Epilogue #2
Pastor Josh Chavez stepped onto the platform, looking awed as he opened his Bible to officiate the first two weddings of his career.
Bear suspected that the young minister’s own wedding would roll around in the not-too-distant future.
Miley had been making snarky comments for weeks about how her uncle and cousin might’ve waited to make it a triple wedding.
She was still so young, though — not yet twenty.
Bear was glad she and Josh weren’t rushing into anything.
Though Josh was nervous, his voice was clear with conviction as he opened the ceremony with a blessing over everyone in attendance.
The highlight of the ceremony, by far, was April’s vows. She unfolded a handwritten note, her eyes sparkling with happy tears as she faced Bear. “My beloved is mine, and I am his,” she quoted from the Song of Solomon.
His eyes grew damp as she proceeded to read his love letter back to him — the one he’d painstakingly underlined in the Bible he’d given her.
“I will always be there for you.” It was from the book of Isaiah.
“I loved you at your darkest” came from Romans.
“My love for you will never end,” was from the book of Psalms. Then she pledged her love and loyalty to him as his bride, now and forever.
A reverent hush stole over the room, like a collective sigh of wind before a spring rain.
To many who were gathered, Bear’s union with April was a union between the two communities as a whole.
A joining of the past and present, the old and the new.
It was a melding of pioneer spirits — the best of both their worlds.
It was a wedding that many had predicted would bring the town of Heart Lake closer to their Comanche neighbors. A marriage of cultures and ideas that blurred past differences and ushered in a new era of unity.
The church building was overflowing with people who’d survived storms together, jointly rebuilt homes and businesses afterward, faced common enemies, and always found a patch of middle ground to stand on while doing so.
Kaya’s vows to Ben were no less poignant.
Their heartfelt promises to each other made Bear think of fresh green buds growing out of an old stump everyone feared was gone.
It was love triumphing over hatred and fear.
It was a new beginning for everyone who witnessed it.
A fresh, unwritten chapter for them all.
He and April sealed their part of the age-old ceremony with a kiss he never wanted to end. When he raised his head, she was blushing as brightly as the wild roses dotting his beloved mountains.
“Just a little deposit on what comes next, Mrs. Dakota.” He winked at her.
Up in the foothills overlooking Heart Lake, Sarah Cruz settled back in the rocking chair on her grandmother’s front porch.
Her eyelashes drifted downward to the half-closed point, but she wasn’t ready to drift off to sleep just yet.
For one thing, the creaking of the rickety chair wouldn’t let her.
It was a comforting sound that blended perfectly with the droning song of the tree frogs.
The sounds of home.
She yawned as she rocked, relaxing in slow degrees. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so at peace. Or contented. Or safe.
The other thing keeping her awake was the massive celebration taking place around the lake below her. From the number of toasts that had been shouted, along with their romantic nature, she gathered she was witnessing a wedding reception.
Poor fools!
She didn’t envy whoever had unwittingly taken on the ball and chain of marriage. Then again, not every man was as black-hearted as Denver Cruz.
She shivered at the memory of her own wedding night eight years earlier. Her husband had been a different person back then. A good, hardworking one. A man filled with aspirations about their future. A man who’d desperately wanted to start a family with her.
They’d joked about raising their own baseball team. They’d debated how many boys they wanted to have versus how many girls. They’d spun dreams in the air about renovating their two-story home in the suburbs to add a few more bedrooms if necessary.
But that was before her string of miscarriages had torn through their lives like a hurricane. One failed pregnancy had turned into two, then three. With each one, the fires of romance had dimmed a bit more. Eventually, her intimacy with Denver had been replaced by the blame game.
Your fault.
My fault.
Our fault.
Sheer guilt had driven her to undergo one medical procedure after another to determine what was wrong with her body. When the doctors had yielded no definitive answers, Denver had walked out on her.
He’d quit his job, stopped answering her phone calls, and become a ghost. She’d hired a private investigator to track him down a few times, but he’d shown no interest in reconciliation.
She’d finally given up hope and filed for a divorce.
She’d only meant to serve the paperwork to him as a warning shot, since Denver had sworn up and down he considered marriage to be a forever-and-always institution.
Not in her wildest imagination had she expected him to actually sign the paperwork, but he had.
Boy, had he changed! If she were being perfectly honest with herself, they both had.
She’d been single now for all of a month. The finger her wedding band had clung to for the past eight years had yet to lose its circular indentation. The ruts inside her heart ran even deeper.
She didn’t know what came next. Her elementary school teaching certificate would soon expire, but she had no desire to renew it. She no longer wanted a career working with small children who would never belong to her.
