Western Ties: Compass Brothers, Book 4 (23 page)

He grasped her hand, his voice weak when he replied. “You, my love. That’s all.”

Vicky kissed his bony, gnarled fingers. Sawyer closed his eyes, choosing to remember the man his father had been before pancreatic cancer. Tall, strong, vibrant. That was the man imprinted on his heart, the one he was going to tell his nieces, nephews and children about.

JD’s breathing became loud in the quiet room. The raspy sound drowned out even the pounding of Sawyer’s heart.

“Seth. Get my girls. Colby, too. Wanna see everyone I love. Standing around me. Healthy. Happy. Alive. My legacy.”

Seth slipped down the hall, returning in seconds, followed by the rest of the family. Leah strode straight toward Sawyer. He was glad for her strength when she wrapped her arms around him. Even better, his brothers had the same support, the same love. Colby embraced Lucy as Silas came to stand behind Vicky, his hand resting on her shoulder.
 

None of them said a word as JD slowly scanned the room. When his gaze landed at last on Vicky, he smiled.
 

And closed his eyes.

Chapter Twelve

Two days later, Leah rocked on the front porch swing. She watched the sunrise with Sawyer and Vicky. The three of them sat together quietly, letting the morning sounds soothe them. The crickets were out in full-force, providing the soundtrack for the sky’s show as the darkness faded to light, producing the most beautiful colors Leah had ever seen.

 
She’d stayed at the ranch with Sawyer since his father passed away. Once JD’s body was taken from the house, the energy had drained out of Vicky like someone had pulled a plug. She had gone into the living room, claiming the couch, looking far too weary and refusing to budge. The family took turns keeping her company each day, while the others worked on taking care of all the preparations necessary for the funeral.
 

Vicky had offered some input, but for the most part, she was content to let them handle all the details. Each night, one of the boys would escort her to her bedroom and stay with her until she fell asleep. Leah’s heart flooded with emotion when she saw the quiet care Vicky’s sons gave to their mother.

Leah had woken up nearly an hour earlier when she heard Sawyer quietly moving around the bedroom. He’d told her to go back to sleep, but—like him—she couldn’t stop thinking about the coming day.
 

JD’s funeral was expected to be the largest Compton Pass had ever seen. A giant in the community, there wasn’t a single soul in the area who didn’t know and respect him. Rather than try to squeeze the entire town into the too-small funeral home, they’d opted to hold the ceremony on the ranch. Vicky had smiled when they’d proposed the idea, telling them JD would like that.

Leah and Sawyer had tiptoed downstairs together to discover Vicky had been the earlier bird. They’d enjoyed the quiet morning for nearly an hour without speaking, all of them lost in their thoughts.
 

Sawyer broke the silence first. “It’s going to be a beautiful day.”

Vicky nodded. “I bet JD’s pulling some strings in heaven.”

Leah liked the idea of JD providing the sunshine. The thought comforted her. “I think I smell bacon.”

Vicky turned her head to the house. “That’ll be Seth. It’s his answer to all of life’s problems.”

Leah laughed. “Wow. Never considered that before, but I think he may be on to something.”

“I’m hungry.” It was the first time in two days Vicky had shown any appetite at all, never taking more than a bite or two when one of the boys insisted.

Sawyer stood up and grasped his mother’s hand. “I’m starving. Let’s go eat.”

The morning passed slowly, no one in a hurry to move to the inevitable event. The whole family ate a leisurely breakfast, the conversation sparse and involving little more than someone asking for a plate to be passed. After breakfast, they retired to their separate spaces to get dressed. Sam and Cindi had their own little cottage on the property as did Lucy, Silas and Colby.
 

While nothing had been decided, Leah was certain Seth and Jody would remain at the ranch house with Vicky after the funeral. Sawyer had spent most of the past month dividing his time between home and Leah’s apartment. They were still in the early days of their relationship, but she was hoping perhaps he’d move in with her once the dust settled.

