33. Juniper
33
JUNIPER
W hether I was right or wrong in telling TJ that Roscoe Wheaton most likely wasn’t Buck’s biological father no longer mattered. I’d done it, and there’d be no taking it back.
What I didn’t doubt was her love for the man. Without her reassurance, I knew she’d handle it in a way that helped rather than hurt him.
I looked up at the SUV pulling into the parking lot near where we sat, and when I saw TJ stand after Buck got out of the vehicle and the two embraced, I knew I’d done the right thing.
“Babysitting?” Cord asked as he approached where I waited by the stroller.
I rested my head on his shoulder when he sat beside me. “Giving them a moment. How is he?”
“In shock, but otherwise, okay. I think.”
I smiled and leaned up to kiss him. “You’re a good brother, Cord. ”
“In the list of things I want you to think I’m good at, that wouldn’t be near the top.”
“It isn’t.” I winked.
“So, uh, Porter is leaving. Actually, he already left the attorney’s office. Sometime today, he’ll leave the ranch.”
“Where is he going?”
“To Parlin.”
I nodded once. “To help the sister of the man in the accident?”
“He’s more of a kid than a man, but yes. That’s what we’re all assuming.”
“Will she accept his help?”
Cord studied me. “You’re remarkable.”
My cheeks flushed, and I lowered my gaze.
“And sexy as fuck.”
“I’m not sure asking a question makes me anything more than nosy.”
“It’s a million-dollar one, though, isn’t it? Will Cici Morris accept help from Porter Wheaton, the man who drove under the influence of alcohol and caused an accident that could have killed her brother? It hasn’t been that many years since the two lost their parents, also in a car accident. ”
“The poor woman. It reminds me of Miss Cena. First, she lost her daughter, then her husband, then her son.”
I rested my head on his shoulder.
“What happens now?”
“There’s time for me to show you the Roaring Fork, if you’re interested. Although I should probably clear it with Decker first.”
“I’d love to see it.”
He scrubbed his face.
“What?” I asked.
“There are some things I need to tell you. I remembered something today that happened when I was a kid.”
I wrapped my arm around his waist.
“How do you do that?”
I raised my head. “What?”
“Know exactly how to soothe me.”
I looked over his shoulder at Buck and TJ. “Love.”
Decker encouraged Cord to take me to see the ranch, saying we had plenty of time if we wanted to spend the night. I told him I’d be happy to do whatever he felt most comfortable with.
There was room for us to ride with Buck and TJ, even with the baby, Cord’s sister, and his brother Holt, who’d arrived with Porter.
“Where do you think Port ran off to?” Cord asked.
“No telling,” muttered Buck.
TJ glanced over her shoulder, and our eyes met. It wasn’t my place to ask about Porter. We’d been introduced briefly, and all I had to go on as far as his personality was my first impression. TJ probably knew him far better since she and Buck lived on the ranch.
“Whether Port’s around or not, I’d like you and me to meet with Kingston West,” said Buck.
“I can do that,” Cord responded. While he faced me, he wasn’t looking at me. Instead, he appeared lost in thought, staring out at the scenery along the ride.
“Almost there,” said Cord several minutes later when Buck pulled off the highway. The road we were on wound its way through mountain passes like none I’d ever seen.
When the SUV pulled up to a gate and waited for it to open, I gasped. “It’s so beautiful. Even that doesn’t do it justice.”
“That’s the way I felt when I first saw it,” said TJ .
My eyes met Cord’s, and in them, I saw so many things. Love, definitely. Questions too, though. The thing that surprised me the most was sorrow. Was it because of what he remembered had happened when he was a boy? Was it more or something else? I hoped that, soon, we’d be alone, and when we were, he’d talk to me about the things he was feeling.
“That’s our place,” Buck said when he drove past a two-story house that sat not far beyond the gates we’d pulled through.
“It sure didn’t look like that when we were growing up,” Cord commented. “Buck and TJ fixed it up. Saying they brought it back to life is more accurate.”
“It’s idyllic,” I commented as we continued on.
“And that’s the main house,” Cord said, pointing to a sprawling one-story place that was completely different than the first house but no less breathtaking.
“Is that where you live?” I asked.
“Porter, Holt, and me. Which means the place will be pretty empty for the next few months.”
“I’m not living there anymore,” Holt said from the seat behind us.
Cord nodded once in acknowledgment but didn’t say anything .
“Porter hasn’t been, either,” his younger brother added.
“Where’s he living?” Cord asked.
“He took one of the cabins, and I took another.”
No one spoke again, even when Buck parked in front of it.
“I’m gonna show Juni around,” Cord said, taking my hand when we got out of the vehicle. Instead of walking toward the house, he went in the direction of the barn. “Let me know when West is available,” he shouted behind us.
“Will do,” Buck answered.
We walked over to the corral, where several horses stood. Apart from the breathtaking mountains surrounding the ranch, the scene in front of us wasn’t much different looking than the Lilacs.
“There’s at least one ranch truck we can head out in,” he said.
“Cord, um…”
He turned to face me. “What’s goin’ on, Juni?”
“You already know this, but if there’s something you need to talk about, want to talk about, I’m a good listener. ”
He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. “You’re more than that, darlin’. I pray to God that someday I can be the one you confide in instead of the other way around.”
“You already are.”
“I don’t know about that, but come on. I’ll show you around,” he said, dropping his arms, but taking my hand again.
