be there shortly.”

Once Laura walked off, she focused her attention on Sonny, her heart pounding hard. Even though Sonny had said all was fine, she didn’t quite believe it. He’d come all the way from the ranch to speak with her. “Sonny, please tell me.”

He took off his hat and fingered the brim nervously. “It’s about Hoyt. And Clint. And you. I have a confession to make.”

Clint entered the kitchen, took one look at Greta’s burned offerings and exited again. For the past three nights she’d cooked up his favorite meals, burning them just enough to ruin the taste. And each night the
Herald
newspaper article about the illustrious Mrs. Hayworth sat under his nose on the kitchen table next to his plate. He hadn’t given Greta the satisfaction of reading it in front of her, but he’d read it. And reread it.

Plain and simple, he missed Tess. The whole damn ranch missed her, the boys clamming up tight when he’d entered the bunkhouse. He’d seen the quick blame on their faces in the moment when they’d first caught sight of him. And once that damn article about her life story had been printed, news about her had spread on the ranch.

They’d all believed her story. They’d believed she’d been a victim. She’d had a tough life. Shooting and killing her brother had been an unselfish act on her part. She’d saved two innocent people that day.

Clint didn’t know what he believed anymore. He’d always had a hard time with forgiveness. Had he transferred the blame he felt for his father onto Tess?

Clint entered the parlor and headed straight for the bourbon bottle sitting on the sideboard. He poured the whiskey and gulped it down, his mind in a quandary.

When he heard a knock on the door, he knew Greta wouldn’t answer it. She’d taken to doing minimal chores these days, out of rebellion. If she hadn’t been like a second mother to him for years, he’d have fired her. But she was just as much a part of the Double H as he was.

And that revelation stunned him. But he didn’t have time to think on it. Another sharp knock echoed through the house.

Briskly he walked to the front door and opened it. Sonny stood on the doorstep. “I’m not coming in,” he said.

There was look of remorse on his face. “I’m quitting, Clint.”

Clint dropped his jaw.

Sonny smiled with finality. “Don’t look so glum, boy. I’ve been meaning to for a while now. I wouldn’t leave while your father was alive, especially once he took ill. But it’s time for me.”

“You’ve been here so long I can’t imagine this place without you. You
are
the Double H, Sonny.”

“Well, I appreciate that, I do. But I’m handing you the reins. It’s up to you now. I’ve spoken with Theresa—that’s what she wants to be called now. She knows everything. My conscience is clear.”

Theresa?

He supposed that was her real name, but he’d always think of her as Tess.

Clint stood there as myriad feelings washed over him. He scratched his head, then took a steadying breath. “I feel like I’m losing a father.”

“You ain’t lost anything. I’ll be around. You’re a good man, Clint Hayworth. I’m proud to have known you all these years.”

“Same here, Sonny.”

Clint wrapped his arms around his old friend and they embraced for a few moments. Sonny backed away, teary-eyed. “I’d best go tell the boys now.”

Clint swallowed. He gave Sonny a nod and shut the door.

Not a minute later, another brisk knock resounded through the house. “Sonny, that you again?” he asked, pulling open the door.

But it wasn’t Sonny. It was Tess. She stood holding her carpetbag in hand, her chin pointed up, her auburn hair flowing down, wearing a pretty silk dress that brought out the brilliant blue of her eyes. He’d never witnessed anything more beautiful in his life.

Clint’s gut clenched seeing her again.

Everything inside him fell into place.

For the first time in a long time he knew what he truly wanted.

“Listen to me, Clint Hayworth. I don’t care what you think of me. But this is
my
home, too. I belong here. I love the Double H. And I’m not leaving again. If you want me off this property, you’re gonna have to pick me up and toss me off yourself!”

“Is that so?” Clint asked. He looked behind her to the ranch hands that pretended not to watch by the barn and corrals.

“Yes, that’s so!”

“Okay, then,” he said, picking her up, loving the feel of her in his arms again. He tossed her over his shoulder, his hand holding her steady just below her derriere.

“What are you doing!” she screamed, kicking her feet in the air.

“Hold still,” he said. Clint cast a quick look at the knowing, approving faces of his ranch hands before stepping back into the house. “I’m doing what I should have done weeks ago.”

Clint climbed the stairs two at a time.

Tess quieted some, her voice mellowed when she said, “What’s that?”

Clint entered his bedroom and set her down onto the bed. Then he backed up to look at her. Her hair fell forward. She blew lace ruffles off her face.

He laughed. “I missed you, Tess.”

“It’s Theresa.”

“You’ll always be Tess to me, honey.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, Clint? Don’t talk in riddles. I thought you were throwing me off the Double H.”

