Chapter 31
CHAPTER 31
C heyenne
Once the danger was over, the Stone Family Inn became their base of operations. All the Stones and Crosses were packed into one room. Raine ceremoniously brought the amulet down to the map that Truman had sent him. Everyone surrounded him, waiting eagerly.
Micah’s hand was tight around Cheyenne’s, and he gave her a look that she couldn’t read. Porter stood at her other side, and though she couldn’t see his face, she could tell he was ticked off at her. In fact, all her brothers were ticked off.
On the way from the cemetery to the house, Micah had told Cheyenne that he’d been scared she would get shot. She’d been scared that he would get shot, too. She felt horrible about all of it.
Raine squinted and tried to see something. After a couple seconds, he pulled back. “No. Nothing.”
Brooks stepped forward. “May I try?”
Raine gave him the amulet. Brooks tried and failed to see anything, and each of the others proceeded to do the same.
Cheyenne didn’t feel like she should try, but after Porter was done, he held it out to her. “You might as well.”
She looked through the amulet. She’d figured she wouldn’t see anything, but she was still disappointed.
Micah cleared his throat. “I need to talk to everyone.” When their attention was on him, he continued, “First, it’s my fault. All of it.”
“No,” Cheyenne protested, “it’s?—”
Micah frowned at her. “Please, let me.”
Cheyenne relented, but she was boiling mad as he confessed to everything they’d done. He made it seem like he could have prevented it.
After he was through, she yanked her hand away from him and said to the group, “I’m the one who wanted to go look for gold. I’m the one you all should be mad at. Micah tried to protect me. Don’t blame him.”
Porter let out a low growl. “Oh, believe me, Cheyenne, you’re not off the hook.”
The others agreed with him.
Trey stepped forward. “While we appreciate the fact that you will hold Cheyenne accountable, we want you to know that Micah will be held accountable, too.”
Micah nodded. “I want it to be put on me.”
“No,” Cheyenne argued.
Brooks put up his hand. “Okay, we get it. Both of you are stubborn and at fault.”
Cheyenne nodded. Maybe she should be embarrassed to be the center of attention, but she wasn’t. “Yes, that’s the way it is.”
Kensi stepped forward. “Listen, I know we’ll hold these guys responsible, but here’s the deal. Tim has been talking to the police in Wilmington, and he thinks he can get the charges dropped for grave robbing. Do we want to do that?”
Cheyenne knew Tim was the sheriff in South Port, but she hadn’t known he had that kind of influence.
Everyone was silent for a long time.
Ava stepped forward, tears in her eyes, but she looked angry. “Of course we get the charges dropped. We don’t need that on them.”
Kensi nodded. “I have attorney friends in Wilmington. I think we can make the charges go away.”
Everyone burst out talking, weighing the pros and cons of letting them off so easy.
Cheyenne wasn’t sure what to do, but she felt bad having the others erase her crime. “Drop them, expunge them, whatever for Micah. But I’ll take the consequences.”
Micah frowned. “No. You won’t.”
She nodded. “I don’t want others to erase my actions.”
Micah took her hand. “I don’t want my actions erased either.”
Ava turned to him. “But you’re going to be a SEAL. It matters for you.”
Micah hesitated. Then he looked at the group. “I don’t know if I want to be a SEAL.”
There was a collective gasp.
Cheyenne’s body started to shake. “Yes, you do. You’ve spent all week telling me about being a SEAL. You’re going to be a SEAL.”
He faced her. “But the truth is … I love you. And I don’t want to leave anymore.”
Cheyenne felt herself breaking down. “I love you, too. But…”
Micah smiled through his tears. “You do?”
Her heart raced. “I do.”
There was complete silence in the room.
Finally, Trey stepped forward. “Listen, no matter what is going on here, we are getting those charges dropped. That’s final.”
Cheyenne peered into Micah’s eyes. The whole world disappeared. “You have to go to BUD/S training.”
“Yeah, you do,” Trent’s voice thundered.
Hunter moved to the front. “He signed a contract. He has to go.”
Micah shook his head. “I can’t just leave. I can’t let you face all of this without me. I won’t.”
Tears stung her eyes, and she leaned up to kiss him. “Yes, you will. That’s the end of it.”
Then she rushed from the room, hating that she was crying and out of sorts.
One of the Stone family women caught up with her. She thought it was Liberty, Trent’s wife. “Sweetie, let’s get you settled in. This way.”
The next morning, Cheyenne woke with a jolt. She had cried herself to sleep, but today was a new day. If she was proud of anything, it was that she knew how to handle hardship. After her father had passed away and her life had been in such commotion, she’d learned to persevere.
She got up and took a shower. All of her things had been brought to her room while she slept. The smell of pancakes drifted upstairs, and her stomach rumbled in response. She cautiously descended the stairs, half-afraid of who would be there.
Micah was the only one in the kitchen. He grinned at her and flipped a pancake. “I was hoping you would be up first. I wanted a few minutes with you.”
“Where is everyone?”
He shrugged. “Sleeping, I guess. They were up late.”
She felt tentative and raw. “Okay.”
He slid pancakes onto two plates. “I was thinking we could sit out on the deck.”
Part of Cheyenne wanted to go to him, put her arms around him and kiss his cheek, but it felt like he was out of sorts this morning. Though he was making her pancakes, something felt off.
She took her plate, along with the silverware and a water bottle, and followed him out onto the deck. He closed the porch door behind them, and they got seated.
“Should we say grace?”
“Of course,” she said.
Was he about to break up with her? Her hands started shaking, and she clasped them together to hide it.
