Morning’s light found us curled together beneath the top sheet. His orange cat, whose name was Carrot, sprawled at our ankles, stretched out like a kitty-sized throw rug, while Mutt and Tiny each had their pointy noses sticking over the top of the mattress, their brown eyes curious, tails wagging. I opened my eyes first and giggled, and Case knuckled his eyes and groaned, “Everyone is watching us, aren’t they?”
I giggled more, pressing warm kisses to his prickly jaw. He growled a little, teasing me, and I squeaked as he flipped me beneath him to nuzzle at my neck. The dogs barked and Carrot prowled the foot of the bed, jumping at my toes under the blanket. I shrieked as Case blew a huge breath of air against my collarbones, tickling me, and he laughed, pinning me and doing the same against the side of my neck. At this noise, Carrot flew from the bed as though shot out of a cannon.
“Stay right there,” he ordered, bracing above me and grinning. My heart thumped like crazy at just the sight of him, all warm and tumbled from sleeping, his jaws stubbled with a good day’s growth of beard, darker than the hair on his head. He rubbed his chin lightly over the side of my neck as I shivered and giggled beneath him. At my ear he said, “I have to go feed everyone. But I’ll be right back.”
“Hurry,” I ordered, cupping his face, and he tipped and kissed me flush on the lips before climbing from the bed and stretching, twisting at the waist. I lifted to one elbow, wholly admiring his lean, nude body, craving the feel of him even as tender as I was from all our lovemaking last night.
He donned his shirt and jeans with brisk, masculine movements and then turned to look at me, lying in his bed on my side, the sheet drawn almost demurely over my breasts. My hair was a tangled wreck. He swallowed hard, then smiled, again with the expression I knew well, that this was almost too much for him to bear, that he couldn’t quite believe that we were here, and together, at last.
“Sweetheart,” I said, reaching for him, and he took me back to the mattress with one fluid movement, where I wrapped my arms around him and held. My legs were too entwined in the sheet.
“This is the most beautiful morning of my life,” he whispered. “Yesterday morning I didn’t know how I was going to go on another day.”
“You are mine, Charles Shea Spicer,” I told him, gripping his ears for extra emphasis, and he smiled wider at my use of his full name. “We sound like an old-fashioned couple. Charles and Patricia.”
“We sound like everything I’ve ever dared to hope for, that’s what,” he said, kissing my forehead. “My sweet Patricia. You know what, I have something to give you.” He grinned a little, then leaned to root something out of his nightstand drawer. He sat up with my silver hoop earring. He said softly, “I found this in my bed, you know.”
I smiled at the sight of it in his hands. I whispered, “I knew it.” I admitted, “I kissed your pillow that night.”
“That just blows me away,” he said, resting his free hand warmly upon my thigh. “Here I was dying to touch you every second, trying so damn hard not to let it show…and you were in my bed without me even knowing. You know how hard I rode home that night? And then you were gone when I got here.”
“Come here,” I demanded, and he set aside the earring and collected me close. I caught his ears into my hands and my heart absolutely surged with love for him. I said softly, “I knelt right here and I touched your sheets and I kissed your pillow…I wanted to wait for you right here. Oh God, it was so hard to drive away.”
“If I’d have known you did that, I would have ridden straight to your place and thrown you over Buck on the saddle. I would have brought you right back here.” He grinned at me and kissed the end of my nose. Again he marveled, “Although I had some idea that maybe you liked me more than you let on, when I pulled back my sheet and saw your earring. I felt like I’d found a treasure chest in my bed.”
I giggled a little, caressing his neck. I told him, “I wanted to be kissing a whole lot more of you than just your pillow, you realize.”
“I do now,” he said. “You stay here, woman, I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll be right here,” I assured him.
I curled around his pillow as sunlight fell across the foot of the bed. I was nearly asleep again, drowsy with warmth and contentment, when Case came back into the bedroom; we had only gone to sleep a few hours earlier. He shucked his clothes and I murmured happily as he drew me against his chest, kissing my shoulder, my neck, cradling me to him. He whispered, “I thought of something while I was outside. I’m a little ashamed to admit it didn’t occur to me last night.”
“What’s that?” I whispered back, snuggling delightedly against his warm front side. He spread one big hand over my belly.
“What if we’re parents, around about next May?” he whispered, patting my belly gently, two times.
I had thought of that, very early this morning. I covered his hand with both of mine and calmly whispered back, “Then I hope she has your beautiful hair.”
