Reese Page 23

  “You were there when it counted. You saved Reese, and I’ll always be grateful.”

  “Maybe I should have let him die. You wouldn’t be in trouble then.”

  “It was already too late.”

  Jo raised her head, then her eyebrow, but she remained blessedly silent on that subject at least. “You love Rock Creek. You saved it. How could you leave?”

  Mary peered out the window at the town she had given everything for. “You know, it’s just a town without Reese.”

  “You still love him? After this?”

  Mary rested her hand on her stomach. “I love him more because of this. If a baby is all I ever have of him, it’ll have to be enough.”

  “This baby might ruin your life.”

  “No, this baby will make my life worth living. I’ve been moping around, unable to figure out why this town was empty, why my home wasn’t a home.” She turned and grinned at Jo, who stared at her as if she’d gone insane right before her very eyes. “I never had a home, so I didn’t understand that me all alone in a house didn’t make one. A house without love and family is just a house.”

  Mary was getting excited now; the truth always did that for her. “I thought the worst thing that could happen to me would be to lose this job or have to leave this town. But the worst thing just might be the best thing that ever happened in my life.”

  “Mary, you’ve gone crazy.”

  “I know. Isn’t it great?”

  Chapter 19

  Reese rode into Rock Creek bright and early on the Sunday morning before Christmas. It had taken him longer than he wanted to get back; since he’d left all his money with Mary he’d had to take a few jobs along the way to make ends meet.

  He’d ridden hard the past few days, anxious to return to the place he now thought of as home. Wherever Mary laid her head had become home. He only hoped she’d agree.

  Reese still thought she deserved better than him, but he’d finally come to understand that he deserved a few good things too. Mary was the best thing of all. He’d spend his life giving her the world, or at least all that he could give.

  If she didn’t spit in his eye for leaving in the first place.

  The streets were deserted, though Reese could hear singing from the church. Mary would be in that church. He’d just wait outside and surprise her.

  Reese led Atlanta to the stable, pleased to discover the place had been taken over by a new family in Rock Creek. Oddly enough, when the young boy who stabled Reese’s horse heard his name, he ran toward the hotel. Reese shrugged and headed toward the church.

  Unfortunately, the singing had stopped, and Clancy’s voice echoed in the street. “And in this season, when the Virgin gave birth to hope, we remember again the Jezebel in our midst.”

  “Nice sermon for Christmas.”

  He glanced through the doorway, gaze searching for Mary, but there were too many people.

  “The fruit of her sin is plainly visible to anyone with the eyes to see.” The crowd shifted and muttered. “We cannot be intimidated by her friends. We must do what is right for our children.”

  People craned their necks, trying to catch a glimpse of someone in the front pew. Reese did too. He felt sorry for whoever was getting the brunt of Clancy’s sermon.

  “Cast her out!” Clancy cried. “Today.”

  “That’s it.” Reese stepped inside. “Just who are you talkin’ about?”

  Everyone turned to stare at him, mouths agape, then pointed at the front pew. Reese walked down the center aisle, intent on removing the poor soul who had earned Clancy’s wrath.

  He was two pews away when she stood. His feet stopped; so did his heart. He knew that hair, the slope of that neck—blessedly free of a scar from El Diablo—even the shade of her skin. Slowly, she turned, and his eyes moved over her hungrily, then stuck on her enormous middle.

  Now he couldn’t breathe. How had that happened? Well, he knew how it had happened, but he distinctly remembered her telling him not to worry. Had she known even then? What if he had never come back? How had she planned to manage this?

  She met his gaze squarely. Her chin went up when his eyes narrowed, and he was reminded of the first time he’d seen her in Dallas. She managed everything, but she wasn’t going to manage his child without him.

  “Marry, marry, marry,” he snapped.

  “Yes?” She asked, her voice as prissy as he’d ever heard it.

  “Not Mary. Marry.” He glanced at Clancy. “Marry us. Now.”

  Clancy looked like a fish flopping on the banks of the river; his mouth opened, closed, then opened again.

