“You don’t have to answer me now. Just stay on. Run your horse business out of the Lucky Five. If you decide to stay, you can sell your ranch or keep it and rent it out. Do what you want. You’re not a prisoner here. Just give us a chance. I’m good with that for now. As to our living arrangements, I will be a total gentleman, I promise.”
“You have always been a gentleman with me,” she said. “I have failed to behave like a lady, I’m afraid.”
“Wait here a moment. Sit down. I’ll be right back.”
He turned and left the room and Sierra could hear him taking the steps to the second floor, probably two at a time. Jordy had just overwhelmed her enough. She was not ready for another surprise. She needed to saddle Dancer and ride off into the night and think about all that was being dropped on her plate. Her physical attraction to Jordy was undeniable, but from her experiences with Carlos, she had learned that a lifetime with someone would require much more. She felt she had already bonded with Jordy as a friend despite her disgusting behavior a few nights earlier. He had not even said a word about it and not many hours later had welcomed her at the graveside vigil. He was a kind and generous man—like Grandpa Jack. And why wouldn’t he be, raised in the shadow of such a man?
When Jordy reentered the library, he was carrying a canvas-wrapped roll of something. He laid it on the table in front of her and sat down. “Yours,” he said. “I bought it at the tavern yesterday. I thought of destroying it, but it is just too beautiful. I can’t do it. I am giving it to you. Do with it as you wish. Burn if it pleases you but don’t ask me to help.”
She stood up and began to unwrap the canvas cover. Before she was finished, she knew what she was going to find. She just had no idea which one. She pulled the rolled-up painting from its canvas sheath. “Help me roll this out on the floor,” she said.
They both knelt on the floor, rolling out the painting to its full length, each of them pinning one end to the floor. She studied her own form stretched out there like a lazy cat. She remembered the painting and the countless nights it had taken and those passionate moments in the studio each evening after work was done and then sneaking back into her room at school. What a wicked creature she had been.
“Let’s roll it up and put it back in the wrap,” she said. “For now, you can put it back wherever you were keeping it.”
After the painting was wrapped again, she sat down again at the table, and Jordy took the chair beside her, taking her hand in his. She spoke softly. “I don’t know what to say. You found this in a tavern?”
“Yes. Above the bar.”
“I hope you didn’t have to pay too much.”
“I got a bargain price. The owner did not appreciate the treasure he had there.”
“There could be as many as a half dozen somewhere. I suppose I should tell you about it. I had such bad judgment and now I am paying for it.”
“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.”
She smiled wanly. “That sounds like a ‘Jack-ism.’”
“It is. But I don’t need to hear the story. Someday, if you feel compelled to tell it, I would be glad to listen. But it doesn’t matter. I will never tell you every story from my sordid past. If you decide to marry me, I like to think we will start with a fresh canvas.”
Later, she tossed in bed, her rambling thoughts denying sleep. She finally swung her legs out of bed, peeled off the flannel nightgown, stepped into the hallway and pushed the partly open door to Jordy’s room. She crawled into his bed, slipping in beside him, pleased to discover that he was also naked. He rolled toward her, “What the . . ?”
She pressed a finger to his lips. “Yes,” she said. “I will marry you.”
It was several hours later when she heard Uncle Rudy’s cane banging on the staircase. “I hear you. Sounded like you got a mountain cat up there. Get back to your room and leave that young woman alone, Jordy, or I’m coming up.”
Chapter Sixty-One
It had been a month since Sierra accepted Jordy’s proposal. Everything that had happened since that time only reassured her that her decision had been a good one. This was a man she could walk side by side with to the end of the trail. Already, the Lucky Five was in her blood, and she, Irish, and Mitch Eagle Eyes would develop a major equine side to the ranching operation. Jordy would stay with his cows and try to expand farming on the bottomlands of the ranch.
She still shed tears sometimes because she felt cheated out of so many years with Grandpa Jack, but she felt he was with her most days on the vast ranch. And everybody she encountered had anecdotes to share about Jack Wills, so she came to know him better each day.
She had not told Jordy yet that she had missed her monthly last week. What would Grandpa have thought about the prospects of a second descendent arriving soon, one who whether male or female, would carry the middle name Wills?
It was late morning, and the Texas sun would have them baking in a few hours, but for now they enjoyed the shade of a few oak trees and a gentle breeze drifting off the North Concho. They had selected this spot for their wedding because Jack had liked to fish here. The only guests were employees and families of the Lucky Five businesses, and some of those were absent because of freight runs or livestock emergencies. She guessed that just
