“I’ll also drive you home. You ready?”
She nodded and said to Colt, “Tell Regan I lost all the fish.”
He smiled. “I will.”
She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Thanks for patching me up.”
“Anytime.”
He loaned her a pair of crutches and she managed to leave the office and climb onto the bed of Odell’s wagon. The bed of hers needed a good scrubbing to rid it of Ben’s blood. Odell volunteered to take care of that for her, as well.
When she got home, she and her crutcheshobbled slowly into the house. She was exhausted. She sat on the bed and fell back onto the mattress.
He asked, “You sure you’ll be okay here by yourself?”
“I will. Just come check on me in the morning.”
“Will do.”
She sat up again. “I wanted to resolve our problems and now, we never will.”
“I know, but he gave his life for you. That has to mean something.”
“True.” And it did. She owed him her life for the rest of her life.
“I’m going to miss him a lot. We’ve been blood brothers almost sixty years.” There were tears in his eyes. “Going to get drunk, but I’ll be back to see you in the morning. Give me a hug, then you go to sleep.”
They shared a strong hug and she kissed his whiskered cheek. “I’m sorry for the loss of your friend,” she whispered.
“So am I.” He wiped his eyes. “I’ll make you some bark tea and head back to town. Do you need anything else?”
She shook her head. “I’ll probably be asleep by the time the water boils so go on and leave. I can heat water when I wake up.”
“You sure?”
“Positive.”
He kissed her cheek. “Get some rest.”
She nodded and was asleep before he drove away.
When she awakened later it was night. She thought it odd that the lamp on her nightstand was lit because she didn’t remember it being that way when she went to sleep. She then decided she must be dreaming because Garrett was seated in the chair by the fireplace. He set his book aside and asked, “How are you feeling?”
Confused beyond measure, she countered, “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you with your family?”
“Left the train in Omaha and came back.”
“Why?”
“To tell you I love you, and that if you don’t want children I won’t love you less. To hope you’ll overlook me being a ham-handed rube for my backward thinking and forgive me and let me love you until the mountains are no more.”
Her heart soared. “That’s certainly a long list.”
“I know. I can probably add more if you need me to.”
“Maybe later.” She studied him. “You aren’tsaying all that hoping I’ll change my mind sometime in the future?”
“No. I meant every word.” And he added, softly, “I don’t care if we marry or not, but I want to grow old with you, Spring. You and I. Partners.”