Million Dollar Cowboy (Cupid, Texas #5)(97)

That all sounded well and good, but it did nothing to quell the fear in her belly. Granny Blue hadn't seen the stony look in his eyes when she'd told him about the humming.

"You must have patience. You must believe. You must trust. Understand me when I say this to you. You cannot lose him. He is yours. He has always been yours. He will always be yours. Nothing in heaven or earth can ever change that."

"All right." Kaia nodded, feeling marginally better. "I can't lose him no matter what?"

Granny Blue's eyes shone, her smile steady and filled with golden promise. "No matter what."

"But . . ." Kaia bit her bottom lip.

"What is it?"

"What happens if, no matter how much time I give him, no matter how long I wait . . ." She paused on a hiccup of emotions.

"Hope is your greatest strength, child. You've always been able to see past the thunderclouds when others could not. Hold on to that hope."

"But what happens if he is so broken, so afraid, he simply can't or won't accept our destiny?"

Granny's bright eyes shuttered and her smile evaporated. "I'll pray that does not happen."

A wisp of loneliness blew over Kaia so strong and mournful she felt it seep deep into her soul. "What if prayers just don't work? What if despite everything Ridge is incapable of loving me."

"Then . . ." Granny Blue's voice broke, brittle and mournful. "It will be the greatest tragedy of both your lives."





Chapter 28




It was late when she returned from Granny Blue's. Almost ten o'clock.

Her mind worried over thoughts of Ridge, preoccupied, distracted. She forgot to bar the front door with her foot as she entered and the orphaned orange tabby kitten shot around her ankles into the night.

Sprinting for freedom.

"Dammit Dart!" she hollered, getting knocked down by Buddy and Bess as they chased after the kitten in an exuberant, we-wanna-play-too hullabaloo. "Get back here!"

Right. Like that was happening.

She grabbed hold of Buddy's and Bess's collars and wrangled them back into the house, shut the door, and went after Dart.

The half-moon was out, ghostly and white.

She walked around the house, calling "kitty, kitty, kitty," finally spied Dart scaling the only tall tree in the area. A big Texas walnut growing against the side of the house that someone had planted a long time before Kaia had been born.

Great. How was she going to get him down? She couldn't trust he'd come down on his own, and leave him be. Not at night. Not in the dark. Too many predators in the desert.

Remembering a trick she'd seen in the old movie Roxanne, where fireman C. D. Bales, played by Steve Martin sporting a fake Cyrano de Bergerac big nose, rescued a cat from a tree, Kaia went into the house for a can of tuna, came back outside, opened the pop-top lid, and set the can underneath the tree.

"Yum, yum. It's tuna. Dinnertime. Come and get it."

Dart crawled deeper into the leaves of the tree, eyed her suspiciously, but did not come down. Well so much for that trick. Steve Martin owed her a can of tuna.

"Dart, darling, come down, come down. Kitty, kitty, kitty."

Dart scooted higher into the tree. So much for her cat seducing abilities. If her sisters could see her now, they'd have a good laugh.

"If you're not going to come down, I'm going to have to come after you," she threatened.

Oh yeah? Oblivious to her threats, Dart never looked down, just kept climbing.



       
         
       
        

She blew out her breath so hard it ruffled the strands of hair that had floated loose from her braids. She went back into the house past Buddy and Bess, who jumped all over her like they hadn't seen her in ages.

"Yes, yes, good dogs." She paused to pet them.

She went to the pantry, retrieved the stepladder she kept there. It was just tall enough to boost her up to the first limb of the tree.

Back outside, under the glow of the porch lamp, she steadied the stepladder as best she could on the uneven ground. Thick, gnarled, tree roots poked up and she straddled the ladder between them. Climbed to the top rung. Slung one blue-jeaned leg over the lowest branch.

"Okay, we're cooking with kerosene now, baby."

Carefully, she moved to the next limb and the next. After several long minutes, she reached the thin, shaky limb where Dart was perched. Made the mistake of glancing down.

Crapple!

She had to be at least seven feet off the ground.

Don't think. Keep moving.

Dart, the little bugger, was being darn stubborn. Kaia scooted out as far as she dared on the limb, but the orange tabby edged out onto finger branches.