Chapter Twenty

Carolina felt a nudge on her shoulder. She put her hand out and discovered Stede was no longer sleeping beside her. She stretched and moaned. Rolling over, she looked up and found him standing over her.

“What time is it?” she asked squinting.

“Half past three in the morning. I’m wide awake and raring to go. The horses have been attended to, King has been exercised and fed, we’re gassed up, and I brought coffee and breakfast burritos.”

“Okay,” she yawned. “Give me a couple of minutes to use the bathroom and freshen up,” she said, reaching for her bag of toiletries out of her suitcase.

When she was ready, they sat and ate breakfast together, but Carolina still struggled to keep her eyes open. “We have a long ride because we didn’t put enough miles between Texas and Arizona last night. I wish I had taken the time to learn how to drive this rig. We could cover more miles that way.”

“That’s all right. As long as I have you to keep me company, we’ll do fine and should make a lot of progress today.”

As soon as she finished eating, he said, “Ready? Bring your coffee with you,” offering her his hand.

Carolina slept, unaware of the noise from the traffic, until around six-thirty in the morning, when Stede’s cell phone rang and startled her awake.

“If that’s my mother, I’m not going to answer.” He looked at the screen on his phone and with a note of alarm in his voice answered, “Granny? You all right?”

He looked over at Carolina. “What kind of news?”

After listening intently for a couple of minutes, he said, “Okay, I’ll take care of this and then call you back. Love you, too. No, we’re on the road traveling the southern route across Texas. Okay.”

“What’s wrong? Is she all right?” Carolina asked when he turned off his phone.

“Yes, she’s fine. There’s a rest stop up ahead, I’m going to pull in there for a few minutes; do you mind?”

“No, that’s all right.”

After Stede parked the rig, he turned sideways and took Carolina’s hand. “My grandmother called to tell you that your father passed away during the night.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised or sorry. I was expecting that to happen at any time; maybe he’s better off. I’ll wait a little bit and then call Lizzie before she heads to work.”

Stede put the truck in gear and said, “Let’s drive straight through. If I get tired, we’ll pull over and I can take a nap for an hour or so and then we can start out again.”

“Thanks.”

Carolina remained quiet with her private thoughts for a while, and they listened to country music on the radio. Around eight o’clock, she dialed Lizzie’s number and passed the information regarding Carl’s death to her.

“Great! If mom meets someone, she’ll be free to marry again.”

Carolina laughed. “Lizzie!”

“Well, that’s true. What are the plans for his burial?”

“I’ve no idea. Stede and I will be out of Texas soon, and when I get to Arizona, I’ll call the nursing home and find out if he has made any arrangements with them. Call me on my cell later. Love you, hugs for the kids. Bye.”

The next phone call came from Chance. Stede mostly listened and told his brother that her father had died and that they were driving straight through to Sage Canyon. Chance relayed a message from Manny that he and Jenny would be on the road within an hour and would see them soon.

When he hung up, she asked him what else Chance had to say because she only heard Stede’s part of the conversation.

“Just what I thought. They were on my mother like Sherman took Georgia, according to Chance. Mother feels ashamed, he said, but I know she’ll get over that by lunchtime. I’m certain she thought she was doing the right thing. She’ll say that poor Arianna is still heartbroken.”

“I can believe that.”

“You’re too kind.” He reached over and touched the tip of her nose with his finger. “If Arianna had shown up at the restaurant and truly did not know I was in town, I could have handled the situation. Soon to be thirty-six, I think I’m mature enough to have been able to greet her, asked her how she was, and even loved to have introduced you to her. But my mother had other plans.”

“What she did wasn’t nice, not only for you, but Arianna. I have a feeling she probably thought your mother knew something and may have presumed you wanted to see her.”

“I never thought of that, but you may be right. She made a mess out of our evening together.”

“Nobody could do that.”

He smiled. “We’ll stop for a big lunch before we leave Texas. Once we get into the areas without a lot of population, finding a decent place to eat isn’t easy. We’ll stop, maybe at a trailer park and I can let the horses graze a bit and King can get some fresh air and exercise. I’ll fill up with gas and fill the water and gas containers and we’ll get some of the snacks from the trailer and put them in the cooler.”

Carolina nodded and stretched. She was already stiff from sitting too long. She opened her laptop, read her messages and worked on some research until she began to feel sleepy again. She wrote her boss and informed him that her father had died and that she would be home within the week.

The trailer park they entered outside of El Paso, was quite nice. Carolina and Stede took the opportunity to use the shower and dressing room facilities while the horses grazed and King was allowed to run around in a fenced area for dogs.

There was an Olive Garden within walking distance and feeling renewed and freshened, they headed over for a late lunch. “We can take the extra salad and breadsticks with us, and have that later this evening when we get hungry.”

“Sounds good, but maybe a Whopper with cheese to go with the salad.”

“I keep forgetting, you’re a growing boy,” Carolina teased.

“We only have a little over four hundred more miles to go. If you keep me talking and turn up the music, we should be able to pull in the driveway around one or two in the morning. You game?”

“Sure, except you’re aware that the only music we can get is country. However, I have some CD’s in my briefcase.”

“Opera?”

She laughed. “No. I have the Eagles, Phil Collins, The Beegees…”

“All right!”

The rest of their journey was fun. Not another word was said about Arianna or his mother. They sang and talked and laughed and twice when traffic got to be too heavy in the cities, they pulled over and took short rests. But by the time they arrived in Sage Canyon, they were exhausted.

Stede had to put the horses in the barn, made sure they had feed and water and by the time he and King had entered the house, Carolina was sound asleep on the couch. He put a blanket over her and climbed into his bed.

