Tomorrow's Shining Dream

by Naomi Rawlings

  Was the solution really that simple? Depending on Wes’s charity was far different than owning his own land and having money to purchase more Arabians for breeding stock. But maybe if he would have talked to Wes instead of hiding his feelings, he could have told Charlotte everything much, much sooner.

  Charlotte was still pacing and rambling, something about how, precisely, she wanted to keep track of money owed to Wes for boarding fees even though Wes had said she didn’t have to pay them. Evidently, she planned to sell the foal who had just been born to finance most of her breeding operation.

  He waited for her to take a breath, then spoke before she rushed on. “I love you, Charlotte Westin, have loved you for years, actually.”

  She spun around to face him, everything about her suddenly rigid. Her mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. “No. You couldn’t have. You didn’t have an ounce of feelings for me until Anna Mae goaded you into pretend flirting, and you didn’t even want to do that, remember?”

  He wanted to shake his head, but that would only cause him more pain. “I tried saying no because I was already so far in love with you that I knew I’d never be able to hide my feelings if we started spending time together.”

  “But…”

  He leaned up and pressed a finger to her lips. “Why is that so hard for you to believe? You’re kind and dependable and loyal. You help the needy women across the river that most people never stop to think about and give your extra clothing to Anna Mae and Ellie. Anyone can see you’ve got a special skill with horses. You’re beautiful, too.”

  “You meant it that day in your office?” Her hand found his and tightened around it, squeezing hard enough to cause his fingertips to turn purple. “I thought you were just flirting because I made you promise to. But you actually think I’m beautiful?”

  Curse his fractured head. He wanted nothing more than to stand up and take her into his arms, use his lips to assure her just how beautiful he thought she was. Instead, he levered himself higher on the bed, then covered the hand that was already squeezing his with his free one. “Yes, I think you’re beautiful.”

  “But I’m not. Just look at your ma and Anna Mae. They draw men’s eyes wherever…”

  “Come here.” He tugged on her hand just hard enough for her to lose her balance.

  She half fell onto the bed beside him. “Daniel!”

  Before she could scramble up, he wrapped his arm around her ribs and hauled her closer.

  “What are you doing?” She turned to face him but didn’t make any attempt to get up.

  “Getting you closer to me. This is important, and I want to make sure you understand.” He looked down into eyes so close he could see the dark blue around the rim of her irises. “When I look at you, I don’t think of Anna Mae or Ma or anyone else. You are the only person I see, and trust me when I say I’ve never seen anyone more beautiful.”

  Her throat muscles worked, and when she opened her mouth, her breath brushed his chin. “I think that’s the best compliment anyone’s ever given me.”

  “I wish I would have told you how I felt sooner, or at the very least, gone to Wes and asked his advice. Then you could have known all the choices you had about your future.”

  “But our mistakes are forgiven—both mine and yours—and God’s grace will be sufficient enough to cover whatever comes next.”

  Yes, yes, it would. And if they’d both learned these lessons, they had good cause to hope for a bright future. He settled his free hand on her cheek, felt the warmth of her skin beneath his, the gentle puff of her breath against his chin. “Marry me, Charlotte Westin. As soon as I get out of here and my head stops hurting and I can walk in a straight line, promise you’ll marry me.”

  “I’d love to marry you.” She stretched her neck just enough to plant a kiss on his jaw. “But we don’t need to wait for you to be able to walk straight. I can go get Preacher Russell. Bet he’d come here and marry us today without so much as a question.”

  She shifted as though she intended to roll away from him.

  Daniel tightened his grip, bringing her even closer to his side. “Not today. You deserve better.”

  A fancy dress, a crowded church building, Anna Mae and Wes standing as their witnesses… maybe even Mr. Westin’s blessing? She deserved a better proposal too, one that involved a trip to their special spot at Closed Canyon and a man who could get down on one knee—or at the very least stand without becoming dizzy.

