Dark Warrior: Kid (Dark Cloth Series Book 2) (23 page)

Life on the Ranch

Later that morning, Mandy showed up on her step, grinning.
She’d had Kat’s horse saddled, and as Kat eyed her, trying to figure out what she was up to, Mandy dismounted, intent on pulling her down the step. “Mount up,” she said. “We’ve a wedding dress to get.”

Wide-eyed, Kat turned to stare at her. “By the way, that reminds me,” She said, eying Mandy. “How did you know I was staying?”

Mandy laughed. “You may not have come to terms with what you had to do,” Mandy said, shading her eyes from the sun with her hand before she stepped up on the porch. “But I knew. It was just a matter of time before you told your grandfather the truth of it, is all.”

Kat grinned. “He spotted us kissing,” she said. “And I had to tell him—I’d never leave Kid. I don’t know why I ever thought I didn’t have a choice in that.”

Mandy smiled gently. “Women are raised to believe they’re supposed to set aside their happiness for the happiness of others, especially if they deeply love that person. But doing so is an act of giving up our power. And when we do that—we’re miserable. Then, no one benefits,” she said. “We can only truly be the person we’re meant to be—when we live within our essence.”

Kat stared at her. “Where were you when I was struggling with this dilemma at my grandfather’s manor?” she said, grinning.

Mandy laughed. “You knew where your heart lay. You just had to face your grandfather with the truth.”

Kat smiled at that. “It’s funny how confusing it seems at the time—when in hindsight it seems all so clear.” Then, she looked out across the ranch. This was her home. Now, a shiver of excitement snaked up her spine. Wow! This was actually happening. She might even succeed at finally getting to buy that wedding dress.

An hour later, Kat walked in Cord’s Mercantile with Mandy. This time, she didn’t wait outside, kicking clumps of dirt around and getting mud on her shoes. This time, she realized that she didn’t have to change herself to be a good wife to Kid.

He loved her exactly how she was.

And this time, she knew that she could still dress up, when she wanted—and enjoy being pretty. These ideas no longer threatened her. So she walked beside Mandy, and she didn’t have to be drug into the store. She didn’t have to be encouraged to pick out a dress.

She walked up to Cord and asked to see the dress they’d looked at—that day that seemed so long ago now. Surprised, he glanced at her—then seeing the change in her, he smiled and nodded. He went to the back and returned with the dress.

She looked at Mandy and Meg, who had come from the back when she saw what Cord had pulled out. “Will you help me to try it on?” she asked them.

Meg grinned. “Oh, my,” she said, smiling. She looked at Mandy. “We’d be happy to.”

Kat laughed, and the women headed to the back.

Kat tried on the dress, and Mandy and Meg made over how beautiful she looked in it, while the seamstress, Mandy had arranged for, made the necessary measurements for alterations. When Kat caught herself in the mirror, she stood speechless, unable to believe who she saw looking back at her in the mirror.

Mandy came up, smiling. “You’re glowing, Kat,” she said. She touched the beads on the dress. “You left here confused.” She looked up. “And you’ve come back knowing exactly who you are—and what you want from your life.” She smiled at Kat. “I’m so happy for you.”

Meg laughed. “We,” she emphasized, laughing. “
We’re
so happy for you,” she said.

Kat flushed, smiling. “I’m
am
happy,” she admitted. “I love my life on the ranch. I love my life with Kid.” She looked at her friends and shrugged. “I just—
love my life.”

Mandy grinned. “So no more need to run off to be by yourself,” she said.

Kat grinned back at her. “No more need to run off,” she admitted. “I’ve never been so at peace.”

She looked up to see Meg grinning at her too. “Stop,” Kat said, trying to sound more like her old self. She failed, and grinned back at them. Then, she wagged a finger at Meg. “It will be your turn next,” she promised her.

Meg blanched at that—and Mandy dissolved into a fit of giggles, until tears sprang to her eyes.

Meg glared at her, which only made Mandy laugh harder. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Meg said Kat, trying to ignore Mandy now.

Mandy laughed. “You never do,” she said through her tears. “But you heard her—you’re next.”

Meg huffed, then left the room and went out to the front of the store.

Kat’s eyes widened at this. “Is she mad,” she said, concerned.

Mandy only giggled. “Probably,” she said. “She won’t admit she loves Cord.” She smiled at Kat, unrepentant. “But she’ll be over it, quick,” she said. “You’ll see.”

Sure enough, Kat had no more taken off her wedding dress, and come out to the front of the store with Mandy, and she ran into a grinning Meg.

“So when will you need that dress?” she asked.

“Next Saturday,” Mandy said, smiling.

