“Look there, Sage! That woman of yours has sand in her gizzard, I’ll say!” A hefty Hank Toller dismounted and, as usual, spit tobacco juice, making sure to aim it away from everyone. “Maggie, did you count the points on that beast?”
“I didn’t even think to count them!” Maggie answered excitedly. “I was just so happy to get him with one shot!” She looked up at Sage, not quite able to read his eyes. “I’ll bet this is the biggest buck anybody on this ranch ever shot,” she told him, smiling.
Sage just shook his head. “I expect it is.”
“Ain’t no man on this ranch ever shot one bigger,” Bill verified. “I’m guessin’ that creature weighs two hundred fifty pounds, probably more.” He winked at Maggie. “I’ll be lookin’ forward to some venison steaks for the men right soon.”
Maggie laughed. “I’ll make sure every man gets a good meal out of this. We need to celebrate a successful roundup and the good price Sage got for those cattle you men herded to Cheyenne a couple weeks ago.”
Sage dismounted and walked over to inspect the deer. “You sure he’s dead? Wild animals have a way of suddenly rearing up after they lay there a bit. Be careful, Hank.”
Hank was counting the points. “Twelve!” He stood up, his stomach jiggling as he laughed. “Twelve points! Sage, we gotta keep the head of this thing for a souvenir. That’s some woman you have there!”
Sage looked Maggie over appreciatively, a sly grin finally making its way to his lips. “Oh, I already know that.” He walked closer to Maggie. “Step back, Maggie. If you’re going to go hunt an animal like this, don’t take it for granted he’s dead just because he’s down. A good kick from an animal that size could kill you, or the baby.” He gently took her arm and pushed her farther away. “Slit his throat, Hank. If he still has any life in him, we don’t want him to suffer.”
“Sure, Sage.”
Maggie winced a little when Hank took a big hunting knife from his belt and deftly ran it across the buck’s throat. She couldn’t help wondering if Hank had used that knife on a human being before, but she was sure if he had, it was for good reason. Hank was one of the friendliest men in Paradise Valley. Maggie didn’t know his sins and didn’t care to judge him, just as she didn’t care about Sage’s misdeeds. They were all good men at heart.
“You two get that buck down to the slaughtering shed and bleed it out and gut it,” Sage told Bill and Hank. “And I agree we should save the head and those antlers. Do what you have to do for that.”
“Joe Cable knows how to clean and dry out what needs to be,” Bill answered. “He could make a living at taxidermy, but he’d rather be outside ridin’ the range, like most of us.” He proceeded to help Hank tie the legs of the buck.
“Hang it over Maggie’s horse,” Sage told them. “Maggie can ride back to the house with me.”
“Sure enough.” Hank threw a blanket over Maggie’s saddle, and Sage helped both men tie the deer onto her horse. Hank and Bill rode off, carting the buck behind them. Sage turned to Maggie, who eyed him warily.
“Are you mad at me?” she asked, stepping back a little as he came closer, towering over her with a loving but somewhat chastising look on his handsome face.
Sage sighed and folded his arms. “Maggie, when are you going to stop looking at me like I might beat you or something? I’m not your father, and I’m not those men who killed your first husband and abused you.”
Maggie shrugged. “It’s hard for a person to get over how they were raised. Every time I made my pa mad, he found a way to punish me, and it was always more than just a scolding.”
“Have I ever laid a hand on you that way?”
Maggie grinned. “Of course not. But you’re my husband, and I’ve seen the mean side of you against men who crossed you. Husbands have rights.”
“No man has rights like that, especially not a father or a husband. And you know what my first wife did to me. She’s the only woman I was ever truly angry with, but for God’s sake, I never hit her. You know me better by now, but damn it, Maggie, you have to tell me or one of the men if you’re going to ride off alone. What if Missy stumbled or threw you off? Or what if that buck kicked you? You could lie hidden in this tall grass for hours before we’d find you. You do happen to be carrying, you know.”
Maggie walked closer and threw her arms around him, resting her head against his chest. “I know. But there wasn’t time to tell anybody, Sage. I had to hurry after I saw him out here again.”
Sage’s strong arms came around her, and he kissed the top of her head. “Just keep your promise about not going off alone. This ranch might be well guarded, but seven or eight men can’t scan a whole sixty thousand acres day and night or all at once. You’re lucky Hank and Bill and I were already back from the east range when we heard your gunshot and were able to get here as fast as we did.”
“But I was okay.”
“How could we know that?” Sage squeezed her closer. “Maggie, I went through enough hell rescuing you from those men on the Outlaw Trail. I’m still not quite over it, and I know you aren’t either. And I know why you came out here and shot that deer.”
Maggie frowned, looking up at him. “What do you mean?”
Sage moved away slightly and cupped her chin in his hand. He leaned down to kiss her softly. “I mean you don’t have to keep proving your worth to me. You think that because you’re carrying another man’s baby, I’m going to eventually stop loving you. Or that I’ll never be able to love that kid in your belly. And you’re still comparing yourself to Joanna.”
