Chapter 21 #2
“I’m more at peace with myself than I have ever been,” Gunner said. “This isn’t nerves. It’s anticipation. She broke down every wall I had between me and the world with nothing but sass and love.”
Asher nodded. “I can see that, but I have a question. What does she mean when she sometimes refers you as ‘that rooster’?”
Gunner grinned. “Oh, that’s the day I knew I had to spend the rest of my life with her or die trying.
It was right after my superman moment when I took Beau Whistler off the Harley.
I was dripping blood from the cut on my shoulder, and the missing skin on my forearm and my clothes were slick with blood.
It hurt to breathe enough that I thought I made have broken a rib or two.
The bruise on my jaw was already turning purple, and I knew the right side of my body was going to be the same color.
The EMT patched me up enough that I drove myself home.
She was sitting in the driveway, waiting.
I got out of the car, still dripping blood.
She walked to the end of her car and then stopped.
I expected shrieks of horror, or tears. Instead, I see this fierce glint in her eyes, and I’m watching her jaw set to keep from crying, when she lit into me.
She told me to get in her car, and that she was taking me to the ER, and that I looked like the last rooster standing in a cockfight and not to argue. ”
They burst out laughing. “You’re right. She’s a keeper,” Asher said.
“And she followed through,” Gunner said. “Packed an overnight bag and spent the next few days helping me, feeding me, everything…until I could finally do it for myself. She was doing all that and working online at her job without a hint of a complaint, and today I’m going to marry her.”
There was a knock at the door, and then the pastor walked in. “Everyone’s ready. Follow me,” he said and led the way into the nave.
Pastor Reeding took his place at the pulpit.
Gunner was standing below and to the right. Everybody else was in the foyer and out of his sight.
He knew Little Jake and CJ were in the church nursery with a lady from the church, and he knew every smiling face in the congregation.
There were no flower girls. No ring bearer.
They were all waiting for the bride.
When the organist struck the first chord, it was Jacob’s signal. As the music began, he escorted Pearl to the pew and seated her before moving into place beside his son.
Travis and Trudy Dillon appeared next. Escorted by her grandson, Trudy walked down the aisle to take her place as matron of honor, then Travis took a seat in the pew beside Pearl.
Asher and Nora followed, each taking their place as bridesmaid and groomsman.
Dylan and Angie completed the procession and were standing in place when the music suddenly stopped.
The room went silent, waiting.
And then another chord was struck.
Garrett and Holly appeared in the doorway as the organist began playing the Wedding March. The congregation stood, watching father and daughter as they began walking down the aisle.
Holly’s floor-length dress with an overlay of lace and pearls had three-quarter sleeves, a sweetheart neckline with a flat unadorned bodice ending in a point just below the waist, and a full gathered skirt, and the auburn curls in her hair pillowed the sheer perfection of her veil.
The moment they walked into view, Jacob stifled a quick gasp.
Asher moved a step closer to his dad and whispered, “Are you okay?”
Jacob’s voice was shaky. “I was best man at Garrett and Helen’s wedding. Holly is wearing her mother’s wedding dress.”
Gunner hadn’t taken his eyes off of her since they appeared in the doorway, but when he heard what his father said, his view of her blurred. She’d told him once that when he hurt, she cried. Now he knew what she meant.
The room was silent—like the world was holding its breath. And then they were at the altar, and Pastor Reeding was asking.…
“Who gives this woman to this man?”
Garrett’s voice rang out—steady and true. “I do. I give my daughter to this good man.”
After that, everything faded but the sound of Holly’s voice pledging her vows and his own words echoing in his head. The feel of her hand in his as he slipped the wedding ring on her finger, and the steady grasp of her hand as she did the same for him.
Then hearing the words, “I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
“I thought you’d never get to this part,” Gunner said, unaware that he’d said it out loud until Holly laughed, and when she did, the congregation and the pastor laughed with her.
Gunner dipped his head just enough to reach the target, felt the soft yield of her lips against his mouth, and left them all in no doubt that Gunner Kingston had just kissed his bride.
