Creighton's Hideaway (25 page)

He finally spoke, “You won't take a loan for a car?”

“No way. Let the bank keep the expensive ones.”

“You won't come home until you get back on your feet?”

“Sorry, Mom. But I'm a big girl, now.” A huge smile bloomed as she realized how strong she really did feel. “Besides, I've got God on my side.”

No One better for my corner of the world.

She stood and planted a kiss on a cheek of each parent.

“Let me get you something to drink,” she offered, “and I'll tell you about meeting my new Best Friend.”

 

 

 

 

21

 

Creighton swiped his brow with a forearm. With sweat-free vision, his gaze followed the tree-lined creek. The cottonwoods glowed yellow in the bright November sunlight. He turned towards the bellowing echoes where Roger's cattle milled in a temporary corral. The low diesel rumble of twin big-rig engines filled the air. Hired help stirred up dust as the men separated cows from calves.

Winter preparations on the ranch were well underway and had all the men busy.

He turned back to the job at hand, splitting firewood. Before the lowered ax split the next chunk of wood, he envisioned Shana as he'd last seen her. His soul ached, he missed her so much. They had confessed their love for one another. So what was he doing here? Alone? As the two pieces of wood clunked to the ground, he jerked up his head as a flash of red, and rubbed his eyes at the mirage.

But a real Shana meandered his way.

His feet were rooted to the ground. A punch could turn him into a bobble-head.

Her smile shone as golden as the day. Her eyes sparkled bluer than any sky. Her dark curls bounced longer, richer looking than any bountiful soil a rancher could pray for.

He couldn't move. He couldn't speak. He needed her. He loved her.

“Hey, big guy.” She beamed, arms outstretched.

Her voice released his immobility. Creighton ran. When he felt her warm flesh, he picked her up and swung her around. The warmth of vanilla wound its way through him. “Oh, how I've missed you.”

“Now, come on. We've talked nearly every night.” Her voice came out saucy.

He teased her right back. “You haven't missed me like I've missed you?”

“Welllll—” She ran her fingers through his hair and brushed his lips with her own. “You know I have.”

Creighton groaned. He tightened his hold and drank from her lips. When he broke for air, he managed to say against her hair, “So what brings you to my neck of the woods, pretty lady?”

She straightened and wiggled back to look at him. She caught her tongue between her teeth and lifted a brow. “I've been offered a job at Hope Circle. Think you could handle having me live as close as O'Neill?”

He whooped and threw his hunter green cap in the air. He rested his hands on her shoulders. “Now what do you think? I love you, woman.” Creighton lifted her and circled. “Will you come be my love and live with me here? Have my children?”

She leaned back against the crook of his arm and yelled to the heavens, “Yes!”

They kissed again, her embrace tight around his neck.

“Now that we're agreed on that, you're positive about letting off Sammi Ambrose?”

“She didn't get off, Creigh, I just didn't add my charges. She's facing enough.”

“Are you excusing her?”

“Not at all, but imagine yourself at age nine. Actually, go back further than that. She was born in a bathtub in a trailer house in Alvo. She grew up with drugs in the house. Her parents were busted for meth and disappeared from her life.

“There are no coincidences with God, like you going through treatment at Hope Circle in O'Neill where I'm going to work. Sammi lived at The Pines in between foster homes until she was sixteen. Sammi, in some twisted way, decided she wanted to be me. To have my life.”

Creighton played with a curl, cupping it behind her ear and between his fingers.

“We had a few high school classes together. Sammi studied and envied my life. To her way of thinking, she was never treated as anyone worthwhile. In her eyes, I represented a spoiled girl who had every advantage in the world.”

He wrapped her close and kissed the top of her head. Creighton pulled back and focused on her mouth before he looked her in the eye. “I want to tell you something.”

Shana nodded at his serious tone and loosened her hold.

He set her on her feet and they walked arm in arm to the swing under the cottonwood.

Creighton took the seat and invited her in.

She sat on his lap and relaxed against his chest.

“I've made peace with Thomas.” It was easier to say than he had ever imagined. “Tom believed that I abandoned him when I left home. He had so much hurt buried deep inside that after we spoke, I cried for a couple of days over the way he unloaded his heart.” Creighton drew in Shana's familiar vanilla scent. “Dad hadn't paid much attention to him until I went off to college. Then, according to Thomas, Dad berated him without let-up. Constantly taunted him about not doing the work around the ranch I had. Told him he was worthless. All the ugly things he used to say to me, he loaded onto Tom.”

Shana leaned to the side and looked up at Creighton. She smoothed a finger over his furrowed brow.

They were back on the ranch. They had each followed a long and winding road to the home God had chosen for them.

“We talked a long time, sweetheart.” Creighton smiled. “I'm healed of this inadequacy I've always felt. The only father I need is God. He's enabled me to forgive my earthly dad, forgive myself, and—” Creighton started the swing in motion. “He'll teach me how to be a father to our children.”

“Please, may we walk down the aisle before the kids come?” Shana teased.

He broke out in laughter. “Oh, how I want to be chasing you around the kitchen table when I'm ninety.”

She giggled and gave him a jaunty smile. “But what if I don't want to be chased?” The greenish-blue eyes he'd love to look at until his dying day glistened and sparkled. “Or, I could be the one chasing you around the kitchen.”

He brought the swing to a halt.

They could make it here, with each other, in God's country.

Her gaze met his and he leaned in for a kiss as healing as the hills, sealing their commitment to one another.

 

 

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