Texas Woman

If there was no child there now, there never would be. She loved Cruz, but there was only the promise from him to guarantee that their love would last. Who knew what might pull them apart? Look what had already happened. Within days of his declaration, he was allowing this situation to come between them.

It was too dangerous to love Cruz. Three Oaks would always be there. It was the reasonable choice.

Cruz took one look at Sloan’s face when she returned to the bedroom and knew she had made up her mind. Still, he had to hear the words. “Will you come with me to Dolorosa?”

She met his gaze with a courage she drew from somewhere deep inside and said, “I can’t leave Three Oaks right now.”

She said nothing more as she finished dressing in planter’s garb, ready to do a man’s job with a woman’s hands and heart.

Cruz’s face was grim as he finished dressing. When he spoke his voice was hard, his blue eyes cold. “Adiós, Cebellina. I will make arrangements to visit Cisco. A young boy should be with his mother.”

Before she had time to protest, he was gone. She heard his booted step on the stairs, then the murmur of voices, before the front door to Three Oaks slammed shut. Closing her inside. Closing him out.

She ran after him but got no farther than the portal to her room before she stopped. Cruz was being totally unreasonable! Didn’t that arrogant Spaniard know better than to give her an ultimatum at a time like this? She didn’t even know whether Rip was going to live or die. And she wasn’t about to follow after him like a distressed puppy.

Her chin jutted obstinately as she left her room and headed down the stairs. She found Luke waiting for her at the bottom.

“Aren’t you going after him?”

“No.”

“I thought you were smarter than you’re acting. And more forgiving.”

Sloan snorted. “Forgiving? Who am I supposed to forgive?”

“Cruz.”

“For what?”

“For being Antonio’s brother.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sloan said.

“I’m talking about blaming Cruz for the fact his brother broke your heart. He isn’t going to betray you, Sloan. He isn’t going to die and leave you-”

“Stop it!”

“Three Oaks is going to be slim comfort on a cold night, Sloan. Texas is going to blossom like a flower in spring once it becomes a state. You can spend your life with a man who loves you, helping him grow the sweetest smelling, prettiest garden on earth, or you can spend it alone. What’s it to be?”

Sloan bit back her retort. If having Three Oaks was what she really wanted, why didn’t she feel happier right now? Why did she have the urge to go ru

“All right, Luke. Say I admit that you’re right. Say I agree that I need Cruz. That means I’ll be living at Dolorosa. Who’s going to take care of Three Oaks?”

Luke frowned. “You can work something out with-”

“You’re going to have to do it, Luke.”

“What?”

“You deserve it. I don’t need it, and it would make Rip as happy as a wolf at a lambing. Say you’ll do it.”

“I-”

“Hurry up! I want to go after Cruz, but I’m not leaving until I’m sure there’s someone here to take my place.”

Luke gri

Sloan grabbed Luke’s outstretched hand and pumped it twice before she turned and ran for the front door.

Cruz was coming out of the stable with his bayo when Sloan caught up to him. She ran full force into him and threw her arms around his neck.

“I love you. I’m going with you. You’re never getting rid of me,” she said between planting frantic kisses on his face. “When do we leave?”

Cruz claimed her mouth in a devastating kiss. When they finally came up for air, he found the presence of mind to ask, “What about Three Oaks?”

“Ask Luke. Three Oaks is his responsibility now.”

Cruz swung her in a circle, laughing aloud in relief. “I love you, Cebellina. I will do my best to make you happy.”

“Spending my life with you will make me happy. Watching our children grow will make me happy. Loving you will-”

He cut her off when his mouth captured hers. And from the smile that rose on her lips beneath his, there was no doubt she was the happiest woman in the Republic.

Epilogue

TEXAS

FEBRUARY 19, 1846

SLOAN STOOD WITH BAY AND CRICKET AND stared at the headstone that had just been erected beside Rip’s. It had seemed appropriate to place the second headstone here, beneath the sheltering branches of the majestic live oak that had taken root long before there was a Republic, and would be here long after Texas had achieved greatness as a state of the Union.

The strong one, the gentle one, and the rebel all bowed their heads in respectful acknowledgment of what death had taken and what it had left behind.

The sound of children’s laughter could be heard in the distance as the three women paid homage to their father by sharing this momentous occasion with him in the only way they could.

The three sisters weren’t left alone for long. Cruz joined Sloan and handed her the tiny child that moved restlessly in his arms. “I think Ana María is hungry.”

Sloan took her daughter and cradled her close to her breast. Cruz moved up behind her and slipped his arms around her to help support the child.

Long Quiet stepped up to Bay and circled her very pregnant body with his long arms. Meanwhile, Creed handed Cricket their sleeping daughter, Miranda, whom they had nicknamed Muffin, and slipped his arm around her slim waist, pulling her snug against him. Luke and Tomasita strolled over to join them, their fingers clasped and trailing occasionally across Tomasita’s slightly mounded abdomen, their son Rafael in tow.

“Whose idea was it to put up the second headstone?” Cruz asked.

“Mine,” Sloan admitted.

“But Bay found the marble,” Cricket said.

“And Cricket found the man to carve it,” Bay added.

“It’s beautiful, and a fitting tribute,” Creed said. “You should be proud of yourselves.”

The three sisters shared smiles of remembered times as they leaned back into the shelter of their husbands’ arms and read the messages they had left for posterity.

On Rip’s gravestone had been carved:

RIP STEWART

Beloved Father

And on the second marble stone:

THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS

1836-1845

LONG MAY SHE LIVE IN MEMORY

“Guess the Texas flag is coming down at Washington-on-the-Brazos about now,” Luke said, “and being replaced by the Stars and Stripes. President Anson Jones will be handing over power to the new governor, Pinckney Henderson, and Sam Houston and Tom Rusk will be on their way to Washington as Texas’s first two senators. Hard to believe it’s really happening.”

“It’s happening, all right,” Sloan murmured. “It’s just too bad Rip-”

Whipp’s gleeful shout, “Pick me up!” as he discovered where his father, Long Quiet, had disappeared to, startled Ana María, who began to cry with all the strength of a lusty six-week-old. Meanwhile, Cisco cheered in triumph as he discovered a bag of cherry sticks amid the several baskets of food, while Cricket’s three-year-old daughter Jesse trailed in his footsteps, babbling with excitement, her eyes wide with wonder at this unexpected delight.

Sloan laughed at the cacophony of children’s demands and said, “I guess that’s about all the peace and quiet we’re going to get today.”

Cricket agreed with a chuckle. “I just heard Jesse begging for a cherry stick. If I hope to get that child to eat anything wholesome at all on this picnic, I’d better intercept that candy.”