Page 112 of Daybreak

“Some of my horses are there with Chris Jackson, my foreman. Maggie isn’t well. Morning sickness. We are having twins.”

Gunner beamed. “Congratulations, man! That’s wonderful.”

“Maggie told Pearl this morning. Likely you will be hearing all about it tonight.” And then he tipped his hat, ran back to the truck with his long hair flying, and drove away.

Gunner gave his contact info to a deputy. “I’ll email a written statement to the sheriff’s office by the end of the day,” he added, then got in his car and drove back to the Rose.

Dale Curry saw him enter and stood up, pale and shaky as he awaited the verdict.

“Crisis averted. Three thieves in custody. Mr. Wilson probably has a broken nose. Everyone else is okay, and the money is back in the bank.”

“Thank the lord!” Dale said. “What did you do?”

“Stopped them. You can go back to the bank now. The sheriff is on-site,” Gunner said and then looked at the table where he’d been sitting. “Did someone eat my breakfast?”

When Pearl heard his voice, she came flying out of the kitchen.

“Are you hurt again?”

Gunner grinned. “No, ma’am.”

“Then sit. I put your food in the warmer,” she said. By the time he sat, she was on her way out with his eggs and bacon and a basket of fresh biscuits hot from the oven. She put them down at his place and then hugged his neck. “I said a prayer,” she whispered, then patted the top of his head like he was six and went back into the kitchen.

Gunner grinned at the customers watching their moment. “I’m not in too much trouble. She brought hot biscuits.”

The customers laughed, and the temperament in the room went back to normal. As he was eating, it occurred to him that gossip might be spreading faster than the butter melting on his biscuit, and he sent Holly a text.

There was an attempted robbery at the bank. The thieves were caught. No one got hurt. I’m fine. Hope you’re having a good day.

He was just finishing his meal when he got a text back from Holly.

Last-rooster-standing-at-the-cockfight fine, or really, truly fine?

He grinned, turned the phone around and took a selfie, then sent it to her.

Might be some butter and jelly on my face, but no blood. I swear.

He got an LOL and a heart emoji. Between Pearl and Holly’s reactions, it was like getting a blessing from the pope.

What he didn’t know was that his knee-jerk reaction to danger, and the way he’d stepped up to the plate for a town without any law, had started people thinking—wondering—hoping—talking…that the Kingston who’d come home might be the answer to their prayers.

* * *

Reddick returned Gunner’s weapon a few weeks later, and one month spilled into another and another.

Gunner and Holly took all the stolen moments they could find to be together, until finally, the house was only days from completion, and they’d taken early residence inside. The contractor was still waiting for the chandelier that went over the dining table, and there were two big area rugs to be delivered. It was none too soon.

It was the first of October. The days were already cold, and the ever-present wind sharper than ever. The furniture from their storage unit in Dallas arrived the day before. The furniture was in place. The massive bed was in the primary bedroom, but they were digging through boxes, looking for linens and towels, and unpacking flatware and dishes, and pots and pans, and stocking the kitchen and the refrigerator and new freezer with food.

It was like playing house, furnishing rooms with the things they’d kept and adding the new pieces they’d picked out.

The wedding was still pending, and the big bed still had not been made. They couldn’t find the oversize sheets that fit it.

“I remember packing them. I remember loading up the U-Haul and unloading that box at the storage unit. They have to be here somewhere,” he muttered, then realized Holly was no longer in the room and went to look for her, but she was nowhere in the house.

“Holly! Where are you?” he shouted.

Then he heard her shouting from the garage. “Gunner! In here! I’m in here!” He walked in just in time to see her climbing up a stack of boxes that had been lined up against a wall, and he ran. “Holly! Stop! You’re gonna fall and break your pretty neck.”