Bed of Roses (41 page)

But to the whispered words of her soul.

And then she knew. Before any noise at all hit her ears, she knew.

She tore out of the vegetable patch. As she raced through the door a nail snagged her skirt and ripped the fabric, but she didn’t care. Through the yard she fled, past Tia and Azucar, who were playing with a new litter of piglets. Past Maclovio, Lorenzo, and Pedro, who’d just emerged from the henhouse with baskets full of eggs.

She’d just begun to scale the rocky slope that led to the exit of La Escondida when the words she’d heard in her soul finally wafted into her ears.

“Zafiro!” the voice shouted loudly, ringing through the mountains. “Zafiro, I’m back!”

She staggered backward, catching hold of a leafy shrub to keep herself from falling. Her gaze centered on the wooden portals that opened into La Escondida, she felt the broken pieces of her heart come together as if some unseen hand had joined them again.

And then he was there. Mounted on Apple Lover, his long hair shining around his face like strands of burnished gold.

Sawyer.

She tried to call his name, but her joy was too deep to put to sound.

Silently, she watched him ride down the slope. A wagon followed him. A cart filled with children of various ages and the ugliest dog she’d ever seen.

Ira drove the wagon. She knew he did. He was a young man with black hair, blue eyes, and a bright smile. And Tucker, Jesse, and Jenna sat in the back. Tucker had red hair, green eyes, and thousands of freckles. The twins, Jesse and Jenna, both had yellow-blond hair, brown eyes, and buckteeth.

Pretty Girl sat beside Ira, wagging her stubby tail. The mongrel looked as though someone had dipped her into at least ten different colors of paint, and she barked with the kind of happiness that only well-loved dogs have.

“Zafiro.”

She looked up at him, at the man she loved more with each breath she took, with each beat of her heart, with each second more that God granted to earth.

“I’m back.” Sawyer dismounted, let go of Apple Lover’s reins, and held out his arms.

In an instant Zafiro felt his embrace close securely around her. Arms she thought would never wrap around her again warmed her with peace, security, and happiness once more.

“I’ve brought my brothers and my sister,” Sawyer murmured into her hair, so overcome with emotion that he couldn’t keep his thoughts straight. “Ira,” he called. “Tucker, Jesse, and Jenna. Come meet Zafiro.”

The children bounded out of the wagon, each of them shaking her hand and hugging her around the waist. She hugged them all numerous times, not stopping until Sawyer finally took her into his arms again.

“A town,” he whispered, sliding his fingers down her cheek. “I’ve got the money. School’s out. They aren’t in school now. I’ve brought them, my brothers and sister. We’ll build a town, Zafiro. With a store. It’ll have a jar of jawbreakers.”

She couldn’t understand a word he was saying, but it didn’t matter. He was here.

He’d come back to her.

“I’ve got the money,” Sawyer tried to make her understand. “Night Master. I… Every time I went out on a raid I thought of you. Of your lifelong wish to live in a town.”

Gently, he drew away from her, aiming his gaze into eyes so blue they defied description. “La Escondida is going to be a town, Zafiro. We’re going to build. We’re going to bring people here. We’re going to make it a town.”

She struggled to understand, but couldn’t. All she could dwell upon was the fact that he stood right in front of her. Sawyer.

Her Sawyer.

“I got a pardon for your men,” Sawyer told her, her beauty so mesmerizing to him that he could barely explain. “I lied. Told Synner’s authorities that I’d witnessed the deaths of Luis and his men with my own eyes. Told them I’d watched the old Quintana Gang shoot them down. I’ve lived in Synner my whole life, and my reputation there is spotless. The sheriff believed me. The charges… Zafiro, the charges against your men have been dropped. The authorities were so glad to know that Luis and his men were dead that they pardoned Maclovio, Lorenzo, and Pedro.”

Somehow, through the daze of her happiness, his words finally took root. “Free,” she whispered. “My men are free.”

“Yes.”

