Scandal at the Cahill Saloon - By Carol Arens Page 0,55

along,” she chatted on.

While Leanna discussed the progress of her chicks, Cleve let his mind wander over the spread of land he and Leanna had just visited.

It wasn’t as harsh as the land he had farmed before. Quin’s gift was acre upon acre of rolling hills with fresh clear streams running through it. The turf was green and the sky so blue it hurt his eyes to look at it.

Earlier this morning they had decided where to build their house. They’d made love there, in the grass, with the sun warming their bare flesh, welcoming and blessing them.

Leanna had just told her mother she was coming home. Well, by damn, so was he.

A couple of months ago he had been a man with two things on his mind. Claim his sister’s boy, then get revenge on the monster who had ruined her.

Today he was a family man. He had a wife, a child and land. He ought to be as content as a toad in mud on a hot summer night. Just one thing stood between him and his future with Leanna.

Lies.

While Leanna spoke with her mother, sunshine glinted in her black hair. Curls tumbled down her back with bits of grass and dried leaves stuck in them, witness to their lovemaking.

She turned her pretty face to smile up at him, her eyes sparkling. Leanna Holden, his wife, had changed his life. He could never go back to being the man he was before. He didn’t want to.

Truth settled in his soul, as soft and certain as a feather drifting to the earth. He could try and deny it but all that would do is make him a bigger fool than he already was.

The day might come that Leanna found him out to be a liar; hell, it probably would. But between now and then he would not lie about this.

“Leanna.” He strode forward, then knelt beside her on the grass. “I have something to tell you and I want your Mama and Papa to hear it.”

Cleve cleared his throat. He looked up, nervous. Maybe dead people actually could hear him. “Mr. Cahill, Mrs. Cahill, I’m in love with your daughter.”

He looked away from the cloud he had focused on. Leanna stared at him, covering a gasp with both hands.

“I love you, Leanna.” He tugged her hands away from her mouth and kissed it quickly. “I only wish I’d told you sooner.”

“Some words never come too late.” She cupped his cheeks with gentle fingers and kissed him back. “I love you, too.”

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pressed against him so tight that he felt the patter of her heart, a heart that he would rather die than break.

“Cleve, I’m afraid to breathe I feel so lucky.”

“Go ahead, love, take a deep breath. I’ll always be here…I’ll always love you.”

He stood, lifting her with him.

Leanna glanced at the sky, following the changing shape of the cloud. “You were right all along, Mama.”

“I’m taking your daughter back to town, Mrs. Cahill,” he said. “But I’ll bring her home soon.”

“I think it’s all right for you to call her Mama now.”

“Forgive me for being dense as a board,” he crooned into Leanna’s blush-pink ear. “I was yours from the first time I saw you bleeding all over the back porch of the saloon. I was just too dim-witted to know it.”

Leanna sighed with contentment; every bone and muscle rejoiced. She strolled about the saloon barely feeling the floor under her feet.

Cleve loved her.

With her parents’ deaths and the family disintegrated by hateful words, there had been a time when she’d feared her life might be shattered beyond repair.

But Cleve loved her. Now she had everything she had ever dreamed of…and a tiny something more.

The breeze gusting through the open front door threatened to scatter winning and losing hands to the floor. She crossed the room to close it, smoothing the gathers of her skirt over her belly as she went.

With her hand on the doorknob, she watched leaves tumbling across the road. Rocking chairs on the front porch tipped back and forth with no one in them.

A shadow moved in the street, then a young woman, clearly from across the tracks, stepped into the lamplight. She dashed up the stairs, glancing backward over her shoulder.

“Miss Leanna, I need your help.” She hugged her arms across her middle, shivering in her skimpy gown.

“Please, come in.”

“Oh, no, I couldn’t.” She glanced behind her again. “I’d like to speak with you…in private. Can we