Dead Heat (40 page)

“Good morning, sunshine,” he said.

“I dreamed of Joseph and Maggie,” she told him. “Maggie told me we should have bought Hephzibah instead of Portabella and Heylight.”

“Kage won’t part with her, not after she saved Mackie,” Charles told her.

“Hey,” she replied. “I’m just telling you what Maggie said.”

He finished what he was doing and turned around so she was plastered against his front instead of his back. “I’ve been thinking,” he said.

“A dangerous pastime,” she warned, and was rewarded by the happy laugh that belonged only to her.

“It was Joseph,” he said. “When he was dying, I suddenly realized all that I would have missed if I hadn’t known him.”

“I liked Joseph,” she told him. “I wish I’d had a chance to know him better.”

Charles smiled at her. “Love,” he said, “is always a risk, isn’t it? I’ve always thought that there were no certainties in life, but I was wrong. Love is a certainty. And love always gives more than it takes.” His hand was running up and down her back. “I think we should adopt. What do you think?”

Adopt? She had wanted his children. His and hers.

She thought of his face as he’d cradled Amethyst and crooned a silly children’s song, and Anna knew that any child who came to live with them would be his. His and hers.

“That would be okay,” she told him, slowly, a smile growing with the words. “That sounds right.”

No book is written in isolation. My thanks to the following people who helped me to make Anna and Charles’s story real: Doug Leadley and Maegan Beaumont for their help with Scottsdale; Linda Campbell, who knows more about my books than I do; Collin Briggs, Mike Briggs, Michelle Kasper, Ann Peters, Amy J. Schneider, and Anne Sowards for editorial service above and beyond; and to Daybreak Warrior and his fascinating YouTube videos about the Navajo language and culture. As always, any mistakes are mine.