Page 48 of Echoes and Oaths
"And I never stopped loving you," she whispered back.
Jinx realized the magnitude of the point they’d just reached, and it damn near choked him. He tried to speak, cleared his throat, and then whispered. "So, what do you want the next step to be?" Jinx asked, his voice low, steady.
Eira shook her head slowly. "I'm not sure … Going to America sounds scary. Do you think my mom and I would even be welcome there?"
Jinx nodded without hesitation. "My company will ensure you have all the paperwork you need to stay legally. And I’ll make sure you have everything you’ve ever wanted."
He smiled, the moonlight catching the softer lines of her face as she looked at him. "I have a smallranch in South Dakota. It’s just a little north of Belle Fourche, a small country town."
"Like this one?" Eira asked, tilting her head.
Jinx chuckled, the sound low and warm. "No, Belle Fourche would feel more like Maracay. A little town much farther north, Hollister, reminds me of your village. The land in South Dakota is wild. Wide open spaces, fewer people. In South Dakota, you can see forever. The stars are just as brilliant as they are here. The only real difference is the cold winters and the snow."
"Snow?" Eira’s face lit up, a bright laugh escaping her. "I wouldloveto have a Christmas in the snow!" She paused, then giggled. "Although I don’t have the clothes for cold weather."
"You wouldn’t want for anything," Jinx promised, his voice deep with certainty. "The ranch has about a dozen horses and a growing menagerie of dogs and cats. A couple of mules, too. They were abandoned, left to fend for themselves in a pasture. Skin and bones by the time someone rescued them."
Eira smiled tenderly at him. "So, you took care of them."
He shrugged modestly. "I did."
"How large is your farm?" she asked curiously.
"Ranch," he corrected gently, his mouth curvinginto a small smile. "In America, when you raise animals, it’s called a ranch. Farms are more for crops."
She nodded, listening intently.
"I’ve got about four hundred acres," Jinx continued. "I’ll need to build a better house for us. A bigger one, so your mom can have her own space, too. But we’ll make it work until then."
"Wecan?" Eira asked softly, uncertainty flickering across her face.
Jinx’s head snapped toward her, heart thudding. "I’m sorry," he said quickly. "I didn’t even ask. Would youwantto come to America? Would you live with me? Marry me and raise our son?"
Eira stood, carefully lifting Teo from Jinx’s arms and cradling the boy against her shoulder, soothing him back into sleep. "I’ll be right back," she whispered.
Jinx watched her disappear inside, the door closing gently behind her. He sat there in the dark, staring into the night, cursing himself for being too forward, too assuming. But when he was near her, everything else fell away. She made him feel whole. And the addition of Teo only deepened that feeling, anchored it even more fiercely to his soul.
Eira returned about five minutes later, the faint glow of the porch light illuminating her.
"Where’s your friend? Raven?" she asked, glancing around.
"She’s sleeping elsewhere," Jinx answered. "There’s a small house tucked back near the woods just past the village. I used it to stash supplies while still with the cartel. She’s staying there."
Eira leaned against the porch post, crossing her arms as she stared into the darkness. Though he could barely see her expression, Jinx couldfeelthe intensity of her gaze.
"Mateo," she said, trembling slightly, "I love you."
The words struck him like a blow to the chest.
"I realized," she continued, "that you became the man you needed to be. You did what you thought was right. I never want to lose you again. If you want to take us to America, we will go with you,butyou still have so much work to do. Love isn’t enough sometimes. I need to be able to trust you won’t leave us again. That you will stay beside us. It is a fear that may take years for me to get over, if I ever do."
Her voice broke, but she pushed through.
"My uncle and cousins can take over operations here. When Raven says it’s time to go, you don’t have to worry about us. We’ll go with her. We’ll leave, soyou can do what you need to do … and then you can come back to us and prove your words."
“I will spend the rest of my life proving my words. They are true. My love is true. You’ll see. I willmakeyou see.” He swallowed hard. “We’ll be a family. Maybe someday we’ll have a girl as beautiful as you.”
Without hesitation, she crossed the porch and sank to her knees before him. "No. That can’t happen. There’s something else you need to know," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "I can’t have any more children."