  “I’m not marrying you!” Mary cried.

  The crowd grumbled and shuffled as Reese slowly turned toward her. “Oh, yes, you are.”

  “What is it with you, your men, and marriage?” She threw up her hands. “Rico first, though he refused to be faithful. Then Jed and Sullivan, though their faces were a mite green when they asked. Nate was drunk, but he always is. Cash even showed up this morning.”

  “My men asked you to marry them?”

  Her face softened. “A few of them asked twice. Except for Cash. He offered to keep me—platonically, of course. He seems to have a bad opinion of marriage.”

  “They’re here?”

  “Right behind you.”

  Reese spun and discovered all five men lounging in the doorway, grinning at him. The stable boy appeared to have tattled.

  “I told them no, and I’m telling you the same thing. I’m not marrying someone without love.”

  His heart dropped as he turned to face her. “You don’t love me?”

  He’d raced across half a country toward the only person who truly loved him, no matter what, or so he’d thought.

  “Of course I love you, you idiot. You don’t love me.”

  “Where did you get that idea?”

  “You left, and you didn’t come back.”

  “I’m back.”

  “I am not marrying you because of this child. If I can’t be loved for myself, I don’t want to be loved at all. A marriage based on a mistake is just another mistake.”

  Tears rolled down her cheeks, and Reese felt worse than he ever had before. How many times had he made her cry—this woman who hadn’t cried since 1862?

  “I can manage.” She sniffed.

  “Then why are you crying?”

  “I never cry.”

  He inched closer and scooped a tear onto his finger, then held the drop out for her to see. “Of course you don’t.”

  “It’s the baby.” She dashed the tears away with an annoyed swipe. “We don’t need you. I have a plan. I can take care of us both.”

  “I have no doubt you can. But I need you.” He snagged her hand before she could get away. When she tugged to be free, he held on tighter. “I’ve made mistakes, Mary. A whole peck. But you weren’t one of them. You were the only right thing, the only good thing, the only truly beautiful and perfect thing I’ve ever touched.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring he’d gone home for. “I had to go all the way to Georgia for this.”

  She gazed into his face, her damp eyes as blue as the winter sky. “You went home?”

  “You made me think. So did they.” He jerked his head at his gang to the rear. “If you can love me despite everything, then why couldn’t my family? Maybe they were wrong. Maybe they’re sorry. Maybe I’m not a murderer.”

  “Murderer!” Clancy shouted. “I knew it!”

  Mary glared at the reverend. “He is not a murderer. No more than any man in that horrible war. And you stay out of this.”

  Clancy swallowed audibly, an inappropriate reaction. Mary was fierce but not too frightening, although Reese wouldn’t tell her that.

  He glanced over his shoulder and found Cash with his guns out. Reese his head, and the gambler returned the pistols to their holsters with a showy flick of his wrists.

  Mary tugged at Reese’s hand. “I was right? Everyone was sorry about what they’d don
e to you, and they welcomed you home like the prodigal son?”

  “Not exactly. My parents were glad to see I wasn’t dead. But the town would have preferred I was.” And amazingly, that hadn’t mattered as much as he’d thought it would. “I let my family know where I’d be, took my grandmother’s ring, and rode back here as fast as I could.” He held out the ring, praying she would take it.

  Her eyes still moist from the first set of tears, when she saw the gold wedding band, fresh drops spilled over. “You got that ring before you knew about… about—”

  “This?” He placed his palm on the mound of her belly, something he’d wanted to do since the first moment he’d realized the burden she carried. “Of course, Mary.”

  Reese moved closer, ignoring all the eyes that watched them. If he had to do this in front of the whole town, and it looked as if he did, so be it. However some things were for her ears alone. He leaned over and whispered, “Didn’t you know I fell in love with you the first time you offered me everything? I’d like to give you everything.”

  “Does everything include you?”

  He leaned back and smiled. “Everything most certainly does include me.”

