Chapter 11 Unexpected Proposals
R unning Bear kept Mirabelle in the hospital lobby longer than she would’ve liked. He was just so charismatic and unexpectedly nice that it was difficult to break away from him. She finally managed to relocate their conversation to the sidewalk outside, where he still seemed in no hurry to let her go.
While she listened to him talk, she could practically hear the nicker of the wild Mustangs he claimed his ancestors had ridden. She could also imagine the howl of the wolves echoing off the hills he loved so much, picture the tall wheat grass blowing in the breeze, and smell the venison stew he still simmered over his campfires.
While she listened to him spin tale after tale about his people and their legacy, she glanced around the parking lot in search of a cab to flag down.
Running Bear’s perceptive eyes followed her movements. “You need a ride?”
She blinked in surprise. He looked like he’d stepped right out of a historical painting with his beaded tunic and tangle of necklaces and pendants. Since there was no horse in sight, she couldn’t fathom how he’d gotten to the hospital himself.
“I, um…yes.”
He looked pleased. “Follow me.” He motioned for her to stroll with him to a nearby parking garage.
She couldn’t have been more surprised when he led her to an enormous black Harley motorcycle. “This is yours?”
“Why so surprised?” His voice was teasing. “It’s got more horse-power than anything else I’ve ever ridden.”
A laugh rolled out of her. It was a rusty sound. She honestly couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed. To her horror, the laugh turned into a sob. She clapped a hand over her mouth, not sure what was wrong with her.
Running Bear nodded in understanding at her. “It’s alright, my dear. Let the storm out.”
Another choking sob worked its way out of her. Then another one.
To her added shock, tears started coursing down Running Bear’s swarthy cheeks as well. “You aren’t the only one who’s spent years trying to harness a storm.” Tears continued to roll down his face and splash onto his tunic as he shared his side of the heartache. “I lost my brother and nephew to the same evil that came after you and your family. The Gilberts were never alone in this battle.”
It took a while for her to regain her voice. “I felt alone.” The only thing standing between her and the darkness were the promises she’d read about in the Gideon Bible someone had left in her hospital room years ago. She’d treasured it like a drowning person would a lifeline. Without it, her mind would’ve probably long since been sucked down the deep hole of depression.
“You’re not alone anymore.” Running Bear swiped his sleeve across his face. “You’ve got your sister now, her daughter, Hawk, and me.” He winked at her. “And something tells me you’ve got ol’ Edward Dakota wrapped around your pinky finger as well.”
She felt her face heat. “I haven’t laid eyes on him in thirty-two years. He’s probably changed a little,” she joked.
“Just a little.” Running Bear smirked at her as he handed her a helmet.
Apprehension fluttered through her midsection. “He’s still in a wheelchair, isn’t he?”
“Yep. Is that gonna be a problem for you?” Running Bear mounted his bike and motioned for her to hop on behind him, which she did.
“Not for me. No.” From the increasing number of calls and texts she and Edward had been trading lately, it didn’t sound like he was holding a grudge, either. Not against her, anyway. “We were best friends back in preschool.” She gave a damp chuckle at the bittersweet memory. “He once told me he was going to marry me someday.” What a long time ago that was! He might have trouble even looking at her now. There was so much water under the bridge beneath them, enough to drown an elephant.
Running Bear started the motor and revved it, making her feel like she was sitting astride a growling beast. They rolled out of the parking garage and zipped across a back road that ran behind the hospital. Reaching a stop sign, he slowed without rolling to a complete stop and hung a right.
“Hold on,” he hollered.
She’d started off loosely clutching the sides of her seat with both hands, but his sudden increase in speed forced her to lean forward and wrap her arms around his middle.
For a man his age, he was surprisingly strong and agile. Though they weren’t related by blood, he felt like a substitute father of sorts. She’d missed out on so much. So, so much and for so long! Even so, she couldn’t complain about where she was now.
She had a hotel roof over her head in Edward Dakota’s name. She’d been reunited with her twin sister. Her tiny world, that for years had been the size of a padded hospital cell, had gotten so much bigger so quickly that it was starting to feel overwhelming. Part of her wished she was right this second slinking back to her hotel room in the back seat of a cab. However, she owed one man in particular a very big thank you first.
As she and Running Bear rode up to the log entrance of Dakota Farm, a fresh wave of uncertainty rocked through her. Maybe she should’ve called Edward first. Maybe he’d only been helping her in order to ease his conscience after he’d discovered what his mother had done to her and her family. Maybe laying eyes on her in person would be too painful for him. Maybe coming here at all was nothing more than one big presumptuous mistake.
