Between Strangers (12 page)

Lance grunted again, then scowled over at his old friend. “Shut up, Bobby. I should be back in Montana right now. I'm a little put out that I got twisted around, that's all there is to it. Don't make a big thing.”

Taking the ax from his hands, Bobby grinned at him. “Grab some logs. It's getting colder out here.”

Lance filled his arms with split logs, and the two of them headed back toward the house. “It was kinda strange, though,” he said as they walked. “I was thinking so hard about going home. But when I looked up, I'd come here instead of heading back to Montana.”

“Hmm. And what do you think now?”

“I don't know. I guess I was thinking that your place felt like home, but now…” He hesitated and glanced over at his friend. “No offense, but it doesn't feel like home.”

Bobby laughed. “No offense taken, pal. I wasn't prepared to invite you to live with us, anyway.”

They arrived at the house and dropped their loads of wood on the ground. “You know,” Bobby added as he bent to stack the logs next to the house. “Maybe it's not the place you're thinking of as home but the woman. I know that if Vicki decided she had to live on Mars, that would be where I felt at home. Wherever she is…that's home for me.”

Lance froze where he stood. Was that it? Was that the truth he'd been trying to get his head around?

He blinked a couple of times, exhaled slowly and then helped Bobby stack the wood. Maybe…before he made another huge mistake…he ought to talk it all out with Bobby. Just maybe, this time, he'd do the Four Directions in their proper order.

The ache in his chest began loosening its fierce grip around his heart. He would take his time in the telling, make sure he didn't leave out any of the details of the past ten days.

He stuck his hands in his pockets, trying to decide how to start. When his fingers touched a tinfoil star, Lance remembered—everything important.

Talk. Think. Plan. Live.

North, east, south and west. Maybe the place wasn't nearly as important as the direction.

 

“Just another block, Angie,” Marcy told her daughter.

She felt the baby shivering in her arms. Opening the front of her heavy parka, Marcy hugged her child tightly to her chest, wrapped her coat around both of them and held them secure together against the elements.

“It will be okay.” She sniffed back the tears that threatened to swamp her. “We'll find him somehow. I promise.” She couldn't cry right now, both for her baby's sake and because the tears would probably freeze right to her cheeks.

The snow had begun to come down several blocks
ago. Now it fell in huge, wet clumps, slowing her progress and leaving her chilled to the bone.

“Some day you're going to love the snow, Ange. I'll show you how to build a snowman and snow angels…and we'll even slide down the hill on a sled.” Just as the words slipped off her tongue, she found herself thinking of how much nicer it would be if Lance could've shown Angie all those things. The tears threatened once more and she fought them off with the back of her hand across her eyes.

As falling snow further obscured her vision, Marcy wondered if she'd been careless and stupid to bring her child out in this weather. But she hadn't taken the time to think it all the way through when she'd made the decision to find a phone and then head on to the bus terminal to check out the schedules.

He wasn't home yet. It took a bit of doing to round up the change she needed for the call, but she'd dealt with it eventually. She called the number from the card he'd given her, but no one answered.

Where was he? She shivered, not from the cold, but from the thought that he was out there somewhere all alone. He'd looked so miserable when he left. The pain of remembering it sliced through her heart all over again.

She looked up and realized they were nearing the motel. “Almost there, Ange. Just another few feet.”

Through the blowing snowflakes, Marcy saw a hulking figure silhouetted against the door to their motel room. The first spit of panic quickly gave way to a tiny breath of hope. The figure was hunched against the cold and hard to make out. But another
step and she caught the unmistakable sight of a cowboy hat pulled low over his eyes.

Lance. Thank God.

“Lance…” She tried to call his name, but the emotions were clogging her throat and the word came out more like a squeak.

But it was enough. He straightened and turned.

There.
The word drove through him.
There at last is my heart.

He scrambled to reach them. “Marcy…Angie…” He pulled her to him and wrapped them in his embrace.

Marcy drew the key from her pocket and handed it over. Dragging them all inside and closing the door behind him, Lance took another minute to hold them both against his chest. To let the feel of these two sweet females alive and safe pulse through his body and give him back his heartbeat.

The room was warm, and within a few seconds he helped her off with her coat. Then he pulled off his hat and coat and waited, not particularly patiently, for her to get Angie out of the snowsuit.

Once she had the baby warmed and sleeping quietly on the bed between two stacks of pillows, she turned. “I…”

Grabbing her, he slanted a rough kiss across her tender mouth. She stiffened at the surprise move, then melted against him and twined her arms around his neck. She parted her lips, and their tongues tangled in a demanding and possessive taste of heaven.

He could've stood there all day, maybe forever,
holding her this way. But reluctantly he lifted his head and looked down into dazed eyes.

“That was…well…I just had to do that before anything else,” he mumbled.

He felt her tremble and wasn't sure he was strong enough to keep them both upright. Taking her arm, he helped her over to the tiny kitchenette table, pulled out a chair and waited for her to sit.

“Marcy, where were…” He shook his head and turned to pace the little room. “No. Never mind. That's not what I want to talk about first.” If he didn't get all this off his chest right now, he was sorely afraid he would explode.

“Lance…”

Waving her into silence, he opened his mouth again. “Just listen for a second.” Now that it was time to say his piece he felt nervous, wondering if the words he used would be good enough…good enough to make a difference.

“All my life I dreamed of a home…a place where I would be wanted. I needed someone to care, to see the real me. I wanted it so badly that…well, I got the place and the caring all mixed up in my head.” He took a breath and paced over to check on Angie.

The baby's eyes were still closed, but she seemed to be stirring. He wanted to get this all said before Angie woke up and needed attention. Jerking around to face Marcy, he stopped, stunned as that beautiful face came into view.