****

The next morning, Carolina woke when she heard King come in the house through the doggie door. She looked at her watch that read nine-thirty, and sat up straight, stretching.

“Hey, boy!” she called, patting him on the head. “Where’s Stede?”

“In here,” he yelled, “I’m almost finished dressing. You can have the shower and I’ll make us some coffee and toast. Do you want to go by the nursing home and then go out to lunch with my grandmother?”

“Yes. I want to see about funeral arrangements for Carl and I’d love to see your grandmother.”

“All right,” he said, entering the family room.

Carolina squinted at him. “How can you be so perky and happy after all that driving you did.”

“The sunshine and beautiful weather helps. We’ll take it easy today because tomorrow I’ll be tied down getting the hospital up and running. Jenny and Manny should be here probably by dinnertime and Manny and I can get the trailer and motor home cleaned out and put behind the barn.”

“I’ll be glad to help. I’ll hurry and get dressed.”

She unpacked her clothes, separated her laundry and Stede’s, and threw a load of whites in the washer. She changed her purse and packed the one she had been carrying back in her suitcase and stuck the letter from her mother in a compartment and closed the lid. Somehow she wasn’t ready to deal with another complication.

As soon as they were dressed and had eaten, she put the load of clothes in the dryer and put a load of darks in the washer, and then they took off for the nursing home.

Carolina wasn’t sure what she expected, but nothing about Carl could shock her. As it turned out he was, of course, penniless, and they wanted to know if she was willing to pay for his funeral. She agreed and Stede took her to the local funeral director’s where the nursing home said they’d notify the morgue to deliver his body.

When they walked out of the nursing home, she told Stede, “Willing to bury him, not necessarily willing to pay for his funeral but they didn’t leave me much choice.”

He put his arm around her. “Come on, let’s get this over with and then pick up my grandmother.”

Carolina was glad Stede had accompanied her. He was acquainted with the man who owned the funeral parlor and he in turn was very helpful to her and offered her a discount, considering the circumstances. After she chose a decent casket and the man arranged for her to purchase a cemetery plot, she decided on a small prayer service at the cemetery chapel. After that was accomplished, and they stepped outside, she whisked her hands up and down her arms and shivered.

“Two more days and that part of your life will be ended forever.”

“When we get back to your place, I’d like to make reservations to return to Washington on Saturday. That will give me a chance to unpack, freshen up my apartment and go grocery shopping before I go back to work on Monday. My boss has probably loaded my desk with new clients and the office mail will be piled up to the ceiling.”

“At this point, I’m not going to try to talk you into staying. But I want you to know that King and I will miss you terribly.”

“Stede, don’t…”

“Don’t interrupt. Let me finish. I hope that after you get back to your apartment and get settled in at work, and get all caught up, that you will begin to feel miserable. So miserable, in fact, that the only cure will be to call me and tell me you’ve made a huge mistake and then you’ll beg me to marry you.”

She giggled. “And what would you say if I asked, excuse me, begged you to marry me?”

“Well, I’d have to think about it for at least a second.”

“Hmm! Good answer. I’ll remember that, just in case I feel miserable and decide to call and beg.”

“All right. We have a deal.”

“I want to make another deal.”

“Now you’re pushing your luck. Let’s hear it.”

“I want this to be our goodbye. I don’t want you to say anything when I leave. I don’t want to get on that plane and cry for the next five hours. And no matter what you may think or feel about my leaving, I love you more than Juliet loved Romeo and I will never love anyone as much as I love you. Being with you has been the happiest time of my entire life and I will always remember every second we spent together and every word we exchanged.”

“And I promise to wait for you to call,” he said, giving her the one dimple smile and a wink. He made her insides feel like melted milk chocolate.

After he parked the SUV in front of his grandmother’s, he helped Carolina out of the car. “Come here,” he said, opening his arms to her. He kissed her gently, and then held her, memorizing the soft texture of her hair against his jaw line, the scent of her perfume, the smoothness of her skin, and the press of her gentle curves and slender body against his. Finally he released her and said, “Remember how much I love you.”

She felt her eyes burn and when she swallowed, her throat felt swollen and dry. She nodded and they went in to get his grandmother.

****

Carolina didn’t know where the time had gone before she found herself at the chapel in the cemetery burying her father. Her mother and Lizzie didn’t come, but Mrs. Dugan, Jenny, Manny and a few members of the staff at the nursing home attended, besides herself and Stede.

She thought, considering Carl’s temperament, the service and having people attend was more than he could have expected. She was glad she didn’t have to go to the gravesite to watch his body being lowered in the ground. But she did make arrangements for a headstone to be placed there although it would take several months before the stone was delivered. She had done all that was humanly possible and was grateful to put that part of her life behind her. The reconciliation had ended.

Carolina had invited those who attended to join her for lunch at the Italian restaurant after the service, and when she and Stede headed back to his place, she felt tired and emotionally drained. Carl had done that to her all her life. People always say that everything happens for a reason and she believed that putting an ending to this chapter of her life was why she found herself in Arizona.

That evening they planned to go out to dinner with Jenny and Manny and the next day, Stede would drive her to the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. Her stomach played tricks with her digestion and she felt light-headed.

Actually, she wasn’t sure what to do. There was no fairy godmother to come and make things right for her. She had never been this torn about whether or not she had made the huge mistake Stede mentioned. Yet she wasn’t prepared to change her mind. Everything was perfect between them except the rodeo and he never even hinted he was ready to retire from the circuit or willing to give up the competition if she remained. She didn’t blame him. She had no right to ask him to sacrifice the rodeo for her. Bronc riding was as much a part of him as world travel was to her. If he weren’t accomplishing daredevil feats that way, he would find some other way—stock car racing, mountain climbing, something.