Running Bear braked in front of an enormous farmhouse that looked like it went on and on forever. She gaped in wonder at it. Not in her wildest imaginings had she pictured Edward Dakota reigning like a prince over such grandeur. The farm he ran was no little mom-and-pop operation. It was a mega commercial farm. Somebody could’ve at least warned her!
Running Bear idled his motor and motioned for her to dismount.
“This was a bad idea,” she muttered as she climbed down, unsnapping the clasp on her borrowed helmet and pulling it off.
He turned off the motor. “What was that?”
“I said this was a bad idea.” She started to put the helmet back on, but Running Bear reached for it.
“I’m gonna need that back.”
“Oh. Okay.” She awkwardly handed it to him.
He tucked it under his arm. “The next chapter of your story is one you get to write.”
The realization that he intended to leave her here made her shiver in the breeze blowing across the adjacent cornfield. She wished she’d worn a jacket, not that she owned one. It was on her to-do list to purchase one before winter hit. “Um…thanks for driving me here.”
“You’re welcome.” He lifted a hand to wave goodbye.
“Wait!” She swung worriedly back in his direction, but the rumble of his motor revving to life drowned out her plea.
He took off down the driveway, popping a wheelie before he rode out of sight.
She stood there for a moment, unsure what to do next. A cow mooed in the distance, but the loudest sound by far was the beating of her own heart.
“Are you looking for someone?” A husky baritone voice spoke from behind her, making her whirl back toward the castle-like farmhouse.
A man was sitting in a wheelchair on the front porch. The double doors leading inside the farmhouse were propped open behind him. Golden light poured out from them, encircling him like a gigantic halo.
He had the same auburn hair she remembered, though it was a little darker, and he was taller — much taller. The wheelchair did nothing to diminish his height. He was built, too, like someone who spent a lot of time at the gym.
They had that in common. It shouldn’t have surprised her. Once upon a time, they’d been the most active three-year-olds on the playground. Seeing such a force of nature relegated to a chair on wheels, however, was difficult for her.
“Edward?” She said his name hesitantly, still not sure she was welcome here. She glanced over her shoulder in the direction Running Bear had ridden off in, longing to sprint after him.
“I knew you would come, Mirabelle.”
Edward’s quiet voice drew her gaze back to him. “You did?” She moved a few steps closer, close enough to meet his gaze and drown in those same beautiful brown eyes she remembered from years ago.
“Eventually. After you forgave me.”
“Forgave you?” She felt like a ninny, standing there and blurting two-word questions, but nothing more clever sprang to her lips. “What could you possibly need forgiveness for?” There. That was more than two words.
The strong lines and planes of his face grew pleading. “It took me too long to find out what had become of you. I didn’t know the truth until recently.” He sounded agonized. “I was told you’d been placed in foster care and then adopted. My mother made it sound like you were out of reach. Forever.”
“It’s not your fault.” She took another step. “None of this is your fault.” She’d never dreamed it would be so hard to deliver a simple thank you. She’d never dreamed he would feel the need to apologize to her first.
“None of this is your fault, either.” He beckoned her to join him on the porch.
Her heart quaked as she mounted the first step and then the second one. “I’ve always wanted to thank you for what you did for me all those years ago, but I didn’t know how to reach you. I didn’t know if you were even still alive. I asked everyone I came in contact with, which wasn’t all that many people, but nobody would tell me anything.”
“Yes, I lived to tell our tale.” He spread his hands expressively, crinkling the corners of his eyes at her.
She caught her breath. Three-year-old Edward Hardy had been the biggest heartthrob on the preschool playground, but thirty-five-year-old Edward Dakota was an entirely different story.
She reached the porch and stood in front of him. “I know thirty-two years is way too long to wait for a thank you, but I’m saying it, anyway. If you hadn’t thrown yourself in front of me to break my fall, I might not have survived it.” She’d lost her balance at the top of the slide and pitched head first over the side of it. Edward, who’d been standing below, had tried to catch her. Her weight had slammed into him, knocking him backward across the handlebars of a nearby tricycle. Afterward, he hadn’t moved again. He’d looked dead.
When she’d finally regained the breath that had been knocked out of her and screamed for help, no adult had come running. Not right away, at least. When their tipsy playground attendant had finally shown back up, a whole new kind of tempest had been unleashed, one she wasn’t sure any of them would ever fully recover from.
“I would do it again, Mirabelle.” Edward’s voice rang clearly across the short distance separating them. “In a heartbeat.”
She pressed a hand to her racing heart. “You mean you would try to save me?”
“Yes.”
“Even if it put you in that chair all over again?”
“Even if.” He extended a hand to her.
She was unable to resist taking the final few steps to reach back. “I don’t know what to say.” Emotions welled in her as she stood riveted, gazing down at their clasped hands. Big emotions. Emotions she’d never felt before. Emotions she couldn’t describe.
