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He said quietly, “Let’s have a baby.”
After a pause she said, “I’ll stop taking the Pill.” Then she reached for his hand and cradled it to her face.
The tenderness of the gesture was almost painful. He lifted her up and settled her astride his lap so he could see her expression. “Is that what you want?”
Her face looked as if it had been lit from within. “You know it is.” She leaned forward and brushed his lips with hers, then suddenly laughed and threw her arms around his neck, fiercely hugging him. “Are there any twins in your family?”
“No!” he said explosively, then drew back and gave her a suspicious look. “Are there in yours?”
“Actually, yes. Grandma Lily was a twin.”
Even the thought of twins was too much. He shook his head, denying the possibility. “Just one at a time, gal. No doubling up.” He rubbed his hands up her thighs and under her skirt, then slid them inside her underpants to cup her bare buttocks. “You might be pregnant by Christmas.”
“Umm, I’d like that.”
His eyes glinted at her. “I’ll do my best.”
“But it’ll probably take longer than that.”
“Then I’ll just have to try harder.”
Her lips quirked. “I can’t lose,” she said in contentment.
THE FIRST SNOW did come in
October, three inches of fine, dry powder. She learned that snow didn’t stop a rancher’s work, it only intensified it, though three inches was nothing to worry about. In the dead of winter Reese would have to carry hay to the cattle and break the ice in the stock ponds so they could drink. He’d have to find lost calves before they froze to death and move the herd to more sheltered areas during the worst weather.
For the first time, winter began to worry her. “What if there are blizzard conditions?” she asked him one night.
“Then I hope for the best,” he said flatly. “I’ll lose some calves during any bad snowstorm, but if it doesn’t last too long the biggest part of the herd will weather it. The danger is if blizzard conditions or extreme cold last for several days. Then the cattle start freezing to death, and during a blizzard I can’t get feed out to them. I have hooks attached to the barn and the house. When it looks like a bad storm, I run a static line between them and hook myself to it so I can get back and forth to the barn.”
She stared at him, appalled at the years he’d coped by himself and the danger he’d been in. It was testimony to his strength and intelligence that he was still alive, and characteristic of his stubbornness that he’d even tried.
The preparations for winter were ongoing and not to be taken lightly. He moved the herd to the closer pastures where they would winter. Cords of firewood were stacked close to the back door, and the pantry was well stocked with candles and batteries, while he cleaned and tested two big kerosene heaters in case they were needed. The truck and car were both filled with new antifreeze and given new batteries, and he began parking them in the garage to keep them out of the wind. During October the temperature steadily slipped lower, until the only time it was above freezing was at high noon.
“Does it stay below freezing for six months?” she asked, and he laughed.
“No. We’ll have cold spells and warm spells. It may be sixty degrees or higher in January, but if we get blizzard conditions or a deep freeze the temperatures can go way below zero. We prepare for a blizzard and hope for the sixty degrees.”
As if to bear him out, the weather then showed a warming trend and inched the temperatures upward into the fifties during the day. Madelyn felt more confident, because he’d been making preparations as if they were going into six months of darkness. That was how he’d made it by himself for seven years, by being cautious and prepared for anything. Still, by his own admission the winters could be hell. She would just have to make certain he didn’t take any chances with his own safety.
Robert flew in the day before Christmas and spent three days with them. When he first saw Madelyn he gave her a hard, searching look, but whatever he saw must have reassured him, because he relaxed then and was an affable guest. She was amused at the way Reese and Robert related to each other, since they were so much alike, both very private and strong men. Their conversation consisted of sentence fragments, as if they were just throwing out random comments, but they both seemed comfortable with it. She was amazed at how much alike they were in manner, too. Robert was smoothly cosmopolitan, yet Reese’s mannerisms were much like his, illustrating how prosperous the ranch had been before the divorce. They differed only in that she had never seen Robert lose his temper, while Reese’s temper was like a volcano.
Robert was surprisingly interested in the working of the ranch and rode out with Reese every day he was there. They spent a lot of time talking about futures and stock options, the ratio of feed to pound of beef, interest rates, inflation and government subsidies. Robert looked thoughtful a lot, as if he were weighing everything Reese said.
The day before he left, Robert approached Madelyn. She was sprawled bonelessly across a big armchair, listening to the stereo with her eyes closed and one foot keeping time to the music. He said in amusement, “Never run if you can walk, never walk if you can stand, never stand if you can sit, and never sit if you can lie.”
“Never talk if you can listen,” Madelyn added without opening her eyes.
“Then you listen, and I’ll talk.”
“This sounds serious. Are you going to tell me you’re in love with someone and are thinking of marriage?”
“Good God, no,” he said, his amusement deepening.
“Is there a new woman on the horizon?”
“A bit closer than that.”
