Page 64 of Rawhide and Ransom

Her lips parted as conflicting emotions flooded through her. “Rosamund’s son,” she murmured. “You think I should keep Rosamund’s son on staff?”

“He was three-years-old, too, when his mother’s quest for revenge started.” Hawk caressed her fingers. “Seems to me that a little grace all around might be in order.”

“Hear, hear!” Running Bear chimed in, moving to the window to gaze out of it.

“You’re right. You both are.” A sense of relief crowded out the misgivings churning inside her. “You have a heart of gold, Hawk Chesney. So do you, Running Bear. It’s one of the many reasons I love you both.” She swallowed a sigh. “I’m still not looking forward to moving away from the rez, though.”

Alarm leaped into Hawk’s gaze. “Who said anything about you moving away?”

As she raised and lowered her shoulders helplessly, she was dimly aware of Running Bear exiting the room. “I guess I always knew our occupation of your cozy cabin wouldn’t last forever.” Her heart bled at the thought of leaving it. During the months she and Miley had lived there, his cabin had come to feel like home. So did the gardens and park area behind it. And the people. They’d become more than neighbors. They were now her friends.

“What if itcouldlast?” Hawk sat forward in his chair, studying her with a strangely vulnerable light in his eyes.

“What are you saying?” she whispered.

“Stay,” he begged quietly. “Marry me. Be mine and let me be yours forever.”

Her breath caught in her throat. There were so many things on her heart she wanted to tell him. For the space of a few heartbeats, however, she was rendered speechless while his gaze burned into hers —hoping, longing, waiting.

Miley’s voice wafted their way. “There’s only one right answer to that, Mom, because I’m not moving again. Not away from the rez, anyway. My friends are here. My job. My whole life.”

The defiant edge to her voice made Annalee start laughing and crying at the same time. There was a pleading note in her voice, too. “I couldn’t have said it better myself, hon.” Boy, there was no privacy to be had at the hospital! None whatsoever!

Hawk’s shoulders relaxed as he drank in her happy tears.

“My whole life is here, too, Hawk. It’s with you.” She smiled through her tears at him. “Yes, I will marry you. I would be honored to marry you.”

He produced an oval diamond ring in an antique rose gold setting.

“It’s so beautiful,” she breathed as he slid it on her finger. It was a surprisingly good fit for a ring she’d never tried on before.

“Glad you like it. It belonged to my mother.” He swooped in to seal their engagement with a kiss.

She dreamily kissed him back, loving the fact that she was wearing such a special ring. He’d never spoken much about his parents. All she knew was that they’d died while he was young, and Running Bear and his wife had finished raising him.

The fact that he was sharing a family heirloom with her spoke volumes about the way he loved her. Never before had anyone had the ability to unravel her from the inside out the way he always did. However, he was always there to pick up the raw threads of her emotions and twine them around his heart, making the two of them stronger together than apart.

Running Bear lightly cleared his throat from the doorway, alerting them that he’d returned. “There’s someone else who’d like to see you, my dear.”

Annalee turned her damp gaze toward the door and nearly forgot to breathe. A woman who was her mirror image stood there. “Mirabelle!” She choked out her twin sister’s name. Then she held out her arms.

Mirabelle was boyishly thin and moved with a lithe grace across the room that made Annalee think of a wildcat. “I’ve waited thirty-two years for this day.” Her voice was as choked as Annalee’s as she bent over the hospital bed to enclose her in the gentlest of hugs.

“I’m so sorry,” Annalee wept, clinging to her. “I’m heartbroken over everything you’ve suffered.”

“Don’t be.” There was grit and spunk in her sister’s voice as she straightened. “As the old saying goes, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, and that’s exactly what I am now. Stronger.”

It was true. Her sister was a portrait of strength in a pair of black running pants and a sleeveless white gym shirt. Emblazoned in hot pink block letters across the front of it were the words, WORK IT OUT.

Questions bubbled to Annalee’s lips. “How did you manage to get free?” She hoped her sister didn’t mind her asking something so personal so soon.

Mirabelle tossed her blonde ponytail behind her. “For starters, the rogue doctor who spent decades falsifying my medical records got arrested on multiple counts of malpractice. Also, an old friend reached out to me a few months ago through his attorney. The legal and financial assistance he’s been giving me has been a game changer. I’m gonna track him down and thank him as soon as I leave this room.”

She shivered as she glanced around the antiseptic chamber with its white walls and beeping machinery. “No offense, but I don’t like hospitals.”

“That’s understandable.” Annalee was dying to ask who her sister’s old friend was. She had her suspicions, but it didn’t feel like the right time to keep grilling her. Mirabelle was too jumpy, and she was clearly ready to end their quickie reunion. “Before you go, I’d like to introduce you to my fiancé, Hawk Chesney.”

“Your fiancé?” Mirabelle glanced in surprise between the two of them.

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