Case crushed me closer to him. I could tell he had choked up, and I had too, at the thought of something so precious.
I added in a whisper, “And I hope you’ll make an honest woman of me.”
He laughed around the lump in his throat. He whispered, “I would make you my wife this second, if I was able. Baby or not, I hope you know.”
I brought his hand up to my mouth and pressed my lips to him. Tears of pure joy overflowed and streaked sideways over my face.
Case kissed the side of my forehead and said softly, “Everything will be all right, sweetheart, my sweet, sweet heart. We’re together now, from here on out.”
***
“No, your fingers aren’t quite there,” he said, and I bit my bottom lip in concentration, even though I was almost too distracted by his strong, naked body just behind me to think of anything else. I was bare as the day I’d been born too; Case had instituted a house-wide ban on clothing. It was late afternoon now, the sun lazy and warm out the windows, and we’d managed to make it as far as the living room couch, after spending the entire morning in bed. I was currently situated on his lap, sitting cross-legged, his guitar braced over my thighs.
His chest engulfed my back as he curved a little more securely and put his big hands over mine. I forgot all about the guitar and tilted to kiss his neck. He shivered, but said with determination, “Now this is the G chord,” and guided my fingers to the proper placement on the strings.
I pressed my fingertips and strummed; it sounded on-key and I smiled, strumming again. I said, “It’s harder to hold the strings than I would have thought.” So saying, I took his left hand into mine and inspected his fingertips.
“It’s just that your hands are so delicate,” he murmured.
“And yours are so tough,” I said delightedly. I ordered softly, “Play something, while I sit on your lap. I want to feel like I’m part of the music with you. I wish I knew an instrument.”
Case repositioned, tucking me closer to his chest. He swept the hair from my neck, settling it over my right shoulder. He whispered, “I’ll teach you. And until then, you can inspire the music.”
I put my hands on his hard, bare thighs and confessed, “When I watch you play, this is all I really think about. Being close to you, like this. Being in your arms. You look so…enraptured when you play. I love it so much.”
He whispered, “I knew where you were, every second, when you were at a show with me. I tried to pretend I didn’t notice you, especially that first night, but every song I played was for you. What’s your favorite, baby? What do you want me to play for you?”
I didn’t answer immediately, thinking of what I’d love to hear, but before I could respond he began strumming out a melody I recognized, sweet and slow, though usually he played it on the violin. I felt the vibrations from the guitar all the way to my toes, hot in my center. He continued the song; by the second time he reached the chorus, I was anticipating the certain series of notes that I liked, and shivered in pleasure. When he was done, he held the final chord and then tipped his jaw against my left temple.
“That’s so beautiful,” I whispered. I said, “I love that one so much. Is it an old song?” It sounded like something from an earlier century, I’d always thought.
“It’s nearly seven years old,” he said softly. “I wrote it for you, August of ’06.”
Tears sprang instantly to my eyes. I whispered, “That’s my song? Oh Case…oh God…” I turned enough to see his eyes, alight with warmth and love as he grinned at me. I said, “You mean to tell me that I’ve been hearing that all summer and never knew?”
He kissed my left eye, closing it momentarily, and whispered back, “I prayed that someday you’d know it was yours. I end almost every show with it.”
I started crying then, tears streaming over my face. I whispered, “You sweetheart.”
He set aside the guitar and stretched us full length on the couch, me over his chest. He tucked hair behind my ears with both of his big hands, thumbed away my tears, smiling sweetly. I caught his face in my hands and pressed kisses to him, his forehead, his nose, his chin. I said, my voice rough with emotion, “I love it. Thank you, sweetheart. I love it so much.”
He brought my lips to his and kissed me gently, so gently that I trembled and quivered. He said, “You’re so very welcome.”
“Can you play it again?” I begged, even as my thighs spread over his hips.
“I promise,” he whispered, his eyelids lowering a little, “I promise I will in a little while. But first…”
I rocked my hips against him as he breathed out in a rush.
“First I want you to thank me for something else,” he whispered intently, and drew me firmly closer.
***
“I have to feed the animals,” he mumbled much later.
The air was a rich indigo-blue, the sky out the window washed in a pale violet-pink as the sun disappeared behind the ridge. We were still on the couch. I didn’t know if my knees would be able to support my weight when I tried to stand, and smiled at the thought, snuggling closer to his chest.
“I’ll help you,” I told him, tickling him, trailing one fingertip down the line of dark hair that extended from his belly button, curling my fingers into the thicker hair, lower down.
