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Authors: Barbara Bretton

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BOOK: Midnight Lover
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Abby and Sam carried her valises out to the street where she would wait for the stagecoach to arrive.

"Wish I could change your mind, missus," said Sam. "Town's changing fast. Needs people like you to help it grow."

She squeezed Sam's hand. "You and Abby will have to carry out my plans for me."

How she hated to relinquish her grandiose ideas for the Crazy Arrow Hotel and not watch them come to pass before her eyes. Soon the west would attract more than crazy prospectors and husband-hungry women. One day it would prosper and grow and she would love to be part of that growth.

To share the excitement with Jesse Reardon, to savor the rewards as their dreams came to pass.

But without him, those dreams were hollow.

She was determined to head back east and attempt to build a new life even if her heart broke in the process.

"Oh, miss, I cannot believe it's comin' to this..." Abby ducked her head as big sobs wracked her little body. "If only you'd be stayin'—"

"Hush, Abigail!" Caroline hugged the girl close. "I must go just as you must stay. At least one of us found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."

"Godspeed," Abby whispered. "I'll do my best for the Arrow."

"Do your best for yourself and Sam, Abby. The rest will take care of itself." If only she'd understood that back when she and Jesse still had a chance.

Abby turned and ran into the arms of her future husband and Caroline envied her former maid with all her heart and soul.

As usual, the stage was late as usual. It lumbered into town after two o'clock, kicking up a cloud of dust in the hot afternoon sun. For one instant, Caroline longed to rip up her ticket, grab her bags, and run back to the Crazy Arrow and Jesse but that was a ridiculous, romantic notion—a dream that could never face reality.

Their marriage was a business arrangement; she and Jesse had shared nothing but the illusion of love. Real love had been painfully one-sided; her slowly-breaking heart was proof of that.

"Car-o-line."

Surely she was imagining things, a cruel trick of the blistering heat.

"Darlin'." His voice was against her ear, his breath warm and sweet on her skin.

Turning, she looked up at Jesse, her midnight lover, her life. Dark bruises marred the beauty of his face and his right arm was heavily bandaged but he was there before her, hale and whole, and blessedly alive. She stared at him, unable to speak, not knowing what to say if she could.

The stagecoach driver sidled up to them. "Boardin' the stage, ma'am. Ain't got all day."

She swallowed and clutched her ticket. "How—how did you know I was leaving?"

"Abby and Sam told me."

"I have to go, Jesse."

He ripped the ticket from her hand. "Don't go, Car-o-line."

"Last call!" the driver yelled. "St Louis-bound."

Jesse pulled her to him with his left arm. "We're still married, darlin'."

Her eyes fluttered closed against the thrill of his touch. "I'll take care of that when I get to Boston," she managed, choking back the tears. "You'll be free, Jesse."

"Damn it, woman!" His voice boomed up and down the quiet street. "Don't you understand? I don't want to be free."

Say it, her heart whispered. Say it once, Jesse, so I know it's real.

"I love you, Caroline Reardon," he said, his voice gruff and beautiful to her ears. "I ain't never said that to nobody before."

"I love you, Jesse," she said, taking the crumpled ticket from him and tossing it to the summer wind. "More than I ever knew." The words she'd whispered once in the midnight hour seemed right and natural in the uncompromising light of day.

His dark eyes met hers. "We got us a lot to learn about each other, darlin'. Going to take us a real long time to do it right."

"Forty or fifty years, at least," she said solemnly. She could think of no paradise greater than spending the rest of her life at the side of the man she loved, working and loving and—God willing—raising a family of children who would carry their dreams into the next century.

"Come on, Car-o-line." Her husband put his arm about her waist. "Let's go on home."

She looked up at him and saw their future reflected in his eyes. "Yes," she said, letting happiness take root inside her heart. "That sounds like a splendid idea."

 

 

Epilogue

 

 

Silver Spur
- Independence Day

 

They were old now and grey but when they stepped inside the parlour of the Crazy Arrow the years dropped away from them. Grizzled beards didn't matter, nor girlish waists grown wide with time. All that mattered was that another year had passed and brought them safely back to the place where it had all begun.

The parlour was crowded with the evidence of lives well-lived. Babies cried in the arms of loving grandmothers. Newlyweds gazed into one another's eyes. Old men lit fat cigars and reminisced about secret nights in the basement of the infamous Golden Dragon, whispering so their grandsons couldn't hear.

