Three months later
SHE’D BEEN ON a sailboat so long she’d lost her land legs, it seemed. They got off the plane, drove through the bleak gray and white landscape of an approaching Colorado winter, made their way to Silverdell and pulled onto the grounds of Bell River before she really felt that the ground wasn’t swaying and swelling beneath her.
The honeymoon had been two weeks on a schooner, sailing around Hawaii, drinking out of coconuts, dancing under the starlight and always, always making love.
It had been two weeks of heaven.
But now they were home, and they could hardly wait to see Ellen, who’d been staying at the ranch while they were gone. They’d talked to her every day, and they’d called on Skype and texted and created Google hangouts...at least they did so whenever Ellen could find the time for them.
Max had pretended to lament the loss of his daughter to her two new loves, horseback riding and photography, but Penny knew that he was deeply grateful to see her so busy, so passionate and so healthy.
She’d shot up about six inches in two months, and was starting to look like a fashion model. Ironically, all that had happened just about the time she stopped believing her looks were the most important thing in her life.
When they arrived, a red-nosed, jacketed welcoming committee was gathered around the front fountain, so Max parked the car out front. They’d be moving into River Song cottage, and turning the duplex into the art studio Penny had always dreamed of.
They’d spend the first month in the main house, though, while an addition to River Song was finished. Ellen was going to need more privacy than the original two-bedroom floor plan would have allowed. She would be a teenager in a couple of years—and heaven help them then!
Penny was bouncing with excitement as they parked the car. There was Ro, looking...oh, dear heaven, she was looking so very pregnant! And Bree, cuddling under Gray’s enveloping arm, and smiling from ear to ear with such warmth it was hard to believe she’d ever been called the Ice Queen.
And there was Ellen, all svelte and elegant in her riding jodhpurs and fur-trimmed jacket. Alec had grown another foot, as well, and would soon be as tall as Dallas. Right now he rode his uncle Mitch’s shoulders, but he wouldn’t be able to get away with that much longer.
Barton had his guitar out, and was singing “Blue Hawaii” softly in the background, though his hands must be freezing in this crystal-ice air.
The minute Max and Penny emerged from the car, they were swarmed, covered in love and hugs and laughter and kisses like a coating of honey. The men slapped each other on the shoulders, and the women cried and kissed, and the kids just laughed at everyone.
Penny hugged Ro an extralong time. “I can’t believe you,” she said, putting her hand on her sister’s small, but unmistakable, baby bump. “Is everything going well?”
“It’s going perfectly,” Ro said, and Penny could see that it was true. She was no longer gaunt and bony. Her face had softened with baby weight, until she looked more like a Madonna than a firebrand.
“Is Mitch all right?”
Rowena nodded. “Oh, yes. Thank God. It was killing Dallas, the not knowing. Of course, we still don’t know much about Bonnie.”
“I wondered whether Dallas would be able to talk him out of going after her,” Penny said, her gaze resting thoughtfully on her brother-in-law, the born protector.
When Mitch had returned, he’d told them all that even he didn’t know where Bonnie was. He simply had awakened one morning, and she was gone. After Penny’s wedding, it had been clear that Mitch had been itching to go back out and try to find her somehow.
“So far, so good,” Rowena said, but her voice sounded somber, and Penny knew Mitch’s heart wasn’t yet resigned to the loss.
Penny nodded. Life was so complex. Amid happiness, fear still had a place at the table. In the middle of security, there was always a kernel of doubt.
But she’d finally stopped dreaming about a day when everything would be sunshine and flowers. She was learning, day by day, to cherish the storm as well as the calm.
Gradually, everyone began to shiver, even with the jackets and gloves. It was mid-December, and far too cold to dawdle outside when the fires indoors called so invitingly. One by one, they began grabbing suitcases and helping to carry them in.
Penny and Max were the last. They stood in the bronzing twilight and let their gazes rest gently on this softly undulating land that was to be their home. The ranch she had left so long ago in agony...
Today she returned in joy.
“You ready?”
Penny nodded. It wasn’t strictly true. Fear was knocking at her heart again. Remember me? Remember me? But she and Max had talked it over, as they lay in each other’s arms under the stars. And they had decided that, today, she would return to Bell River through the front door.
They got all the way to the threshold, and her blood began to run cold. She put her arm on his, and he froze in place. He didn’t push. He would never push. She knew he would wait as long as she needed.
“There’s always tomorrow, sweetheart,” he said softly. “We can go around back today, if you’d rather.”
“No.” She didn’t want to give up. She had thought of this moment so often, and of how triumphant she would feel.... “No. Just give me a minute.”
She stared into the foyer. It had been completely renovated, and no remnant of her mother’s blood, or her mother’s shadow, remained. No remnant, even, of the original structure remained.
So why did she feel so strongly that her mother was waiting for her, just inside the door?
Don’t be afraid, Penelope. I love you very much.
Penny turned quickly, and stared, wide-eyed, at Max. He frowned. “Sweetheart, please. Don’t let it upset you. It doesn’t have to be today.”
“Didn’t you hear that?” She cast her eyes around the area, to see if anyone else stood nearby. Ro, maybe. It might have been Rowena’s voice. She had always sounded a lot like their mother.
But no one was there. And, as Penny looked back into the foyer, she realized that the feeling of her mother’s presence was gone. Entirely gone.
There were no ghosts here anymore. There was no lingering pain.
It was, after all, just a staircase.
And a very beautiful one.
“I’m ready,” she said. She started to take her husband’s hand, so that they could walk together into their new home, but, before she realized what was happening, he scooped her into his arms.
She laughed, breathlessly, and he gazed down at her with so much love in his eyes that she turned to liquid from the inside out. She lifted her face and accepted his slow, deep kiss, letting her heart fill with the honeyed warmth she’d come to depend on.
Even that didn’t frighten her. It was safe to count on Max, because...
Because he was Max. He was a part of her, not some external crutch. He was the other half of her lonely soul, the half she’d been looking for without realizing it, all her life. And she completed him, just as he completed her.
Finally, he lifted his lips. He smiled, and her heart took wings.
“Welcome home, my love.”
And then, with his strong arms firm and sure around her, he carried her easily over the threshold and out of the past.
* * * * *
Look for the next book in Kathleen O’Brien’s
THE SISTERS OF BELL RIVER RANCH series!
Coming in May 2014 from Harlequin Superromance.
Keep reading for an excerpt from SLEEPLESS IN LAS VEGAS by Colleen Collins.