  And since he couldn’t give her a single one of those things at the moment, he’d just have to spend the rest of his life making those things up to her.

  Something told him he wasn’t going to mind a bit.

  Epilogue

  Two Months Later

  “Why are we going this way?” Charlotte asked.

  Daniel quirked an eyebrow at his new bride. She sat sidesaddle atop Athena, the Spanish lace of her wedding gown already smudged with desert dust, never mind they’d only left A Bar W and their wedding supper a quarter hour ago.

  “Are you really complaining about riding through the desert?”

  “No.” She shifted. “Maybe. I thought you said you rented a room for us at Fort Ashton.”

  His second eyebrow rose to match his first. “Do you think I want to give Bartholomew Rutherford a cent of my money?”

  She looked back out over the desert. “You said you had somewhere for us to stay tonight.”

  “I do.”

  “But Mr. Rutherford is the only one in town who lets rooms… unless you have a room at the boarding house?”

  Daniel cringed. Had Charlotte ever been inside Mrs. Bloomerton’s boarding house? The tiny rooms with paper thin walls were not the kind of place a man took his bride on their wedding night.

  “All right. I can see by the look on your face we’re not going to the boarding house. So where are we going?” The strands of hair by her face that Anna Mae had painstakingly curled before the wedding bounced with each clomp of Athena’s hooves.

  “Why, Charlotte Harding, it seems like you’re in an awful big hurry to be alone with me.”

  Two red splotches appeared high on her cheeks, and she slanted him a glance. “Maybe I am.”

  He chuckled. “Who would have guessed?”

  “Would you stop talking in riddles and tell me where we’re going? You do have somewhere for us to stay, don’t you?”

  “I do.” Since both of them still lived with their families and the only two places to rent rooms were indeed the boardinghouse and Fort Ashton, he’d been quite stumped over where, exactly, the two of them would spend their wedding night—or all the nights after that once they were married.

  Fortunately, Wes had come to him with an idea.

  “It’s just up here.” He flicked Blaze’s reins, and his horse pulled ahead of Athena and started down a subtle slope. At the bottom of the rocky hill, an outcropping of rocks jutted up from the desert floor. A small stream trickled through the valley, which allowed grass and brush and even some cottonwood to grow.

  Daniel nudged Blaze around the sandstone wall that hid the most important part of the scene from view. “This is where we’re staying.”

  Charlotte rounded the rockface behind him, then drew Athena to a stop. “It’s… a house?”

  “Good to know I married a woman who’s observant along with being beautiful.” Daniel swung off his horse, then reached up to help Charlotte down.

  “But this is A Bar W property. Since when is there a house here?”

  “Well, there’s been a foundation for a house since round about the time I woke up after hitting my head. But if you mean a finished house, reckon that didn’t happen until earlier this week.” He took her hand and would have led her inside, but she refused to move.

  Her eyes roved over the adobe structure with the tile roof, taking in every last detail of the simple, rectangular house that would never be as grand as the A Bar W’s hacienda. “I don’t understand.”

  “Let’s go inside, and I bet
you’ll figure out the rest from there.”

  She stepped through the doorway, then stopped all over again as she surveyed the large, simple room that had already been furnished. “That’s an extra table from the hacienda that we had in storage. The chairs, too.”

  Daniel walked to the table, where several papers lay, then picked up the first one and handed it to her. “This might help explain.”

  She grew silent—almost too silent—as she read the paper. If he had to guess, she probably read it two or three times before she finally pulled it down from her face and looked at him. “It’s a deed… made out to me?”

  “As soon as you sign the bottom, it will be official.”

  “But why—?”

  “Because of this.” He handed her several sheets of papers with a list of horse names in a column on one side and a list of prices across from the names. “Wes has been keeping track of your breeding endeavors. This is what he claims the A Bar W owes you for all the horses you bred and then either gave to the ranch or had your father sell.”

