Big Sky Mountain

chapter NINETEEN



HUTCH DIDN’T SEE Kendra again until the day of little Trace Carmody Barlow’s christening, when he showed up at the church in a pair of slacks, a white shirt and a lightweight sports jacket with a secret tucked into one pocket for later.

Most of the congregation had stayed on after the regular service for the special ceremony, and Hutch was mildly uncomfortable, stealing the occasional anxious glance at the ceiling, willing it to hold.

The new pastor, Dr. Beaumont, opened with a prayer.

Hutch bowed his head, like everybody else, but his eyes were partway open the whole time, drinking in the sight of Kendra standing next to him and wearing a green dress made of some soft fabric that looked supple to the touch.

When the prayer was over, Kendra opened her eyes, caught him looking at her and smiled slightly.

Dr. Beaumont took the baby boy gently from Joslyn’s arms, holding him securely and baptizing him with a sprinkle of water, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Promises were made all around.

There was another prayer; Slade was holding the infant now, looking as though he might just bust open with love and pride. His resemblance to the old man was stronger than ever, except, Hutch noticed with a slight jolt, for the quiet self-assurance in his eyes. That was the difference—Slade was fine with being Slade, taking life as it came, but their father had seen it as a battle instead, something to survive and overcome, and the effort of doing all that had used up all he had to give.

The formal part of the christening ended and the small but enthusiastic crowd was dispersing. Now, there would be a celebration picnic on the grounds of the Pioneer Cemetery.

Hutch went over there ahead of time and wound up standing at the foot of his dad’s grave.

There was nothing to resolve, really; he’d made peace with John Carmody, once and for all, by taking down that monument up at the meadow, rock by rock.

Resentment by resentment, hurt by hurt.

All that was gone now, scattered, just like the stones.

Still, it seemed right to pause and silently pay his respects, because in spite of it all, he’d loved his father, known all along on some level that the old man had given what he had in him to give.

Folks started arriving right away, filling the picnic tables with food, kids running around, playing, adults talking and laughing in the shade of the trees.

Out of the corner of his eye, Hutch saw Slade heading in his direction. He’d taken off his suit jacket, Slade had, and the sleeves of his white shirt were rolled up.

He came to stand beside Hutch.

“You doing all right?” he asked, his voice husky.

“I’m just fine,” Hutch answered honestly. “How about you?”

“Never better,” Slade replied. “I’ve got everything a man could ask for and more.”

Hutch looked down at the fancy headstone, bearing their father’s name, along with the dates of his birth and death. It was hard to believe that a man’s whole life could fit between two sets of words and numbers like that, symbolically or not, but there it was.

John Carmody had been born, lived his life and died.

And behind a single dash, chiseled in stone, was the whole story, much of which they’d never know.

“He should have acknowledged you sooner, Slade,” Hutch said without looking at his brother. “Treated you better.”

Slade considered that for a few moments. “He gave me life. Maybe that was all he could manage. And he knew Callie would raise me right.”

Hutch merely sighed.

Slade rested a hand on his shoulder. “There’s a party going on over there under the trees,” he reminded Hutch. “How about joining in?”

Hutch lifted his head, grinned when he saw Madison running toward him in a polka-dot dress, her arms open wide.

He scooped her up when she reached him, carried her as he walked alongside Slade. She chattered in his ear the whole way, going on about how she’d missed him and Mommy had, too, and saying she wanted to ride Ruffles again so she’d be ready to carry a flag at the rodeo and compete in the barrel racing when she was bigger.

Kendra, seeing them, broke away from the gathering.

Madison, spotting Shea nearby, squirmed in Hutch’s arms and he set her down. She ran toward the older girl with barely a glance at Kendra, and Shea greeted the little girl with a bright smile and a giggle.

Hutch and Kendra, meanwhile, stood a few feet apart, the grass rippling all around them like a low tide, just looking at each other.

Figuring that he’d put this conversation off long enough already, Hutch cleared his throat and moved in closer, cupping her elbows in his hands. She smelled of lavender soap and sunshine, and her eyes were as clear and green as sea glass.