Then they turned and walked down the aisle and across the hall to the dining room where the cake was to be cut, and mints and nuts in small cups were to be dispersed, and flowers frozen in ice floated in pink punch.
Everything became a whirlwind of laughter and joy.
When it was time to throw the bouquet, it fell into the hands of one of the new nurses working in their Urgent Care facility.
The party was still in full swing when they all realized Gunner and Holly were gone. It was getting late, and getting colder, and the smallest Kingstons had run out of patience.
The party was over for everyone but the bride and groom.
* * *
The thick adobe walls resisted the wind’s intent. The central heat kept the temperature steady, and the gas logs in their fireplace were an added feature to the ambiance of their first night as husband and wife.
Although they’d been in and out of the house and slept here countless times, he carried her across the threshold.
“My wife,” he said as he set her down.
Mischief was dancing in her eyes. “My husband. I thought we’d never get to this part.”
He grinned. “I didn’t know I’d said that out loud until it was too late. I also didn’t know that my dad was best man at your parents’ wedding.”
“I did, but I’ve seen pictures,” she said.
Gunner brushed a kiss across her lips. “He said you are wearing your mother’s wedding dress. Is this true?”
She nodded. “I didn’t want to say anything ahead of time, because I needed you to see me in it, not the ghost of my mother.
I asked Dad if it would bother him, and of course he said it would be great, but at the church, when he first saw me in it, I saw his face.
It was hard for him.” She laid her head against Gunner’s chest. “I was all shaky at the church, and he knew it. Then he told me to just look for your face, and after that, nothing else would matter. He was right. Will you help me take off the dress? I want to change and hang it up.”
“It would be my honor,” he said.
* * *
Hours later, the only lights on the hill above Crossroads came from the security lights on the property. There was a faint glow through the curtains coming from the interior.
The newlyweds were wrapped close in each other’s arms, sated from lovemaking and nestled down beneath the covers as the cold Texas wind blew its way south.
The next day, Gunner sent an email to his lawyer, Wes Bradley, with notes to change the beneficiaries in his will. Everything went to Holly, then any ensuing children if she preceded them in death.
It was the last T to cross and I to dot.
* * *
It was the new year, but winter was still holding on with icy fingers as Maggie Bluejacket gave birth to identical twin boys with a shock of black hair, wearing remnants of their father’s face.
She took to being a mother as easily as she took a brush and paint to create the masterpieces that were her art.
Every day that Sonny looked upon their faces, he could see his vision from long ago coming to life.
They would grow tall and strong like him, because he’d seen it.
They would shadow her every step as babies and grow into men who would become her shadows as she walked through her life of fame.
Pearl was the only grandmother Maggie could give her sons, just as Pearl had become the only mother Maggie could trust, but Sonny Bluejacket had a whole tribe of people who would ground them into the culture of their people.
It was a new beginning for them, just as Holly and Gunner were branching out into their new life.
* * *
Jacob was building a wing onto their house for his growing family, and Gunner was building that apartment building for Holly that she’d talked about before.
The whole town was excited. It would mean an opportunity to keep Crossroads alive.
With new people came growth, and the residents of Crossroads were watching the building going up one board at a time.
Gunner’s whole purpose was putting delight in Holly’s eyes.
Six up and six down, just like she suggested. Entrances at each end of the building, and one main entrance in the front. Covered parking circled the building, and all entrances to the apartments were from the interior hallways. Not like a motel, but a real apartment building.
Even though Jacob told the banker Gunner had given him the money, he’d hesitated on Gunner’s behalf not to mention the lottery, which meant very few people knew, and every day Gunner lived within that anonymity was one more day of bliss.
But secrets never stay hidden.
And one cold day in March, the bubble popped.
* * *
Holly had driven out to the Dillon Ranch to have lunch, and Gunner was headed to the Yellow Rose to pick up food for him and his dad.
He was wearing the old bomber-style leather jacket from his years in Homicide and opted out of a hat because of the wind.
An armadillo was digging at the ground beneath a large boulder as he drove down the hill toward the highway.
“Someone else is digging for dinner,” he said and kept driving, then turned left on the highway, passing the bar and a gas station to get to the Rose.