The city council had offered him the sheriff’s position a couple weeks earlier, so it made more sense for him to live closer to town. Roberts had agreed to stay on longer, training him on a part-time basis and allowing Sawyer the extra time to be with JD.
 

When a parade of cars started down the driveway, the family gathered together on the front porch. Sawyer handed Leah her guitar.

Once they arrived at the family’s burial plot on the west side of the property, she would play. Though they’d expected a large crowd, Leah was amazed by the sheer number of people. It was as if every man, woman and child from Compton Pass were there. Her mother gave her a brief wave from the yard before dabbing her face with a tissue.

Leah’s eyes filled with tears and she took a deep breath, forcing them away. She glanced at Sawyer, his face chiseled in stone. She suspected the veneer was starting to wear thin.
 

The night of JD’s death, he’d crawled into his bed with her, put his head on her chest and quietly cried in her arms until he fell asleep. Since then, he’d taken up Vicky’s habit of constant movement, handling most of the thousand little things that needed attending to and entertaining the steady stream of visitors to the ranch.
 

Silas appeared at the front door, holding the urn containing JD’s ashes. Silas’s usually impassive face was lined with pain. Leah lost her battle with tears. JD’s oldest son would carry his father to his final resting place.
 

Sawyer wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “Moonshine jar,” he whispered. “One of the few instructions JD left about what he’d like for his funeral.”

Leah smiled through her tears. Only JD Compton would want to go to the great beyond in a moonshine jar.

Silas cradled the container, wrapped in JD’s favorite flannel shirt, in his arm and started forward, leaning heavily on his cane. Colby helped Silas descend the porch stairs. On solid ground, Silas waited for his brothers to join him. The four Compass brothers led the procession as Vicky, wearing JD’s cowboy hat, followed closely behind, supported by Colby. Leah walked with Lucy, Jody and Cindi.
 

The short trek to the cemetery plot was made without a sound, only the occasional sniffle breaking the silence. When they arrived, Leah saw the hole Colby had dug earlier in the day.
 

Glancing around, she observed the graves of earlier generations of Comptons, some of the stones dating to the early 1800s. She was overwhelmed by the sense of family, of tradition surrounding them. JD had been one in a long line of powerful, honorable men. Leah looked at Sawyer and recognized that same strength and pride in him.
 

Sawyer caught her gaze, and then nodded. She moved forward to sit on the chair Colby had provided for her. Opening her guitar case, she lifted the instrument to her lap and swallowed hard, forcing the lump in her throat away. JD had asked her to perform at his funeral. At the time, she would have promised him the moon.

Now she realized how difficult it was going to be to honor his request. He deserved a beautiful tribute, but her throat was tight with unshed tears. She closed her eyes and let the silence clear her mind. JD’s smiling face appeared as she recalled him dancing Cindi down the aisle, giving her away to his son.

The image balanced her, gave her the power to sing. The opening strains of
Amazing Grace
were soft, but as she lost herself to the lyrics of the song, her voice gradually gained strength. She began to strum her guitar, singing louder. Colby joined her on the second verse and soon, everyone in the crowd added their voices to the melody.
 

As they sang, Silas uncapped the jar. Slowly, he poured his father’s ashes into the hole. Once the container was empty, Vicky stepped forward. She took off JD’s hat, placing it on top of the ashes.

Seth retrieved the shovel Colby had left near the gravesite, scooping up some of the loose earth and layering it in the hole. Then, he handed the tool to Sam, who followed suit.
 

Leah’s voice wavered slightly when Sawyer accepted the shovel from his twin and added his own dirt to the grave. Sawyer wiped his face roughly as he passed it to Silas. Silas took his turn and then he approached his mother. Vicky put the last two mounds on JD’s grave, tears streaming from her eyes.

She blew a kiss to JD, and then she stepped away. Seth was there, offering a strong hand at her back as the final strains of the song ended.

