Why was she letting Harold ruin her sleep? Maybe a cup of hot tea would do the trick. She eased out of bed, trying not to wake Wayne.
“Where are you going?” he asked in a raspy voice.
“I can’t sleep.” She stepped into her slippers and grabbed her robe from the back of a chair. “I think of cup of hot tea might help.”
“Okay.” He sounded semi-conscious. “Hurry back, honey.”
She smiled as she looked at him. Moonlight spilled through the window illuminating his big form. Shadows played on his muscular back and his hair was mussed. He looked so good that she wanted to climb back into bed and wake him up and make love with him.
Maybe she would after she had that cup of tea.
She padded down the stairs and to the kitchen. She loved this house. Small and quaint, Wayne had done an amazing job of restoring it.
Hair slid into her eyes and she pushed it behind her ear as she went to the cabinet, reached in, and pulled out a box of herbal tea. She set it on the countertop, went to the stove, grabbed the teakettle then carried it to the sink that was below the kitchen window.
She looked out the window toward her home and dropped the kettle. It landed in the stainless steel sink with a crash.
Fire. An orange glow was in the distance, smoke billowing in the moonlight, flames licking the sky.
A thousand thoughts raced through her mind in an instant. The orange glow came from approximately where her ranch house was or maybe the barn, she didn’t know. The grasslands could be on fire.
She screamed, “Wayne!” and almost ran into him as he rushed into the kitchen.
“I heard a crash.” He grasped her by her shoulders. “What’s wrong?”
She pointed toward the window. “Fire. Something is on fire!”
He hurried to the window, took one look out the window. He spun and shouted over his shoulder. “You call emergency and I’ll get a hold of Wyatt and have him start calling everyone possible.” He charged upstairs.
Kaitlyn hurried after him, her heart racing.
He jerked on his jeans that he’d left on the floor and grabbed his phone off of the nightstand and she saw him start to dial.
She found her own cell phone on the vanity dresser and called 9-1-1. As she spoke to the operator she scrambled into her clothes. She heard Wayne talking to Wyatt.
The night seemed surreal as they rushed outside and climbed into Wayne’s truck. The glow seemed even brighter as they raced down the road toward Kaitlyn’s ranch. Was it the house? The barn?
It’s the house, she realized with a sinking heart as they came closer to it.
Even as they pulled into the driveway other vehicles were arriving behind them. Kaitlyn and Wayne jumped out of his truck the moment he parked.
Smoke billowed from the blaze and flames crawled up into the sky. The heat was so intense that Kaitlyn felt like her cheeks were being singed.
Was Harold caught in that horrible blaze? She swung her gaze around but didn’t see his truck that had been there when they’d stopped by with the sheriff.
Wayne’s brothers joined them in moments and Kaitlyn’s mind spun as they started shouting. Wayne called out orders and soon they had hoses from the windmill and the water pumps and were spraying the blaze.
“Is Harold in there?” she shouted to Wayne.
He looked grim. “I hope to hell not. This house is so old that it’s going up too fast to go in and search for him.”
Neighbors began arriving and before she knew it everyone was helping in one way or another. The place was filled with the roar of the fire, the shouts of people, and the heavy stench of smoke.
Eventually sirens approached and Kaitlyn saw flashing red and blue lights approaching the ranch. The sheriff’s car pulled in and a while later his deputies.
The ranch was so far out of town that it took a long while before emergency horns sounded, signaling fire trucks from the volunteer fire department. When the two fire trucks pulled in along with a dozen volunteer firefighters who arrived in their own vehicles, there was little left of the house.
“Anyone inside?” a firefighter shouted.
Wayne jogged up to him. “We don’t know. Harold Barrett was here earlier today but his truck is gone.”
At that point, the only thing they could do was protect the other buildings and corrals and grasslands. The house was a total loss.
The night seemed to last forever as they worked tirelessly to put out the blaze. Fire jumped to a patch of grasslands but firefighters had it put out within moments.
A lump had taken up residence in Kaitlyn’s chest from the moment she saw the glow of the fire from the kitchen window. She didn’t cry but her eyes ached. It might have been from the heat and smoke, but she was too numb to really know. It didn’t seem real, none of it did. She felt like she was watching everything from outside her body.
The way that family and neighbors had shown up almost overwhelmed her with emotion. Here neighbors took care of each other no matter if they had any differences. There was no one at the fire who was just a spectator. Everyone who had arrived tried to help in one way or another.
Neighbors even brought food and water bottles so that when the fire was finally out those who fought the fire were hydrated and had breakfast at hand.
Kaitlyn wasn’t hungry but she did take a bottle of water as she went from one person to another to thank everyone for helping save all that they could. More than once she choked up at the generosity of those around her. She lost count of the number of people who offered to help her rebuild and to assist her in any other way possible, too.
For a long time, firefighters kept an eye on the house, making sure that every ember was out. When they could, firefighters searched the house for bodies in case anyone was caught in the house when it went up in flames. Kaitlyn thanked God they found no one.
Later, investigators combed through the wreckage of the house looking for the cause of the fire. Eventually the fire chief accompanied another firefighter as they carried out a charred gas can.
