Mail Order Cowboy (Harlequin American Romance) (24 page)

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Authors: Pamela BAUER

BOOK: Mail Order Cowboy (Harlequin American Romance)
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“Mom, are you all right?” Jeremy asked softly.
“You gave us quite a scare when you didn’t wake up right away,” Gabby added, her voice faltering. “You’ve been unconscious for almost a whole day.”
Hannah reached out to take each of their hands and give them a squeeze. “My head hurts something awful, but I’m okay.”
“You were lucky, Mom. You could have got hurt really bad.”
“It was that tree I warned you about, Jeremy. I should have known better than to go near it.”
“You mean the one that got Wood?” he asked.
So it was true. He was really gone. Again Hannah began to cry, this time sobbing so hard that the nurse asked Jeremy and Gabby to leave, saying in a quiet voice, “She needs a sedative for the pain.”
 
HANNAH DIDN’T KNOW what pain medication she was given, but whatever it was, it produced the most wonderful dreams. Wood was at her bedside, holding her hand, kissing her knuckles and saying all sorts of sweet things. Like how she made his life complete. And how he would never ever leave her again.
“Time for dinner. We let you sleep through lunch, but you’re going to have to eat this.”
Hannah awoke to find a different nurse standing beside her, a tray of food in her hands.
“You must have been having a nice dream. You’ve been smiling ever since I entered the room,” she said to Hannah as she set her tray down.
“Hmm. It was nice,” Hannah said wistfully. “There was this man—” She stopped, afraid that she’d start to cry if she tried to talk about Wood.
“Did he have dark hair and brown eyes?”
“Umm-hmm.”
“Good-looking?”
“Umm-hmm.”
The nurse chuckled. “That was no dream. He’s been here all day. I think he just went for a cup of coffee. Should I check?”
Hannah’s heartbeat raced and her mouth went dry. The nurse slipped out the door. The next time it opened, Wood came through. In his hands was a small bunch of flowers.
“I’ve been waiting for you to wake up so I could bring you these.” He walked over to the bed and sat down beside her.
“It wasn’t a dream. You were really here.” She reached out to touch his arm.
“Still am, if you want me.” He smiled and stared at her with those gorgeous brown eyes that had the power to scramble her insides.
“I do want you,” she said, a tear trickling down her cheek.
He wiped it away with his thumb. “Is that why you did something so foolish as to come looking for me in a lightning storm?”
“I had to stop you from getting killed,” she said, a tiny hiccup accenting the word killed. “I’ve seen what you do in storms.”
“I didn’t go out to the Nelson forty in hopes of getting struck by lightning and carried back to 1876.”
“But Gabby said...”
“That I had gone to the Nelson forty, and I had. To look for a pouch.” He explained about the old crone who had comforted him right before the hanging, and how he and Gabby suspected Gabrielle Davis may have saved his life with her herbs. “I suppose we’ll never know for sure if it was truly the herbs or the lightning. Actually it was Outlaw who found the pouch out at the Nelson forty, and I buried it. Then I cut down that monster of a tree that caused all of the problems.”
“You don’t want to go back to 1876?”
“Not when I have a beautiful wife who needs me.” He put a finger beneath her chin. “Or was that the pain medication talking?”
Gingerly she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. “I do need you and that scares me. It’s part of the reason I said all those awful things to you. Plus I was being a bit stubborn,” she admitted with a wry grin.
“Just a bit.” He gave her another quick kiss. “You had a right to be hurt, Hannah. If I had been completely honest with you from the start, none of this would have happened.”
She placed a fingertip to his lips. “Let’s not talk about the past. I’d much rather discuss the future. Our future.”
The last thing she saw before he kissed her were those dark brown eyes looking at her with a promise of love.
Epilogue
“What are these?” Hannah asked when she stepped into the-kitchen and saw several brightly wrapped packages on the table.
“Your birthday presents,” Jeremy answered.
“That tree limb took you out of here before we had a chance to celebrate.” Wood led her over to the table.
“It’s a good thing you didn’t tell me these were waiting for me. Otherwise they never would have been able to keep me in that hospital as long as they did,” she teased.
Not only were there presents, but cake and ice cream, too. It wasn’t long before the doorbell rang. Hannah didn’t miss the looks that passed between Gabby, Wood and Jeremy.
“Now I wonder who that could be? Another surprise?” Hannah inquired with a twinkle in her eye.
“You’d better get it, Mom,” Jeremy advised, which only added to her suspicion that it was a floral delivery.
Only the man at the back door didn’t have any flowers in his hands. “Can I help you?” Hannah asked the middle-aged man wearing a light blue leisure suit.
“I’m looking for Hannah.”
Hannah smiled. “You found her. Come on in,” she said with a curious glance toward the people seated at the table.
“He doesn’t have any roses,” Gabby whispered to Wood who shrugged his shoulders.
“What can I do for you, Mr—?” Hannah asked.
“Dumler. I’m Alfred, your mail-order groom.”
There were four simultaneous gasps.
“You have a nice place here,” Mr. Dumler said to Hannah, unaware of the effect his presence had on the people in the kitchen.
“I appreciate that you have good taste, Mr. Dumler, but I might as well tell you, I didn’t place that ad in the magazine.” Hannah pointed to her aunt. “She did.”
“Does that mean you’re not going to marry me?” he asked, in a voice that was as dull as the shineless shoes he wore.
Hannah walked over to Wood and planted a kiss on his mouth, then she turned to Alfred Dumler and said, “You’re too late, Mr. Dumler. I’ve already found me a mail-order groom and I’m not sending him back.”
ISBN : 978-1-4592-6065-8
 
MAIL ORDER COWBOY
 
Copyright © 1998 by Pamela Muelhbauer.
 
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
 
All characters in this book have no existence outside the Imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
 
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
 
® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

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