Maggie turned away. “She is so beautiful, and educated and all lady and—”
“And she was out for nothing but my money,” Sage reminded her, “which is why I divorced her. Her kind of betrayal was as bad as cheating on me with another man. You, on the other hand, are the most blatantly honest and generous woman I’ve ever known. There’s a lot more to a woman worthy of love than education and sophistication, Maggie, and you’re it. And you’re damn beautiful in your own right. You’re all the reasons a man wants a woman in his life forever.”
Maggie looked up at him. “I love when you tell me things like that, Sage.”
Sage chuckled and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “You damn well know that I’m not a man to speak my feelings easily. I wouldn’t have told you I love you and I wouldn’t have married you if what I just said wasn’t true. What more do I need to do to prove how I feel about you?”
Maggie’s eyes teared. “Nothing at all. It’s just me being scared of losing you, Sage, because I love you so much and I love this life and this ranch.” Her smile faded. “If this baby at least belonged to James, it would be different. He was my legal husband. But those men shot him down, and now I’m carrying a baby fathered by one of them.”
“And I made sure they’re all dead. Through it all, I fell in love with you. Have you ever once heard me call that child a bastard?”
Maggie quickly wiped at her tears. “No. But I can’t help wondering if you’ve thought it.”
“And what did I tell you about that baby when I told you I wanted to marry you?”
Maggie faced him. “That you would love it like your own, and he or she would inherit part of this ranch like they had your own blood.”
“Am I a liar?”
Maggie sniffed and wiped at her nose with her sleeve. “No. Joe Cable once told me you’re as honest as what a man sees in a looking glass, and that’s why he likes working for you—your honesty and your loyalty.”
“Then why are you doubting my word? And why do you think you have to find ways to make sure I keep loving you?”
Maggie looked out at the heavenly colors and glorious beauty of Paradise Valley. The beautiful log home she lived in sat peacefully below, beyond a half mile of yellow grass that rippled from a soft wind. Pockets of cattle and horses dotted the landscape, along with two cabins, a large bunkhouse, two big barns, a chicken coop, and storage sheds. She’d never loved anything as much in her life as she loved Wyoming and this ranch and the man who owned it. “It’s just me, I guess. You’re all man and so sure of yourself, and some men don’t want kids at all, let alone when they aren’t their own.”
Sage pulled her back into his arms. “Well, I do want kids. You know that. For one thing, I’ll need them to help run this ranch, and I’ll take in the one you’re carrying and love it because I love his or her mother. You already had to bury a baby girl back in Missouri, and I know you’ve been yearning ever since for another baby. Maybe this one is a gift from God because of what you went through. I don’t know. I’m not much of one to talk about things like that.
“I just know I’ve found the perfect woman to share this ranch with me. And as far as anyone other than you and me knows, that baby you’re carrying is mine. Everybody knows we spent quite a while together searching for those bastards who took you, so no one will doubt we could have fallen in love and answered each other’s needs on the trail. Hell, that is what happened.”
Maggie snuggled against him, breathing in his scent, all leather and fresh air and man. “How could any woman not fall in love with you?”
Sage gave a light laugh. “There are plenty who would find that difficult. You already know I’m not always easy to live with.”
Maggie stood on her toes and managed to reach his lips for a quick kiss. “Are you proud of me for shooting that buck?”
“You know I am—just as proud and grateful as I was when you shot that grizzly that was trying to tear me to pieces back when I first found you.” He leaned down and returned her kiss, deeper, hungrier. “And right now I could lay you down in this grass and have at you.” He pressed a hand against her bottom. “But some of the other men will be riding this way soon with some fencing, so I’d better get you back to the house.”
He lifted her in his arms, and Maggie reached around his neck when he kissed her again, a long, slow kiss of promise for things to come later. He finally left her lips and kissed her neck as he carried her to his horse. “Damn it, Maggie, I have chores. You have completely disrupted my day, and now I don’t even want to go back out once I get you to the house.”
“Well, I have some bread dough rising, and it needs to be punched down and kneaded again, so we both have chores.”
“Then I’d better get you back.” Lifting her as though she weighed nothing, Sage plunked her on his horse, then mounted up behind her, wrapping his arms around her and taking the reins. “Maggie girl, as a hunter, you are beginning to make me look bad.”
Maggie rested against his solid chest as Sage urged his horse into a gentle trot toward their log home. “That would be impossible,” she answered. “You’re the bravest, most able man I’ve ever known. I’d be dead or living some kind of horror if not for you. And you most certainly would have brought down that buck with one shot and done it easily. I just got lucky.”
“Don’t underestimate yourself.”
Maggie smiled at her husband’s words of love and pride, and his reassuring arms around her. She was safe and loved in his embrace. “I love you, Sage.”
“Then keep your promises, Mrs. Lightfoot, or I will have to punish you.”
“And how would you do that?”
Sage grinned. “Let’s just say that I’m having fun thinking about it.” He ran a big hand over her belly. “But you need to start taking better care of yourself. Don’t be riding around so much on horseback, and I’m going to have Rosa start helping with more of your chores around the house.”
“I can do them.”
“Stop arguing with me.”
“Yes, sir.” Maggie knew the difference between a teasing Sage and one who meant business—and he meant business with his last statement, which was fine. It meant he cared. No man had cared about her like Sage did—not her demanding and unforgiving father, and not her first husband, who’d only used her for sex and chores and knew nothing about how to love or how to make love. Those were two things Sage Lightfoot was damn good at.