“Whose plan? Your father’s or God’s?” Cora asked, still giggling.
Roy shrugged and smirked playfully. “Maybe both?” Then his face turned serious. “I’m buying the Jones’ ranch.”
Cora’s eyes widened in pleasant surprise. “Oh my goodness! Roy, that’s great! So everything is official, then?”
Roy nodded. “Just about. I have an offer on my father’s land, and with that sale combined with the savings he left me, I’ll be able to close on the ranch by the end of the month.”
Cora grabbed Roy’s arm and squeezed it with excitement. “Praise God! I know how much you wanted this. Your dream of owning your own ranch is coming true!”
“It’s bittersweet, selling the land that I grew up on, but I know this is the right choice to secure my future,” Roy paused, and swallowing hard before looking into Cora’s eyes. “And maybe… our future?”
Cora’s heart began to race at the sound of those two simple words,our future. Her legs felt wobbly, and she was glad that she was sitting down. She searched his blue eyes for confirmation about what he was telling her.
“What are you saying, Roy?” Cora asked, her voice shaking in hopeful anticipation. Roy inhaled deeply, let out a slow breath, and then locked eyes with Cora. The look in them was vulnerable and hopeful, but resolute.
“I’m saying that it would be my honor to be your husband. To provide a home for you on the new ranch and to grow old raising a family with you. I want to marry you, Cora. But only if you’ll have me.”
Cora’s hands flew to her mouth in elation. She nodded, unable to speak, tears streaming down her face. Roy reached out with both of his hands and cupped the side of her face, wiping away the tears with his thumbs.
“Is that a yes?” he asked, raising his eyebrows and smiling broadly.
“Yes,” Cora whispered with a trembling voice, and the next thing she knew, Roy’s hand was cupping the tip of her chin, and he brushed his soft, warm lips against hers.
Cora felt lightheaded, and she was overcome with gratitude of God’s goodness. Just hours ago, she had sat in a puddle of tears and lifted her heart to God, laying aside all of her emotions and surrendering herself to His will. It was not until that moment of true, faithful surrender that everything began to fall into place and her burdens had been lifted. With a strengthened faith in God’s perfect plan, she leaned into the gentle kiss of her future husband.
Chapter Thirty
Before Roy left Cora’s house that evening, after she kissed him goodnight and sent his heart soaring as she went to bed, Roy prepared himself to oblige Sheriff Williams’ wishes and met him in the living room for a talk.
To say he was nervous would be an understatement. Before tonight, all of his interactions with the sheriff since he had been back in Lakewood had been tense at best and borderline hostile at worst, and he felt the sheriff had made it clear how he felt about him. Then there was the not-so-small issue that he had just proposed marriage to his daughter in the next room without securing his blessing. He worried that any favor he might have earned by defending Cora would soon be reversed once he came clean about their engagement.
But Roy reminded himself of what the sheriff told Cora before he left them alone at the table, that his prayers had brought him to the realization that Cora’s marriage should be her choice, so he hoped that grace would extend to Roy as well. Roy paused before pushing the double doors that separated the living room and the kitchen, bowing his head and whispering a silent prayer that God would bring peace between the two men.
When Roy entered the room, he found the sheriff sitting on one the chairs, one leg crossed over the other, his hand under his chin and a faraway look in his eyes. Roy almost thought that the sheriff didn’t realize he had entered the room and was about to clear his throat to announce himself when he spoke without looking at him.
“I hear a congratulations are in order.”
Roy stopped in his tracks, his brain slow to process what Sheriff Williams was referring to. He finally turned at looked at Roy.
“The walls and those doors separating these two rooms are thin, son,” he said, a small smile playing on his lips. “Please, take a seat.” He gestured to the chair across from him.
Roy took tentative steps toward the chair, wanting to trust the sheriff but also partly afraid he was walking into a trap. He sat down slowly, his body rigid with anxiety.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Roy said, and he realized his tempo was quicker than normal. “I should have gotten your blessing first, but everything happened so quickly. I want you to know that I have been praying about it, and—”
Sheriff Williams put a hand up to stop his nervous chatter, and Roy obeyed.
“When Cora first told me that she was going to Wheats Ridge to fetch you after your father’s death, I tried to stop her. Not just because I worried about her going alone to that town, but because I was still seeing you as that troublesome teenager who set off firecrackers in the town square, lit things on fire for the fun of it, and then took off just when it was time to be a man. I saw how much it hurt your father when you left, and that made me mad on his behalf for a long time.”
Roy hung his head in shame, nodding in acknowledgment of all of his wrongdoings. He wouldn’t deny that he had made Sheriff Williams’ job difficult back then, much like he had done for his own father.
“The man Cora brought home wasn’t that same reckless teenage kid,” Sheriff Williams continued. “But I was too bullheaded to acknowledge it, even when she tried to tell me. Even when it was staring me right in the face as I saw the work you did on that church. Those five years you spent on that ranch turned you into a man—a man who loves my little girl.”
“I do love her,” Roy said, looking directly into the sheriff’s eyes for the first time so he could see the sincerity. “Earlier, back at my house, you told Cora that I might leave her just like I left my father. And I need you to know that I would never—could never—do that. I’m ready to stand before God and vow to honor and protect her and never leave her side.”
“I believe you,” the sheriff said, and Roy could tell from the matched sincerity in his eyes that he did. “I shouldn’t have said what I said out there tonight, because even before tonight, even before you took a swing at Alfred in her defense, I knew. That day that I saw you together outside the church in Magnolia Grove, and then when I saw you together at the fair, I knew it was only a matter of time. And I guess that scared me. One day, you’ll know what I’m going through, when you hold a little girl of your own in your arms.”
The idea of having a family with Cora, of cradling a perfect gift from God and a product of their love, filled Roy with a joy beyond anything he had ever felt before. He tried to maintain stoicism during this conversation, but that image the sheriff had instilled caused his lips to turn up into a smile that he couldn’t stop. The smile wasn’t lost on Sheriff Williams.