Meg’s brows shot up. “Really?” she said. “Why that’s great.” She went behind the counter and wrote some stuff down. “What else will you need, then?” she asked them, and Mandy dug out the list they’d written down the night before.

Meg’s eyes widened as her gaze scanned the list. “Are you inviting the whole countryside?” she asked, teasing.

“Yes,” Mandy said, giving her a look that dared her to say another word about it.

Kat laughed. “Mandy wants to make up for the party we all missed, when she and Hawk go married last year,” she said.

“Does she now?” Meg said. “Well, okay then. Let’s do it up right and plan a dance that the whole town can come to, shall we?”

Kat nodded. “That would be wonderful. We’re due a celebration. We’ve come through two wars, in as many years, and we
should
celebrate.”

And, with that, the three of them spent the rest of the afternoon planning for just that.

Wedding Bells

Today was her wedding day,
Kat actually giggled as Mandy straightened the train of her veil. She stared at her reflection in the mirror.

“I still can’t believe you decided to get married in a church,” Meg said, laughing.

Kat grinned. “We wanted it to be legal before the eyes of God—Goddess—and man,” she said. “Nothing can break us apart, even if we were somehow separated.” She chocked on that last, and felt Mandy place her hand on her shoulder.

They’d been through too much together, not to be wise to the way life could come and stomp all over all their well thought plans.

Kat stared at her, then Meg, then Star Flower. These were her friends. Her eyes filled with tears.

“Hey,” Mandy said, laughing, “none of that, or you’ll have us all crying….”

The four women laughed, but Kat noticed that tears shimmered in each of their own gazes, as they quickly looked away, smiling to cover up how close they were to crying.

Joy filled Kat’s heart, and she knew a happiness she’d never known before. This was really happening. She was really getting married—and to the love of her life.

If someone had told her such a thing existed, a couple of short years ago, she would have laughed in their face, and probably dug out her skinnin’ knife for even suggesting it.

Speaking of, she thought. Her hand reached out to touch her blade, where it sat on the dresser top.

Seeing this, Star Flower laughed. “Oh, no you don’t,” she said, taking the blade and putting it into the top drawer. Mandy and Meg joined in the laughter, as Kat smiled.

If someone had tried to take that knife away from her—two short years ago….. She laughed out loud. What a difference a few months could make.

Turning, she caught the sight of her friends in the mirror, and then, she caught sight of herself and, once more, she stared. Was that really her? She looked so different. She looked so—beautiful. No longer was she that wild girl, Mandy had hired, when she’d rescued McCandle from the end of Kat’s blade.

No longer was she the girl, who spoke in the broken English and Western slang. No longer did she walk around in leathers and fight for her existence. Her life had been transformed—by good friends—and an amazing love for the man—who she was about to walk down the aisle to marry.

And she could hardly wait to start her future with him.

Nothing had ever felt so right. Nothing had ever felt so good—so absolutely perfect. She’d been blessed the day she came to Cheyenne. She’d been born the day she’d met Kid. And Kid’s love—and the love of her friends—had been the true beginning of her life.

She would die knowing that she knew friendship—that she knew a great love. And that love, how well she loved, was the only thing in this life she could take with her—when she left this lifetime.

Kat turned and smiled at Mandy, hugging her through her tears. She hugged Meg next, then Star Flower. “It is my greatest wish,” she said, “that when I am an old woman—I am still here, laughing with all of you….”

Mandy squeezed her hand. “Me too….”

Meg and Star Flower seconded that wish as Mandy said that, and they laughed, again, but this time, they had to swipe at the tears in their eyes, trying to dash them away as fresh tears quickly replaced them no matter what they did, and they laughed.

“Okay,” Meg said. “I think we’d better get started, or the men out there are going to have to rescue us from something that nothing in their lives will have prepared them for.

Kat giggled, picturing them having a meltdown, and the guys rushing in to find them all bawling their eyes out. The emotions within her caused the visual—that gave her—to bowl her over in a fit of giggles. Pretty soon they were all giggling so loud that when Hawk opened the door, to see what the commotion was—and he could only stare.

Kat had never seen such a look on his face, and she dissolved in laughter, sinking to the floor with her friends.

Hawk looked mortified—and quickly closed the door. Kat heard him tell someone on the outside of the door that they didn’t want to go in there, in gruff tones, and that perhaps someone should fetch Doc, from across the way, to which, Mandy laughed so hard Kat had to slap her on the back.

When they finally pulled themselves together, they grinned at one another, hugging. Then, Meg went to the door to tell them they were nearly ready, waiving in someone who waited at the door, and Kat’s three friends went out the door to give Kat a moment with her grandfather.