  Charlotte stared at the paper in front of her, the numbers and words blurring. The house and land were really hers? Her brother said the A Bar W owed her money? She focused on the top of the page, forcing her eyes to actually read what was in front of her. “This goes all the way back to when I was nine, and I asked Pa to breed Apollo with Winter. We ended up with Buttercup. Pa insisted on selling her. I begged him not to, but he was adamant that the ranch had all the horses it needed and doing anything other than selling her was poor business sense.”

  “And now you’re getting the money you should have gotten for her when you were nine.” Daniel’s voice was smooth and gentle, almost as though he was afraid she’d turn and run out the door if he spoke in his normal tone. “And we both know not to argue with your brother’s records. No one will ever accuse Wes of being less than thorough.”

  “I still don’t understand.” At least not all of it.

  He stepped behind her and looked over her shoulder, causing the heat from his chest to radiate into her back. “Wes paid you, love. Paid you and knew you needed a place to live, so he gave you this section of the ranch. It’s only a quarter mile to town, which is close enough for me to live here and still be sheriff. There’s also a savings account in both of our names at the bank, with the difference between what your breeding brought in and what Wes estimated to be the cost of this land. Turn to the last page and I’ll show you.”

  He leaned into her as she shuffled the small stack of papers, causing the scents of sunshine and desert and leather to swirl around her. Then he pointed to a figure at the very bottom of the last page. “There. That’s what’s in the bank for you.”

  She felt her eyes grow wide. “My horse breeding has brought in that much?” It didn’t seem possible. “What made Wes decide to do all this?”

  Daniel tugged her around to face him, then settled his arms around her waist. “The idea itself came from me. I knew we needed a place to live and asked your brother if I could buy some land from the A Bar W. He decided you’d already bought and paid for it on your own over the years, and if you were getting married, it was time the A Bar W settled up.

  “The house itself is a wedding present. Wes spared a couple of the cowhands and hired some men from Ojinaga to build it. Wes claims the furniture is all extra and we are free to have whatever we want. There’s a foundation for a stable off to the side of the house. I know you might want to keep the most valuable of your horses at the big barn on the ranch, but I figured you should have something here in case you want a horse or two close. Besides, I need Blaze here for when I get called into town unexpectedly.”

  “Wes did this?” She looked around again. The house wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t exactly small. There was a cookstove, hutch, and shelves on the far wall for the kitchen. They stood by the table in the middle of the room, and off to the other side, a sofa and two chairs had been arranged around a rug that had clearly been woven at the shop across the river. An old wooden trunk sat in the middle, functioning as both a table and a place to store extra blankets and such.

  “What about Pa? Is any of this from him?”

  Daniel gave a slow shake of his head. “I’m sorry. I wish I could say yes, but you know how he was at the end.”

  She gave a small nod but couldn’t stop a sniffle from escaping. Her father had remained adamant she and Daniel not marry and that she go to San Antonio and marry Andrew Mortimer up until the day he’d died. He’d still been living when Daniel had woken from his fractured skull, but he’d stopped breathing during one of his coughing fits shortly thereafter. If anything, he’d become even more insistent in his final days that Wes stick to the contract he’d signed with the Mortimers. He’d been convinced the best way forward for their family was to invest in the railroad and shift their assets away from cattle, and he’d been desperately afraid the Mortimers rather than the Westins would end up with the A Bar W if she didn’t marry Andrew.

  Now that Pa was dead, Wes hadn’t had one iota of success at renegotiating the contract. He’d spent the past six weeks since Pa’s passing trying to figure out where Consuela had gone in Mexico, too. He had a large gift of money he wanted to settle on her—and he also wanted to try convincing her to return.

  At the same time, he’d hired some extra cowhands and sent men to San Antonio with more cattle than she ever remembered going on a cattle drive before. He claimed it was necessary if he was going to pay the money they owed the Mortimers within the ninety-day deadline, and he’d been none too pleased about it.