He snorted a laugh, reaching to catch my hand into his. He said, “Quit that, woman, that tickles.”
I lightly bite the side of his neck, teasing, “So that is just an urban legend about redheads.”
He moved with determination now that I was tickling in earnest, laughing as he got me under him and stilled my hands. Pinning me to the cushions, he demanded, “What are you talking about?”
“I thought your hair might be red-gold all over your body,” I said wickedly.
He said, “You’re so naughty and I love it,” laughing even harder at this, shaking his head, bending to open his lips over my left breast. I caught his ears in my hands, arching into his stroking kisses. He said, though his mouth was pretty damn busy, “You taste so good.”
I breathed, “You feel so good…don’t stop…”
He took my waist in his big hands and my nipples between his teeth, suckling and running his tongue in circles, by turns, as I shivered and moaned. He whispered, his mouth against my skin, “Like gumdrops, all soft and sweet on my tongue…”
“I dream…about this…all the time,” I gasped, my throat tipped back.
I felt him smile and he said, “Me too…but this is so much more amazing…”
He moved lower, brushing his nose over my belly, pressing gentle kisses there.
“So soft and sweet,” he whispered again, and I cried out, clutching his hair as his tongue teased over the most sensitive spot on my entire body. He held my waist, keeping that part of me gently anchored as he worked, so incredible at what he did, his wide shoulders arched over my spread thighs like wings.
***
Later I mumbled, “We should probably eat something.”
He laughed against my skin, tickling me, and I squeaked a little. He said, low and teasing, “I thought that’s what I just did.”
I giggled then too, replete with satisfaction, my laughter jostling his head.
“Maybe a bath?” I whispered, stroking his hair. It was so soft in my fingers.
“If I could move, maybe,” he murmured, half asleep against my breasts. I cradled his head to me, curling around him and pressing my lips. Darkness had leached the color from everything around us. He added, “I don’t need food. Or water. Just you.”
“You’ve got me,” I whispered back. “And if you ever get tired of me, too bad. I’m here to stay.”
He lifted his head then, moving back above me. The strength and immediacy of his strong, warm body enveloped me at once, his voice so very serious as he whispered, “Tish, the entire rest of my life isn’t near enough time to be with you. I can hardly bear the thought of you leaving here to go back to your apartment tomorrow.”
“Case,” I whispered, overcome with a near-violence of tenderness and love. I clutched his face and kissed him, pressing my lips fervently to his jaw, his chin, the skin beneath his eyes that had borne shadows for too long. I clung to him as I said, “Oh God, I love you. You were hurting and I did that to you. Oh God, I’m so sorry.”
He tucked me closer to him and I snuggled, burrowing into his warmth; the windows were yet open and the air had grown chill with evening. He reached and caught the flannel blanket from the back of the couch and swirled it over us. I felt as though I had never been anywhere but this evening, this place, with Case. It was as if everything I had ever lived through had been leading to us holding each other in this moment. He wrapped one arm around my waist, smoothed his other hand over the back of my head and pressed his lips to my forehead.
“Tell me once more,” he whispered. “Please tell me once more.”
“I love you,” I told him, knowing what he needed to hear. I could feel his heart beating against mine and I scooted down to kiss him there. I said, “I love your sweet, strong, incredible heart.” Tears splashed from my eyes even as I smiled at him, getting my arms around his waist. “I love you with my whole heart, and you don’t doubt it, ever again. Understood?”
He laughed a little, even though I could hear that his throat was choked up. He whispered, “Understood.”
We managed to separate so that Case could hit the bathroom and I could call Camille, knowing that I had to tell my older sister what had happened since last night; I had purposely maintained what amounted to a radio silence with her for the past month, unable to bear to explain to someone else what I was going through. But she and Mathias would want to know that everything in the world was right again; at least, in our little part of it.
My sister answered on the second ring with, “Tish, what is it? It’s about time you called me!”
“Case and I are in love,” I told Camille without preamble, my voice quavering, belying the depths of my emotion. Tears flowed into my eyes, blurring my vision, and I swiped at my nose with the knuckles of my free hand.
“Oh thank God, finally,” my sister said in response, her voice inundated with relief. She added, “I was getting worried.”
“Milla, I’m so in love with him,” I said, all choked up and trembling. “I turned down the job in Chicago.”
“Good, that’s so good,” Camille breathed. “It’s what’s right, I feel it.”
“I hurt him so much, but it’s all right now,” I said, tears streaking my cheeks. “Oh God, I can’t even think of being apart from him a day.”