It was time for a change, but she didn’t have to make any decisions tonight. Or the next day. Or the day after that.
Since she’d inherited the cozy cabin she’d laid claim to only hours earlier, there was no need to rush into finding a new job.
Her savings would last a good while in a home this size.
The utilities would cost next to nothing compared to what she was accustomed to paying.
And how big could a grocery bill be for one person, especially if she took up gardening?
She’d spotted some overgrown raised beds in the back that she would weed and whip into shape in the morning.
As the festivities below her grew quieter, she tried to empty her thoughts by gazing up at the diamond-studded sky.
It was a clear night with thousands of tiny, twinkling lights.
Inevitably, they reminded her of how much Denver had enjoyed pointing out the North Star to her, along with the Big and Little Dippers.
“Go away,” she whispered to her memories of him. It was time to move on with her life, but her fear of doing so was the biggest reason she was reluctant to go to sleep. Denver had a bad habit of invading her dreams at night, and there was nothing she could do to stop him.
She tried to think of something besides his well-corded arms, rock-solid chest, and crooked smile. When that didn’t work, she tried to picture him with a new girlfriend and utterly failed. Her mind simply wouldn’t go there.
In the distance, a faint light flickered a few times and stopped. She froze and repeated the sequence in her head.
Flash
Long flash
Flash
Flash
Not again! It was Morse code for the letter L. I’m imagining things. I have to be. Her mouth grew dry, knowing the only other explanation was that she was having a mental breakdown.
Most unfortunately, the light continued to flicker.
Long flash
Long flash
Long flash
It spelled the letter O. It was probably a malfunctioning solar light.
She’d looked it up on the internet. Apparently, stuff like that happened fairly often, freaking out hordes of other people besides herself.
Any second now, the light would stop flickering, and she would dismiss it as a coincidence.
Nothing to see here. Except it didn’t stop. It kept going.
Flash
Flash
Flash
Long flash
It was the letter V. Her heart skipped a few beats, knowing the next letter would be E, and it was.
Flash
Just a single flash to end the spelling of the word LOVE. Sometimes the distant porch lights would spell out entire messages.
I love you.
I will always love you.
Keep the faith.
Believe.
Her eyes were playing tricks on her, or maybe her imagination was engaged in some sort of cruel game.
She wished she’d never learned Morse code to impress the little troop of scouts she’d co-led for five years straight.
Maybe she would hike out to the location of the flickering light tomorrow to prove there was nothing — absolutely nothing — to the porch light mystery that had her so unsettled.
You have quite an imagination, Sarah Cruz. You should write a book someday.
Hoping like crazy that the flickering lights were only the fading afterglow of her failed marriage, she returned inside and could’ve sworn she caught a whiff of her ex-husband’s aftershave.
Yep, I’m completely losing it.
It might not hurt to hop in the shower to scrub off a little more of the crazy before rolling into bed tonight.
Sorry, not sorry, Denver. The ex-husband in her dreams would have to wait a little longer tonight before she joined him.
Though Bear hadn’t asked for a town-wide celebration of his and April’s marriage, their late-evening reception at the lake’s edge meant they got to watch the stars come out.
It was one of the little rituals they’d started back at the Heart Lake Plaza Hotel, one he had every intention of continuing with her.
He leaned back against the railing of the boat dock, drawing her into his arms. “There’s the Ursa Major,” he informed her huskily as they gazed up at the sky together.
“The Great Bear,” she murmured, eyeing the prominent northern constellation that bore his namesake. “Fitting for a night like tonight.” She pressed her cheek to his heart, listening to its rhythm, which was beating for her. Only her.
A trio of country singers crooned out How Great Thou Art from the gazebo at the end of the dock. The water rippled around them, catching the starlight and glinting like thousands of tiny diamonds floating beneath its surface.
Bear had lost track of the number of hands he’d shaken this evening and the number of well wishes their family and friends had showered on them. It felt good that their small town had come together to share such a joyful occasion.
“I love you, Mrs. Dakota.” He captured her lips, knowing in his heart of hearts he was living out his biggest dream.
“I love you, too, Mr. Dakota.” She kissed him back.
In that moment, he was certain only Heaven itself would be better than this.
Thank you for reading
Soil and Serial,
the grand finale of the
Cowboy Brand of Justice Series!
It’s safer for a celebrity bull rider to let the woman of his dreams believe he no longer loves her. Telling her the truth is too risky in
The Porch Light Mysteries
Book One
Criminal Deception.