“I love you, Kendra,” he said, on a swell of emotion that made the words come out sounding hoarse. “Maybe it’s too soon to say it—hell, maybe it’s too late, I don’t know—but it’s true.” He reached into his coat pocket, brought out the small velvet box, opened it with a motion of his thumb. His great-grandmother’s engagement ring was inside—a simple but elegant concoction of diamonds and rubies. After Joslyn had done a little detective work so it would fit Kendra, he’d had it sized, cleaned and polished at the jeweler’s. Now, it caught fire in the sunlight.

Kendra’s eyes widened as she looked at the ring, but she didn’t say anything right away, and the next few moments were some of the longest of Hutch’s life. They’d traveled a rocky road, the two of them, and while he knew she loved him, he wasn’t sure she’d be willing to throw in with him for the long haul.

“Are you asking me to marry you?” she finally asked very softly.

Hutch was only vaguely aware of the nearby crowd. For him, time had stopped and Kendra was all there was to the universe.

“Yes,” he managed at last. “If you feel the same as I do, that is.”

She smiled. “I’ve loved you since we were kids, Hutch,” she told him. “That hasn’t changed.”

“Then you’ll marry me?”

She stepped in close, put her arms around his neck, and looked up into his eyes. “I’ll marry you,” she agreed quietly. “When we’re both ready.”

“I’m ready now,” Hutch told her. God knew that was the truth in its entirety.

She laughed. “There are things we have to work out first,” she reasoned. “Plans and decisions to make. We have to consider Madison, for a start.”

He wanted to adopt Madison, raise her as a Carmody, but this wasn’t the place to talk about that. He’d already jumped the gun by declaring himself and shoving a ring at Kendra, in a graveyard of all places, with half the town looking on. This time around, he wasn’t going to botch everything, like he had before.

She stepped back and offered him her left hand, and he took the ring out of the box and slid it onto her finger.

He kissed her then, and the town of Parable applauded from the picnic tables under the trees.


One month later...

OPAL DENNISON SAT UP straight in her new favorite pew, one that afforded her the best possible view of the pastor, Dr. Walter Beaumont. She’d taken it over the first time he preached and laid claim to it every Sunday since.

Today, on this bright August afternoon, Hutch Carmody was up front, in exactly the same place he’d stood at his last wedding, with Boone beside him as best man, just like before.

The church was packed with guests once again and, since the organ music hadn’t started up yet, folks were buzzing with excitement and speculation, most of them wondering, unless Opal missed her guess, if history would repeat itself.

She settled in, Joslyn’s baby safe in the infant carrier beside her, since Joslyn and Tara, being bridesmaids, were at the rear of the church, waiting for the ceremony to begin. Slade was back there, too, fixing to give Kendra away, though she was still out of sight, except for a spill of shimmering lace, part of her magnificent dress.

Turning a little, Opal saw Slade’s gaze connect with Joslyn’s, and it seemed to her that their two souls glowed right through their skin, lighting up their faces and surrounding them with a shared aura.

She smiled to herself, turned her attention back to the groom, waiting up there by the altar with Walter, who looked resplendent in his pastoral robes. Oh, he was a handsome one all right, with his full head of white hair and his dignified manner, but this was Hutch’s day, and Kendra’s, and Opal meant to focus on them.

Settling in contentedly, Opal exchanged a mental high-five with the Lord. We do good work, You and me, she told Him silently. She looked over at the best man, Boone, standing beside Hutch and looking solemn. Course we’ve still got him to straighten out, don’t we, and sweet Tara, too, but we can cross Hutch and Kendra off our list, just like we did Slade and Joslyn. Another mission accomplished.

Just then Walter caught Opal’s eye. A small, mischievous smile tilted his mouth up at one side, and darned if that man didn’t wink at her, right there in church, with him right up front in full view and holding the Holy Book in his hands.

Or did he?

After a moment, she wasn’t sure whether he had or not. Had she imagined it?

The idea warmed her all over just the same, clear to the center of her being, but she didn’t wink back, of course.

