Lazy Days (21 page)

Cooper
walked to the post office next to Jebson's General Store. Rarely did he receive
mail and if he did, it was usually from Captain Jones or an army buddy. When he
was handed a letter postmarked from Oregon City, Oregon, his heart hammered.

Stepping
quickly outside, he carefully opened the envelope.

Dear
Mister Jerome,

I'm
writin to let ya no how me an ma is doin. We're doin ok. That is I guess we're
doin ok. Ma trys not to let me see but she crys lots. She sure misses you. I
miss you to. Maybe you mite come see us. Maybe if you talked bout what bothers
you it'd make you feel bettr. If you want we could be a real famly. I'd not be
mad if you wanted to marry my ma. The way I see it we already missed out on a year
we coulda been havin fun. Maybe you'll think bout it?

Tim

Cooper
reread the letter several times before returning to Sweet Pea. Mounting and
galloping back to his ranch, he knew what he must do.

Within
a month, he had harvested his crop, sold his animals and belongings, boarded
his cabin up yet again, and packed his mule with necessities. Then he tied the
lead of the mule to his saddle, mounted Sweet Pea, and headed out. However,
instead of riding west, he rode south.

On
a warm day, late in October, Hallie twisted the lid on the jar of apple jam
that Lydia had brought the day before when visiting with Emmett and Sam. Spreading
her freshly baked bread with a healthy dose of the treat, she jumped when Tim
yelled, "Ma! Ma!" She rushed to the door.

Thrusting
the door open, she saw him running toward a man on horseback. Hallie's heart
skipped a beat and then hammered like a runaway train.
Cooper!

She
found herself racing across the yard but forced herself to stop and gather her
wits. By now, Tim had reached Sweet Pea, and Cooper scooped him up and onto the
back of his saddle.

Hallie
blinked rapidly to keep her tears in check.
I will not cry. Cooper's seen me
crying too many times. I am now a successful farm woman with beautiful land and
maybe he's just passing through. Maybe he led another family to Oregon and he's
on his return to Missouri.
Hallie kept up a running conversation in her
mind as Cooper trotted Sweet Pea forward.
But maybe he's come back because
of me.

About
ten feet out, he reined his horse in and lowered Tim down with one arm.

Tim
yelled, "Cooper's back!" Then he looked embarrassed. "Ah, I
guess you can see that."

Breathlessly,
Hallie said, "Hello, Cooper."

"Hello,
Hallie." He dismounted.

While
Tim kicked dirt clods, Cooper and Hallie just stared at each other. Garnering
all of her courage, Hallie finally asked, "Have you come to stay?"

"That
I have."

Her
eyes widened.

His
blue gaze never left her face. "If you'll have me."

"Do
you mean like husband and wife?"

"That
I do. Will you have me?"

Hallie
glanced at Tim to see his reaction. He stood with his foot poised above a clod
and one of the widest grins she had ever seen. Tim's joy spurred her into
action. With a shout of, "Yes! I'll have you!" she ran the distance separating
them and launched herself into his arms.

Cooper
placed his lips against her ear and breathed, "Hallie, my love, I have
spent the most miserable year of my life away from you. Will you give me one of
your audacious kiss-"

Before
he'd finished his sentence, her lips were molded to his in a most audacious
kiss.

Tim
kicked his dirt clod and shouted, "This is the best day ever!"

Holding their three-month-old daughter, Maddie,
Hallie stood beside Cooper waiting for the train to come to a complete stop.

"Would you like me to hold her?" he
asked.

Hallie noted his nervousness. "No, honey,
you just watch for Jake."

Tim said, "Okay, Pa, you watch that end of
the train and I'll watch this end. I seen his picture so I think I'll recognize
him."

Cooper smiled. "Thanks, son."

As passengers began alighting, Hallie inhaled
deeply to steady her own nervousness. Since his return, Cooper had corresponded
diligently with his boy.
No, not a boy. He's a young man.
And now she
was about to meet Cooper's eighteen-year-old son for the first time.

Tim pointed and shouted, "I think that's
him!"

Both Hallie and Cooper looked anxiously in the
direction he indicated. A smile lit Cooper's face and he rushed forward,
pausing in front of his son before offering his hand in a shake. Then, with
their hands clasped, Cooper pulled his boy into a hug and without hesitation, Jake
hugged him back.

Cooper placed his arm around his son's shoulders
and guided him toward Hallie and Tim, tears glimmering in his eyes. Hallie
swallowed the lump in her throat. How she loved her kind and noble husband. Pride
still welled in her heart knowing he had chanced heartbreak by traveling to
Texas to seek reconciliation with his boy before returning to Oregon.