“Oh hon,” my sister said, and I could tell that she was crying now too, though quietly. “I’m so happy for you two. Let me talk to Case.”
“He’s in the bathroom,” I said. “I’ve barely let him out of my arms since yesterday.”
“Everything feels right now,” my sister said. I could hear Mathias in the background then. I looked at the clock on the stove and realized it was going on midnight; I hadn’t known it was so late. Away from the phone, Camille murmured to her husband, “Everything’s all right, hon. It’s wonderful actually. Tish finally realized that she’s in love with Case.”
Mathias said, sounding more awake, “Can I talk to him? Oh wait, he’s calling…”
Camille put the phone back near her mouth and giggled, saying, “Case is calling Thias right now, on his phone.”
I giggled too, just as Case came out of the bathroom, holding the phone between his right ear and shoulder. He came directly to me; I was wrapped into the flannel blanket from the couch and curled against him, pressing my face to his collarbones.
Back in Minnesota, I heard Mathias answer. Case said into his phone, his voice all husky, “Hey. Everything’s all right now. Everything’s as it should be. I just wanted you to know. Love you, Carter,” and then he hung up the phone and his eyes were so full of love and intensity that my own phone clattered to the kitchen floor and my arms went around his neck as he swept me into his embrace, holding fiercely, carrying me straight to the bed, where we made love for the countless time since last night, wordless and joyous and intense.
***
Monday morning I decided I didn’t feel like driving into town for work. Perhaps this wasn’t the most responsible attitude, but considering that I had signed on to work for Al for the foreseeable future, I knew that Al wouldn’t mind me taking a day off; I just wasn’t as specific as I could have been, when I called to leave a message that I would be working for him from now on, but that I wouldn’t be into the office today.
Hanging up in the predawn light of the kitchen, I leaned the small of my back against the counter and set the phone aside. I clasped my hands beneath my chin, smiling as I studied the first pale streaks of seashell-pink tinting the sky. Smiling radiantly, feeling as though the sun was rising just for us on this morning, for Case and me, and the incredible love that we had found.
I felt my lips tremble with emotion and went running back to the bedroom, where I wiggled immediately under the covers, as I was naked and chilly and craving him, straight into the delight of his warm, sleepy embrace. He was so toasty that I felt certain my skin was steaming where we touched.
“Stay here,” he murmured, still more than half asleep. “Stay in my arms.”
There was no place I would rather be, ever again. I kissed his chin, soft and slow, morning kisses, and then his neck. I whispered, “At least I know I’ll be warm enough this winter.”
He laughed a little, snuggling me closer and kissing my tangled hair. He whispered, “You can count on that.”
“I told Al I wouldn’t be in today,” I whispered, winding my legs around his.
“I’ll make us breakfast in a little while,” Case murmured; we had made love nearly the entire night through, and he was barely awake even now.
“You rest, sweetheart,” I told him, my eyelids heavy too. “We’ll get up later…”
It was nearly noon before Case fried us eggs and bacon in a cast-iron pan on the stove, wearing his gray boxers while I wore an old, faded t-shirt from his high school days, with the word SPICER across the back in red letters. I felt a distinct thrill to be wearing his name this way – the name I planned to call my own someday in the near future. I sat on the counter near Case while he cooked and we kept kissing, enough that the eggs burned.
“I love your freckles,” I told him and I meant that sincerely, though he thought I was teasing. He had mixed up a second batch of eggs, which would probably end up scorched too, as I was preoccupied with skimming my fingertips over each and every one on his chest, his shoulders.
“Who loves freckles?” he teased me, so damn handsome here in the kitchen, half naked and unshaven, with the contented glow of hours of lovemaking. I shivered with delight as I touched his bare chest, his flat belly with its slim line of dark hair that went south from his belly button and disappeared into his boxers.
“Me,” I said, smiling into his beautiful eyes. “I love all of yours. And your hair. You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to touch it.” So saying, I smoothed my palms lightly over the sides of his head, tipping towards him for another kiss.
He kissed me thoroughly, as I stroked his hair. He murmured against my lips, “You touch anything you want, baby, anything at all.” He twined strands of my tangled hair around all four fingers on his right hand, saying, “Your beautiful curly hair. It reminds me of a mane.”
I knew he meant this as a compliment and I teased him, biting his bottom lip just a little, “Well, you certainly gripped it like a mane last night, cowboy.”
He grinned wickedly at me then, tugging me back into his kiss.
