Texas fury (75 page)

"No one ever gets it all, Riley," Ivy said softly. "If you were down there, if you hadn't come up here, you'd be dead. It's only a house, Riley. Just bricks and stone and concrete. You can build another one. I'll help you. Didn't you ever, maybe for just a minute, think all this was unreal? I mean what you had, what you worked for?"

"Every waking hour of my life since coming to Texas," Riley said quietly. "I was never sure in my own mind that I could cut it, that I belonged, was one of them. Until the day the family turned the entire ball of wax over to me. At that moment I truly belonged. I finally felt worthy of being one of them ."

"Riley, this doesn't change anything. You're still who you are. You're just homeless for the moment. If you want, you can sleep on my couch, or you can stay in your grandmother's studio. It's still standing. She lived there for years with Sawyer. If she could do it, so can you."

"Sunbridge was part of it, Ivy. It was so important to me. My great-grandfather built it with his bare hands. My grandfather grew up here, and so did my father. It was their home all their lives, and it's gone now. Wiped away as though it were nothing. Oh God, Ivy, I want it backl"

Ivy wanted to tell him how much she loved him. She wanted to do all the things woman has done for man since the beginning of time. Instead she squared her shoulders. "You either pull up your socks and get moving or you stay here and feel sorry for yourself. What's it going to be, Riley?" Her voice was stern, but not unkind.

He still had his arms about her. Ivy was real, Ivy was flesh

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and blood. Ivy ... He would never let Ivy go. He knew he could live without Sunbridge, but he couldn't live without Ivy. The realization stunned him.

They looked at one another; an earth tremor shifted them aside. Riley turned to look at his grandfather's grave. Ivy heard him whisper. "Don't be alarmed; I'll build it again, brick by brick, just the way you did. With one exception. I'll use my bare hands to carve out a life for myself and Ivy, for us, not just me. I won't be back up here till it's finished."

Arm in arm they walked down the hill from the cemetery. They walked through the rubble with leaden feet.

"Ivy, did you have Cathy Stamps for a teacher in junior high?"

"Uh huh. Are you thinking about that poem she makes everyone learn?

"It seems like a long road ahead

The road to the right, And you're tired at the start

Did you say your prayers last night?"

Riley picked up the words and continued.

"Did you kneel down and pray

and keep your hands folded tight? Did you look up to heaven for aid— Did you say your prayers last night?"

They finished the last verse together.

"Our prayers are always answered,

We'll be shown the light. So let us bow our heads and kneel And say our prayers again tonight."

"Mrs. Stamps always said if you hit rock bottom, say the poem and your spirit will be lifted," Riley said quietly. "That was the hardest poem I ever had to learn, but I learned it. I'm amazed that I even remember it."

"Mrs. Stamps told my class that every year some of her students come back to thank her for the poem," Ivy said softly.

The tears glistened on Riley's cheeks. Suddenly he

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dropped Ivy's hand. He started to run, calling over his shoulder for Ivy to follow him.

"What is it, Riley? What's wrong? What are you looking for? Tell me and I'll help you look. I'll help you, Riley, but I have to know what to look for," Ivy cried desperately.

"The hat rack! I have to find it! I don't care about anything else. Please, Ivy, help me find it."

They walked every inch of land surrounding the foundation of Sunbridge. Twice Riley bent down to pick up something. The first time it was his great-grandfather's spittoon, and the second time it was a Humpty-Dumpty doll that had been in the nursery. His Aunt Maggie's doll at the age of four. He cradled it against his chest. Sometime soon he'd send it on to her. They picked through the rubble, the devastation, the bits and pieces that remained of Riley's inheritance. It was Ivy who finally found the hat rack out near the main road, off the long driveway. "I found it!" she shouted. She ran back, the simple pegged rack held out in offering. She knew that in all her lifetime she would never again see such pure, naked joy in the face of the man she loved with all her heart.

"It's just made out of oak and shellacked. My great-grandfather carved it by hand. See, there are four pegs. One for his Stetson, one for my grandfather Moss, one for my father, and one for me. I always hang my baseball cap on it."

"Do you think I could hang my Easter bonnet on it?" Ivy grinned. "Guess our trip to New York is off."

"For now. And yes, you can hang your Easter bonnet on it."

"Riley Coleman, is that a proposal?" Ivy squealed in mock delight.

"I fell right into that one." He turned serious. "Will you marry me, Ivy?"

"You bet! Jeez, I thought you were never going to ask me. That Easter bonnet thing was a nice touch, don't you think?"

"Hell yes. Just remember when we're old and gray and the kids ask how I proposed, that you tell the truth. Do you know how to lay bricks?"

"No. I'm willing to learn. Do you know how?"

"Nope. There's a little more to bricklaying than stacking them on top of each other."

"Are we getting married before or after we build this here house?" Ivy questioned. "I don't think it's going to go real quick, us being novices and all."

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"We'll get married just as soon as you're ready. We'll live in the studio. I wonder if this was written in the stars."

"Not on your life! I think God had something to do with it. I used to pray every night that you would fall in love with me."

Riley threw back his head and laughed. "I used to pray to God to send me that special person I was meant to share my life with. You're it, from all indications."

"Just you and me." Ivy smiled warmly as she linked her arm with Riley's.

Riley's voice was gruff and husky. "By the way, do you think you're up to being one of us?"

"Would you marry me if I wasn't? Up to being a Coleman, I mean."

"Hell yes. We're not special; I just learned that about an hour ago."

The sun beamed down on them, golden and bright, embracing them in its warmth.

They walked away from the destruction that was once Sun-bridge. Tomorrow would be soon enough to begin building their life and home.

Their own Sunbridge.

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About the Author

Fern Michaels is the bestselling author of the Texas quartet of sizzling contemporary novels: Texas Rich, Texas Heat, Texas Fury, and Texas Sunrise. She is also the author of For All Their Lives, Seasons of Her Life, and To Have and to Hold.

Fern Michaels lives in South Carolina. She has five grown children, two grandchildren, four dogs, and a passionate interest in historic houses. She is an animal rights activist.

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