Page 34 of Cowboy

When I pull up to the old trail closed off by a metal gate, my heart palpitates, recalling how someone once stole onto our land and took unwarranted images. However, this route will also take me where I need to go.

“What’s this?” Scarlett asks, her eyes slowly sparkling again since our doctor's visit.

“I have something I want to show you.” Putting the truck in park, I hop out and unlatch the gate. Returning to the truck, I pull forward and then stop just inside our property before getting back out of the truck to secure the gate once more. I take a look around me as if someone might be spying on us, but that won’t be happening again on our land. Re-entering the truck, I drive us forward along the bouncy trail, rutted a little deeper from the rain this past spring. Eventually, I draw near the spot.

“What’s that?” Scarlett questions, leaning her head forward and squinting out the windshield to see better. There’s no way to miss the singular tree, standing on its own on this low rise of land. I only smile as we pull up and park near the wire fencing protecting it.

“Take a walk with me.” Scarlett already has her hand on the door handle and steps out before me. Once I exit the truck and round the front, I take her hand and guide her closer to the large sugar maple.

“Legend has it my great-great-grandfather lived near this tree. His livelihood came from that tree as he used it to produce maple for sweetening. We aren’t certain why it’s only one lone tree. Might be he chopped down the others, or maybe they died.” I shrug. “The family eventually moved closer to our current location, starting with the small home that’s mine now and eventually building the larger one where I grew up.”

Scarlett tips her head back once we stand under the tree. The sunlight filters through the thick green leaves and reflects off her bright hair.

“It’s a brilliant red color in the fall. Because of that color, it’s said to look like a giant heart and earned its name as the Engagement Tree.”

I walk Scarlett closer to the trunk, pointing out initials in the bark. Her shaky finger reaches forward and traces one set with an arrow between the four initials.

“Those are my grandparents. BE and KC stands for Harland Bull Eaton and his wife, my grandmother, Katherine Caswell.” I point at another set of initials with a distinct heart around them and a plus sign between them. “H and E is Harland Eaton, my father, and my mother Rose Newton is the R and N.”

Scarlett glances over at me and smiles before a thought occurs and the smile withers. “Did you ask Jennifer to marry you here?”

I softly chuckle. “Actually, I didn’t. Some say it’s what jinxed my marriage. Didn’t ask her in the proper place.” My brows pinch as I remember asking Jen in the front seat of my pickup, right before we had sex. It was such a long time ago, so the memory is hazy. I was young back then.

“What about the other women?”

Placing my hands on my hips, I pause before answering. This is sacred ground to my family. What was I thinking by bringing Scarlett here? Am I jinxing us by explaining this place to her?

“I’ve never brought anyone here,” I murmur, squinting up at the leaves whispering in the light summer breeze. Although I sense Scarlett watching me, I don’t look directly at her. Instead, I shift my gaze back to the tree trunk. “Sweetheart, I have something to give you and something I want to say to you. Standing under this tree promises you that what I say is true.”

“Bull, I don’t think we—” Her hand comes up to stop me, and I realize almost too late what she must think.

“I’m not asking you to marry me, Scarlett.” No, no, no. I won’t be going there again.

“You’re not?” Her forehead furrows, and her dark eyes lower to our feet. Then she looks up and off to the side. “Of course, you’re not.” Her soft voice stirs my insides, but marriage isn’t what she wants from me anyway.

“You don’t want to marry me, darlin’.”

“I don’t?” Her neck cranes, and she faces me once more. A little crease forms between her brows.

“No,” I say, reaching out to press my thick thumb to that divot between her brows. For one, she’s already been married and hurt by it. She doesn’t need marriage with me to be her partner. There are hints of Scarlett being similar to Sabrina in her need for more—without the greed—and being married to a cow man will not be enough for her. Two, I’m not ever asking another woman to marry me. It just leads to all kinds of trouble. Still, Scarlett’s expression is troubling. I’d like to say it’s disappointment, but that’s me projecting, and there will be none of that.

“We’re celebrating the little life inside you. It’s a miracle, a gift, and this is the right place to tell you how precious I think you are. I care about you and that baby.” I point at her belly. Scarlett’s hand covers her lower abs, and she glances down at what we can’t visibly see but know is happening inside her. She’s building a human being in there.

Next, I reach into my pocket and lay flat the gift I have for her.

“It seems I missed Mother’s Day, and I wanted to give you this.” It’s a silver bangle bracelet with a mother-child charm on it.

“Mother’s Day,” she whispers quietly. “I’d forgotten all about it.” Scarlett has issues with her own parents and didn’t call her mother on the day set aside for such a thing. I should have thought to give her something earlier, but this is all still new to me.

Her eyes fill with liquid as she takes the bracelet from me and rubs her thumb over the charm. “I don’t know what to say.”

“This tree is life to my family, and you are life to me, carrying that baby. Some say this tree is the heart of this land, and well, it just seems like a good place to take a moment and appreciate what we heard today, Sprout’s heartbeat.” I shrug, suddenly anxious by my admission. Maybe it’s too much. Maybe I’m the only one overwhelmed by what we just experienced. Maybe I’m the one that needs a moment.

“I sound like a sap, don’t I?”

Scarlett’s been eyeing the bracelet while I spoke, but she looks up at me, her brown eyes as rich as the soil we stand on. “No, it sounds beautiful. You’re a good man.” Her voice cracks, and I step closer to her.

“Let me be Sprout’s daddy then. No matter what or who is the father, let me be the man in his life.”