The Price (46 page)

As it drew nearer they saw California tags on the front of the bumper.

“No, it can’t be?” Clara strained to see who was driving the vehicle. “Oh shit! You have got to be kidding me!”

Kate saw the figure of a mature woman with bobbed, shoulder-length, blond hair and the color drained from her face.

“Clara go get Jack,” said Kate as they both stood from the swing.

Clara nodded and disappeared into the house as Kate watched the bluish-green Prius pull up by the front porch. The door opened and Marnie St. Claire stepped from the vehicle.

“What are you doing here?” Kate’s face flushed an angry-red and she stepped from the porch, walking toward her mother.

“I came to wish my grandson a happy birthday,” said Marnie, pulling a wrapped present from the back seat.

“You weren’t invited,” snapped Kate. “I think it would be best if you left, before Jack comes and throws you off our property.”

“I can understand the way you and Jack feel,” said a more humbled Marnie. “I was hoping I could make amends for my prior actions. Perhaps mend a few broken bridges.”

“You didn’t just break a few bridges, Mother. You blew them up, for Christ’s sake!”

“You’re right. I did.” Marnie held the present out for Kate. “I won’t stay, but please accept my gift.”

“No.” Kate shook her head. “I don’t want anything from you and neither does my son.”

Just then, Marnie saw Jack storm on to the porch and descend the stairs, stepping in front of his wife.

“You don’t quit do you Marnie?” Jack’s eyes narrowed cold as steel. “You have thirty seconds to get off my land before I call the sheriff and have you escorted off.”

“You have every right to want me to leave,” said Marnie, “considering how I treated you.”

“You ever come round my place again and I’ll have a restraining order slapped on you so fast your head will spin,” yelled Jack. “You have no influence around here. We’ll see how
you
like it, being carted off to jail.”

“I probably deserve that one,” sighed Marnie as she looked at her daughter. Her hair was a little darker than she remembered and cut into a shorter, messy shag. Her skin held a healthy shade of pink and her eyes carried the same blue before she got sick. “You look well, Kathryn.”

“I am well, Mother.” She saw tears form in her mother’s eyes. “Thanks to Jack.”

Marnie shook her head in agreement. With gift still in hand, she turned and walked back to her car. She opened the car door and watched as Jack placed a protective arm around her daughter.

“For the record, I was wrong about you, Jack McBride,” said Marnie. “I thought Paul would stay by my daughter’s side and you would run, but it was the other way around. You’re a good man. I know that now. I can see you love my daughter very much, and I can tell she loves you too.”

“Those are nice words coming from you, but they’re a little too late, don’t you think?” Jack held his ground.

“I guess they are,” said Marnie. “But they needed to be said.”

“Well, now you’ve said them.” Jack’s jaw tightened.

“I have,” said Marnie as she placed the gift into her car and slid into the driver’s seat.

Jack and Kate heard the engine start. Her mother was leaving and Kate wasn’t sure if she should let her go or ask her to stay. In spite of everything, she was still her mother. Jack seemed to read her thoughts.

“Oh, hell,” he stated and stepped toward the car. The things he did for his wife. Marnie rolled the passenger window down and looked at Jack.

“You came to bring a gift. The least we can do is accept it,” he stated, looking back at Kate and see her smile.

Marnie lifted the gift and placed it in Jack’s hands.

“Thank you,” she said, and tears fell on her cheeks.

“I’ll tell Jesse it was from his grandmother.” Jack took a step back.

“There’s something there for you, too,” Marnie said, and rolled up the window.

She backed up her car and turned around then headed along the dirt drive away from the ranch. Jack watched as she disappeared from view.

“I must be crazy,” said Jack, holding the wrapped present.

“Yes you are,” Kate smiled. “And I love you for it.”

“What do you supposed is in this thing?” asked Jack shaking it and hearing it rattle.

“I don’t know.” Kate shrugged.

“It better not be a bomb or we’re all screwed,” he frowned.

“I think we should wait until after the party to open it,” she suggested.

The last thing she wanted right now was to get emotional with a houseful of people. It would be better to wait until everyone left and Jesse went to bed. Then they could relax and open Marnie’s gift together.

