The Men of Medicine Ridge - Diana Palmer [123]
She nibbled at her fingernails in her nervousness, a habit left over from childhood. There didn’t seem to be a vehicle in the world. The highway was close enough that the sound of moving vehicles could be heard very faintly, but at this hour there was very little traffic. In fact, there was none.
She got up from the porch swing and paced restlessly. What if Gil had been shot? Surely someone would have phoned. John would, she was certain. But what if the wound was serious, so serious that he couldn’t leave his brother’s side even long enough to make a phone call? What if…!
The sound of a truck coming down the long ranch road caught her attention. She ran to the top of the steps and stood there with her heart pounding like mad. It was one of the ranch’s pickup trucks. She recognized it. Two men were in the cab. They were in a flaming rush. Was it John and one of the hands, come to tell her that Gil was hurt, wounded, dying?
Dust flew as the driver pulled up sharply at the front steps. Both doors flew open. Kasie thought she might faint. John got out of the passenger side, whole and undamaged and grinning. Gil got out on the other side, dusty and worn, with a cut bleeding beside his mouth. But he was all in one piece, not injured, not shot, not…
“Gil!” She screamed his name, blind and deaf and dumb to the rest of the world as she came out of her frozen trance and dashed down the steps, missing the bottom one entirely, to rush right into his arms.
“Kasie…” He couldn’t talk at all, because she was kissing him, blindly, fervently, as if he’d just come back from the dead.
He stopped trying to talk. He kissed her back, his arms enfolding her so closely that her feet dangled while he answered the aching hunger of her mouth.
She was shaking when he lifted his head. His eyes were glittery with feeling as he searched her eyes and saw every single emotion in her. She loved him. She couldn’t have told him any plainer if she’d shouted it.
John just chuckled. “I’ll go drink coffee while you two…talk,” he murmured dryly, bypassing them without a backward glance.
Neither of them heard him or saw him go. They stared at each other with aching tenderness, touching faces, lips, fingertips.
“I’m all right,” he whispered, kissing her again. “Sims took a shot at us, but he missed. It took two sheriff’s deputies, the bloodhounds and a few ranch hands, but we tracked him down. He’s in jail, nursing his bruises.”
She traced the dried blood on his cheek. “He hit you.”
He shrugged. “I hit him, too.” He smiled outrageously. “So much for pretending that you only work for me, Kasie,” he said with deliberate mischief in his tone.
She touched his dusty hair. “I love you,” she said huskily. Her eyes searched his. “Is it all right?”
“That depends,” he mused, bending to kiss her gently. “We discussed being old-fashioned, remember?”
She flushed. “I wasn’t suggesting…”
He took her soft upper lip in both of his and nibbled it. “This is the last place in the world that you and I could carry on a torrid affair,” he pointed out. “The girls can take off doorknobs if they have the right tools, and Mrs. Charters probably has microphones and hidden cameras in every room. She always knows whatever’s going on around here.” He lifted his head and searched her eyes. “I’m glad you love children, Kasie. I really don’t plan to stop at Bess and Jenny.”
She flushed softly. “Really?”
“We should have one or two of our own,” he added quietly. “Boys run in my family, even if Darlene and I were never able to have one. If we had a son or two, it would give Bess and Jenny a chance to be part of a big family.”
Her eyes grew dreamy. “We could teach all of them how to use the computer and love cattle.”
He smiled tenderly. “But first, I think we might get married,” he whispered at her lips. “So that your aunt doesn’t have to be embarrassed when she tells people what you’re doing.”
“We wouldn’t want to embarrass Mama Luke,” she agreed, bubbling over with joy.
“God forbid,” he murmured. He kissed her again,