We finally had breakfast in the late afternoon, the third round with the eggs and bacon. We sat at the table and giggled at the cats, (we had driven to town on Sunday, both to collect my car from The Spoke and to rescue Peaches before she starved to death, bringing her back out here) who were playing with each other on the back of the couch. And we talked and talked.
“Tell me about Lynnette,” I requested at one point.
Case was forthright. He said, not without pain in his voice, “She never stood a chance. I couldn’t truly love her and she sensed that. I tried though. I thought she was going to be the mother of my child and I tried with everything I had.” He drew a breath through his nose and cupped his left hand around mine, gently stroking me with his thumb. He said, “I hid away your picture. I had given up on any hope of us ever meeting again and I was determined to forget about you and love her. We were reasonably happy for a little while.”
“I hate to think about you hurting,” I whispered. “And it’s probably so stupid and so petty, but I’m jealous of her. Insanely jealous. I know it’s ridiculous…”
He shook his head, saying, “No, it’s not ridiculous. If you had married someone before now, I would have been secretly plotting his death. I figured that’s what would happen. A part of me always dreaded when Mathias would call, because I thought that he might be calling to tell me that you had gotten engaged, or were getting married.”
“I knew I was coming to you,” I said, studying his eyes. “I knew it deep inside. There has never been anyone for me, but you.”
“Nor for me, but you,” he said. “We’ve been together before now, I’m sure of it, Tish. I can sense that, sometimes really clearly, like a memory. A memory of something I don’t remember from this life.”
“Me too,” I said. I had told him about the photograph of the Spicer family, about how I thought he might have been Cole. At the very least, related to Cole. I recognized, “And it’s getting stronger.”
“All of us, you and me, Mathias and Camille, the Rawleys…somehow we’ve all been together before now,” he said.
“And Derrick Yancy,” I whispered, cringing a little at his name. Though I hated to acknowledge this, I said, “He’s known us before too…”
Case nodded agreement. I had yet to tell him about what Derrick had said, both at the Coyote’s Den and in the parking lot of Stone Creek; I was too terrified that Case would react badly to this and make good on his threat about killing him. I wasn’t concerned for Derrick’s slimy wellbeing so much as I absolutely refused to see Case get hurt or taken to jail, or any of the other terrible possibilities that could come from me telling him just now.
“When did Lynnette leave?” I whispered after a moment.
“She found your picture,” he said. “I told her I had gotten rid of it, but I lied and then she found it, tucked in my things. I couldn’t bear to not have it near me, and she ripped it to shreds in front of me. I wanted to hit her. I’m so ashamed of feeling that way, because it reminds me of something my dad…something my dad would have felt…”
I moved directly into his arms as he sat on the chair, straddling his lap and holding his head to my breasts.
He said quietly, “She left me after that. I drank pretty heavily for a few months or so. And then a year passed and then one day Clark told me that Camille had told him that you were coming to Jalesville for the summer. And that was the day I realized that maybe I still knew how to hope. That maybe things truly do happen for a reason.” He rested his chin between my breasts and his eyes made my heart gallop fiercely. His hands were strong and firm around my waist.
“They do,” I whispered. “I believe that they do.”
***
Clark called to invite us to dinner about an hour later.
“So, I heard you talked to Mathias,” I heard Clark say after Case answered. We had been almost asleep in the afternoon light, cuddled close on the unmade bed, and my head was cradled on his chest.
I could tell Case was smiling, even though my eyes were closed, smiling just like I was. He said, “I did. Everything’s all right now. I feel it.”
“I’m so happy for you two, son,” Clark said.
“We’re so happy too, I can’t even describe it,” Case said, his deep voice hoarse with emotion.
“You and Tish want to join us for supper pretty quick here?” Clark asked.
Case winked at me and whispered, “What do you think?”
And I said to Clark, through the phone, “We’ll be there.”
***
We decided to take the horses. In the barn in the exquisite evening light, Case held me to him; we could not stop touching, could not stop kissing.
“I’m here with you,” I marveled again. “And I can touch you whenever I want to.” So saying, I pulled his lips back to my own.
He crushed me closer in response, his mouth so sweet and hot upon mine that I could have died happy too. In the quiet peace of his well-cared-for barn, time seemed to stop for us, as though allowing us this moment all to ourselves. It was only Buck releasing a deep, whooshing whicker from his stall that broke us apart, and we laughed.
“Easy, boy,” Case said. He told me, “Sweetheart, I’ll teach you how to saddle them next time, how’s that?”
