A Promise Worth Remembering (Promises Collection) (7 page)

She stood, gingerly testing the stability of her aching ankle, and hoisted herself onto
Kissing Rock
. Raymond and the warden had vanished, but in the distance she could see her truck. “Copper needs vetting first.” She waved her hands in the direction of the preserve and then fiddled with a hair strand that wouldn’t stay put. “And that could take hours, if I can even reach the large exotic animal vet.”

He reached for her hands and held them quiet.

Funny, she hadn’t noticed them shaking.

He locked his steady gaze on hers, the way he had so long ago, and leaned in close enough to feel the whisper of his breath on her cheek. “I know you’re scared of the future. I am, too. But we’ll face those obstacles together.”

Obstacles…

She blinked up at him. “I need to get out of my own way.”

Tucker leaned his forehead against hers. “Let me walk beside you.”

Together…

From all the years of wanting, a deep hunger grew from her desire to hear him repeat his intentions. “There’ll always be something that keeps interrupting us.”

“Bailey, that’s life.”

She glanced at Copper, through no fault of his had escaped. He licked water off his paws. But still required stitches. “What about the vet?”

“Your odds of acquiring a readily available vet in the field of exotic animals just improved.” He raised her hands to his lips, but a smirk sat there, too.

“Why, you know someone I don’t?”

He spoke into her hands and stopped every other word to kiss each of her callused fingertips. “I couldn’t make your dreams of staying here on the preserve a reality unless I carried my weight. I figured you could use another specialty vet out here in the sticks.”

Near melting inside, she couldn’t keep her jaw from falling open. Oh, God. She’d been so wrong about Tucker wanting to harm Copper. Her uncle had been so wrong. Not every Pierce is cruel or untrustworthy. “You know, being a vet isn’t enough to make up for your complete absence, but you’re a good man, Tucker. A very good man.”

He brushed his lips against hers. “I’ll make it up to you. Let’s say we return here tonight?”

She leaned back and blinked in rapid succession, as if in doing so would fan the heat that raced over her body in heady waves. Only she wanted more than one night. She swiped a hand down his face and cupped his cheek, all the while gazing into dark blue eyes.

“That didn’t come out right… How about we come here
every
night for the rest of our lives? I’m yours, Bailey. I’ve always been yours. And I love you so much. I’m here—fulfilling my promise to make your dreams come true. What do you say? Will you join me in forever?” He pressed his cheek against her palm. With his other hand, he cupped the back of her head and drew her near. “Marry me?”

Copper sat and licked Tucker’s arm and then hers.

With a giggle, she nodded like a rattlesnake’s tail. “Yes-s-s.”

Lifting her arms, she clasped her hands around his neck and let him fully inside her circle. His kiss mended her broken heart and diminished her physical pain with each delicious swirl of their union. Her mind filled with images of a princess wedding, of children, and of Copper, king of the mountain.

Home…

He pulled back. “Did you hear that?”

She had. They were finally home. “Tucker Pierce, I’m going to love you forever.”

Leaning in, he kissed her with fervor.

With that realization they both had found home in each other’s arms, she took her place next to a man she could trust. A man whose promise of a future together was worth remembering.

****

Two years had passed since Bailey wed Tucker on the mountain peak via helicopter. She sidled up to him as they stood on the newly constructed foot-bridge that arched over the Cosumnes River. Because of Tucker’s father’s connection to public planning and other governmental agencies, the bridge that connected both properties had been built ahead of schedule. Strategically, they’d placed the bridge’s abutment close enough, but downstream of
Kissing Rock
, to allow them to gaze at their special place from the bridge. But not so close as to disturb the sacred Miwok site. At the bridge’s opening ceremony, Tucker’s father had cut the ribbon—to witness the feud’s end and also bless her and Tucker’s union—just prior to his death.

Tucker lowered the binoculars and reached for their daughter, Jessie, who squealed with delight whenever her father held her. Tucker insisted on giving his first born the name of a particular honorable man. He pointed in the general direction of the mountain, where Copper had led his pride. “About two o’clock. Near the crest.”

