Chapter 26

 

“What happened to your hand?” Maggie asked, stroking across Garret’s bloodied knuckles with a finger.

“Ah, I don’t know. I haven’t handled losing you very well, I guess.” He shrugged, and the blanket of leaves underneath them rustled with the movement of his shoulders.

Head on his chest, she lay curled around him. She had dressed and made an effort to tidy her hair. He’d watched her, completely uninterested in dressing in more than his pants. Not minding, she’d lain beside him to soak up their last minutes alone before they found the ranch hands and told them of her return.

The waning sunlight filtered through the trees above them, throwing shadows and highlights over their bodies. She traced the outlines of the foliage over the flat planes of Garret’s stomach, and then over the muscular rise of his chest and down again. She relished the feel of him. Hers. This wild and masculine creature spared tender moments only for her, and it would be so until she drew her last breath. The thought filled her with warmth and a security she had only been able to imagine.

“Maggie?” Garret said, with a chuckle.

“Hmm?” she asked, having been completely lost in her thoughts.

“You’re gonna have to stop doin’ that.”

“Doing what?”

Garret stopped her hand and brought it to his lips with a devilish grin.

“Oh! So sorry,” she said, stifling a giggle and letting her wandering eyes travel down his body one last time then stood and brushed leaves off her dress.

“You don’t seem sorry.”

She tossed him a look, and started in the direction of the house. “I’m not,” she said just loud enough for him to hear.

Garret’s booming laugh filled the woods as scrambling, he gathered his clothes. The sound warmed her to her very soul.

Lenny saw her first, though how her friend knew she was there was beyond Maggie. Before they even came out of the woods, Lenny abandoned her overflowing bag of potatoes in the dirt and ran for them. Maggie released Garret’s hand in time for Lenny to fling herself into a hug. The raven-haired girl wasn’t crying, as far as she could tell, but she wasn’t letting go either. Maggie cried enough for both of them.

“Don’t you ever do that to me again!” Lenny chided as she pulled back and shook her by the shoulders.

“Lenny,” she whisper-warned. Cookie, Wells and Burke had made their way within hearing distance to their reunion.

Lenny waved her off. “They already know.”

Burke reached them first. “Yeah, it ain’t easy to get used to, either. She don’t say two words in all the time I’ve worked here, and now she won’t stop yammerin’. Finds all kinds o’ ways to order us around.” He winked at Lenny. “Hey, Boss Lady. Glad to have you back home. You gave us all a scare. Thought we lost you to Boston.”

Burke hugged her hard enough to damage organs, and Wells tipped his hat and muttered “Welcome home,” with a shy smile.

“Well, the thought crossed my mind to stay,” she responded. “The cook at the estate couldn’t quite master Lenny and Cookie’s rabbit stew though. Said they were having trouble finding wild game. Who can live like that? Not me, so I came home.” She graced Garret with a grin.

Burke clapped him on the back. “There you have it, boss. From your own wife’s mouth. She didn’t come back for you. Just for Cookie’s recipes.”

Garret gave a toothy grin. “Don’t care why she came back. Only that she did.”

Cookie said, “Well, I think you’ll like what we are having for dinner then.”

“Oh, please tell me it’s rabbit stew! I haven’t eaten since early this morning and my belly button feels like it is rubbing my backbone raw!”

“Been simmering all day,” Cookie confirmed.

She squeaked with delight and Garret told the hands to call it a day early to celebrate her return with dinner at the big house. The rest of the potatoes would hold until morning.

Cookie, Wells and Burke strode back to the potato field to collect tools, bags, canteens, and to load the horses with filled sacks of spuds. Garret took her hand and Lenny locked arms with her, and they headed toward the house together. It was half a mile over rough terrain, but that didn’t dampen her mood. Garret’s boisterous voice mesmerized as he spoke, but it wasn’t the words that were important. The easy and infectious smile he couldn’t seem to keep from his face filled her with unbridled euphoria. Such a change in the months since she’d first seen the stoic man she knew better than anyone in the world, and not at all. She heaved a sigh as the house came into view. Barely checked emotions filled her, and she pulled to a stop. Such a moment was to be revered. Lenny leaned her cheek on her shoulder and Garret kissed the top of her head as she absorbed the beauty of the cabin and lush, green land surrounding it.

Burke yelled, “Get a room!” from behind, breaking the reverie, which made the moment even more perfect somehow. All was as it should be.

* * * *

“I have a small favor to ask,” Maggie said around a mouthful of corn bread.

Dinner had wound down and almost all were still gathered around the table in the big house. Everyone except Cookie, who’d left to try and track down the white filly she’d aptly named Trouble.

“Uh oh, it starts. All right, Boss Lady. Give us your list of demands,” Burke joked.

Maggie tossed a cloth napkin in his direction. “Don’t make me fire you,” she said, grinning. “I know you all are terribly busy, but I need Garret and a couple of the hands to come into town with me in the morning.”

“For what?” Garret asked.

She hadn’t a guess on which way his reaction would swing, and cleared her throat. “My Uncle William decided to provide for me after all. In his will he gave me a large sum of money. I suspect to give me the opportunity to save something I love. My home.”

Garret stared at her in confusion. “What are you saying?”

“I have been back in Rockdale for a few days now.”

“What? I don’t understand—” Garret started.

“Just let me finish. I’ll tell you everything, I promise, and I know I’m leaving so much out and messing this up completely, but I’m…we’re,” Maggie corrected, “paying off the loan your father took out with Jennings. We’re keeping the ranch. It is our home and with the money I have inherited, it will always be our home, and then our children’s home.”