Once a year, on Independence Day, the old timers of Silver Spur gathered together in the front parlor of the Crazy Arrow with their wives and children and grandchildren by their sides and toasted the Single Man's Protective League and the follies of their youth.

Silver Spur flourished as one by one members of the Single Man's Protection League married and settled down. Jade's stash of gold and silver had built homes and schools and made sure no one ever went hungry. Soon children played in the streets where gunslingers once fought and died. The old ways disappeared but the new ways brought with them peace and prosperity and the time was right for both.

Jesse's intuition had proved right. After the mine collapsed, he went in with his crew and began digging anew and damned if the old Rayburn site didn't yield a vein of silver so rich and pure that for years to come, when people talked of silver they talked of Jesse Reardon.

Caroline's Crazy Arrow Hotel was a roaring success and before too long, she had a string of hotels at railroad stops in Nevada and points west. The sky was the limit.

But none of their successes equaled the joy they'd found in marriage. Fifty years had come and gone in the blink of an eye. Fifty years that had brought four sons and two daughters and a score of grandchildren who would take the Reardon name and spirit into the future.

"Abby's daughter is serving up the cake and coffee in the yard," Caroline whispered into her husband's ear. "I think we can slip away now."

Jesse's eyes still held the glitter of excitement she'd always loved. Taking her hand, he led her up the stairs to the room on the second floor where it had all begun.

A bottle of champagne awaited them on the nightstand and with great ceremony he popped the cork and poured the golden liquid into two glasses, then handed one to his wife.

"To fifty years, darlin'. It's been a grand trip."

"To fifty more, Jesse. I cannot imagine a more wonderful voyage." Five decades of love and sorrow, of tears and laughter and joy that encompassed all that a man and woman could share.

From downstairs came the laughter of their children and grandchildren and friends and as her husband drew her into his arms, Caroline Bennett Reardon knew that the best was yet to be.

 

~~The End~~

 

Note from the Author

 

Readers are everything.

Seeing your name in print is terrific. Good reviews put a smile on an author's face.

But the absolute best thing about being a writer is being read.

Knowing that your words are making someone you're not even related to happy. Knowing that your story is helping to make a bad day a little better for a stranger who needed to escape for a few hours. Knowing that the imaginary friends you've spent the last few months with are out there in the world becoming just as real to a reader you'll never meet, but know and love just the same.

See what I mean?

Readers are everything.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being there.

And, if you're new to my work, welcome. I hope you'll read a few of my other titles and let me know what you think. You can always reach me on Facebook or Twitter as barbarabretton or directly through my website
www.barbarabretton.com
.

Happy reading!

 

About the Author

 

Barbara Bretton is the USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of more than 50 books. She currently has over ten million copies in print around the world. Her works have been translated into twelve languages in over twenty countries and she has received starred reviews from both
Publishers Weekly
and
Booklist.

Barbara has been featured in articles in
The New York Times
,
USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Romantic Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Herald News, Home News, Somerset Gazette,
among other publications, and has been interviewed by the Independent Network News Television, appeared on the Susan Stamberg show on NPR, and been featured in an interview with Charles Osgood of WCBS, among others.

Her awards include both Reviewer's Choice and Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times; a RITA nomination from RWA; Gold and Silver Certificates from Affaire de Coeur; the RWA Region 1 Golden Leaf; and several sales awards from Bookrak. Ms. Bretton was included in a recent edition of Contemporary Authors.

Barbara cooks, knits, and writs in New Jersey with her husband.

 

How to contact Barbara:

Barbarabretton.com - website

Barbarabretton - Facebook, Twitter

Wickedsplitty - Ravelry

BarbaraBretton AT gmail DOT com - email

 

More ebooks by Barbara Bretton

 

The Crosse Island Harbor Time Travel Trilogy:

Somewhere in Time

Tomorrow & Always

Destiny's Child

 

The PAX Romantic Adventure Series:

Playing for Time

Honeymoon Hotel

A Fine Madness

All We Know of Heaven (coming soon)

 

The Sugar Maple Chronicles
:

Casting Spells

Laced with Magic

Spun by Sorcery

Charmed: A Sugar Maple Short Story

Spells & Stitches

 

Paradise Point, New Jersey - women's fiction/romance:

Shore Lights

Chances Are (coming soon)

 

At Last

A Soft Place to Fall

Her Bad Boy Billionaire Lover

Bundle of Joy

The Edge of Forever

Second Harmony

I Do, I Do . . . Again

The Marrying Man

Mother Knows Best

Just Like Heaven

BOOK: Midnight Lover
2.48Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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