To Believe

by Carolyn Brown

  She handed her white rose and Calla lily bouquet to Jodie and planted a kiss on her husband that let everyone in Murray County know that he was now her territory.

  “Folks, the family has asked everyone here to join them in a reception beginning right now. The corral has been cleaned up, there’s fresh straw for dancing and the tables are laid. Bob’s been barbecuing a steer for two days and it’s now party time.”

  Greta reached the newly wedded couple first. “You both have my sincerest sympathies. I can’t think of a single reason why this wedding happened.”

  “That is enough, Greta,” Trey whispered.

  “Children! No arguments,” Mrs. Fields chided. “Roseanna, welcome to our family, again.”

  Vance stepped up. “We’re very glad you’re a part of the family.”

  Roseanna hugged them both. “Please come see us often. The lodge is a nice quiet place to get away from the world. I’m already planning a huge barbecue over the Christmas holidays.”

  “Okay, ladies and gentlemen,” Jodie said over the microphone. “The food is ready. Looks like Trey’s granddaddy and grandma are leading the stampede, so you’d better follow the herd. We’re going to start up some two-stepping music now and the bride and groom better claim the middle of the corral for the first dance. I know Trey doesn’t know squat about two-stepping but maybe Rosy can put up with him for a few rounds, since this will bring them good luck and lord knows, she’s going to need it.”

  Everyone laughed and the band struck up the first chords of a slow song. Trey took his wife by the hand and led her to the middle of the corral. He removed his Italian suit coat and ceremoniously draped it over the back of a nearby chair. He carefully lifted the hat from her head and held it at the small of her back with one hand as he pulled her close to his chest with the other one. She looped both arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder. The steady rhythm of his heart kept an even beat with hers. The city heart and the country heart met in the middle of the dance floor, becoming one when he took her in his arms and executed the finest two-stepping any rancher had ever seen in those parts.

  Jodie crooned into the mike, singing the same song playing when Rosy walked down the aisle and gave him a thumbs up sign when the song was finished. He could pull a calf without puking and he had learned to two step. Rosy might do well with this man after all. The days of miracles weren’t over after all.

  “Hello,” a deep voice said at his elbow and Trey turned quickly just as the song ended, only inches from Kyle.

  “Kyle,” Roseanna nodded and Trey bristled.

  “We’re glad you could come to the wedding,” she said.

  Before another word could be said, Greta backed into Kyle and spilled lemonade all over the front of his shirt.

  “Look what you just caused,” she snapped.

  “You ran into me, lady. I was just standing here trying to congratulate the bride and groom. Maybe you should watch where you are going,” Kyle said testily. Granted the woman was beautiful, with all that black hair and big brown eyes. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out she was from the Fields side of the wedding guests the way she acted like she was pure royalty. And it was just as evident that she was bored out of her mind and would rather be picking the white tops off chicken droppings as attending a country wedding.

  “Just what I would have expected out of a redneck,” she muttered.

  “This is my sister, Greta,” Trey grinned. What better punishment for a hot-headed Oklahoma cop than to introduce him to his spoiled hell-cat sister. It was revenge straight from the front courts of heaven. They could kill each other and he’d be rid of them both.

  Roseanna could almost read the expression on her husband’s face. “And this is Kyle Parsons. He’s a policeman and a long time friend of our family.”

  “Well, get out of my way,” she said.

  “Darlin’ you’re in my territory. If you don’t like where I’m standing then you can go around me. If you can’t find your way around something this big, could I escort you to the punch bowl for more lemonade?” He held out his arm and she really looked at him. He was one of those handsome men who wore his jeans tight and long, bunched up around the tops of his shiny black cowboy boots. Her gaze traveled up to the pearl snapped shirt and bolo tie and to his tanned, handsome face. Put him in an Armani and take off those abominable boots and he might be presentable. Of course she’d have to train him. He probably didn’t even know how to eat with a fork. God, but her brother was an idiot to get tangled up with the likes of this bunch.

  “Can we find any bottled water?” she asked.

  Trey threw back his head and laughed aloud. “Hey, Kyle, go in the house and get her some of that ‘bottled’ water from the tap. You know what they say about the well water here on the Cahill ranch?”

  Kyle nodded. “Yes, sir, I surely do, but I wouldn’t let her drink Murray County water if she paid me a million bucks for half a glass. Some folks we’d just as soon not have coming back. But I will take this shrew over to the punch bowl and get her out of your hair. You two deserve better than this today.”

  Greta slapped his arm away. “You won’t take me anywhere, you fool.”

  Kyle shook hands with Trey and very briefly hugged Roseanna. “Sincerely, I’m happy for you both and I hope this time it makes it all the way to the end. You’ve got your job cut out for you, man. They say in these parts it takes a special person to tame a Cahill woman. But I figure you can do it if you’ve been living with that all these years.” He nodded toward Greta.

  “Be nice, Kyle. She’s my sister now,” Roseanna reminded him.

  “Then you’ve got your job cut out for you too,” Kyle said. “I’m going to see if Jodie will get off that stage and dance with me.”

  Rosy nodded and looked up into Trey’s eyes. He tilted Roseanna’s chin back and kissed her passionately, a promise of a lifetime of kisses and loving, “I promise I will always cherish you and will never, ever break your heart again. I love you, Roseanna Maria Cahill Fields.”

  He kicked the door of the hotel shut with the back of his heel but he didn’t break the kiss, not even when he set his new bride down at the foot of the round bed: a one night honeymoon in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Tomorrow morning they’d go back to their double wide trailer. The underpinning hadn’t been installed, but the house was livable and they were anxious to get into their own home.

  She slowly removed his tie and jacket, unbuttoned his shirt and trailed her fingertips through the hair on his chest. He moaned.

  She brushed a kiss across his lips. “I love you, Trey. I’m glad for second chances.”

  “And they lived happily ever after?”

  “Yes, sir, I do believe they did.”