Sawyer brought her close to him again, so close that he could feel her pulse thrum against his body. “I love you, Zafiro. I think I’ve loved you since the day you told me to put my head in the bucket and drown. All the time I’ve been away I’ve been working for a way to come back. Back here. To La Escondida, where I fell in love with you.”

Zafiro could hardly see him through the blur of her tears. “Sawyer,” she whispered.

“Marry me, Zafiro. Say you’ll marry me.”

She gazed into the topaz eyes of the most wonderful man in the world. “Yes,” she murmured with all the love she’d ever imagined could exist. “Yes, I will marry you, Sawyer Donovan.”

He bent to kiss her, but before his lips touched hers, Maclovio, Pedro, Lorenzo, Azucar, and Tia hobbled up the slope.

He frowned as he watched Tia struggle up the hill. In her plump arms was a swaddled bundle.

And it was moving.

“Zafiro, I have brought him,” Tia panted.

Zafiro didn’t miss the glow of pride in the old woman’s eyes. After finally being convinced that her “dear little Francisco” had become a man and that he’d fallen in love with Zafiro, Tia believed the child to be her grandson.

“Sawyer,” Zafiro said. She took the wiggling, blanket-swathed package from Tia’s arms and gently handed it to Sawyer.

His arms shaking, he stared down at the golden-haired baby whose sapphire eyes were the exact shade of Zafiro’s. Comprehension dawned on him like the first light of day upon the darkest hour of the night, but he could find no words to express his thoughts or feelings.

“Your son,” Zafiro said proudly. “Jaime Russell Ciro Donovan.”

Jaime Russell Ciro Donovan, Sawyer repeated silently. The name didn’t blend, but it didn’t matter.

His son was the most magnificent being he’d ever laid eyes on, and his heart was already so full of love for the baby boy that he wondered if it would burst.

Holding little Jaime close to his chest, he leaned over and touched his lips to Zafiro’s.

Wild applause echoed through the Sierras as Zafiro’s elderly charges and Sawyer’s brothers and sister began to clap.

And Sawyer realized that the loss of his past had ultimately given him a future.

At La Escondida.

With the most beautiful, loving, and outlandish woman in the world.

Zafiro Maria Quintana.

Epilogue

Z
afiro strolled out of the
cabin that sat at the end of Main Street. Smiling and waving at all the people walking along the boardwalks on either side of her, she looked around for her elderly charges.

In front of the mercantile Lorenzo played checkers with Maclovio. Jengibre sat on their table, pecking at the checkers. The two men waved back at her, then Lorenzo promptly fell asleep, not waking even when he banged his head on the checkerboard.

Zafiro passed the town stable and the saloon, where Azucar stood by the swinging doors kissing a man too drunk to realize he was fondling a woman old enough to be his great-great grandmother. The sight made Zafiro smile, then laugh.

She neared the whitewashed church and saw Pedro. Dressed in his white robe with his string of keys dangling from his scrawny neck, he was deep in discussion with Father Vasquez.

Father Vasquez waved to her. “Pedro is teaching me to speak Hebrew, Zafiro!” he called gaily, then winked at her.

Laughing once more, Zafiro returned his sly wink, then continued down the well-swept street and approached the town’s cafe. A quaint blue and white structure with terra-cotta pots filled with red geraniums scattered all around its little yard, the restaurant was always filled with the delicious scents of Tia’s cooking. And the cafe was always busy, too, for not a single townsperson could resist the woman’s kindness or her food. Even as Zafiro peered into the sparkling window of the establishment, she could see Tia fussing over a table full of smiling patrons.

Sawyer’s brothers and sister, Ira, Tucker, Jesse, and Jenna, helped Tia in the cafe when they weren’t in school. Indeed, they thought of her as their grandmother, and Tia fussed over and spoiled them just as a grandmother was supposed to do.

Thankful and happy that Sawyer’s brothers and sister had found such love and happiness in La Escondida, Zafiro walked past Tia’s cafe and noticed Mariposa sitting near a bush that grew in front of the blacksmith’s. The cougar still wasn’t sure she liked everyone who lived in the town, but she hadn’t done a single thing to upset anyone.