There was a proper way to go about things, after all, and anyway she was in no big hurry to reel Walter in and marry up with him. She liked him a lot and they’d even gone out fishing together a couple of times and talked and laughed so much they’d scared away all the trout. The Sunday after little Trace Barlow was christened, with Kendra and Hutch standing up as godparents, they’d gone to the Butter Biscuit for brunch together after church, she and Walter, and stayed until Ellie practically kicked them out so she could close the place promptly at two o’clock, as she always did on the Sabbath.

Yes, sir, things were looking real promising on the romance front, not just for Kendra and Hutch, but for her and Walter, too.

All she had to do now was wait and trust and let the Good Lord have His way, since He always knew best.

* * *

RAISING HER VEIL, Kendra bent, her eyes brimming with happy tears, and kissed Madison, her flower girl, soundly on the cheek. “Nervous?” she whispered. When the organist struck up the prelude, Madison would be the first member of the wedding party to walk up the aisle.

“No,” Madison answered in a stage whisper, looking earnest in her blue silk dress with the ruffled skirt. “I’m getting a daddy today!”

The comment carried far enough to raise a gentle twitter of laughter from the pews nearby.

Then the organist sounded the first reverberating note and, on cue, Madison strolled down the aisle, a job she’d practiced tirelessly for several weeks by then, scattering pink and white rose petals as she went.

People crooned and smiled as she passed.

When she reached the front, she went right over to Hutch and tugged at his sleeve with her free hand, holding the now-empty flower basket in the other.

He leaned down and she whispered something in his ear, and he grinned at her and pointed out the place where she was supposed to stand.

The prelude continued, picking up speed, and Tara followed Madison’s trail of rose petals, looking fabulous in the soft yellow dress she’d chosen herself. Joslyn, like Madison, wore blue—Kendra hadn’t wanted to impose any specific fashion statement on her friends.

Joslyn reached back, gave Kendra’s hand a quick squeeze, exchanged glances with Slade and moved gracefully between the two rows of pews, coming to stand next to Tara.

“This is it,” Slade whispered to Kendra as she took her arm. “Ready?”

“Ready,” she replied, clutching her bouquet of zinnias and daisies and drawing a deep breath.

The wedding march began, but before Slade and Kendra could take the first step, Hutch left the platform and started toward her.

A hush fell over the guests and the music dropped away, one jumbled note on top of another, into silence.

Kendra held her breath as she watched Hutch approach. He looked impossibly handsome in the tux he’d reluctantly agreed to wear, just for today, and love welled up inside her.

Reaching her, he smiled and offered her his arm.

“I’ll take it from here,” he told Slade, who grinned and shook his head as he stepped aside.

The congregation let out their collective breath, and the music started again, faltering at first and then filling the little sanctuary to its walls in a joyous flood of sound.

Hutch and Kendra walked arm in arm to the front of the church and stood together before the pastor.

They’d written their own vows, though they hadn’t shared them with each other, and Kendra was so overcome with joy and with love for the man standing beside her that she was sure the carefully prepared words had slipped her mind forever. She’d have to wing it, she supposed, but that was all right.

Hutch spoke first, turning to Kendra, taking her hands in his, holding her gaze through the billowing softness of her bridal veil.

“Sometimes,” he began, his voice husky but strong, “a man is lucky enough to get a second chance, whether he deserves one or not, and that’s what’s happened to me. I love you, Kendra. I always have and I always will. I’ll be faithful to you and I’ll listen to you. I’ll protect you and provide for you, and—”

“You’ll be my daddy!” Madison piped up, beaming.

That brought on more laughter and a smattering of applause.

Hutch slanted a look at the little girl, grinned and confirmed in a clear voice, “And I’ll be your daddy.” He paused, asked amicably, “Do you have anything else to say, shortstop, or can we get on with this?”

Madison considered for a moment, finally shook her head, curls flying, and chimed, “No, that’s everything!”

The whole congregation chuckled.

Hutch turned back to Kendra and finished his vows.

Kendra swallowed, looking up at his face, loving him with all she had and all she was and would ever be. “I love you, Hutch Carmody,” she began, never taking her eyes from his. “I’ll be your friend and your partner, as well as your wife, from this day forward, in good times and bad and everything in between. I’ll be the best mother I can to Madison and to all the other children I hope we’ll have together, and I promise to trust you, always, and to be worthy of your trust in return.”