  The only reason Wes hadn’t gone on the drive himself was because he insisted on being in Twin Rivers for her wedding to Daniel—evidently, he’d been busy building her a house and filling her bank account, too—though he’d never said a word. But Wes was leaving first thing in the morning, claiming that he should be able to catch up with the cattle before they reached San Antonio.

  “Hey, don’t cry.” Daniel prodded her chin up. “This is supposed to be a happy time.”

  “I’m sorry, it’s just… this is all so much. Everything is changing—us, the ranch, Wes owning part of the railroad, and… and I still miss Pa, even though he wasn’t too keen on our marriage.”

  “No tears, not on our wedding day.” Daniel swiped one away with his thumb, then bent and kissed the other off her cheek.

  She sniffled the rest of the onslaught away.

  “Here.” Daniel handed her the final paper on the table. “This part is the last of Wes’s wedding present to you. It should cheer you up a bit, and he says you’re not allowed to argue with it.”

  Charlotte took the piece of paper. It was a signed contract stating she had exclusive, unrestricted breeding rights to Ares for as long as he lived… without any fees attached.

  Tears wanted to fill her eyes anew, but she blinked them back. “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me. You did this on your own. I just arranged it all so we’d have a place to call ours.”

  She shook her head. “You and Wes took my love of horses and turned it into something I’d never even dreamed was possible.”

  “Well, in that case, maybe I need a token of thanks.”

  “A token of…” She glanced up, only to find Daniel looking at her with a certain kind of intensity that made her throat go dry.

  “I’ll take a kiss, at least to start. But now that I think of it, coordinating a house, land, and the beginnings of a stable was an awful lot of work. Maybe I need another token, too—like an evening alone with my wife.”

  Oh. Well.

  She glanced at the door off the parlor area that must lead to their bedroom. Why did she suddenly feel nervous? Maybe because Daniel was looking at her in that serious, sheriff-like way that she’d never known what to do with.

  She sucked in a breath, but before she could blow it back out, Daniel tugged her against him. “I recognize the look in your eyes, Charlotte Harding. Don’t let yourself get all flustered. I love you. And I want to s
how you just how much.”

  Then his lips were on hers, and all other thoughts fled her mind, save how safe and perfect she felt in his arms.

  A Note from Naomi…

  Wow! Aren’t you glad Charlotte and Daniel found a way to have a happy future together? They both had some lessons to learn about letting their pasts control their future choices and actions, but once they decided to follow God’s principles, everything started to come together.

  I’m so glad Charlotte can have both her horses and the man she loves! And I don’t know about you, but I think Daniel is going to catch up with those rustlers eventually—even if it takes a little longer than he’d like.

  While I don’t have any more Texas Promise books for you to read right now, if you like the friendly folks of Twin Rivers, then I know you’ll love the Eagle Harbor Series. It’s set in the small town on Lake Superior where Ellie and her siblings grew up. Eagle Harbor might not have wide mountain vistas and dusty pink sunrises, but it has beautiful sand beaches, thick forests, and vibrant orange sunsets—and it also has a whole host of people not all that different from the inhabitants of Twin Rivers. There’s a feud or two, unrequited love, a shipping baron who tries to control the town, and a family committed to doing right and following their faith regardless of the sacrifices they have to make.

  The first book in the Eagle Harbor Series starts with a tale about a widow who’s given up on love, a lighthouse keeper who’s given up on the town where he grew up, and a God who hasn’t given up on either of them.

  Grab your copy of Love’s Unfading Light and travel back to a time when faith was bountiful, life was simple, and love was pure.

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  Get Love’s Unfading Light on Kobo.

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  P.S. Still not sure if you’ll like Eagle Harbor as much as you like Twin Rivers? Turn the page for a sneak peek at story that started everything. (Hint: You might even get a glimpse of Ellie and her sibligns before they moved to Texas…)