“Whatever you want, baby,” said Jack as they walked back into the house to join their guests.

For the remainder of the day, Kate kept herself occupied, but her eyes kept wandering to the wrapped gift with a blue bow sitting on the side table in the living room. After their guests left and the party was over, Jack helped Kate clean up—holding the overlarge trash bag while Kate discarded used cups, plates and left over party favors. She did the dishes and gave Jesse his bath. Both she and Jack read Jesse his favorite story then tucked him into bed. Within minutes, the toddler was asleep. Jack and Kate tiptoed from his room and walked to their bedroom.

Kate saw the present lying at the foot of their bed. She ran her fingers along the blue bow and over the shiny white and blue wrapping.

“What do you suppose it is?” asked Kate as she looked up at Jack and watched him discard his shirt into the laundry basket.

“Why don’t you open it and find out?” Jack flopped on to the bed and removed his boots.

Kate sat on the bed and with slow strokes removed the bow. She was meticulous in the way she un-wrapped it, making sure the paper didn’t tear.

“Oh for the love of God, just open it, Kate.” Jack shook his head. Why, his son would have had the paper off in two seconds.

She un-wrapped it and a white box appeared. Kate hesitated before removing its lid. There in the box was a stuffed animal of a black stallion.

“This must be for Jesse,” she said, getting a little misty eyed as her thoughts drifted to Black Thunder.

“It’s a nice gift,” said Jack, sensing where his wife’s thoughts were.

Kate laid the stuffed horse on the bed. She noticed there was another small box nestled in tissue paper.

“There’s something else here as well.” She looked at Jack, “and it is addressed to us.”

Kate removed the box and opened it. There lying against a blanket of blue velvet was a pendant and its center housed strands of hair the color of sun and sand. On the back of the pendant was an inscription that read
, Love Conquers All
.

“Oh Jack, it’s our hair,” cried Kate, and she choked up. “How did she get this?”

“She must have saved the clippings from that night,” said Jack, looking at the braided hairs as his emotions rose too.

It was a priceless gift and one they would both cherish for the rest of their lives. Kate fell into Jack’s arms, and he held her tight.

“What are we going to do about her?” Kate sobbed as all her doubts about her mother’s love for her washed away with each tear.

It was the greatest gift she ever received from her mother, and she knew it was given from the heart.

“Call her,” caved Jack. “´Cause if I know Marnie, she’s still lingering in town somewhere.”

Kate nodded and wiped her tears with the back of her hand. She reached for her cell phone and made the call.

“Hello Mother,” said Kate hearing the maternal voice on the other end. “Yes, I opened your gifts and …and—I just wanted to say it’s beautiful.”

Jack listened to the one sided conversation as he watched Kate shake her head.

“Yes, we’d like it if you come by tomorrow to see Jesse.” She looked at her husband and smiled. “That’s right, Mom. It’s all right with Jack. It’s a new beginning for all of us.”

Kate’s heart skipped a beat.

“I love you too, Mom,” said Kate. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Kate ended the call and placed her cell phone on the nightstand.

“I guess that means she’s stopping by tomorrow,” said Jack as he leaned back against his pillow.

“She’s coming for lunch.” Kate crawled up beside him.

“Great!” he half-frowned, thinking about Marnie. “But just to make it clear, mother or no mother, I’m not giving up my total day with you. Sunday is the only day I have to fully grope my wife and I plan on devouring you for most of the morning.”

“Why wait,” said Kate as a sweet smile formed on her lips.

“Is that a challenge?” he grinned.

“No, more like an invitation.” Kate moved closer, snuggling against his chest. “I’m ready to be loved good!”

“Oh, I’ll love you good, baby, and by the time I’m done, your toes are going to stay permanently curled,” said Jack, folding her into his arms.

“Oh my,” exclaimed Kate, feeling a heated rush.

“Did I make your panties wet?” he grinned.

“You always do.”

That was all Jack needed to hear. He kissed her hard while he touched her in all his favorite places.

“I think it’s time for me to get cracking on knocking you up with baby number two,” he whispered in her ear.

“Whatever you say, Jack,” said Kate as she melted in his arms.