She stared up at him blankly. But she had the most exquisite…the most gorgeous face in the universe. He
swallowed back the lump that formed in his chest and moved to his throat.

Needing desperately to find a way to get through to her, Lance rushed ahead. “When you talked of caring about someone's spirit and feelings, I still didn't get it. I thought my heart's desire was for a home and family. But it turns out that caring about someone…having someone care about me…is what I wished for all along.”

“Oh, Lance.” She started to get up, but he gently pushed her back down.

He wasn't done yet. She still wasn't smiling at him, and he just had to make her see—see his spirit.

“I think, at least I hope, that you do care for me, Marcy. And I know you and Angie mean everything to me.” He gulped air into his lungs and continued past whatever it was that suddenly blurred his vision. “I don't need a home. All I need are you two. I can't…”

He fisted his hands and set his jaw. “I won't…live without you.” Steadying himself, he continued. “I plan to give up my job at the ranch. I'll take you anywhere. I'd really like an opportunity to show you the world. 'Cause, wherever you want to go…that's where I want to be.”

The tears streamed down her face and drove that horrible ache into his chest again. “Please, Marcy, say you'll marry me. Don't make me have to trail behind you and Angie while you travel all over the earth.”

He reached for her then, pulled her up and tenderly
wiped his thumbs under her eyes to stem the flow of tears. “You are my heart…my soul.

“I've never been in love before so I wasn't too sure how this should go.” He cradled her precious face in his hands. “I planned on giving you the gypsy's ring because you are definitely my heart's desire. Except, when I wanted to look at it, the ring was gone. Lost.”

Miracle of miracles, she looked up into his eyes and smiled. “L-love? You love me.” The last was said not as a question but as a softly whispered prayer.

He answered her the only way he knew how, with a kiss that put his whole spirit…his whole life on the line.

“I love you, too,” she said as she nibbled on his bottom lip. “With everything I am. And, ring or not, I will marry you.”

Pulling back to stare at her, he felt the grin spreading across his face. Speechless, he could only hold her tight and smile.

“Ba!” Angie's shout brought them both up.

Marcy took his hand and went to her daughter's side. “All right, Ange. Here's your baby.” She bent and picked up the doll he'd given the little girl for Christmas.

Angie buried her face in the doll's hair and it was more than he could stand. He dragged both the sweet child and her doll into his arms. “Oh, Angie. I forgot I had someone else to ask. Will you marry me, too?”

“Lance, look.” Marcy was pointing at the bed.

There, sitting atop the bedspread at the spot where
Angie had been, was the gypsy's ring. For a moment he was too stunned to move.

The air sizzled. And the magic settled in around them.

He transferred Angie to one arm and picked up the ring. Putting it on Marcy's finger, he thought his heart would burst with happiness…and wonder.

“Marcy, the gypsy told me to let this ring lead me to my heart's desire. I guess it was always meant for you.” Pulling her close, he continued. “I know it brought us together. You and Angie made me believe.”

He sighed and hugged them both tighter. “And I swear to you, for as long as I live, I will always see your spirit and believe in the magic.”

T
he twinkling lights along the Seine lit up the crisp, Parisian air, reminding her it was almost Christmas. Marcy tightened her grip on Angie's hand and waited for the toddler to catch up.

Lance stopped beside them and put his arm around her shoulder. “Are you getting cold, honey? I could hail a cab. We don't want to be late for Christmas Eve dinner.”

She shook her head and smiled up at her beloved husband. “Angie needs the exercise. There's time and we're not too cold.” At least, not like last Christmas, she thought.

“You sure you don't want Daddy to carry you, baby girl?” he coaxed Angie.

“Daddy, me,” the baby said as she lifted her arms.

He bent and swung her up, stabilizing the precious
load on his right forearm. Angie clung to him, giggling.

Lance looked so tall and broad, so spectacular in his black winter dress coat with his hair slicked back in a black thong. Her baby had on a new red velvet coat, with her hair pulled up under a soft white fur bonnet. They made quite a picture, these two strings to her soul.

Marcy's heart shifted, as it did every time she saw the two of them together. It was so hard sometimes to remember that this wonderful child, this strong and handsome man, this whole fabulous life somehow really belonged to her.

“Lance, can we go home tomorrow?” she asked.

He turned to her and slipped his arm around her waist. “Back to Montana? On Christmas Day?”

“Well, okay, maybe not. But the day after tomorrow?”

He gave her a quizzical smile. “But I thought we were going to spend Christmas here, then stop in to see Venice before we headed back this time.”

She snuggled into his embrace. “I'm homesick. I miss our house, our friends…the snow.” Laughing at her own sentimentality, she beamed up at her dear husband. “I know it's easiest for you to travel over the holidays when not much is happening on the ranch. But I'd rather be at home.”

Lance chuckled. “Okay, my world traveler. Whatever you want.”

“I have a present for you, and I wanted to wait until we got home to give it to you,” she told him. “But…I can't wait.”

He stopped and tilted his head to look down at her. “Okay. Is it back at the hotel?”

“No.” She placed her hand against her belly, already protecting the life that grew there. “It's right here. It's our new…well…either boy or girl. Does it matter to you which?”

Lance stared at her for a startled minute, then quickly swung her up against him again and danced them all around in a circle. “Boy or girl? Wow. Who cares? Another baby is fantastic.” He laughed, and Angie shrieked.

“Yes, let's go home, little mother,” he said after he kissed her. “I've only got a few months to spoil you rotten and I need to get started right away.”

The warmth filled Marcy with every good feeling she had ever longed to have. It was good to be the queen of a growing and happy family.

But it was much better, in the end, to let yourself believe in the
magic.