After the Ashes(118)

Even under his week-old beard, his jaw perceptively tightened, a sure sign he was furious. “Why did you do a fool thing like that?”

She stiffened. Expecting his censure didn’t ease its sting. “I’m tired of hiding from the truth. I’m ready to accept the consequences, whatever they may be.”

He raked his hand through his sleep-spiked hair. “I could have kept him out of trouble. With Corey’s help I could pretend to track down the gold and everyone would have been happy.”

“Except Corey. And Wade Langston. I traded your confession for the information about Corey.”

Christopher stared at her blankly, his eyebrows drawn in confusion. After a moment he laid back against the pillows, apparently waylaid by the return of his memory. “I forgot about that. I had to do something to get Langston to look for you.”

A grin tugged at her tight features, though how she could smile she didn’t know. “I imagined I was the reason you confessed to something you didn’t do.”

“Is that why you sold your brother out—to save me?”

“I wish you wouldn’t put it like that, but yes. I love you. I couldn’t bear for you to be hurt any more by my mistakes.”

He grinned, and his teeth shone a healthy white against his dark beard, challenging the shadow of illness that clung to his skin. “I always thought you’d choose him over me.”

“Well, I didn’t. And now I have to live with it.”

His obvious pleasure at her devotion cast a flicker of hope in her tight chest, but remembering what that happiness would cost her brother quickly snuffed it out.

He covered her hand with his. “We’ll live with it.”

“There will be a trial. Even though I turned him in, I’m going to see Corey through it.”

“We’ll see it through together.” He squeezed her hand. “I get it now, Lorelei. I understand how Jay could pick himself up again and why he works himself to death on a patch of desert. Well, maybe I don’t exactly understand that, but I do know what makes all the sweat and tears worth it. Marry me. I can face anything if I know it’s with you.”

She couldn’t stop the tears that formed in her eyes. “I do love you. But what about Corey?”

Christopher sighed. “He’s going to jail, sweetheart.”

She looked into Christopher’s sincere face and saw what could be her future. A future that still existed no matter how much life had thrown their way. It was as eternal as the sun, as reliable as the moon. She was still breathing. She was still able to love and take love’s hand when it reached out to her. For once she let fortune smile on her and let the pieces fall where they might. She squared her shoulders.

“All right.”