“I love this,” I said once we were in the truck that had to be several decades old.
“Wanna know the part I like the best?” He put his arm around my waist, pulled me to the center of the bench seat, then buckled the lap belt. “I like the feel of you right beside me,” he said, resting his right hand on my thigh. “It might get a little rough. Hold on tight, darlin’.”
I put my hand on his thigh too, squeezing when it was bumpy and also when it wasn’t.
“Those are three of the cabins,” he said, pointing to the left. “There are five more. I’m not sure which ones my brothers live in.”
“They look new.”
He shook his head. “Renovated. At one point, Flynn and I wanted to turn this place into a dude ranch. When she got married, we let go of that dream. By then, Port was heavy into roughstock contracting, so I put my energy there.”
“So, uh, roughstocking…I mean, I’ve heard the word before, but what do you do?”
“We supply bulls and broncs for rodeo events. We also breed ’em.”
“Just bulls and horses?” I asked.
“Port and I decided early on that we didn’t want to get involved in the cattle side of it.”
“Why not?”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t seem like a fair fight, you know?”
I nodded even though I didn’t.
Cord kept driving up a road that got progressively narrower. “You got any issues with heights?”
“Not at all.”
He smiled. “Then, I’ll show you my favorite spot.” He pulled up next to a boulder and cut the engine. The view in front of us stretched on for miles and miles. “That’s the ski area,” he said, pointing to the right. “The peak is about two thousand feet higher than where we are now, at ten thousand.”
“Do you downhill ski?”
“Used to.”
“Why’d you stop?”
“The older I got, the less time I had for it. What about you?”
“I still do, although the ski areas near East Aurora are pretty tame compared to that,” I said, motioning to the Butte.
He chuckled. “That’s downtown,” he said, pointing to the left. “It looks tiny from here and doesn’t feel much bigger when you’re in it. Wanna walk?”
“Sure.”
He got out of the driver’s side. “Come this way.”
When I scooted closer, he lifted me in his arms and kissed me before carrying me away from the boulder and setting me on my feet. “Ground’s more even over here.”
I turned in a circle, taking it all in. There was what looked like a natural clearing surrounded by aspen and evergreen trees. “It’s gorgeous, Cord,” I said, looking back at the view.
“I think so,” he said, staring at me instead of the landscape.
When my cheeks flushed and I lowered my gaze, Cord kissed me again. He pressed his tongue against my lips, and I opened to him.
“When the weather’s warmer, I wanna bring you back here, spread a blanket out on the grass, and spend the afternoon making love to you.”
“I’d like that.”
He cupped my cheek with his palm. “I meant what I said about not living here, Juniper. Sometimes, especially in the last few hours, I wonder if I even could again.”
I shook my head. “I cannot imagine anywhere more perfect.”
Cord’s head cocked. “Not East Aurora?”
“Not even close.”
He released me, and I walked closer to the truck, then turned around to look behind me. “Could you build anything up here?”
His eyes scrunched. “Like what?”
“A house or maybe a cabin?”
He studied me but didn’t speak.
“That wasn’t a rhetorical question, Cord. ”
“Yeah, I know. I gotta tell you, though. I’m a little speechless. This right here”—he motioned to the clearing—“is where I always dreamed I’d live someday. I just never figured anyone else would want to.”
I took his hands and looked into his eyes, remembering how I felt the day he lay in the hospital bed and I saw them for the first time in a way I hadn’t before. I knew then I loved him. “I want to.”
“Come here.” He pulled me over to the boulder next to where he’d parked. “It’s getting cold, so I gotta do this quick.” He knelt down on one knee, took something from his pocket, then reached for my left hand. My eyes filled with tears when his did.
“I love you more than anything. More than this view or this plot of land, more than wranglin’, or anything else I’ve ever done or anyone I’ve ever known in my life. Will you marry me, Juniper Rose?”
“Yes, I’ll marry you, Cord.”
He slid the ring on my finger. “If you want something different?—”
I looked down at the simple gold band etched with flowers. “ It’s perfect.”
“That’s what Sam said.”
I cocked my head.
“She gave it to me while I was still in the hospital. Right before I got out, actually. She said she found it in a box in Miss Cena’s closet. There was a note with it that said it belonged to her mother, Irene.” He shook his head and smiled. “She told me something else.”
“What’s that?” I asked, smiling through my tears.
“That if I didn’t give this to you when I asked you to marry me, she’d disown me as her cousin.”
“She didn’t!” I gasped.
Cord nodded. “Those were her exact words.”
I studied the ring on my finger. “I couldn’t love it, or you, more.” I wrapped my arms around him, and we kissed before getting back in the truck when the sun went behind a cloud and the temperature seemed to drop several degrees.
“Looks like there’s a storm rolling in.”
The sky that had been mostly blue and cloudless when we arrived at the ranch was now gray and getting darker .
Cord put the truck in gear, and by the time we reached the three cabins we’d passed earlier, it was snowing hard.
“Wait for me here,” Cord said, pulling up to one. He got out, walked up the porch steps, looked in the window, then reached above the door. He must’ve found a key because, seconds later, it opened.
I was about to climb out when he raced over to me.
“I can manage, Cord. I’m used to snow,” I said, giggling when he picked me up and carried me up the steps and into the cabin.
“Today’s the day I start being the one to take care of you,” he said, setting me on my feet.
“How about we take care of each other?”
“Sounds perfect to me.”