The Girl with the Golden Spurs (29 page)

Joanne only came during the mornings because that was Vanilla’s best time. In an effort to cheer and distract her, Joanne always brought the baby. Thus, the three of them were sitting together on the edges of their chairs in the little waiting room this morning.

Never one to be confined, Vanilla was squirming in her grandmother’s lap and pointing excitedly at the cartoons on the television. Joanne constantly stroked the wriggling baby’s curls as if to reassure herself the baby was all right.

“You saved her,” she said simply.

I shot Cole, she thought. “Not really. Vanilla was asleep in Sam’s truck the whole time. I don’t think he could’ve hurt
her. She was strapped into her car seat. He took her to scare me.”

“Thank heavens she was okay.”

“It’s nearly noon,” Lizzy said. “Vanilla’s restless. You might as well go. They’ll let me into see Cole again in a few minutes.” She hesitated. “Did I tell you the doctors say he’s getting better? That maybe today, maybe he’ll wake up.”

“Five times this morning.”

“Did you know Sam’s doing so well, they’re moving him to the county jail today. I’ll be glad when he’s in jail, locked up I mean. I keep having dreams about him escaping and coming after me.”

“I can’t believe that Sam did all those horrible things,” Joanne said. “He flew to Nicaragua pretending to be Cole. He changed license plates with Cole… Aunt Nanette has taken to her bed. It would be a hard thing for a mother to take. Even her. She ignored him as a child. She paid more attention to her lovers. That’s why we took Sam. Poor Bobby Joe still doesn’t know what to do with himself. Well…at least it’s over.”

“It won’t be over until Cole pulls through,” Lizzy said. “And…and forgives me. If he does.”

“You were so brave and wonderful,” Joanne said. “You saved Vanilla. Of course, he’ll forgive you.”

“But I shot him.”

“That part was an accident. Cole is going to pull through. He of all people will understand. Remember Mia…and his awful guilt? Sweetheart, your father would be so proud of you.”

“Who would have thought that Sam…
He killed Mia
, you know. Not Cole.”

“And your father and that woman and two of my darling little birds, as well. I found their little corpses in what was left of the aviary. Vanilla and I buried them in the garden
under the roses. All the rest of my little darlings are roosting in the Spur Tree until Eli can build them proper quarters.”

“Sam wanted everything that was Caesar’s,” Lizzy said. “He told Phillips he had always been jealous of me because Caesar favored me over everybody.”

“He was even blackmailing me. Although I didn’t know it was him at the time.”

“Why?”

“He sent me a copy of Electra’s journal while I was in Houston. I brought it to the ranch to read, but he stole it out of my room before I got a chance. After the shootings, when I went to get Vanilla out of Cole’s truck where he’d hidden her, I found the original on the seat beside Vanilla, and I took it.”

“But it’s evidence.”

“It’s private family history. They have enough evidence to put Sam where he belongs for a long long time. The journal is your birthright. You deserve to know about your mother. She was my best friend in school. She came here to help me with my wedding. Your father fell madly in love with her. Only she couldn’t settle down. I don’t think I ever quit loving Jack. Now I know Caesar never quit loving Electra.”

“Tell me about Mia…and me.”

“She and I both got pregnant at the same time. Then Jack died, and Electra refused to marry your father. So your father and I eventually married, but our life together was more complicated than either of us ever imagined. We didn’t love each other, and we couldn’t let go of the past. I think we began blaming each other instead of supporting one another. Sometimes we blamed you and Mia, too. Sometimes we competed through you and Mia. Once when Electra got in trouble, he flew to South America and saved
her life. He stayed with her two weeks and got her pregnant again.”

“What?” Lizzy felt the room spin.

“Lizzy, it’s all in her journal. She wrote that you have twin sisters. The blackmailer or rather Sam said Electra was going to publish it, but I think she kept the journal so that if anything happened to her, you would find out. Only Sam found the journal instead and used it for his own purposes. To stir us all up.”

“Sisters? I have sisters? Where are they?”

“I don’t know, but there was a photograph of them. They’re blonde and look a lot like you. I was too upset to read the journal all that thoroughly, and now the picture’s gone. But I have the original journal at home under lock and key. The important thing is that you have twin sisters.”

“And I’ll find them. When Cole is better, if it’s the last thing I do, I’ll find them.”

“And you and I?” Joanne began before her voice broke. “What about us?”

Lizzy saw a gentle maternal wisdom and an acceptance shining in Joanne’s eyes that she’d never seen before.

“Us?”

“Do you think we could start over? And at least try to be friends?” Joanne asked. “A long time ago I made a promise to your father to be a good mother to you.” Vanilla looked up at both of them, and Joanne smiled. “This time I’ll try really hard.”

“And so will I. At least now I understand what you were going through.”

Vanilla, who was beaming brightly at them both, began to clap softly.

“You little rascal.” Lizzy took her hands and kissed them. “You want us to pay attention to you, don’t you?”

Joanne opened her arms, and Lizzy and Vanilla, who cooed and wriggled, came into them.

* * *

Cole heard a woman say his name very softly. He opened his eyes and groggily fought to focus on the woman beside him.

Terrible antiseptic hospital smells made him wrinkle his nose. He made out hazy green walls. South Texas sunlight streamed through a window and lit up a woman’s hair so that it shone like spun silver. She was sitting to his right, and since the light came from behind her, he couldn’t see her face.

Was he dead? Was she an angel?

Trying to see her better, he moved. Pain knifed through his shoulder in a savage burning thrust.