When she’d finished, there was a short silence, during which she and Hutch simply looked at each other, exchanging further vows, silent ones, deeper ones, ones that went far beyond words.

Dr. Beaumont asked them the usual questions then, and they answered with “I do,” and slipped wedding bands onto each other’s ring fingers.

Finally, in a booming voice of jubilant authority, the minister pronounced them man and wife.

“You may kiss the bride,” he added, pretending it was an afterthought, though by then Hutch had already raised Kendra’s veil, smoothed it back away from her face and covered her mouth with his own.

The organ soared back to life.

The congregation rose as one, cheering and clapping.

Madison dropped her flower basket, rushed over and wriggled in between Kendra and Hutch, and they each took her by the hand, walking back down the aisle together, a family.

* * *

THE RECEPTION, HELD IN the community center, took the better part of forever to go by, as far as Hutch was concerned. There were endless pictures to pose for, hands to shake, a big, fancy cake to cut into. There was food and music and enough presents to fill the back of a semitruck.

Hutch enjoyed the festivities, but he was ready for the honeymoon to start, and he knew Kendra was, too. For various reasons, they’d decided to not have sex again until after the wedding, and they’d stuck to the plan—not an easy matter and now that the finish line was in sight, he wanted to cross it.

They’d be staying on the ranch instead of going on a trip, with Madison spending the first night at the Barlows’ place with Opal, who’d just moved back there, and of course, Shea, Madison’s own personal teen idol.

The time passed like molasses in January, as the old saying went.

They danced, he and Kendra, and holding her close was sweet torment.

“I can’t wait to get you alone, Mrs. Carmody,” he whispered in her ear.

“You’ll have to wait, Mr. Carmody,” she teased.

Another hour went by before Kendra agreed to slip away. They said goodbye to Madison, who was on the piano bench beside Shea, learning to play the bass part of “Heart and Soul,” and dismissed them with a happy grin and “See you tomorrow!”

The new truck was waiting outside, decorated from front to back with streamers, streaks of shaving cream, and all manner of other stuff, including a big, hand-lettered sign that read Just Married.

He hoisted Kendra into the passenger seat, taking what seemed like an extra five minutes to stuff the skirts of that big dress in behind her. She laughed the whole time.

What a sight they must make, Hutch thought, getting in on the driver’s side, him in a tux, and Kendra in all that lace and silk, leaving their wedding in a pickup truck.

Eager as he was to get home to the ranch house and be alone with his bride, to unwrap her from that fancy gown and everything underneath it, he was struck dumb for a long moment, just to look at her.

She was so unbelievably, impossibly beautiful.

And she was his.

Peering out of the billows of white surrounding her, she laughed again, maybe at his expression and maybe for sheer joy.

“I feel like a giant cupcake,” she said.

He cocked a grin at her before starting up the truck. “Good enough to eat,” he replied, driving away from the church.

When they got home, the house was lit up, even though the afternoon was still bright with sunshine. The night before, he and Slade and Boone had spent hours putting up strings of white Christmas lights, and the whole place twinkled.

Hutch parked the truck near the front gate, got out and came around to lift Kendra off the passenger seat.

He didn’t set her down, but looked straight into her eyes and said, “Welcome home, Mrs. Carmody.”

Her eyes filled with tears, causing her mascara to run a little. “I love you,” she said. “So, so much.”

He replied in kind and kissed her to seal the bargain.

Getting the gate open with an armload of woman and wedding dress was tricky, but Hutch managed it, carried Kendra up the walk and the porch steps and over the threshold to boot. Leviticus was right there to greet them, though he soon lost interest and wandered off into some other part of the house.

In the foyer, he set her on her feet, pretending to be winded by the effort of lugging her that far.

She smiled, picked up her voluminous skirts and started up the stairs, looking back at him over one shoulder. She knew where the master bedroom was—he’d shown it to her, along with the rest of that big and formerly empty house—but today was different. Today, and tonight, and every night that followed, they could make use of it.

“Aren’t you going to help me out of this dress?” she asked coyly.