“You don’t have to say anything.” Amusement glittered in his eyes. “I hope you don’t mind me saying something, though.”
Her eyes widened as she waited.
“You’re so beautiful.”
“Wh-what?” Her knees wobbled and she might have fallen, but he leaned forward to scoop her up.
He set her in his lap, dangling her legs over the side of his wheelchair. “That’s more like it.”
She gave a shaky laugh. “I can’t believe you just picked me up.” Like she weighed nothing.
He shrugged like it was no big deal, even though it was. “That’s what best friends are for.”
She tried to fill her lungs with air, but failed. “I can barely breathe,” she admitted breathlessly, “and my heart is trying to pound its way out of me.”
“It’s just me, Mirabelle.”
“You’re a lot bigger than I remember.” She shifted nervously on his lap. “I hope I’m not hurting your legs.”
“As if!” He made a scoffing sound. “You don’t weigh more than a blade of grass.”
A gust of wind swept over the porch, making her shiver again.
He wrapped his arms around her. “It’s not as good as a jacket, but I hope this helps.”
“It does.” She burrowed closer, finally giving in to the temptation to tip her head against his shoulder. She rested a hand over his heart and was surprised to find it was beating as fast as her heart was. “Thanks for the hotel room and the money. I would’ve never made it without your help.”
“Yeah, you would’ve. One way or the other, God would’ve provided for you the same way He’s always provided for me.”
She squeezed her eyelids shut and asked the biggest question she’d been grappling with. “You mean you’re not bitter?” Though he had every reason to be, he sure didn’t sound like it.
“Are you kidding?” He spoke against her temple. “I’ve got the woman of my dreams in my arms. Bitter is a far cry from what I’m feeling right now.”
Ha! She was nobody’s dream. He was just being nice. “I’m a hot mess, Edward.” She had no trouble admitting it to him. They’d always been honest with each other. “I’ve got scars on top of my scars. I’m more of a nightmare than a dream.”
“Then let’s be scarred together.” He hitched her closer, sounding eager. “I have no idea what’s next for me now that your sister has inherited Dakota Farm, but I have some money saved up. Enough to take you anywhere you want to go. We could see the world together.”
His words gave birth to a sprout of hope inside her. “Actually, I think Annalee is planning on asking you to stay here.” She was happy to be able to tell him that.
He was quiet for a moment. “Are you serious?”
“Very.” She lifted her head to meet his gaze. “I just left the hospital where I got to see her for the first time in…” Her voice broke. She had to clear her throat before continuing. “She raved about how well you’ve been managing the farm, though she was pretty blunt about it not being a one-person job.”
“It’s not. I’ve been scrambling to keep up ever since our foreman resigned a while back.” He gazed into the distance. “Any idea who she plans to bring on board?”
“Me.” She wasn’t sure exactly what her sister had in mind. “Can you believe it? I don’t know the first thing about farm?—”
His loud whoop of joy drowned out the rest of her fretting. “Don’t worry.” He gathered her close in a bear hug. “I’ll show you the ropes. There’s no one else I’d rather work with!” Something in her expression gave him pause. “Please assure me you told her yes.”
“I didn’t give her an answer yet.” Mirabelle struggled to come up with the right words to explain what had been going through her mind at the time. “I honestly didn’t know if you’d even want to see me.”
“What gave you that idea?” His jaw dropped, making her want to weep with relief. “The hotel room? The money? Your cell phone? Your legal defense?”
“Okay, okay!” She tipped her head laughingly against his shoulder again. It was so good to have her best friend back. For a man in a wheelchair, his shoulder felt surprisingly sturdy. “Fair warning. You might ought to stick me in a behind-the-scenes position. I give new meaning to the phrase socially awkward .” She placed one-handed air quotes around the words. “I haven’t exactly been socialized much. Shocker, I know.”
He reached around her to tweak her ponytail. “Is that your way of telling me you don’t date much?”
“Much?” She sat up straight. “I’ve never dated at all!”
His gaze burned into hers. “Maybe we need to do something about that.”
“Edward!” It felt harder to breathe again. “Are you…?” She couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence.
“Asking you out? Yes. I believe I am.” His expression grew beseeching. “Mirabelle Gilbert, will you finish what we started years ago and agree to be my girl?”
She gripped his shoulders. “You’d better not be asking me out of pity, Edward Dakota.” She couldn’t bear it if he was.
“Maybe this will help clear things up for you.” He dipped his head to seam his mouth against hers.
For a moment, she couldn’t move. Being kissed was the most wonderful, terrifying, earth-shattering thing that had ever happened to her. However, she doubted it had much to do with being kissed for the first time. It had everything to do with being kissed by him .
He kissed her until she wept.
He kissed her until she smiled.
He kissed her until she couldn’t think of anyone or anything else besides him.