“Damn!” He hurt too much to be dead.

“Cole?”

“Who the hell are you?” he grumbled, blaming her.

“Lizzy.”

Lizzy
. She spoke. Then he was alive.

“Will you ever forgive me for shooting you?” she said, touching his hair.

“Shooting me?” He remembered her in the door holding a gun in a wobbling hand. She’d looked scared to death. “Now that’s a hard one,” he muttered, but he tried to manage a lopsided grin. “The last time I felt like this a foul-breathed shrimper was giving me mouth-to-mouth….”

“I’m serious, Cole.”

“Kiss me, so I’ll know you’re real and I’m real. Then I’ll think about it. You shot me, huh?”

She leaned over and cradled his face in her hands. “I’ve been waiting for you to wake up for days. The doctors kept saying you would. But I was scared.”

Me, too
.

“I prayed. I prayed so hard. Most of all I prayed you’d forgive me.”

Love for her flowed through him, frightening him with its intensity. “Just kiss me darlin’. Make the hurt go away.”

She made a choking sound. Slowly their mouths met. His lips were dry and chapped, but hers felt soft and dewy sweet. The kiss didn’t last long before his head fell back to the pillow, but it was enough for now.

“You gonna marry me or not?” he whispered.

“Yes. Yes.”

“Still think all I want is the ranch, darlin’?”

“I don’t care. All I know is that I love you and that I can’t live without you.”

“I feel the same way,” he said as he felt his eyes growing heavy and the darkness closed in on him.

“You didn’t say whether you’ll forgive me for shooting you.”

“I think I’ll let you suffer a spell.” He closed his eyes.

“Cole!”

When he woke again, he felt stronger. It was dark, but she sat in the same chair beside him, looking desperate and uncertain. He asked her about Sam, and she told him everything.

“He’s in jail. Apparently he thought Daddy killed Uncle Jack to get control of the ranch, so he thought the same path to power would work for him, too. Only Daddy didn’t kill Jack. I know he didn’t.”

“So, you turned out to be a kick-ass heroine after all. Shot me. Shot Sam. You’re a real cowgirl. Your daddy would be proud. Hell, I’m proud.”

“I’m sorry I…I suspected you of murder. If it helps, I suspected Aunt Mona and Uncle B.B., too.”

He didn’t speak for a long while. “Hell, I suspected me.”

“I’ll never touch another gun. I swear!”

“Lizzy, I understand why you shot me. You thought whoever was out there had Vanilla and that he’d kill you and then kill her.”

“I made a terrible mistake. I should have thrown the gun down. I should’ve—”

“I’ve made a few mistakes of my own.”

“I—I just want to be myself now. Whatever that is. Life is an ongoing challenge and process.”

“Tell me about it. Before the accident I was one person. Then I became another. I’m the same person, and yet I’m different in ways I may never be able to understand.”

“I don’t care. Either way I love you,” she said, touching his cheek with a trembling hand. “I love you so much.”

“I have all these images of you in my mind. I’ve forgotten a lot. But I always remembered you. And you’re always so beautiful. I still don’t know why I married Mia.”

She went very still. “And I don’t care anymore.”

“Maybe I’ll never remember. All I know is that I love you and I always will. And that I never slept with Mia.”

“I love you.”

He took her hand in his and pulled her closer to the bed, and he saw the depth of her love for him in her shining eyes.

“Lizzy, oh, Lizzy.”

Their lips met. A long time later he released her mouth with a sigh. Then he rested his cheek against the base of her neck and continued to hold her.

“I don’t ever want to let you go,” he said.

“You don’t have to.”

EPILOGUE

Smart Cowboy Saying:

The easiest way to eat crow is while it’s still warm. The colder it gets the harder it is to swaller.

—Anonymous

T
he wedding march was playing, and the music seemed to soar high above Lizzy as the doors of the ranch chapel opened. Everybody turned. For an instant she thought of her father and those who weren’t there—her mother, Mia, Shanghai, her missing sisters. Then she took a deep breath at her end of the red plush carpet and waited for the perfect moment to make her entrance.

Vanilla, who stood at the other end of the little church beside Cole and Mandy and all the other bridesmaids and groomsmen, began to clap and dance when she saw Lizzy in her bridal gown and veil.

You little minx, you’re stealing my show
. Not that Lizzy minded.

The wedding guests stood.

Holding her bouquet of orchids before her, Lizzy quickly made her way down the aisle.

Vanilla threw her flowers down and dashed toward Lizzy. When the baby reached the bride, she threw her chubby hands up and made gurgles to be picked up and held. Everybody laughed, including Lizzy, who lifted her and carried her
the rest of the way down the aisle, not caring if the baby mussed her veil and her satin gown.

Cole’s blue eyes stared straight into Lizzy’s. Her breath caught. Sensing that she was no longer the center of Lizzy’s attention, Vanilla turned and threw out her arms to her daddy. When he took her, she began to clap. Slowly her fat little hands quit moving, and she reached up and touched his face with wonder.

Joanne let out a choking sob, and a stillness descended upon Lizzy as she turned toward the minister. Glancing toward Cole, who was so darkly male and virile and gorgeous that she felt a thrill in her belly, she sighed a deep sigh of utter contentment and infinite longing. Even before she said her vows, she felt truly committed to this man she loved and his precious daughter, and to the land that would be their home.

She felt strong and sure in herself and yet proud of him, too.

“Forever,” she whispered. “I’ll love you forever.”

* * * * *