“It’s the least I can do,” Hutch answered, then he bolted up the stairs after her, undoing his tie as he went, shrugging out of his tuxedo jacket and leaving it behind on the rail of the landing.

His cummerbund went next and, by the time he caught up with Kendra inside the bedroom, he was undoing his cuff links.

Kendra, a vision in white, stood looking around, taking in the antique four-poster bed, the old-fashioned fireplace, the built-in bookshelves, bare at the moment because Hutch had been sleeping in a room down the hall since he was younger than Madison was now.

She moved to the mantel, ran her hand along the face of it, turned to him. “Our room,” she said very softly, almost reverently. “The place where our babies will be conceived.”

Hutch watched her, etching her image into his mind so he could remember, years and years from now, when they were an old married couple, how she’d looked at this moment. “Some of them,” he agreed. “I plan on making love to you in plenty of other places, too.”

Kendra came to him, stood on tiptoe, and kissed him lightly on the mouth. “This will do for a start, though,” she said with mischief in her eyes. Then she turned, indicating the long row of tiny buttons on the back of her dress with a gesture of one hand.

Hutch began the slow, delicious process of unbuttoning Kendra’s wedding gown. He fumbled a little, now and then—what was the point of making buttons that small when a man had big fingers?—but he finally got the thing open, and she stepped out of it, draped it carefully over the chair in front of the fireplace. It looked like a fallen cloud, resting there.

“Madison will wear this dress someday,” Kendra said. “And maybe other daughters, too.”

The thought warmed Hutch’s heart, but it was soon gone. At the moment, he wasn’t thinking long-term, he was thinking right now.

Even without the gown, Kendra was still wearing a lot of gear—a big, lacy petticoat-type thing, and a camisole with a bra underneath it. She kicked off her satin shoes and shed the petticoat, unfastened her stockings from the sexy garters that held them up, bared her legs and stood there in panties and the camisole, looking like an angel trying to pass as a pinup girl.

For a moment, he couldn’t speak.

She walked over to him, unbuttoned his shirt, pulled it out of his pants. “Do I have to do all the undressing around here?” she asked.

He shook his head, pulled her close and kissed her again, deeply this time, thoroughly, holding nothing back. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pressed her warm softness against him and kissed him back.

He groaned, consuming her, unable to get enough.

At some point, they both got naked, though Hutch was too far gone by that point to say when it happened. He lifted Kendra in his arms, carried her to the bed and laid her down.

“No foreplay this time,” she whispered, gazing up at him with sultry eyes and a wicked little smile. “I want you inside me, Hutch. It’s been too long since we were together—like this—”

“No rush,” he ground out. “We’ve got all the time in the world.” He kissed her mouth, her neck, found her nipple and took it into his mouth. “All the time in the world,” he repeated, using his tongue.

Fire shot through Kendra as Hutch took his sweet time at her breast, caressing her all the while running a hand over her other breast, down her side, across her belly to the place where her passions lived.

She whimpered, giving herself up to pleasure. There would be no hurrying this husband of hers—he believed in taking her by inches, by millimeters, a touch, a kiss, a teasing brush of his fingertips at a time.

Her voice was ragged when she said his name, rose to a low shout when he put his head between her legs and took her into his mouth.

He suckled until she was near the breaking point and then withdrew to nibble at the insides of her thighs, even the backs of her knees.

Her breath came deep and fast, and she commanded him to take her, damn it, but he only took her into his mouth again, and alternately sucked on her and teased her with his tongue.

Kendra’s hips began to rise and fall, faster and faster, and she plunged her fingers into Hutch’s hair, holding him to her even as she pleaded to be taken.

She was on the verge, whispering, “Don’t stop—

oh, God, don’t stop—” when the eruption finally came. She exploded against an inner sky, like fireworks, and dissolved into flaming sparks that took a long time to fall.

By the time she’d settled back into herself, Hutch was poised above her on the bed, his forearms braced against the mattress on either side of her still-quivering, exquisitely sated body.

He moved inside her, slowly that first time, throwing his head back as he reached her depths.

Instantly, she needed him again and more desperately than before. This time, however, he didn’t hold back, but gave her all of himself, one long, hard thrust following another.

