Chapter 5 - Catching an Angel
Chapter 5
Catching an Angel
Monday
Bear Buchanan didn’t bother to check the little farmhouse when he climbed out of his truck. Eliza wouldn’t be inside before dusk anyway. In long, sure strides, he stormed into the barn. “Eliza! Where are you?” he yelled.
Silence, except for the horses in their stalls and one lost chicken that had wandered into the barn.
Bear took two more strides forward and stood in the middle of Eliza’s barn and yelled, “I’ve told you a dozen times that old refrigerator needs to be replaced. I swear you don’t listen. I brought another one just in case I can’t fix the old box.”
He heard movement in the loft. “Eliza! I don’t have all day to play games. Are you up in the loft or am I talking to this dumb chicken?” With his fists on his belt and his legs wide, Bear Buchanan felt like he was ready to fight, except for the slight smile raising the corner of his lips.
When she appeared, she was laughing. “Catch me, Bear.” She jumped from the barn loft as if she was free as a bird. For a moment his fairy was flying.
Bear let out a few cusswords as Eliza dropped into his arms. He held her tight for a while as if he couldn’t let her go. “Don’t do that, honey. Every time you stop my heart. You’re in your late forties and I’m partway to sixty. I should never have ordered you to kiss me that day. Since then, you think I’m your toy.”
“You didn’t tell me to kiss you. I ordered you to kiss me. I’m younger, so my memory is better. I just couldn’t wait any longer to be close.” She wiggled out of his arms and climbed up a rung of the loft ladder.
He was almost eye to eye with her now. He smiled and said, “No, I told you to kiss me and you did. And I think that was the last time you listened to me.” He pressed her against the ladder. “I do love kissing you, but I like arguing with you even more. You get mad and start beating on me and I start lightly touching you. I win every fight.”
“Not every time.” She hurried out of his grip.
He brushed his fingers through her black hair, now peppered with white, as she moved up the ladder, but made no effort to slow her flight.
“Hurry up, old man, or I’ll start without you.”
When he stepped onto the barn’s loft floor, she squealed and disappeared behind a stack of hay.
As always, he knew where she was headed. Once he found her, he took a moment to stand over her beautiful form resting in a blanket on their hay bed. His mind needed a moment to snap a memory to keep forever. She was petite and tanned from the sun. Her curls hung free to her waist. Lowering next to her, neither said a word. The bear was gentle and the lamb was demanding. They laughed and loved as longtime lovers do.
Shadows spread and the afternoon passed while Bear folded his arms around her and murmured that he loved her. She placed her hand over his heart as they drifted to sleep.
As twilight shaded the loft, she laced her fingers in his and said, “If I die, I’ll come back a moment before night falls and lay my hand over yours so you’ll know I’m still with you.”
“And if I die first?”
She was silent for a while, then she answered, “You are the strongest man I’ve ever seen. If you are heaven-bound, reach back to earth and pull me up with you. I don’t want to be here without you.”
Kissing her forehead he told her, “I’m the luckiest man in the world.”
He kissed her until she pushed him away. “You have to go. I hear the evening train.”
“You know, Eliza, marry me and we could sleep every night together. I know you won’t leave your land, but I’d like to live with you and when we get restless, I’ll show you places all over the world.”
“Someday,” she said.
She cuddled against him as she asked, “What about your girls?”
Bear sat up. “They’re big enough to turn out to graze.” That made her laugh, but he didn’t smile. He knew there would be hell to pay if his daughters ever knew about them. His oldest, Katherine, might not know Eliza enough to care about her, but she cared about herself and his money enough to circle the wagons if she thought he might marry someone. Cora, his youngest, would just be hurt he’d kept it from her, and he couldn’t bear to hurt her.
Eliza was silent for a while. Finally, she said, “I love us just the way we are. Stay with me until dawn. Stay so late that your warmth comforts me even hours after you’ve left. I belong next to you.”
“. . . and I you.” As always, he pulled her closer. Their longing for one other when they were apart was woven into the material of their love, somehow making it more precious.
She patted his chest. “Want to stay for a late supper?”
“What are you having?”
“Everything that’s thawed.”
She described every rattle and cough the fridge made as she stood in front of Bear and he dressed her. Over the years he’d discovered he loved dressing her almost as much as undressing her.
Love overflowed inside him. He wasn’t hungry, but he’d take every minute of time he could steal with his precious fairy.