The chief went up to Kaitlyn, a grim expression on his weathered face. “We believe the fire was deliberately set. We’ll need to ask you some questions.”
A sick feeling went through her belly. Inside she’d known it, but had hoped it wasn’t true. “I think I know who more than likely did it.”
Kaitlyn and Wayne spent time talking with the sheriff and arson investigator. Sheriff Cooper suspected Harold as well, and he filled in the investigators with what he knew of the situation.
By the time the last vehicle had left her ranch, adrenaline had stopped rushing through Kaitlyn’s body. She was completely exhausted and her muscles felt like they might give up on her. She realized she still had her nightshirt on and had just put on jeans and athletic shoes with no socks before she tore out of the house after Wayne.
He stood by her side as she stared at the house she’d grown up in. It was in charred ruins. Everything around the house was soaked and muddy, dozens of tire tracks embedded in mud in the driveway. The smell of smoke seemed to hang heavier in the air than ever. She was sure she would smell it even in her dreams.
“I’m sorry, honey.” Wayne draped his arm around her shoulders.
“I’ll rebuild.” She straightened, determination giving her strength. “I’m not going to let this get me down. I’ve had enough of letting outside factors influence my life.”
“That’s my girl.” He kissed the top of her head. “I’ll be right here with you.”
“One positive thing,” she said, “is that all of my family’s things were out of the house and in storage so all I lost was a house. And deliberately set or not, thank God no one was in the house, including Harold.”
She looked up Wayne and met his blue eyes that were red-rimmed from the smoke. He looked as tired as she felt. Soot streaked his face and his clothes were soiled. She imagined she looked just as bad as he did.
He squeezed her to him. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
Jack shifted under Kaitlyn, but otherwise the gelding stood remarkably still in the fall sunshine in the little canyon where she and Wayne had played as kids and made love as adults.
Kaitlyn’s white silk blouse and white satin pants fit her comfortably as she kept her gaze on the preacher. She looked at Wayne from beneath her veil and smiled.
Seated on Lily, Wayne smiled at her even though he probably could barely see her face through the veil that hung down from her white felt western hat. He wore black from his Stetson to his boots and looked as sexy as he ever had.
To either side of them were their best man and maid of honor on their own horses. Danica wore pink and Wyatt was in black.
Behind them the few guests were seated on horses as well, including Wayne’s brothers and their Aunt Grace. They were all family to Kaitlyn.
Happiness rose in her heart and she found her bouquet shaking. She handed the flowers to Danica. Her horse was close enough to Wayne that they were able to hold hands then Kaitlyn started her vow as Wayne studied her with an expression of pride and love.
Her voice started out shaky but grew in strength. “I, Kaitlyn Barrett, take you, Wayne Cameron, to be my husband, my best friend, my lover, the father of our children.”
She took a deep breath before she continued. “I will cherish and love you more each day than the last, through the good times and the bad and any obstacle we might face we will do so together. I give you my heart and my love from this day forward for as long as we both shall live.” She slipped his ring on his finger, her hands trembling in his.
Wayne studied her, his face growing a little more serious. “I, Wayne Cameron, take you, Kaitlyn Barrett, to be my wife, my lover, my constant friend, the mother of our children. I will love you through sickness and health, through the good and the bad. I give you everything I have—my love, my heart and soul, for as long as we both live.
Her hand shook even more as he slid her mother’s diamond ring onto her finger.
The preacher spoke clear enough to carry over the grasslands. “I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Wayne lifted the veil over her hat and they leaned closer. He kissed her softly then drew back and they both grinned at each other.
“I love you, Wayne Cameron,” she said.
“And I love you, Kaitlyn Cameron.”
Behind them their family members cheered. Wayne and Kaitlyn turned their horses around to face family and then trotted the horses down the aisle of sorts and laughed as they were pelted with birdseed.
They took off on their horses at a fast trot, heading toward a lifetime together.
Almost nine months after the fire, and two weeks after the wedding, Kaitlyn looked out the kitchen window of their newly built home and into the soft evening light. Wayne was out working.
The last touches had been put on the new house while they were on their honeymoon in Belize. All of their things had been moved in while they were gone.
She braced her arms on the wide windowsill as she studied the general area where the house she’d grown up in had been. It was still difficult getting used to the idea that it was no longer there. A part of her had been sad that it was gone. But mostly she celebrated their new beginning.
The new house was close to where the old house that she’d grown up in had been, and she could see the grass that grew over the charred area. It had been nothing but bare ground once neighbors, friends, and family helped clean up and haul away all of the debris.
Harold had been arrested for arson and locked away not long after the house had been destroyed. He was an angry man who had let his temper get the best of him and in a fit of rage had burned down her home.
Sometimes she didn’t know how she felt about everything. How could her cousin have become so incredibly hateful, greedy, and vindictive? He had been family and the way he had turned on her still made her ill.
The things he said about her not being a real Barrett had hurt, but she knew that blood or not, she was a Barrett through and through. She felt no anger toward Harold. She felt a little sorry for him, although she wasn’t sure why.
