They broke apart self-consciously, knowing that someone could walk in at any minute.
“I love you, too,” Brooke said helplessly. “Now what?”
Cord grinned at her and kissed the tip of her nose. “We’ll talk about that after supper,” he said.
THE LITTLE STREAM behind the bunkhouse purled gently at their feet, and the moon shone full above. Cord, when Mattie wasn’t looking, had filched a couple of blankets from the linen closet, and he spread them on a soft bed of leaves.
Brooke sat down and held her arms out to him. He came to her then and wrapped her tightly in his arms.
“You know why I named this place Jornada Ranch?” he asked.
She shook her head. With all that had happened today, it was the last thing she’d wondered.
“Jornada means ‘journey’ in Spanish. The boys who come here will be on a journey to find themselves, and I’ll be their guide. I want you to be my companion along the way, Brooke. I don’t want to lose you again. Will you marry me?”
She leaned back to find that he was staring at her so compellingly that she couldn’t look away. For a moment she allowed herself to think about what marriage to Cord would entail: moving out of L.A., leaving her friends, growing accustomed to living on a ranch that was home to the boys that Cord intended to help. And she knew that this was a better life than the one she had, was better by far than life with Leo would have been. It would be a good life for her baby, as well.
And she loved this man. She knew that for sure.
“Yes,” she murmured. “I’ll marry you, Cord.”
He smiled down at her. “All right. It’s settled.” His face clouded for a moment. “There’s only one thing more. Jonathan. Mattie asked me to adopt him.”
“And you said what?”
“I said I’d think about it.”
The words that Mattie had spoken ran through Brooke’s head. All love is bound together…it is of one piece…God’s love and our love for one another. If she loved Cord, then she surely loved the other people he loved. Jonathan, Mattie, the boys whose lives would be changed by what he planned to do here.
In that moment, she felt her heart expand as if to contain the whole universe. “Let’s go for it,” she said.
“It’ll be a big family,” he warned.
“A happy family,” she said.
“Dear Brooke, I love you so much.”
“Prove it,” she said, pulling him down on the blankets beside her.
The night was cool, but they had each other for warmth. This time there was no hesitation, only the sweet knowledge that this was right for both of them. One blanket over them, one blanket under them, they undressed and settled into each other’s arms.
“Oh, Cord,” Brooke whispered. “This is so good.”
“You bet,” he said.
Slowly, he began to explore her body, kissing her breasts, her lips, her eyelids and feathering a string of kisses across her throat. Brooke closed her eyes, letting herself be absorbed in him, drinking him into every pore, feeling the rightness of this new relationship that they had forged.
He tangled his fingers in her hair, his breath caressing her cheek. He sighed in contentment as he found her center, slid in, began to rock in a rhythm that soothed her soul. She spun into it, merged with him, let herself be borne away on a warm gentle wind toward the moon and stars, and the stars wheeled higher and higher into the heavens, bursting inside her, a thousand stars sparking all her nerve endings and making her so hot that she had to let go, had to fall away with Cord, falling until she could breathe again, until all she knew of the world was that Cord loved her as much as she loved him.
Afterward, she traced lazy circles on his back, her fingers pausing to explore the scars where steel rods had been inserted in his vertebrae. “Do these scars hurt?” she asked.
“No, not to touch. I have aches and pains sometimes, but I don’t mind. It’s preferable to never walking again. I was lucky.”
“If you hadn’t had the accident, you’d still be with the rodeo. We’d never have met.”
“If I hadn’t had the accident, Jornada Ranch wouldn’t exist. I was able to buy the property with the big insurance settlement I got.”
“Good things come from bad experiences sometimes,” she said, thinking of Leo’s rejection.
“Like this ranch. Like your baby. Our baby now,” he said, patting her stomach.
“You know, I’ve been thinking about the Rancho Encantado motto,” she said.
“Why?” he asked, clearly surprised.
She shifted away from him, her arms around his neck. His eyes danced in the moonlight, and she smiled. “Rancho Encantado, Where Dreams Come True. It happened for me, Cord.”
“And me,” he said in some surprise.
“It’s a magical place.”
“I’m a believer now that I’ve found a woman I love with all my heart,” he said.
“And where might she be?”
“Right here in my arms,” he said.
“Which is exactly where she intends to stay for the rest of her life,” Brooke said, and she raised her lips for his kiss.
For a moment, out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw the benign figure of the little priest in the branches of the cottonwood tree, and he was giving her a thumbs-up sign. But when she looked again, he was gone.
Padre Luís Thinks
One year later
Now that Brooke and Cord have been married for almost a year, I can stop worrying about them. They have their baby daughter, Felicity, who is named for Brooke’s friend Felice. They have their son, Jonathan, who visits his grandmother, Mattie, almost every day on his way home from school.
And they have ready baby-sitters in the boys, all twelve of them.
Brandon was the first, and he is doing well. Now there are lots of boys and lots of fun. When I hear their laughter it makes me wish I were a child again. And the horses! They benefit greatly from the attention. Cord has taken in abused horses that need the love that these boys can give. Oh, it is quite something, this Jornada Ranch.
Brooke has settled happily into her new life. Mattie’s niece Glenna looks after the house so that Brooke can work on her book about the women of Cedrella Pass. This is good. I have long believed that the pioneer women have not been given enough credit for the westward expansion of the nation. They were strong and steadfast, ready to go the last mile for the men and children they loved. Like Brooke, in other words.
Though she did not know it at first, Brooke came to Rancho Encantado to learn that love is the answer. But she would not have had to come to this place to discover love. It was inside her all the time, buried deep in her heart. It’s so simple, really. Why do people not see? Why must this simple truth be pointed out to them over and over again?
Por Dios, if everyone got the message, I suppose that there would be nothing left for me to do. Clearly I will have my work cut out for me in this place forever.
But if that is God’s will, then who am I to object? I am happy to be the messenger, and I am more than happy to be a poor humble priest serving in any way I can.
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ISBN: 978-1-4603-6885-5
Baby Enchantment
Copyright © 2003 by Pamela Browning
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