  “Well, in that case…”

  “Is that a yes?”

  “That’s a yes,” Nate shouted from the rear.

  Reese led Mary in front of Clancy, who still appeared as if he’d swallowed half a sour pickle. “J-just because she’ll be married doesn’t mean she can keep teaching, you know. It isn’t proper.”

  Reese pulled the other thing he’d gone home for from his pocket. “Fine. I’ll take the job.”

  Clancy glanced at the teaching certificate. His mouth started moving again, but nothing came out. Reese returned the paper to his pocket. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  “But, Reese.” Mary bit her lip. “Won’t the children upset you?”

  “Maybe. But avoiding them wasn’t helping. Perhaps I need to face children before I have one of my own. I was a very good teacher once. I think I can be again as long as I have you to hold my hand.” He peered at Clancy, who seemed to have recovered enough to perform the ceremony. “Marry us.”

  A commotion from the rear drew everyone’s attention. Reese’s men were whispering and exchanging money.

  Mary laughed. “Who won?”

  “Me.” Sullivan held up a fistful of dollars and smiled for the first time that Reese had ever seen.

  The bet. How could Reese have forgotten what had kept them amused for so many years? He’d have to find something else for them to do now that all his secrets had been revealed.

  “Name?” Clancy asked.

  Well, almost all of his secrets.

  “James Reese IV,” he answered, and his men hooted.

  “Pansy rich boy’s name,” Cash said.

  Reese kept his gaze on Mary. The bloom of her smile made every pain of his past worthwhile. Perhaps he’d had to live through hell to deserve such heaven.

  His gaze dropped to her stomach, and suddenly something she had once said made sense. Perhaps he had lived, when everyone else had died, for a reason.

  This reason.

  “James is a beautiful name,” Mary said. “But I doubt I’ll ever be able to call you by it.”

  “Call me whatever you like, as long as you call me yours.”

  “I did buy you once. Just because you returned the money doesn’t mean beans to me.”

  Reese grinned. “That’s right. You own me.”

  “You were a bargain.”

  “A steal.” He sobered as uncertainty raised its ugly head once more. “You’re sure you want to do this? Might be a mistake.”

  Mary held his gaze as she took his hand. “I’ll take my chances.”

  The End

  Page forward for an excerpt from

  Sullivan

  Book 2 in The Rock Creek Six series

  Excerpt from

  Sullivan

  The Rock Creek Six

  Book 2

  by

  Linda Devlin

  Eden lifted her face to Sullivan, expecting a scowling frown to be directed her way. But his face was strangely passive, less threatening than it had been moments ago. “You’re welcome to travel with us, Mr. Sullivan.” It was the proper thing to say, and Eden prided herself on not being rude. Not even to strangers. “Unless, of course, you prefer to go on.” She nodded to where the horses grazed. “Teddy and I tried to get you into the wagon ourselves, but I’m afraid you were too heavy for us. We had to solicit help from the saloon.” She wrinkled her nose at the memory of her brief time in that establishment. “I decided as long as I was there I might as well ask about your horse.”

  She studied the man before her a bit more closely. In spite of his size and his harsh and battered face, Sullivan wasn’t such a threatening man after all. Her imagination must have been working much too hard earlier, when she’d felt almost afraid of him. There was a kindness there. Mostly hidden, that was true, but she saw it.

  “I promised them that if they let me take you and your horse I’d do my best to keep you out of their less-than-friendly town.” She gave him a small smile.

  “Those sons of bitches,” he muttered. “I’ve got a good mind to head back there right now and…”

  “Please don’t curse in front of the children,” Eden said in a lowered voice. He didn’t look at all chastened. “Perhaps in the future you’ll be more selective about the women you kiss.” Her tone was light; the face he turned to her was not. “I asked one of those horrible men why they were beating you,” she explained. “I don’t suppose you remember that part.”