He finished grace, and then he looked up at her. Compassion filled his eyes, and he reached for her hand. “What’s wrong?”
She pulled her hand out of his. “You’re breaking up with me, aren’t you?”
His face went somber.
“You’re breaking up with me,” she accused again in a softer tone. She’d had a bad dream about this. They’d been in Vegas, and an Elvis impersonator had been marrying them. Before he could say ‘I do,’ he’d suddenly been wearing the SEAL uniform and holding a gun.
Micah stood, pushing his chair back. “Maybe we should walk on the beach.”
Hollowness overtook her. “Fine,” she agreed. The beach was as good a place as any to break her heart.
They spent a few minutes walking, and she stewed in silence. After everything that had happened, what were they supposed to do? Ride off into the sunset like in a Louis L’Amour novel? She let out a soft, sad laugh.
Micah glanced at her. “What?”
“I was remembering how Chance reads Louis L’Amour novels, and it made me think about how in Westerns, people fall in love and just ride off into the sunset. We don’t know what happens to them, but we know they’re together.”
Micah took her hand. At first she resisted, but he was persistent. “I want to ride off into the sunset with you,” he said.
She glanced up at him, hating the tears in her eyes. “Is that even possible?”
Micah stopped and pulled her into a hug. He held her for a long time, and she clung to him, letting her tears come.
Micah pulled back, and there were tears on his face. Carefully, he wiped hers with his thumb. “I’m sorry, Chey. I couldn’t sleep last night. I don’t know what to do. This is such a mess.”
She pushed him hard in the chest. “Don’t you dare do that. I caused this. I’m the one who wanted you along on this treasure hunt. This isn’t on you.”
“Don’t you get it?” He shook his head. “I fell for you the minute I saw you in Eli’s arms.”
Her heart thrummed.
He sniffed. “You think it was your choice? That I just followed you? No, something shifted in me after that moment. I would have followed you anywhere. You understand that? I’m in love with you. It was like a bolt of lightning, and now I’m forever changed.”
The break in his voice made her throw her arms around him again. She kissed his cheeks, his tears, his eyelids. Then she landed on his lips.
Just like so many times throughout this past week, Micah pulled her into him and kissed her back. He kissed her like he’d spent a week in the desert and only she could slake his thirst. Cheyenne had no desire to stop him. She let go. If only they could stay in this moment, suspended in time. When they were together and in love, nothing mattered.
That was how it had been until last night.
Micah finally pulled back and sucked in a breath, squeezing his eyes closed. “What should we do, Chey?” He flashed his eyes open, searching hers. “Because I don’t have a right answer. I’m supposed to be leaving. I’ll be gone for a long time. I don’t want to put you in a position like your mother was in, waiting all the time. I can’t do that.”
Cheyenne suddenly understood her mother better than she ever had. She understood the pain and the sacrifice and the reason her parents had endured their time apart. “That’s too bad, Micah, because it’s not just your decision. I love you too. And if I want to sign on for that kind of life, then that’s my choice. I guess …” She dropped to one knee. “I’m asking you to marry me.”
Shock crossed his face, and he stepped back as if she had knocked the wind out of him. Then his strong arms lifted her to her feet. “No, no, no. You are not proposing to me, Chey. No way.” He began laughing.
Cheyenne scowled at him. “I’m trying to propose, and you’re laughing at me?”
Micah crushed her against his chest. She tried to push him away, but he wouldn’t let her. “I honestly didn’t know how this was going to go today. I wanted to let you out of this if you wanted that. But I also made a contingency plan.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I do want to ask you something.” He took her hand. “But how about we walk back to the inn first?”
She was utterly confused. “Fine. You can break up with me back there, if that’s what you want. Fine.”
She had just proposed, and he’d rejected her. She could keep it together for another few minutes.
He kept her hand firmly in his, and they made their way back to the inn. She was baffled when they opened the gate to go up on the back patio. A whole crowd was waiting for them—his family and hers. Sadie, Porter’s wife, was crying.
Cheyenne put her hands over her mouth. “What?”
Micah took Cheyenne’s hands in his. There was a huge smile on his face, but tears trailed down his cheeks. “I hope you don’t mind, but I asked your brothers for your hand in marriage.”
She looked at her brothers. Their faces were all stoic, but they had tears in their eyes too. Her own eyes stung in response, and her throat tightened.
Micah brushed a knuckle across her cheek, wiping her tears. “They were a hard bunch to convince, but they insisted everyone should be here when I asked you, so my family went to work making that happen.” He paused and turned to look at his family. “That’s what the Stones do: they make sure we all get together often. So you’ll be helicoptered everywhere. Sorry.”
Everyone laughed.
Micah grinned at all of them. “And I had to have all my aunts and my cousins and my brother and sister here for this.”
A smaller boy tried to run out to him, but Trey held him back. The boy stretched out his arms. “Micah!”
Micah turned back to her. “You see, I don’t want to just elope with you. I want to get married with our families present. I want to start something with you. I don’t know how, and I definitely wasn’t prepared for this situation, but I love you. If you’ll have me, then I will marry you. We will build a life together and make sacrifices. It will be hard, but I promise it’ll be fun.”
Tears ran down Cheyenne’s face, but she couldn’t help but laugh when he got on his knee.
“Cheyenne Marie Cross.” He winked. “Your brothers told me your middle name last night.”
More laughter sounded from the group, but Cheyenne barely heard it. She could only stare into Micah’s beautiful blue eyes.
“I love you. Will you marry me? We can get married here or back at the ranch. I just want to be your husband.”
She laughed and threw her arms around him to the sound of cheers from the gathered crowd. “Yes. Yes. Yes!”