The four brothers stood by their mother, facing the crowd. Last night, they had met in the barn with a twelve-pack of beer—and two cans of Pepsi for Silas—to write their father’s eulogy.
 

When he’d come to bed, well after midnight, Sawyer had reached for Leah in the darkness. She’d asked him how it had gone. Rather than answer, he’d pulled her beneath him, slowly pushing into her body. He’d trembled as he made love to her. She’d wrapped her arms around him, kissing away his silent tears.

Now the four brothers stood shoulder to shoulder. Someone handed Silas a microphone.

He cleared his throat. ”Thank you all for coming today to the place my forefathers built. JD was the latest in a line of hardworking, generous and badass Comptons. I can only hope that someday, my children will stand in this spot and think as highly of me and what I’ve done with my life. JD gave me something to aspire to, something to try to measure up against and something I’ll never forget. A sense of family. All of you, all of Compton Pass, are a part of that extended tree. JD told me once that we have so many different jobs to do here that we need all sorts of people. Even ones we don’t understand. I think maybe he was trying to tell me something personal then.”

He glanced over his shoulder to where Colby and Lucy embraced.

“As the new head of Compass ranch, I plan to uphold his traditions. I was the luckiest bastard in the world to have JD Compton for my father. I’ll do my best to be half as decent as him.”

Seth was next. He took a step forward. “I could always count on my dad for the truth and a laugh. I don’t think I ever realized how much those two things meant to me until the night before my wedding. JD came into the guest room to talk to me since Jody had kicked me out, claiming bad luck.” Seth looked at Jody and winked. “He sat down in the chair by the window and he said, ‘Son, never start an argument with your wife unless you’re right.’ I nodded as I always did, appreciating my father’s wisdom. I thought about what he’d said and knew that was pretty good advice. I told him I’d keep that in mind. Then JD added, ‘And just so you know, you’re never gonna be right.’” The crowd laughed. Seth smiled, though there were tear tracks on his cheeks. “My wedding only took place about a month ago, so I haven’t had much time to try out his advice, but I’ll let you know if JD was speaking the truth. I sort of suspect he is.”
 

Seth stepped back and Vicky wrapped her arm around his waist. “I can tell you right now, he is.”

Leah giggled. There was nothing better than laughter through tears. The beauty of this family was their resilience. Their loss had been tremendous, but even in the face of their pain, they found a way to smile. JD would definitely have approved.

Sam followed when the chuckles trailed off. “All I’d like to say is that my dad was the richest man I knew. He could have lost everything to some hellacious drought, or most likely by giving his last dollar to help someone else, and he’d still have been wealthy. Because he knew that what pays off most is love. I count myself fortunate beyond measure. I won the lotto big-time when it comes to that. And though my gorgeous new wife has also lost a father, we will carry on—live, laugh and thrive—because we have the only thing of any value. My dad showed me every day what it’s like to dedicate your soul to a woman and I plan to do just that in his honor.”

Sawyer was the last to speak and the pain on his face tore Leah to pieces. “JD told me if you start a journey looking back, maybe you aren’t heading in the right direction. When I left for the Coast Guard, I was pretty sure my navigational beacon wasn’t pointing due north, but west. I took off, ready to take on the world, a cocky eighteen-year-old. These last few weeks, I’ve come to realize there isn’t one right or wrong direction. A friend reminded me that the point of life isn’t to worry about staying the course, it’ simply to walk, to put one foot in front of the other.”

Sawyer glanced at her and smiled. His face became blurry as her eyes filled.
 

“It was JD who taught me to walk. He put me on my unsteady feet and let go of my hands. He gave me a taste of the freedom that comes from putting one foot in front of the other and the courage to forge my own path. It was the greatest gift I ever received.”

Leah wiped her eyes, the tears flowing rapidly, when Sawyer’s voice broke.
 

Sawyer took a moment to compose himself, then looked out into the crowd. “I thought I’d share his last words to me with all of you because they are simple and true. Be happy. Find what makes you smile and hold on tight to it.”