He had a stunned look on his face as he came in, and he just stared at Kat, tears filling his eyes.

Oh, no, she thought. This was going to break his heart.

But as he came forward, he took her hands into his. “You look so beautiful,” he said. He hugged her close to him. “I cannot believe how blessed I am to have found you—to get to have this moment with you.”

Kat smiled through her tears. Nothing he said could have meant more to her than this.

“Granddaughter,” he said. “I feel as though my life is complete, to get to be with you for this day,” he said. He smiled at her, gently touching her face. “I’m going to give you a moment,” he said. “Then, when you are ready to step into your new life with the man you love—who is out there waiting for you with great anticipation, by the way…,” to which they both laughed, “then I will be most honored to walk my granddaughter down the aisle to greet her new life….”

Kat smiled. She couldn’t say anything. Her heart was full to bursting. Her life, at this moment, felt perfect. So, instead, she stood up on her tiptoes, so she could kiss his cheek. Then, she hugged him, burying her head in his chest, where she realized that she’d done just so as a child. Smiling through her tears, she stood there for a long moment in time, knowing she would take this, too, with her—as one of the treasured moments of her life.

He reached down and squeezed her hand as he released her, then he walked to the door, taking one last, long look before he went out to wait for her by the door.

Kat turned, looking at reflection in the mirror. She could hardly believe the blessings that had walked into her life. And she took a long moment to thank the Great Spirit for each one.

She stared at herself in the mirror. She also could hardly believe that she’d actually reached this moment—that she was truly about to get married. She’d waited for so long for this. And as she met her gaze, her cat-like, green-gold gaze stared back at her. She couldn’t get over the fact that the woman in the mirror was really her.

She looked beautiful. Her tiny face, framed by her blond curls, liked delicate porcelain of the glass figurines, she’d seen at her grandfather’s manor.

Kat sucked in her breath. She felt amazed by all the things that she’d survived with Kid, just to get to this moment. First, there had been the war they’d fought for Mandy. Then, there had been the war they’d fought for her grandfather. They’d come through so much—just to get to this very moment. And she knew this was a moment that she would treasure for a lifetime.

Where before, she’d been worried about how this marriage would affect her wild nature—worried that she would feel caged—now she only saw bliss. She couldn’t imagine her life without Kid. She couldn’t imagine her future without him.

Bliss moved through her, singing in her veins. Love filled her heart to overflowing and tears sprang to her eyes, as she gazed at her reflection in the mirror. The depth of her love for Kid moved through her, gaining her an immeasurable release that she knew came from a place of great trust. To have this moment before her, felt like a treasure she’d never imagined. Kid was a gift from above. And their love gave her insight—understanding—into life itself—into the meaning of life and the only thing that was important—how well they loved.

Her reflection in the glass shimmered like a deep pool. Silver shown in depths that reflected her own desires. Kid’s love lay in the center of her own heart, and she knew a contentment like nothing she’d ever experienced before, had never known existed, had never known could be hers, and Kat knew bliss.

Silence filled her until the only thing she knew was the love that existed with every beat of her heart. She turned to face the door. Soon, she would walk down that aisle—and she would become Kid’s wife. Together, they would walk through the rest of their lives, and everything experience, every trial, every tribulation, as well as every joy, every celebration, they experienced, they would experience together.

So this was what it meant to be one, she thought. Not a cage at all—but someone to share her life with—to experience her sorrows and her joys with her. To know what it was like to be in love with her best friend and love—and never face anything that life had to throw at her, alone.

Yes, Kat thought. I want to be Kid’s wife.

And so as Kat walked down the aisle of the church on her grandfather’s arm, she had eyes only for Kid. She saw the depth of her love mirrored back to her in his dark gaze, as he took her hand into his. Tears slipped down her face, but Kat didn’t have any desire to dash them away. Instead, she smiled through them and witnessed the tears that shimmered in Kid’s.

And when she said her vows, her voice tremored. “I will love you with every breath of my body,” she told him, “and every beat of my heart. I will love you, be right beside you, fight right beside you…,” to which laughter filled the room, “raise our children beside you—forever.”

She heard some sniffing and laughed. Laughter met her ears as their friends laughed with her.

“I have waited for this moment for what seems like a lifetime,” Kid told her. “I will love you till the day I die and into the great beyond,” he promised her. “I will love you with my life. And if you let me,” he laughed, “I would die for you.”

She giggled, then sobered. “Just promise to die beside me, not without me. Because, I could never bear my life without you.” she said.

Now sobs from her friends met her ears, and she laughed through her tears as Kid and their friends laughed with them, and the preacher pronounced them man and wife.