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  He’d been thinking about those words ever since the patrol car had pulled away from the house about a half hour ago. They’d run through his head as he and Shelby had hauled Josh and Elizabeth’s stuff out to the living room and tucked the kids into bed next to the fire.

  Although he and Shelby had talked to Josh and Elizabeth as they’d sung songs and played little games to make things seem okay again, they hadn’t talked to each other. After the kids were settled, he’d pulled Shelby down and drawn her up against him. She’d come willingly, but she was very, very quiet.

  Boone had to face the fact that everything was changed. So much had happened in only a few hours. First he’d discovered how much he loved Shelby when she’d cried in his arms, and he’d wondered how the hell he’d live without her if Jessica demanded marriage. And then he’d seen Shelby’s life nearly snuffed out before his eyes, and he’d realized he couldn’t live without her, period.

  He had to be with her, see her every morning and sleep next to her every night. His world wouldn’t turn unless she was in it. His duty might be to Jessica, and maybe he was supposed to pay for his mistake in getting her pregnant, but he loved Shelby more than duty, and he’d find another way to pay for his mistake.

  He took a deep breath and wrapped his arms tighter around Shelby. “Marry me,” he said.

  She didn’t answer for a very long time. Finally she spoke, and she sounded suspiciously close to tears. “Do you mean that?”

  “I’ve never meant anything more in my life.”

  She scooted around so she could see his face, and sure enough, tears welled in her eyes. Her voice was choked. “I thought you wanted to find out about Jessica, about Elizabeth. I thought everything depended on that.”

  “It did.” He framed her face in his big hands. Every time he looked at the bruise on her cheek and the cut on her lip, his insides twisted. “Until I almost lost you forever. I can’t lose you, Shelby.” He felt tears burning at the backs of his eyes, too. “I just can’t.”

  She swallowed. “I don’t want to lose you, either, Boone.”

  “I’m no good at fancy speeches.” His chest felt tight, full of emotions he didn’t know how to explain. “I wish I was. You deserve that. I only know I have to be with you, Shelby. There’s no other way.”

  “I don’t need fancy speeches.” She reached up and touched his cheek. “Just three little words.”

  He let out a long, shuddering breath. He knew those words. “I love you.” His voice almost broke as he said them. He’d almost lost the chance to tell her.

  “Those would be the words.” Her eyes glowed as she gazed up at him. “The only ones either of us will ever need.” She drew closer, her sweet breath warm on his face. “I love you,” she whispered.

  The joy that surged through him began to ease the cold chill that had surrounded his heart. He touched her mouth with the tip of his finger. “I want to kiss you, but I don’t want to hurt your mouth,” he murmured.

  “Kiss me,” she said, brushing her mouth against his, “and make it better.”

  He kissed her gently, but she responded with such heat that he nearly forgot to be careful. No telling what might have happened if Josh’s childish voice hadn’t interrupted them.

  “You’re kissing!” he said.

  Boone turned to look at Josh. “Is that okay with you?”

  Josh sat up and rubbed at his eyes. “I guess so, but you gots to get married now. Like Travis and Gwen. They kissed in front of all the peoples, and now, bam, they’re married.”

  Boone sighed and glanced at Shelby. “You heard him. I guess we have to.”

  Her eyes sparkled. “Well, if we have to, we have to.”

  Boone turned back to Josh. “How would you like that, if Shelby and I got married?”

  “Oh, I would,” Josh said sleepily, flopping back down.

  “Glad to hear it,” Boone said with a chuckle.

  Josh yawned. “And y’know what?”

  “What?”

  Josh snuggled into his pillow and closed his eyes. “Bob, he would like it, too.”

  Epilogue

  SEVEN ADULTS, a three-year-old boy and a five-month-old baby girl strained the resources of Doc Harrison’s waiting room, especially when none of them seemed inclined to stay still. Shelby decided to concentrate on making sure Josh behaved himself.

  “Maybe somebody should go outside and wait there until the doc is ready to see us.” Sebastian, who was holding baby Elizabeth, glared pointedly at Travis and Boone.

  “Not likely.” Travis put an arm around Gwen. “We’re all in this together, and nobody’s going to hear about this paternity test before anybody else.”

  Josh stopped running his truck over the floor and looked up. “What’s a ’ternity test?”