Kendra found the ever-rising ecstasy almost more than she could bear. She tossed her head from side to side on the pillow, and their bodies collided, again and again, until they reached the same pinnacle at the same moment. Hutch went still, deep inside her, and she felt the surging warmth of him.

This time, there was no condom.

They’d wasted enough time and both of them wanted a baby.

When it was over, he collapsed beside her, one leg sprawled across her thighs, his breathing ragged.

A long time passed before either of them spoke.

“What is it with you and foreplay?” Kendra asked, her head resting on his shoulder.

He chuckled. “Get used to it,” he said, kissing her temple. “Some things shouldn’t be hurried, and making love to you is one of them.”

She made a slow circle on the taut, washboard flesh of his belly with the fingertips of her right hand. “Really?” she purred. Then she closed her fingers around him, and he groaned, instantly hard again.

“Woman,” he gasped, “you are playing with fire.”

She worked him harder, faster, but gently, too.

“Am I?”

He pulsed against her palm, huge and hot, and gave a raspy moan.

Then, in a heartbeat, he was on top of her.

She looked up into his eyes, batted her lashes, and said, “But what about the foreplay?”

“You win,” he rasped, and then he possessed her in one hard, driving thrust.

* * *

HOURS LATER, DOWNSTAIRS in the dimly lit kitchen—Hutch wearing jeans and nothing else, Kendra in one of his T-shirts, happier than she’d ever imagined it was possible to be—they nibbled at the lasagna Opal had thoughtfully prepared and left in the refrigerator. Leviticus, recently fed, snoozed nearby on his dog bed.

“I guess this isn’t much of a honeymoon,” Hutch fretted, sitting across from her, his hair love-rumpled and his golden beard coming in with the twilight. “Maybe we should have gone to Vegas or Hawaii or something.”

Kendra grinned at him. “No complaints here, cowboy,” she said. “We can take trips later. Right now, we’ve got a lot of settling in to do.”

Hutch looked relieved, and the expression in his eyes made Kendra wonder how she’d ever doubted that they belonged together, for always.

They ate what they could, both of them starved and at the same time too riled up to eat much. They’d showered together and made love under the spray, and while Kendra’s body still throbbed with aftershocks from the powerful releases he’d brought her to, she wanted more, and she knew Hutch did, too.

“Think we made a baby today?” he asked.

Kendra moved her shoulders in a little shrug. “All we can do is keep trying,” she said.

He laughed, reached out, closed his hand briefly over hers. “I have something for you,” he told her, turning serious all of a sudden.

“I hope so,” she vamped, making eyes at him.

“Besides that,” he said, after a raspy chuckle. He stood up, disappeared into his office off the kitchen and returned with a thick packet in one hand.

Kendra frowned, a little unnerved. They hadn’t signed, or even discussed, a prenuptial agreement but now, it seemed, he’d reconsidered the idea. Did he really think she’d demand half of Whisper Creek Ranch if, God forbid, they parted ways before one of them died?

“What’s this?” she asked warily.

He smiled, reading her trepidation accurately, the way he so often did. “It’s a deed,” he said. “Maggie Landers drew it up.”

Kendra’s hands trembled as she opened the document, scanned the legalese and made the startling discovery that she was already half owner of the ranch. All that was required was a notarized signature.

“I don’t understand,” she confessed. “This ranch means everything to you—”

“And so do you,” Hutch finished huskily when her words fell away. “This ranch is me, Kendra—as much a part of me as my arms and legs and my heart. I’d do just about anything to keep it. But if you divorced me tomorrow, well, so be it, you’d still be half owner of Whisper Creek.”

Kendra was overcome, touched to the tenderest part of her soul. Hutch wasn’t just giving her his love, but his complete trust. He was staking everything he held dear on their marriage, their commitment to each other and to a lifetime as man and wife.

She held the document to her heart for a moment, not because of what it offered but because of what it meant, and then she set it down on the table between them.

“I’m going back upstairs, now,” she announced. “Coming?”

Hutch laughed and scooted back his chair to rise. “Definitely,” he said.

* * * * *