She pushed away from the windowsill and started wandering through the house. It smelled of new paint and still echoed without their things filling the place. The only room they’d completely unpacked was their bedroom.
It had turned out that her other cousins never thought of her the way Harold had—the way he had insisted she wasn’t real family because her mama and daddy weren’t her biological parents.
After she’d had a chance to talk with Marla and Janice and the other three cousins on the phone she had felt better about everything. She should have called them from the beginning when Harold had said the things he did. But she’d been too hurt and there had been too much going on just trying to get her home back.
Once they were settled and completely unpacked, she intended to go through all of her grandmother’s things and distribute them amongst the cousins. She’d never intended to keep everything and had always planned to share. She just hadn’t wanted Harold to take it all and keep it for himself.
She’d invited her cousins to come to her new home when all was done, and together they would go through divide their grandparents’ things. She would have copies made of the old photographs that she knew everyone would cherish and present them to the cousins when they got together, as well.
She walked down the long hall, past the office that she and Wayne shared, and past the extra bedrooms. The house had a split floor plan with the master bedroom on one side of the house and the other bedrooms on the opposite side. It would be perfect once there were little ones in the home.
For a moment she paused as she thought about that. Children. Someday they would have at least three.
When she reached the master bedroom, she went to the king-sized bed that was covered with a colorful quilt that her mother had made when she was a little girl. She fell back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. The walls had been painted in warm taupe while the trim and ceilings were in off-white.
“Hi, Mrs. Cameron.” Wayne’s voice came from the door to their bedroom.
She raised herself up on her elbows and smiled at him, drinking in his handsome face. “Hello, sexy cowboy.”
“Have a little something for you.” He grinned and disappeared for just a moment. When he reappeared he walked toward her and was carrying something. Her eyes widened when she realized what it was.
“A puppy.” Excitement swooped through her. She laughed and sat on the edge of the bed as she saw the Australian shepherd pup with a big pink bow around its neck.
“Every ranch needs a good work dog.” He handed the puppy to her. She took its warm furry, wriggling body in her arms.
“Look at these beautiful eyes,” she said, as she saw that it had one blue eye and one green eye, like many Australian shepherds did. “I take it the pink bow means we have a little girl here?” Kaitlyn asked instead of looking for herself.
Wayne sat beside Kaitlyn on the mattress that creaked from his weight. “The kennel owners called her Sadie. What would you like to name her?”
“This little girl doesn’t look like a Sadie to me.” Kaitlyn tilted her head to the side as she stroked the pup’s soft hair. She gripped the pup, got up from the bed, knelt, and sat on her haunches. She set the puppy on the floor so that she could get a good look at her. Kaitlyn kept her hand on the puppy to keep her from doing more than wriggling.
The puppy tilted her head to one side, then the other. The whole time she wagged her tail like mad.
“She’s a blue merle with white and a riot of spots in the Irish spotting pattern.” Kaitlyn grinned and looked up at Wayne. “I’m going to call her Riot.”
The puppy leapt for Kaitlyn, climbed into her lap, and started licking her face.
Kaitlyn laughed and Wayne said, “I think she likes her new name.”
Riot turned and barked twice at him. “It looks like she grinni
ng,” Kaitlyn said. “What a happy little girl she is.”
“She’s already housebroken. Apparently she’s a fast learner.” Wayne got up from the bed and went to the hallway. He returned carrying a big dog bed and a big stuffed red chicken. “Riot loves her bed and her toys according to her former owners.”
Wayne set the bed down and put the chicken inside. Riot bounded toward the bed and jumped inside. She looked at Kaitlyn and barked twice.
Kaitlyn went to Wayne and flung her arms around his neck. “Thank you.” She kissed him hard and he grinned against her mouth.
“You know I love you.” Kaitlyn drew away and smiled. “And somehow I love you more and more each day.”
Wayne picked up Kaitlyn and spun her around. She braced her hands on his shoulders and laughed. “You’re making me dizzy.”
“You have always been the love of my life.” He set her down and drew her in close. “Sometimes I can’t believe you’re here, my wife.”
“You’re a wonderful man.” Her voice softened. “Where I was emotionally was not a good place…but you accepted me in every way.”
“Honey, you were there for me when I needed you.” Wayne brushed her hair behind her ear. “I will always be there for you. All that lousy stuff that happened in the past made us that much stronger and helps us to appreciate everything more.”
She nodded and smiled. “It certainly does.”
“Once you came home, you were mine,” he said.
“Yes.” Kaitlyn kissed him. “I was and I am.” She shouted with laughter as he spun her around again. “Okay, okay.” She tried to catch her breath from laughing. “I think Riot wants to join in,” she added as she realized the puppy was barking at them.
“She’s just going to have to wait her turn.” Wayne set Kaitlyn down and kissed her again. “You’re mine and I’m not crazy about sharing.”
“Don’t worry.” Kaitlyn took off his western hat and tossed it onto the rocking chair in the corner. Her wedding ring sparkled as it caught the light before she slipped her fingers into his soft dark hair. “I’ll give you plenty of attention. You might even get a special treat if you’re a good boy.”
Lace and Lassos (Rough and Ready Book 2) Page 12