  “That’s the doctor’s test I told you about.” Shelby crouched down next to him. “To find out once and for all who’s Elizabeth’s father.”

  “My daddy’s in jail. He’s sick in the head.” Josh spoke the fact as if announcing the time of day before going back to his truck race.

  Shelby glanced up at Boone. He gazed down at her, offering silent support. They’d decided not to sugarcoat the truth about Mason in some attempt to spare Josh. Fortunately Josh had never formed a real bond with his biological father. Boone was quickly becoming the most important man in his life.

  Two weeks had passed since that traumatic night when Mason had broken into the ranch house. Some days Shelby felt impatient that everything hadn’t been finalized, but the wedding date was set and the custody hearing scheduled soon afterward. Following that, she and Boone would set the wheels in motion for adoption.

  It was just details, paperwork and red tape, she told herself. In all ways that mattered they were already a family. They’d even talked to Sebastian about buying Matty’s house and some acreage around it.

  Only the question of Elizabeth remained unanswered. With still no word from Jessica, the men had decided to take the step they’d been avoiding and settle the matter medically. The atmosphere in Doc Harrison’s waiting room was tense.

  “The point I’m trying to make,” Sebastian persisted, “is that all these bodies are making it too hot in here for Elizabeth.”

  “It’s how you’re holding her,” Travis said. “Lizzy prefers a looser grip. And you might try playing peekaboo with her or something. You’re such an old sobersides this morning, no wonder she’s fussy. Better yet, let me have her.”

  “No, I’ll take her, now.” Boone stepped toward Sebastian. “I’m the tallest, so I can hold her up high, where the air’s better. And cooler.”

  Luann Evans edged over toward Sebastian. “Heat rises,” she said. “So you’d better give that precious bundle to me. Grandmothers know a few things about tending to a fussy little girl, don’t we, sweetheart?”

  Sebastian stepped away from the crowd. “She’s fine where she is. Besides, it’s my turn. Everybody else has already had her.”

  “Yeah, but you’ve had her the longest,” Travis grumbled. “Fair is fair, right, Boone?”

  Matty rolled her eyes. “I have a watch with a second hand. We could time the baby rotation like a bronc-riding event if it would make you three cowboys happier.”

  “I’m a cowboy, too!” Josh said happily. “I gots a hat, and I gots boots.”

  “And they look great,” Shelby said.

  “Yep. I wanna go ride horsies.”

  “Sounds good to me, too,” Travis said. “I hate this waiting. What’s the doc doing in there so long with Nellie, giving her a hip replacement?”

  Gwen laid a hand on his arm. “You wouldn’t want him to rush his appointment with Nellie.”

  “Hell if I wouldn’t.” Travis gave her a rebellious stare. When she frowned at him, he grinned sheepishly. “Just this one time.”

  “I wouldn’t mind if he skipped the bedside manner this morning, myself,” Sebastian said. “I mean, I know she’s getting up in years, but—”

  The examining room doo
r opened and Nellie Coogan shuffled out. She paused to peer through her thick glasses at the crowd in the waiting room.

  Shelby stood and walked over to slip her hand inside Boone’s. The moment had come. Boone clutched her hand like a lifeline.

  “Hey, there, Miz Coogan,” Travis said, touching the brim of his hat. “I hope you’re in good health on this fine morning.”

  A chorus of greetings and good wishes followed as everyone else in the room remembered their manners.

  “Thank you.” Nellie continued to study them with obvious curiosity. Finally she nodded to herself. “I always wondered what they meant by those group health plans. This must be what those folks on the TV are talking about. How smart of you all.” Then she shuffled out the door.

  Nobody bothered to watch her leave as they turned toward the examining room door where a small, bearded man in a white coat stood quietly.

  The silence lengthened.

  Finally Sebastian spoke, his voice shaking. “You might as well spit it out, Doc. Which one of us is this baby’s father?”

  Doc Harrison cleared his throat. “I went over the results several times, because I wanted to make sure. The fact is, gentlemen…”

  “Aw, come on, Doc,” Travis said. “Don’t drag it out.”

  “Yeah,” Boone added. “Just say it. Which one?”

  The small doctor adjusted his glasses. “None of you.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-6118-5

  BOONE’S BOUNTY

  Copyright © 2000 by Vicki Lewis Thompson.

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