Chapter 2
When Jeff had envisioned meeting Bonnie for the first time, he hadn’t seen it going like this.
He’d been thinking about it more and more as the months passed and their letters went from day-to-day happenings in their lives to telling each other their innermost thoughts and feelings.
He had been planning to ask her to come for months, but the words had never found their way to the page.
She’d startled him by saying she was coming out west, but his shock was due to worry for her safety, not because of any lack of interest on his part in continuing their relationship.
In his musings, when Bonnie arrived, he took her in his arms and held her, telling her how glad he was that she had finally stepped off the page and into his world.
Of course, none of that had happened. And he could see the shock and worry on her face at what she undoubtedly felt was Jeff’s rejection.
But El Aguila had increased his attacks on Jeff and his friends. He had tried to starve them by kidnapping the farmers’ families who were selling produce to them. He had held people hostage. One poor woman had even died in a filthy, overheated cage due to dehydration and shock.
And then El Aguila blew up the bridge in Unity on the day the town got its name. For that reason, Jeff had decided that when Bonnie arrived, since she was on her way already, he would have to put her on the train and send her home.
How could he have known that she no longer had a home to go to?
They were on the cart now, heading to Unity. There was nothing for it, as Kevin had politely pointed out. Bonnie and Leo had nowhere to go but with them.
“So, what happened in Brooklyn?” Jeff asked, trying to focus on the road ahead and not the beautiful, silent woman in the cart.
Leo made a disgusted sound from beside Bonnie.
“A group of thugs moved into the neighborhood,” Bonnie’s godfather said. “Nasty types. The kind of folks who take candy from a baby and laugh as the child cries. You know the sort.”
Jeff definitely knew. He nodded.
“They started this racket where they sent some goons into a store, broke it up, and then had some of their other goons come in and take the first lot out,” Bonnie said.
“They tried to make it look like they were cleaning up the neighborhood, but it’s not like that.
They were turning it into their own money-making paradise.
You see, they would charge the store owners a fee for looking out for them. ”
“When they were the ones that we all needed protecting from,” Leo said sadly.
“So, what happened?” Kevin asked. “You didn’t want to pay?”
“I didn’t want to pay, and I told other people, store owners and the like, that they shouldn’t pay either,” Leo said with a wry smile.
“Uncle Leo was really well respected in the neighborhood,” Bonnie said. “People always listened to him. So, when he said they shouldn’t pay, they didn’t. Everyone threatened to call the police, and we thought that was the end of it.”
“It wasn’t?” Jeff asked.
“No, they started setting fires,” Bonnie said sadly. “They burned stores, apartments, houses. Anything you held dear. A lot of families started falling apart, and the children started to join the thugs. Many folks decided that it wasn’t worth it to stay, and they packed up and moved out.”
“But we didn’t,” Leo said. “Not initially. We held out, thinking things would get better.”
“We were wrong,” Bonnie said. “There’s a reward now for Uncle Leo’s head, and they burned our store down.” She shrugged. “So there really is no home to go to but the one we hope to have with you, Jeff.”
“And maybe now you understand why we’re not so worried about being harassed by your bandit friends,” Leo said with a hopeful look in his brown eyes.
“Yeah,” Jeff nodded. “I guess I understand that a bit better now.” He looked over at Bonnie. “Why didn’t you tell me about what was happening at home?”
She shrugged, loose strands of her curly hair drifting in a light breeze. He had an inclination to tuck a runaway strand behind her ear and just barely repressed it. “Why didn’t you tell me how bad everything was here?” She cocked her head to one side, and Jeff’s heart fluttered in his chest.
She was a lot shorter than he had thought she would be, but that didn’t bother him. She was tiny, and her curly hair and brown eyes were just perfect. He hadn’t expected the dimples in her cheeks when she smiled and the light in her eyes.
She was waiting for his answer, the expectation clear on her lovely face.
Shrugging, he said, “I guess I didn’t want to paint you a negative picture of a place that I’ve come to love.”
Bonnie considered that and nodded. “I understand. That’s why I didn’t tell you about New York either. I somehow didn’t want to speak ill of a place I loved.”