“Why would I do that?”

She narrowed her eyes.

“Okay, fine. I admit it. I was wrong about you. I was wrong about everything.”

Tess stood up from his bed. He sorta hated to see that. But he intended to have her there soon enough anyway. Permanently.

“Are you saying you’re not going to try to buy me out of the ranch?”

He scratched his jaw slowly, contemplating. “Hmm. Well, that really depends.”

“On what?” she asked.

“On whether you agree to marry me.”

“Marry you?”

“I love you, Tess. My father was right. You are a perfect match for me. You belong on the Double H. He was right about that, too. Took me a while to figure it out. Made me madder than hell to know he’d tricked me, but—you know what?—I don’t care about that anymore. The minute I saw you standing there on the doorstep I realized you and I belong on the Double H. We’ll run this ranch together. Marry me, Tess. Be my wife.”

Tears sprung from Tess’s eyes. “C-could you repeat that? I didn’t hear anything after you said you loved me.”

Clint grinned and walked over to her. “Do you love me, Tess?”

She nodded. “I do. I love you, Clint.”

He wiped the tears from her eyes. “Don’t cry, honey.”

“But it’s just that…I didn’t expect this.”

He placed his hands around her waist. “Neither did I. Falling in love with you wasn’t what I’d intended when I first came back. You weren’t who I expected to find living here. I had this image in my head of a greedy widow out to cheat me out of my half of the ranch. I never really gave you a chance.”

“No, sweetheart. You didn’t. But I couldn’t go back on my promise to your father.”

“You’ve had a hard life, Tess. I didn’t make anything easy for you. But even through all my anger, I admired you for sticking to your promise.”

“Do you forgive him?”

“I’ll try, Tess. That’s all I can offer right now.”

She touched his face, her hand a gentle caress that would heal all of his wounds. “That’s all I ask.”

He took her into his arms and kissed her soundly on the lips, telling her how much he loved her as he breathed in her scent and stroked her body, willing away the pain he’d caused her. “I’ll make it up to you, Tess. I want to erase all the bad things in your life.”

She smiled lovingly and kissed him again. “I always knew you were a good man.”

“Don’t say ‘just like your father.’”

“No, sweetheart. I won’t. You are your own man. And I’ve never loved anyone like this in my whole life.”

“We’ll have a good life here on the Double H.”

“I’ll have your babies.” Then a sudden panicked look crossed her expression. “You want children, don’t you?”

Clint flashed a vision of Tess holding little Abby Larson in her arms. He hardly could believe that one day he’d witness her holding their own child in her arms. “Yes, we’ll have babies. The sooner, the better, honey.”

Clint had never experienced such happiness.

He’d come back to the Double H looking to dissolve a forced partnership with his father’s clever widow and instead found trust, love and a partner for life. He could thank Hoyt partially for that and maybe one day soon, Clint would forgive his father entirely.

With Tess by his side, all things were possible.

T
heresa stood in her chemise, looking out her bedroom window into the starry midnight sky. She hugged herself, hardly believing that she wasn’t the widow Hayworth anymore but Mrs. Clint Hayworth, co-owner of the Double H ranch, the Hayworth holdings, founder of HELP at Home and, most importantly, wife to the person she loved most in the world.

Today had been her wedding day and tonight her wedding night. They’d had a huge gathering on the Double H, with decorations and music and wagonloads of food. It was the wedding she’d always dreamed about. But as she gazed up at the sky, giving a prayer of thanks for all that was good in her life now, she caught a flicker of something right before she turned away from the window.

“Oh, my!” She couldn’t believe it. “Clint, are you awake?”

“I’m here, waiting for you to come back to bed. The wedding night isn’t over, darlin’.”

“But you have to see this. Come quick.”

Clint rose and stood behind her, wrapping his arms around her, kissing her throat. “What am I looking at, besides my beautiful wife?”

She placed her finger on the window, pointing to the corrals below. “Look, just outside the shadows.”

Clint peered out. “I’ll be damned. It’s the palomino.”

“He’s pacing. Right by the corral.”

“He’s been gone a long time. I never thought I’d see him again.”

“But he came back, Clint.”

“He’s wild. Untamed.”

Tess turned to look into her husband’s eyes. “Maybe he is, but he still needs a home. Should we go down to get him?”

“No,” he answered. Then he took her by the hand. “Come back to bed, honey. Sunset will be there in the morning.”

“Because he knows this is his home now?”

“Yeah, because he knows this is his home now.”

She smiled at her handsome husband. “Just like you?”

He took her into his arms and lowered her down onto their bed. “Yeah, just like me.”