Well, Zafiro amended silently, the cat had sneaked into the mercantile and knocked the jar of jawbreakers off the counter one day. But considering what other chaos the mountain lion could cause, a few spilled candies wasn’t much to fret over.

“Mariposa!” she called to her pet, then proceeded down the street again with the cougar loping at her side.

Her destination came into view. Built of smooth, polished stones from the Sierras, the sheriff’s office looked professional and beautiful at once. And Zafiro especially liked all the rose bushes blooming in front of the jail- house. The bright and velvety flowers added just the right touch in her opinion.

She opened the door of the office and stepped inside.

There, sitting in his big leather chair with his son in his lap, sat the handsome sheriff of the town of La Escondida.

And she was married to him.

La Escondida had nothing to fear with Night Master as its sheriff.

“Zafiro,” Sawyer greeted her and gave her a warm smile. “There better not be any crimes being committed in La Escondida right now because this rascal won’t let me do my work.”

Zafiro looked at her son, Jaime Russell Ciro.

A secret smile touched her lips as she thought of the news she’d come to tell the sweet boy’s father.

“Mama, I locked Papa in the cell,” Jaime said proudly.

“Jaime,” Zafiro scolded gently. “How did you get out, Sawyer?”

Sawyer hugged his son. “I had to promise him a camping trip in the woods.”

Smiling, Zafiro approached the desk and leaned over to tousle Jaime’s mop of hair. “Sawyer, do I look like a cat with a bird in its stomach?”

He stared at her, knowing in his heart that no matter how many times he told her the correct way to use the expressions she loved so much, she would never learn. “A cat,” he mumbled, his mind working furiously as he tried to decipher her meaning. “Do you look like the cat that swallowed the canary?”

“Yes. That is—”

“What you said. Yes, of course it is. Now, come here. I’ve got two legs, you know.”

She walked around his desk and sat on his other knee, grinning when Jaime began to play with her sapphire. “I have a secret, Sawyer. I’ve come to tell you.”

Sawyer caressed her cheek, her chin, her neck, and her shoulder. It didn’t matter how many times he touched her, he never got enough of her. “What is this secret, sweetheart?”

She picked up his hand and laid it over her lower belly. “I am going to have another baby. Doctor Hernandez told me this morning.”

Sawyer frowned, then smiled, then laughed. “When?”

“In January.”

Two children, Sawyer thought. Unadulterated joy lit up his eyes as he pulled her down and embraced her. “Zafiro—”

“She will be a girl, Sawyer. I know it. And we will name her Mercy Carmelita Pilar Inez.”

The sound of the name jangled Sawyer’s mind, but he didn’t care. Whatever Zafiro wanted, he gave. “Wonderful name, sweetheart. I couldn’t have thought of a better one myself. Now, give me a kiss.”

She lifted her face to his and gloried in the feeling of his lips upon hers. And when at last his tender kiss ended and she looked into his wonderful gold eyes, she pondered all the many things he’d done for her.

La Escondida was a real town now, complete with every single thing she’d never had as a child. Sawyer had even provided a town gossip, a Senora Morales, who made it her duty to know everyone’s business and make sure the stories were thoroughly spread around town.

Living in the town with her magnificent husband and beautiful child had changed Zafiro’s way of thinking about her very existence in the world.

Not every day was perfect, of course. Problems arose every now and then, yes.

But Sawyer solved each and every trouble.

Her heart bursting with emotion, Zafiro kissed her husband again. And as the warmth of his love flowed into her, caressing every part of her, a beautiful thought occurred to her.

Life with Sawyer was truly a bed of roses.

The End

* * *

Read
Chapter One
of Rebecca Paisley’s delightful novel
Moonlight and Magic

Look for
Moonlight and Magic
by Rebecca Paisley

Coming May 2015!

About the Author

Since her debut novel was published, bestselling author Rebecca Paisley has become known for creating her very own unique brand of magic on the page.