“And I broke my leg. Outlaw fell on it. They refused to set the bone. The old Mexican man wanted to cut it off, but I wouldn’t let him. I have a limp, Randy—”
“Jake, it’s all right. You’re alive, and you’re back home on the J&L. Brian can help you.” She grasped his face in her hands again and lay still to look at him. “And you still have that smile that melts my heart.” She shivered with new tears. “And just look at you! You’re still my handsome Jake. I’ll feed you and nurse you and you’ll heal even more, Jake. We’ll get you completely well and—”
“Do you even know how beautiful you are?” he interrupted her. “In all our years together, you’ve never looked more beautiful.” He ran his hands over her body, as though to prove to himself she was really in his arms. Again he showered her with kisses. “There were moments when I feared I’d never get to touch you again, hear your voice, hold you in my arms.”
“It was the same for me, Jake.” She hugged him around the neck again.
Jake kissed her neck again, her lips. “Let’s get you out of this snow.” He sat up and removed his wool jacket and put it around her. Yes, he was thinner, but still solid and strong…the same broad shoulders and the same solid arms, the same dark eyes and that smile…that smile…
“I want to spend about a month with you up at the line shack,” he told her. “Just you and me and the wolves and the bears and the wind and—” His voice broke.
“My darling, Jake, I want the same. But first you need to rest…truly rest…for as long as it takes to get all your strength back. I’ll fatten you up again on that bread. And right now there is a big, beautiful family waiting for you down at the house. I want to hog you all to myself, but they’ve all been so devastated. You need to go down there and let them see it’s really you and that their father and grandfather is alive.”
He pressed her close. “Tell me that peppermint stick is still on the nightstand.”
“It is. I never moved it.”
“You have no idea how badly I want to sleep in our own bed tonight. It will be like heaven.”
“And it will be heaven for me just having you there beside me.”
“Baby, I can’t stand on my leg for too long at a time yet.”
“It’s okay, Jake.”
“I don’t want to let go of you.”
“I don’t want to let go either, but we have to get you someplace warm, and Lloyd and Evie and all the grandkids are waiting to see you, Jake.”
Another long, delicious kiss. Jake managed to get to his feet. He helped Randy onto his horse, then grimaced as he mounted up behind her to ride down the hill to the homestead. Ben and the four bigger of his seven grandchildren literally tackled Jake when he dismounted, screaming and laughing but also crying. Jake fell back into the snow, and Brian and Randy helped pull them off.
“Hold up there! We don’t know if your grandpa is still hurting,” Brian warned them.
“I’m all right, Brian.”
Brian could see the man most certainly was not all right. Without even examining him or asking what had happened, he could tell Jake was in pain. God only knew what had happened to him, but he most certainly needed to get inside and get some rest. He couldn’t even get to his feet on his own. Brian reached out for him, and Jake grimaced a little as he got to his feet.
In the next second, Lloyd grabbed his father close. Father and son held each other for several long seconds. “Damn it, Pa, I should have been with you.”
“It’s okay, Lloyd. I’m damn glad you weren’t. You would have insisted on staying to help me, and you might have been killed. I’m damn lucky to be alive.”
“We heard you, Pa,” Lloyd told him, his voice wavering as he continued to embrace Jake. “Me and Evie and Mom—we all heard you talk to us. We never fully believed you were dead.”
“God, I missed you, son. I missed all of you. I thought about giving up, but I couldn’t stand the thought of never seeing any of you again, or never holding your mother in my arms again.”
Jake finally let go of Lloyd. Both men had tears on their cheeks. Jake turned to Evie, crushing her close as she wept. “You did this, Evie. I knew you’d be praying for this worthless old man.”
“Oh, Daddy, God knows what a good man you are. That’s why He brought you back to us. You’re so loved, Daddy.”
Jake made the rounds, hugging every grandchild again, wiping at more tears, hugging Katie and the new baby. “By God, Katie, I think you get more beautiful with each new baby you have. At this rate, you’ll have fifteen more, because you just keep getting prettier.”