At the Crossroads (Buckhorn, Montana #3)(72)
She opened her eyes and nodded. A few minutes later, the agent came into the room. “Are you up to a few questions?” he asked before setting up a video camera. She told them everything, from waking up to find out that Culhane was wanted for the murder of his wife to being abducted by deputies Terrance Cline and Dick Furu. “Culhane didn’t kill Jana. He didn’t kill anyone.”
“Jana Redfield Travis is in custody. She confirms your story,” the agent said when she’d finished.
Alexis let out a sigh of relief. “And Culhane?”
“He is still part of the ongoing investigation.”
“And Sheriff Garwood?”
“He’s been booked.”
She thought of Dick Furu and the gun he’d slipped into her coat pocket. “Deputy Furu helped save our lives.”
“He’s turned state’s evidence against the sheriff and has been helpful in filling in the gaps,” the agent said as he turned off the video recorder and rose to leave.
“It’s over.” Her hand went to her stomach and the baby still there. Culhane’s baby. Their baby. She had to fight back the tears.
The agent smiled. “The investigation is ongoing, but I think it is safe to say that your part in it is over. Shall I send your parents back in?”
“Please,” she said and braced herself. She hadn’t wanted to tell them the news until she’d told Culhane, but she couldn’t keep it a secret any longer.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
DAYS LATER, EARL RAY pushed Bessie in a wheelchair toward the door out of the hospital. The sun had come out and shone bright overhead. He stopped her in a pool of golden light and bent down to make sure she was all right.
“I’m fine,” she said, not for the first time since she’d been released. His love for this woman filled him to overflowing. Now that he’d finally admitted it to himself and to her, he felt weak with it and yet stronger than he could remember. It made him want to laugh and cry at the same time.
He’d kept her at arm’s length for so many years. Almost losing her had been his undoing. Maybe he could have let her move to Arizona and kept on living. But hearing that gunshot and seeing her fall to the floor... The memory almost dropped him to his knees. At that moment, he’d known that he was through not just denying his feelings. He was through living alone in the house he’d shared with Tory. He’d kept it just as it had been, a mausoleum he’d built like a wall around him and his heart. Yet Bessie had broken through that wall even as he’d denied it. Once he’d accepted the truth, he’d been waiting for a sign from Tory. He wasn’t sure if she was letting go or if he’d let go of her. He liked to think that she would have wanted him to be happy.
His plan had been to wait until he and Bessie got back to Buckhorn. But now he moved around to the front of the wheelchair and placed his hands on the armrests to look down at her; he knew this couldn’t wait.
Her gaze shot to his ring finger. There was a white band of skin, the wedding ring he’d kept on all these years now put away along with his memories of his first wife. He saw her eyes widen as she looked up at him again. Her mouth opened, but she didn’t speak. An anomaly in itself.
Shock widened her eyes further as he dropped to one knee. Those beautiful blue eyes overflowed with tears as he reached into his pocket and brought out the black velvet box.
“I love you, Bessie Walker. I’ve loved you for years. I should have told you how much you mean to me a long time ago. I hope you’ll forgive me and marry this old fool.” He wondered if she still wanted to move to Arizona. He had no desire to winter there—let alone live there—but he knew if she had her mind set on it, he’d go. He’d go anywhere she wanted.
“If you still want to go to Arizona, then that’s what we’ll do.” His voice broke, and he felt his own eyes mist. He’d come so close to losing her. He wasn’t going to waste another minute. “Please say you’ll marry me and make me the happiest man in Montana.”
She laughed softly. “We’ve never even been on a date, Earl Ray Caulfield.”
He chuckled. “Bessie, we’ve been dating for years over blueberry muffins, cinnamon rolls and apricot fried pies. You going to play hard to get, or are you going to say yes?”
She wiped at her tears. “Yes, you old fool. Yes.”
Earl Ray slipped the ring on her finger, then rose and kissed her, sealing the deal. “I don’t want to go to Arizona,” she said when the kiss ended. She looked down at the ring on her finger, then up at him. “I can’t think of anything I’d like more than spending the winter curled up with you in Buckhorn.”
“That’s the woman I love,” he said, smiling down at her.
“Now, can we get out of this hospital?” she said. “I want to go home.”
“Yes, home,” he said as he began to push her to the exit. “I’m thinking we’ll sell both of our houses and start fresh,” he said. “It will have to be a house with a big kitchen.”
She laughed and reached back to cover his hand with her own. “Wherever we end up will be just fine. We’ll be together.”
“You realize it will have to be a big wedding,” Earl Ray said, thinking out loud.
“You’re right,” she said as the doors opened onto a beautiful day. “Everyone in the county has been waiting years for this. We can’t cheat them out of a happy ending.”