Everyone at the table gawked at her.

“I’ve been in town meeting with the bank and the town lawyer, and I have everything set up. I just need your signature on some legal documents making us independent of any debt against the Lazy S. The ranch will be ours.”

Garret shook his head slowly. “Maggie, this don’t feel right. It’s your money your uncle gave to you. We can find another way.”

“I wrote to Uncle William of my love for this place and of our struggle to keep it. He would have been happy the money is used in such a way. For the first time in my entire life I have a home and damn it all if I’ll let anyone take it away from me and the people I love. Whether you like it or not, you are my family now.” Maggie searched all their faces. “I don’t have anyone left. You’re it,” she said, shrugging. She turned back to Garret. “I know you wouldn’t like it if I use all of my inheritance on the ranch, so you’ll need to bring the money you have saved to the bank tomorrow. We are meeting with the Jenningses and making the loan payment official. And then we’ll pay what we still owe the bank on it. We’ll pay it off together.”

The shock seemed to have worn off Burke, Wells, and Lenny because they grinned from ear to ear.

Garret rubbed his face, and the corner of his mouth lifted as he, no doubt, thawed to the idea that the huge weight which had settled firmly on his shoulders for so long would be lifted in a day’s time.

He jumped up and threw his hat across the living room, yelling excited whoops and laughing the booming laugh she loved so. He picked her up and spun her around, and her breath caught in surprised laughter.

“Wait, wait. Why do you need us to go into town with you?” Lenny spoke up through the noise of celebration.

“Oh, well because there’s more,” Maggie said. “If I remember correctly, tomorrow is Garret’s birthday.”

“How could you possibly remember that?” he asked, bright blue eyes wide over his still uncontrolled grin.

“Because my mother and I always made you a pie for your birthday growing up. The date stuck in my head. I wrote you a birthday letter for years after I left, but you, no doubt, didn’t read them.” She tsk-tsked. “So, in honor of your birthday, tomorrow I have arranged for a shipment of horses to arrive on the train and we are to pick them up and drive them back to the Lazy S ourselves.”

“Horses?” Garret asked, a new wave of awe washing over his face.

“The black Friesian filly actually gave me the idea. I know the Jenningses have the best horses around, and they make a pretty penny from breeding and selling them. Why not give them some competition then?” She didn’t hide the mischief in her smile. “I met up with the most recognized horse breeders around Boston before I came back. It’s what took me so long after Aunt Margaret passed. I purchased fine thoroughbreds for speed, and draft horses for farms that need work horses as well. And then on a whim, I bought the white filly, which I was told is an Arabian. Very exotic, I thought. Didn’t worry at the time that she might try to scrape me off on every tree we passed.”

She turned to Garret again. In a subdued voice, she said, “Happy birthday.”

Garret opened and closed his mouth, at a loss for what to say.

“Oh, and also, I couldn’t stand the thought of the Jenningses owning Roy’s homestead so I made an offer the bank couldn’t refuse and have purchased it to be absorbed into the Lazy S, effective immediately.”

Lenny snorted and giggled. The men followed suit and shook their heads at her continued news.

“Good grief, woman. You got anything else you need to say?” Garret asked, the happiness in his eyes undeniable.

“No, I think that is it.”

“Well, good. You have done too much.”

Maggie shrugged. No amount would be too much for the people she cared so deeply about.

“Wells? Go grab your fiddle. Burke? Grab the whiskey. Tonight we are celebrating Maggie and all the things she has done for the ranch and for us.” He turned to her, and she grew warm under his proud gaze. “And I don’t just mean the good you done tonight, Maggie. I mean the good you’ve been doin’ since the day you married me.”

“You made a terribly unwilling husband that day, Mr. Shaw.”

“Yeah, well I’m willing enough now.” Garret swung a look at Wells, who was walking out the door. “Now fire up that fiddle, man! I want to dance with my wife!”

“You got it, boss,” Wells said with a grin.

In an uncharacteristic move, the quiet man hollered a high pitched noise of celebration as soon as he closed the door behind him.

* * * *

“I’ll never forget tonight, as long as I live,” Garret said quietly, as he lay in bed with Maggie, stroking her hair. “This feeling? I can’t imagine anything else like this.”

Beneath her head, the words had vibrated in his chest, and it made her smile. “I lied earlier.”

“About what?”

“About not having anything else for you. I bought you something while I was in Boston. My trunk is still in town but I brought it in my pocket so I could give it to you sooner.”

Maggie brushed her lips against his and stood. Her skin became cold with the detachment from Garret’s for the first time in hours. The candlelight flickered across his face and bare chest as he watched her, and a contented smile played on his lips. She rifled through the pockets of her discarded dress until she found the gold pocket watch.

Moments of shyness still afflicted her around him, and this turned out to be one of them. She sat on the bed and handed it to him without saying a word. Garret took the watch and studied it, the expression on his face unreadable. When he looked back at her, the emotion in his eyes threatened to engulf her already full heart.

“I love you, Maggie. I think a piece of me always has, and the rest of me always will.”

“I love you, too, Garret Shaw,” she said, the feeling of happiness a warm blanket as she lay down next to him.

“Roy was right.”

“Right about what?” she asked.

“The day he died, when he asked me to do right by you and take care of you?”

“Mm-hmm?”

“The last thing he said to me was, ‘Boy, if you let her, she’ll be good for you.’ I don’t know how he knew, but he did.”

She smiled in the flickering candlelight. Roy had been taking care of them both with his final request. He’d given her family, friends, and for the first time since she’d left Rockdale so many years before, she was right where she was supposed to be.

Home.