The thought of having another child left Kate with a wonderful thrill. She wanted more babies with Jack McBride. She wanted everything that life had to offer with Jack McBride because of the kind of man he was. He worked hard, he played hard and he loved hard; and she was alive on account of it.

EPILOGUE

Jack had buried Black Thunder along the foothills of Austin with a temporary marker placed for a head stone. Now they returned with something fitting, as a permanent remembrance of the sacrifice the magnificent steed made on their behalf.

The picture looked surreal, like that of classic American painting—a woman standing against the backdrop of sagebrush and Nevada sky as the wind blew her long, blond hair. She was holding a child’s hand—a toddler with matching blond hair—and her belly was swollen with the child she carried within her womb. They stood in silence gazing upon the memorial,-the stone Jack erected for Black Thunder.

Jack captured the picture with his camera then joined them.

“It’s beautiful.” Kate looked at Jack and took his hand.

He thought the same about her as he gazed at her swelled belly.

“I thought it would be fitting,” said Jack as he read the inscription aloud.

Black Thunder

The last of the great wild mustangs!

For with healing comes a price. A sacrifice to be made as Great Spirit spins the Wheel of Life. With sacrifice comes death and with death re-birth. In life, you roamed the earth wild and free, but in death you forfeited life thus granting freedom to us all.

May your memory live on in our hearts and be re-birthed in our children’s as we tell them the story of the great black stallion.

“Do you think he knows we’re here?” asked Kate. “It’s like I can still feel him, but it’s different.”

“How so, baby?” Jack asked her.

“I keep looking over that ridge half-expecting him to appear in a cloud of dust or hear him thunder across the lake-bed.”

“Not likely, unless he emerges from the grave.”

“I doubt that.” Kate rolled her eyes.

Jack nudged her with his hip.

“It’s getting late, baby,” said Jack, taking Jesse’s hand. “We have a long drive ahead of us and I don’t want you overexerting yourself. Remember what the doctor said.”

“Yes, I know,” said Kate, loving him for caring about her the way he did. “I’ll take it easy. Besides, I’ll probably fall asleep on the ride home.”

“Come on, champ.” Jack placed Jesse on his shoulders and folded his chubby little hands in his big strong hands.

Jack turned and was ready to leave when he heard Jesse screech.

“Horsey! Horsey!” The toddler laughed and pointed toward the foothills.

“Where do you see a horsey?” asked Kate, looking in the direction her son was pointing.

And that’s when she heard it. A low rumble started on the ground as she felt the dirt vibrate under her feet then grew louder like that of a locomotive. A cloud of dust formed along the hillside and out of the grey mist appeared the black stallion.

Jack set his son on his feet and reached for Kate’s hand.

“It can’t be?” exclaimed a stunned Jack.

The black stallion rose back on his heels and released a warrior like cry. His head lifted in the air as if he caught their scent. His stealthy head turned and stared at the family at the base of the hill. Then he moved in their direction, abandoning any caution or fear.

He was the spitting image of Black Thunder except for the patch of white between his eyes and on his front leg. Like the phoenix—from out of the ashes of the father—his son rose.

The young stallion arched his head and bellowed to claim his father’s herd. Kate watched in wonder, as several mares answered his calling and appeared on the ridge.

He was majestic like his father and carried himself with regal pride. Tears formed in Kate’s eyes as the young steed moved along the rocks and headed straight toward them. He stopped by their son Jesse and nudged him with his nose.

“Horsey,” Jesse laughed, then he flopped his body across the animal’s nose and hugged him.

“So the next generation of spirit talkers has begun,” grinned Jack as he ran his hand along the dark prince’s neck.

Kate stepped closer to the animal, wondering if he would welcome her as his father did. She pressed her hand against his coarse, dark fur and ran it along his torso. The horse turned and snorted his approval. Kate laughed and hugged him around the neck.

“Black Thunder has indeed returned from the grave… in the way of his son.”

“Mariah was right.” Jack glanced at Kate. “The Wheel of Life does keep turning.”

It was the second miracle Great Spirit had given. The first was healing his wife and the second was the re-birth of a prince. It did his heart well, knowing they were not alone in the world, and the circle that was never ending would keep going.