As they approached, Hallie got a good look at
the young man and marveled at how much he resembled his father, with the same
piercing blue eyes and tall frame. Although not as muscular, she had a feeling
that within a few years he would be as powerful as his father.

Cooper said, "Son, I'd like you to meet my
wife, Hallie."

"Howdy ma'am." The boy's Texas twang
was endearing.

Cooper lifted the blanket to reveal their baby's
face. "And this is your sister, Maddie."

Jake said, "She's so tiny."

Hallie laughed, "But she has a big voice.
Just you wait."

Beside Hallie, Tim stood silent. Cooper reached
his arm to pull Tim against his other side. "And this is your brother,
Tim."

Jake said, "I always wanted a brother or
sister and now I have both." He stuck out his hand. "Pleased to meet
ya."

Tim grasped his big brother's hand and by the
smiles on both their faces, Hallie knew they would forge a deep bond of
friendship.

Cooper squeezed the shoulders of his boys and
when he turned his beautiful eyes on Hallie's, she knew he had finally lain to
rest the ghosts from his past.

With a heartwarming smile, he said, "Let's
go home, family."

Books:

Portraits of the Riverboats
by William C. Davis.
Publisher: Thunder Bay Press (hardbound)

Traveling the Oregon Trail, A Falcon Guide,
Second Edition
by Julie Fanselow. Publisher: Morris Book Publishing, LLC (paperback)

Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail
by Ezra Meeker in
collaboration with Howard R. Driggs, Illustrated by F. N. Wilson. Publisher:
World Book Company (ebook)

The Oregon Trail
by Michael J.
Trinklein. Self Published (ebook)

The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and
Rocky-Mountain Life
by Francis Parkman. Public Domain Work (ebook)

Websites:

Books.google.com (
Images of America: Kansas
City's Historic Hyde Park
by Patrick Alley and Dona Boley for the Hyde Park
Neighborhood Association)

Colecohistsoc.org

Columbiariverimages.com

Essortment.com

Eudorakhistory.com

Examiner.net

Faithmemories.com

Freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com

Frontiertrails.com

Hillsboro.k12.mo.us

Historicoregoncity.org

Lonehand.com

OCTA-trails.org

Oregonpioneers.com

Oregontrailcenter.org

PBS.org

Santafetrailresearch.com

Steamboats.com (A special thank you to Nori
Muster for replying to my inquiry email)

Thefreedictionary.com

Westporthistorical.com

Wikipedia.com

Youtube.com/watch?v=H616a6LcCxQ (
Landmarks of
the Old Oregon Country Episode 6, Part 1
/ harold3w)

This
has been quite a journey for me. I laughed and wept with the pioneers embarking
on the adventure of a lifetime beginning in Missouri and ending in Oregon. I'm
certainly relieved that Hallie and Tim made it to the Willamette Valley to
begin their new lives and although it took awhile, Cooper eventually worked
through his issues to discover the happily-ever-after he so much deserved. Of
course, I'm always saddened to leave characters who have become my friends over
months of writing, so...to prolong the parting, I often create a series of books.
That way, I can revisit the characters from story to story.

As
for the next book in the
Finding Home Series,
I have entitled it
Lilah:
Rescue on the Rio.
Hallie's younger sister, Lilah, has been on my mind a
lot. After leaving home at the age of eighteen, the life she envisioned for
herself never came to fruition. In fact, most people would accuse her of living
an immoral life, what with being a wealthy man's mistress.

Although
the years have been kind to her beauty, she is saddened by what she believes to
be a pointless existence and longs to see her sister. However, shame keeps her
from traveling the rails that now make the journey to Oregon more easily
accomplished.

It
has been over twelve years since Hallie moved to Oregon, and although Lilah
still receives regular letters from her, she has not responded for over a year.

The
fact that Lilah is now thirty-eight and will never have children of her own
causes her much melancholia. And it is while she is in this state of mind that
Rush Garrett shows up.

Hired
by his old army buddy, Cooper Jerome, to find Cooper's sister-in-law, Rush has
been a bounty hunter, scout, and trail blazer for twenty years.

In
writing the romance of Lilah and Rush, I am attempting to create lonely
characters that discover a love beyond anything they could have imagined. I
also want to create a feisty woman, a chivalrous albeit no-nonsense cowboy, and
lots of adventure that also includes some history of the Old West.

Chapter One: Finding
Lilah

June, 1878

Rush Garrett lifted his hand to knock on the
elaborate door of the townhouse in a quiet community off the beaten path.

Of course it's on the outskirts; the woman is a
rich man's mistress.