Jeff nodded.
Kevin cleared his throat. “Well, since she’s here and we’re going past the chapel …”
“Chapel?” Bonnie asked, raising her brows. “You want me to marry you now, when you wanted to put me back on a train about two hours ago?”
Jeff glared at Kevin. What was he thinking, suggesting that after everything?
“It’s up to you, Peanut,” Leo said.
She considered it a moment and then shrugged. “Your behavior this morning aside, I do kind of like you a lot. So maybe we should get married?”
Jeff’s heart leaped into his throat. He’d watched his own brother and a whole lot of his friends become husbands, but he wasn’t sure how he felt about it. Was marrying Bonnie now, like this, the right thing to do? He’d hoped to marry her down the road, absolutely. This just felt very fast.
Somehow, though, it also felt right. Even so, Jeff felt like he needed to give Bonnie an opportunity to decline.
“We don’t have to,” he mumbled. “I mean, if you want to do it some other time, we can come back.”
“How far is this chapel from our new home?” Bonnie asked.
“From Unity? It’s about a three- or four-hour ride,” Jeff said.
Bonnie sighed. “That seems like a lot of hassle. Let’s just do it, and we can figure things out from there.”
“I want to do this properly though,” Jeff said. “With all the flowers and bows and ribbons you’ve dreamed of.”
Bonnie smiled, and her cheeks dimpled, making her irresistible. “Oh, come on. We’ve got a friend and a slice of family here. How bad can it be?”
“Oh, really bad,” Kevin warned. “The priest is … cantankerous. I’ve promised my wife that we’ll have a proper renewing of our vows once Unity gets a church and a preacher of our own.”
“And when do you think the church will be built?” Bonnie asked.
Kevin shrugged. “No idea. In fact, we started building the church and it burned down in an attack. We haven’t really started up again.”
“Then best do it now,” Leo said. “Leave the problematic preacher to me. I’ll have a little word with him.”
Bonnie chuckled. “Just be nice, okay?”
“I’m always nice,” Leo said with a grin.
“But, it won’t be the fairy tale you wrote to me about,” Jeff said, thinking of the letter in which Bonnie had told him her dream of how she wanted to get married.
She shrugged. “All that matters is that you’re here with me,” she said.
“And that Kevin and Uncle Leo are here, of course,” she added hurriedly.
“All that other stuff is just ribbons and glitter. It doesn’t matter, and we can renew our vows when everyone else in town does it.
” She grinned, and Jeff liked her even more.
How could he have thought he could put her on a train out of here?
She was everything he had always wanted and so much more.
Her letters had been brutally honest—she was exactly the way she wrote about herself. He was in awe.
“Okay,” he said with a smile. “Let’s do it. Let’s get married.”
Jeff stared as Bonnie came walking down the aisle on Leo’s arm to the wedding march played well, if hastily, on the chapel’s organ by Father Sumner. After Leo’s little chat with the holy man, his whole attitude to performing the ceremony had changed completely.
Bonnie had spent an industrious ten minutes getting ready, and she was beautiful in a floral dress.
There was no veil, but that didn’t matter.
She’d let her hair down so it hung in pretty spirals around her.
She’d even found some daisies to weave into a crown.
She looked like an angel, and Jeff was half inclined to believe God had decided to send someone from heaven to watch over him.
Jeff had unrolled his sleeves in acknowledgment of the formality of the situation, but he really wished he had his Sunday best with him.
Having finished the wedding march, Father Sumner came over to the altar and began the ceremony. He kept looking over at Leo. The stocky grocer looked downright menacing all of a sudden, Jeff thought.
“Marriage is not a covenant that should be entered into lightly,” Father Sumner said. “It’s a promise made in the eyes of God and so carries the utmost weight. Are you two prepared to bear such a burden?”
Bonnie smiled sweetly. “Of course we are,” she said. “We met in the flesh today, but we’ve known each other in spirit for about a year now. I think that qualifies.” Her eyes were like warm pools, liquid and beautiful.
“Do you feel the same?” Father Sumner asked Jeff.
He nodded. “Absolutely. She’s the best thing to ever have happened to me. And despite only seeing her today for the first time, I know that we’re going to make a go of it through thick and thin.”