I nodded agreement. I said, “I want to learn everything about how to take care of them.” Hearing the chickens, I added, “Them too.”
He sent me a grin as he lifted the saddle and I melted away. I begged, “Can we ride Buck together?” I looked towards Cider and apologized, “Sorry, girl…”
“Of course we can,” Case told me, resettling the saddle. He explained, “It’s easier without one, if we ride double. I’ll just get his bridle.”
Again he boosted me first before climbing behind, using the corral fence as a ladder, as Buck wasn’t as polite as Cider. Case’s arms came around me and I shivered with pleasure. He gathered the reins and led Buck to the road with both his hands and a brief tightening of his knee on the horse’s flank. Once we were headed towards the Rawleys’ place, he said, “You take the reins, get used to Buck a little too. It’s better with me behind you, since he’s not so well behaved as Cider.”
I curled my hands around the leather straps and Case wrapped his hands around my waist. He murmured, “You’re so delicate. You feel so good in my hands.”
“I’m hardly delicate,” I contradicted, trying to concentrate on handling Buck, who was altogether different than his sweet-tempered sister. He tossed his big head and neighed, side-stepping impatiently, and Case’s hands moved from my body at once, closing around the reins above mine and tugging his horse back into line.
“Quit that,” he scolded the animal. “You know Tish. You better get used to her riding you.”
I giggled a little, scolding, “Don’t make him feel bad.”
He laughed at my words, kissing the side of my forehead. He said, “He doesn’t feel bad, sweetheart, trust me. He’s the luckiest horse in the world, with you on his back…in fact…” He nipped my earlobe and murmured seductively, “I was hoping to get you in the very same position above me, a little later tonight…”
I squeaked and elbowed Case in the ribs, teasing, “You should be so lucky.”
“Don’t I know,” he said whole-heartedly. “Believe me, I’m counting every last blessing today.”
It was a short ride to Clark’s, though I appreciated every second of it, the feeling of Case behind me on Buck, the utterly perfect summer evening that spread out all around us. The air was completely still, warm and deliciously perfumed with sagebrush and sweetgrass, as though the foothills were breathing the scent all around us. The sun cast its long, intoxicating beams over the landscape, casting it in almost otherworldly light; it was so stunningly beautiful that tears wet my eyes for the countless time. I felt as though I’d never experienced an emotion before living here. When the Rawleys’ house came into view, I sighed a little, with disappointment that we’d arrived so quickly.
The front door flew open as Case was lifting me down from Buck, and Wy came barreling out, hugging the both of us the moment he reached our sides. Buck snorted and tossed his head as Wy all but hollered, “Goddamn, it’s about time!”
I giggled, hugging him back, and in short order we were surrounded by everyone, Clark, Marshall, Gus and Sean and Quinn, who echoed Wy’s heartfelt words.
“You two, I just wanted to crack your heads together,” Sean said, roughing up my hair.
“I’m so happy for you two,” Gus said. “I couldn’t be happier.”
“So, when’s the wedding? There’s always lots of hot girls at a wedding,” Marshall teased us.
“Soon,” I said, getting my arms back around Case, tucking myself to his side. He gripped my waist and kissed my hair.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am at this,” Clark said for the third time. “It’s what was meant to be, that I know.”
We ate dinner outside, under a setting sun as richly gold and gorgeous pink as anything I had ever seen. I kept smiling, unable to help myself, thinking that this place was my home, and would be my home from now forth. Jalesville, Montana, the little town I was trying to save. My man, my Charles Spicer, musician cowboy who I could not live without, sitting just to my left and angling me a soft smile, surely knowing what I was thinking. Beneath the table, I slipped my hand over his right thigh and patted him twice. I was going to move all of my things into his trailer this week; we had planned it half the evening.
Later, we all lingered outside to stargaze a little. I sat on Case’s lap, his arms around my waist and my head against his left shoulder, cradled to him.
“It’s about time, that’s all I can say,” Marshall told us again, sitting just to our right, sipping his third beer. “I was getting worried. You scared me for a little while, Tish. I thought I might have to take drastic measures to get you two together.”
“It’s all okay now,” I said, snuggling more deeply into Case’s arms. I repeated Case’s words from earlier, saying, “Everything’s as it should be, now.”
“Not quite yet,” Marsh said then, almost inaudibly, the tone of his voice sounding very un-Marshall-like. Case and I both looked questioningly at him, but he only took a long drink from his beer and wouldn’t elaborate.