The door was opened by a large boned,
harsh-faced, housekeeper wearing a white apron. Standing almost as tall as
Rush's six-foot-two, she said, "May I help you?"

Rush removed his Stetson. "Yes, ma'am, I'm
here to see Miss Lilah Parker."

The housekeeper stared at Rush with such
animosity that he was taken aback. Before he could introduce himself, she said
curtly, "Follow me," and started walking down the central hallway.
She pointed at a hat rack. "You can stow your hat there." Rush did as
requested and then followed the stiff-backed woman. His expectation was that he
would be ushered into the library or sitting room, but she continued up a
staircase at the rear. Following an upstairs hallway leading back toward the
front of the house, she paused at a door and knocked three times before opening
it.

"Please go in, sir," she said with
evident hostility.

Rush lifted an eyebrow, nodded, and stepped past
her into a bedroom. The housekeeper quietly shut the door.

Immediately, Rush's attention was drawn to a
woman gazing out one of three tall windows overlooking the street. From behind,
he admired her upswept honey colored hair with corkscrew curls teasing her
graceful neck and bared shoulders. Her lavender dress hugged generous curves
and he found himself comparing her to her tiny sister, Hallie. He almost
laughed aloud. Whereas his friend's wife was thin and reed like, this woman, at
least from behind, was luscious. She turned and Rush's breath whooshed from his
chest. Lilah Parker was exotically beautiful with the body of a goddess; a
well-endowed goddess.

For a second she seemed unnerved, but composed
herself and stepped forward. "Welcome, sir. Please make yourself
comfortable. Can I pour you a glass of wine, champagne, or something
stronger?"

Rush wanted a shot of whiskey, but he said,
"Ah, no ma'am. Thank you, though." He stepped further into the room.
The bed to his left was distracting and he wiped images from his mind. This was
Hallie's sister and Cooper had hired him to find her and persuade her to come
to Oregon for a visit.

The beauty stepped closer and Rush's brain felt
like mush. He was just about to introduce himself when she stopped only a
hairsbreadth from him. The top of her head reached the middle of his chest. She
glanced upward. Now he had a close up of this stunning woman. He knew she was
well into her thirties, and although her face was enhanced by women's paints,
tiny lines could be seen at the corners of her eyes. Even so, to him, the lines
only made her more desirable. Hers was the face of a woman who was anything but
simpering. And although she lived in a lovely home, she did not give the
impression of being spoiled. She seemed sure of herself, a woman who could hold
her own in the world. Oddly, that fact increased her sensuality. However, he
never mixed business with pleasure and he needed to reveal the reason for his
presence.

Unexpectedly, she reached a hand to the stubble
on his face and he stared into gray-green eyes so pale as to seem otherworldly.
His gaze roamed her aristocratic bone structure and straight, thin nose. On
this woman, a cute up-tilted nose would have been an atrocity.

Her hand moved from his face to the top button
of his shirt, and was joined by her other hand. She said, "Would you like
me to undress you?"

"Excuse me, ma'am?"

She sighed and her sweet breath distracted him.
With nimble fingers, she unbuttoned his top button and moved to the next one.
Although he still wore his duster, it did not detract her intent to undress
him. Mesmerized, Rush lowered his lids to stare at her pink lips. When the top
half of his shirt was unbuttoned, she slid her hands inside and caressed his
upper body. For a second, he closed his eyes and wanted to give in to the
craziness of the moment, but loyalty to his friends, as well as his gentlemanly
instincts, would not allow it.

Lifting his hands, he grasped her wrists to
still her movements. "Ma'am, I think you've confused me with someone else.
My name is Rush Garrett and I've been hired by your brother-in-law, Cooper
Jerome, and your sister, Hallie, to find you and bring you to Oregon."

The courtesan's eyes widened and she jerked her
hands from inside his shirt at the same time she jumped backwards. Her foot
caught on a throw rug and she started to topple. Rush grabbed her by the waist
and jerked her forward, which brought her body flush against his, and he almost
groaned as the lushness of her breasts molded to his lower chest. Lifting her
hands, she pushed against him and backed away again.

Her voice sounded breathless and her lips
trembled when she said, "I-I don't understand."

Patiently, Rush buttoned his shirt, and said,
"I'm a friend of your brother-in-law. We served together as Northerners in
the war, and, well, I'm sort of in the business of finding people, so he hired
me to locate you." He reached into the pocket of his duster and retrieved
an envelope. "This letter from your sister will explain everything."
He stepped forward and the woman stepped backwards. Rather than approach her,
he laid the letter on a nearby table.

"Ma'am, I'll just wait downstairs while you
read it."