“That works for me,” Father Sumner said.
The rest of the ceremony and the exchange of vows passed with Jeff hardly hearing them.
All he could see was Bonnie and those lovely, warm eyes and those adorable dimples in her cheeks.
Would their children have dimples too? Gosh, he hoped so.
How had he gone from wanting to send her away to this?
It boggled his mind, and Jeff wasn’t entirely certain how it had happened, but he was really glad. He whispered a prayer of gratitude.
While Father Sumner was wrapping up the ceremony, Jeff made a silent and solemn vow to keep Bonnie safe, no matter what. He would move mountains and slay dragons to make sure that nothing bad ever happened to her. El Aguila would never get his claws on her.
“You may kiss the bride,” Father Sumner said.
Jeff was suddenly terribly nervous. He’d been dreaming about kissing her and holding her for so long, and now the moment was here. He had to do something, but his body had turned to stone.
Then, their lips met, and it was the most wonderful moment Jeff had experienced. All his worry washed away, and he was just happy. Plain and simply delighted to have his new bride in his arms.
“Okay, okay, you might be husband and wife, but some of us raised her and would appreciate a little decorum,” Leo complained.
“Sorry, Uncle Leo,” Bonnie said, pulling back and grinning from ear to ear. “I’ve just been waiting for that for almost a year.” She giggled. “Well, Mr. Carter. You just about ready to go?”
“Mrs. Carter, with you on my arm, I’m ready to head anywhere,” Jeff said.
Just then the door to the chapel burst open and a group of men came storming in, guns drawn. Stunned, Jeff pushed his newly minted wife behind him.
“Well, well, well!” a blond-haired man said from the group of intruders. “What have we here?”
“You would think that even backward yokels like yourselves would know a wedding when you saw one,” Leo said gruffly. “Gosh, did some folks here hand their brains in at the door or something?”
There was a shocked and none-too-friendly silence.
“This one thinks he’s funny,” a small fellow, about half the size of the others, said.
Jeff eased his hand to his hip and flipped the strap on his holster up. “We don’t want any trouble.”
“Ah, fellows,” Father Sumner said, holding his hands out wide. “Just let me finish up with these good folks and we can conduct our business. They just want to be on their way.” He was pale now, his eyes wide in fear.
“What business is that?” Jeff asked quietly, turning to the priest.
“None of yours,” he said. “Now go, before they decide to make your life difficult too.”
Jeff stared at him. “Are they going to hurt you?”
The father shook his head ever so slightly. “They just take the little money I get for performing weddings and baptisms and the like. That’s all. It’s nothing.”
The newly minted deputy sheriff in Jeff stirred and uncoiled. He couldn’t let a crime unfold right under his nose.
“Hey, what are you whispering about?” the blond man asked, pointing his gun at Jeff.
“I was just asking the good father here if he was all right,” Jeff said. He opened his mouth to say something more, but Bonnie stepped around him.
“This is disgraceful,” she said. “Didn’t your mothers teach you any manners at all? Coming into a church, a house of God, with your weapons drawn! You should be ashamed of yourselves!” She stood with her hands on her slim hips and a stern expression on her face.
They all seemed quite surprised—Jeff included—that this small woman was raking them over the coals as though they were little boys.
“Well? What do you have to say for yourselves?” she demanded. “You should be ashamed and ask for forgiveness.”
The blond looked around and frowned. “I don’t have to answer to you. None of us do. Who do you think you are, acting like you’re all superior? You’re just a girl,” he sneered. “Now you can hand over all them valuables I bet you got out on that cart, and we’ll be going.”
“No,” Kevin said. He had drawn his pistol and now aimed it at the blond man. “I don’t think so.”
Jeff drew his own gun.
“Please, fellows, this is a house of God,” Father Sumner said, sounding afraid and desperate. “You can’t fire weapons in a church!”
“Sure, we can,” the blond said, then fell to his knees, looking dazed.
Somehow, in all the chaos, Leo had snuck up behind the man and used a heavy-looking chalice to hit him on the back of the head.
Abruptly, the room devolved into chaos.