  He turned and began to silently tend to the horses, checking his own fine steed, a tall black stallion, before leading her team to the front of the wagon. He hadn’t said much at all, didn’t seem inclined to indulge in friendly conversation. How was she supposed to discover what kind of man he was if he didn’t speak? She didn’t even know if he planned to turn back, to ride ahead, or join them for a while.

  “So, where are you headed, Mr. Sullivan?” she asked as she gathered up the pink skirt and the coffeepot.

  “Rock Creek,” he mumbled.

  His attentions were elsewhere as he hitched the horses to the wagon, and so he couldn’t see Eden’s face, her fading smile, the flicker of fascination in her eyes. For that she was grateful. Jedidiah had always told her she’d make a lousy poker player, with every thought so clearly displayed on her face.

  As he moved to hitch his own horse to the back of the wagon, which answered the question about his immediate travel intentions, she said, “How very interesting. So am I.”

  He grunted something that sounded obscene, but since she couldn’t be sure she didn’t reprimand him. The only word she was certain she understood was Rourke.

  Suddenly she smiled. Sullivan was heading for Rock Creek, himself, and the way he’d mumbled her last name… “You know Jedidiah, don’t you?” she asked.

  Sullivan turned slowly to face her. “Yeah, I know him.” It was impossible to tell from the expression on his face whether he and Jedidiah were friends or enemies or casual acquaintances.

  “Is he well?” she asked. “I haven’t seen him in five years, and lately… Well, lately he’s been on my mind quite a lot.”

  Sullivan didn’t ease her mind or satisfy her curiosity. In fact, he was a confoundedly closemouthed man. He looked at the children in the back of the wagon, studying them closely, thoughtfully.

  “I don’t think he’s there,” he did say, finally. “At least, he wasn’t there three weeks ago, when I left. But I imagine he’ll be back before too much longer. He always turns up sooner or later.”

  Her spirits fell. She hadn’t realized how much she had her heart set on riding into Rock Creek and finding Jedidiah. “Well,” she said, determined not to let her disappointment show, “perhaps you’re wrong.”

  Sullivan took her hand and assisted her into the wagon seat; then he vaulted, carefully on account of his recent beating,
to the seat beside her. “Can I ask why you’re so all-fired set on seeing Jed?” he asked as he set the horses into motion.

  “He hasn’t been home in years,” she said. “But I know he hasn’t forgotten about me. He usually writes regularly, but lately… Lately he’s been writing less and less, and he doesn’t really tell me anything about his life. His last two letters were posted in Rock Creek, and he mentioned the place with some fondness. He also said I could write to him there, in care of the Rock Creek Hotel. That made me hope that perhaps he’d made a place for himself there, and I decided that if he won’t come home, then, by golly, I’ll go to him.”

  “By golly,” he said softly, and with more than a touch of sarcasm. “I didn’t even know Jed was married, much less that he had a pretty little wife willing to track him to the ends of the earth when he doesn’t come home on time.”

  Eden broke into a huge grin as she realized Sullivan’s mistake. “Wife? Don’t be silly. I’m Jedidiah’s sister.”

  He cut her a suspicious glance—one-eyed, still. “Sister?”

  “Yes. My stepfather died last year, and now I have no family left but for my brother.” Her heart leaped a little. She still missed the man she’d called Daddy. The past few months had been lonely and frightening. She hated living alone, positively hated it. “A person should be with family, if at all possible. Don’t you agree, Mr. Sullivan?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “So, if Jedidiah won’t come home to Georgia, I’m moving to Rock Creek.”

  Sullivan studied the road silently for a while, lost in thought, sullen and battered. When he finally spoke, his voice was clearer than it had been, thus far. “So, Jed’s sister just happens to be riding through that shit-hole Webberville while I’m getting my ass whupped for the first time since I got outta short pants. What a coincidence.”

  Eden watched his profile, wincing at the injury to his face, damage that looked uglier and more obviously painful by the light of the sun. Her smile faded. She really should reprimand him for using coarse language in front of the children again, but she couldn’t find her tongue. His final disdainful, mocking comment stayed with her, instead. Coincidence?