A thrumming excitement filled her. Bailey raised the binoculars and adjusted the lens until Copper came into focus. Lounging with two females, Copper’s stripes blended into theirs, making one giant kitty pile. “He looks so content.”

“As happy as we are.”

She lowered the binoculars and glanced at the flat granite slab where she’d given her heart to Tucker so long ago. Strangely, a new etching of another petroglyph couple made her shiver as if tiny moths blanketed her arms. “Did you scribble those new stick figures into
Kissing Rock
?”

“I meant to ask you the same thing.”

“Mmm…”

“What? You haven’t learned to trust my word or the power of the
Rock
to reverse a river?”

She still wasn’t convinced the mystical rock had any true powers to change the current
’s direction. Teamwork, she argued had pulled them all from the river that day.

However, the petroglyphs? She supposed teenagers floating down the waterway could have inscribed the markings. Or a winter’s storm eroded the embankment to expose more of the ancient etchings.

Or something else altogether. A new love forged in the promise of
Kissing Rock
.

He pulled her up to stand on the flat slab and rolled his brows. He leaned in to deliver the perfect kiss, Jessie chanting
mama, dada
. “Does it really matter who saved who as long as we found each other again?”

She sighed, her way of agreeing who had saved who didn’t matter. As she thought of adding another addition to their happy family, she kissed Jessie’s cheek and smiled at her husband.

Tucker dropped his hand and rubbed her tummy, pumping his brows. “We could come back later tonight with a blanket?”

Jesse’s mother adored babysitting little Jessie as Jesse had been her only child. And Jessie adored her only grandparent. Once united, the two were practically inseparable. “I’d like that very much.”

Tucker wrapped her with his free arm as they overlooked the lazy river, sparrows creating nature’s melody and cottonwoods imbuing the sweet air with confetti balls in celebration of the newly erected combination
Tiger Sanctuary - No Hunting
signs—less threatening—that marked each side of the river
.

Over the past two years, she’d given up control of so many things and loved deeper than she’d known possible. The preserve had quadrupled in size like Tucker promised. With the photography contracts they’d received, a hobby of Tucker’s, and his family money obtained by mining gold inside Copper Mountain years before, she no longer relied on grants to support the tigers’ care and safety with round-the-clock security.

Free, she decided, they all had been provided with a safe haven. And perhaps with the gentle powers of
Kissing Rock
, where lovers’ dreams do come true, she’d see her family—human and feline—thrive.

She fingered the necklace pendant, the
smooth, flat surface, Tucker had gifted her the day he’d made his promise to make her dream of raising a family on Copper Mountain come true. The howlite stone signified new beginnings…and more.

Pierce, the name she’d tacked onto hers, meant
rock
. Tucker was her rock. He’d always been and would always be just like
Kissing Rock
would exist for the next millennium. The past can’t be forgotten. Like each droplet of the Cosumnes worked to change the river’s course, time had worked her magic to mold Bailey’s future. She couldn’t control time or mystical powers or fate or stop her heart’s desire.

Forget cynicism.

A smile bloomed.

She finally had hope.

The End

A Promise Worth Keeping

Clayton has a real mess on his hands. Not only have garden vandals threatened the Remy Estate's Valentine's Day celebration, but Clayton’s girlfriend Sarah has proposed despite knowing he doesn't believe in lasting love.

By hunkering down in the garden all night, Clayton hopes to solve one of his problems and catch the vandals in the act. Instead, will Clayton finally face his fears and become a man worth loving?

“[A] wonderful short story! Cyndi Faria crafted a lovely romance that'll melt your heart…”

To read
A Promise Worth Keeping
(#1 in the Promises Collection)—A five-star No. 1 Free Kindle and bestselling short romance—click on the title above or
here
.

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Cyndi Faria is an engineer turned romance writer whose craving for structure is satisfied by plotting emotional and cozy paranormal romance stories about cursed spirits, lost souls, harbingers, and even a haunted coastal town. If you love a tale with courageous heroes and heroines, where their unconditional love for each other gives them strength to defeat their inner demons, Cyndi Faria invites you to enter the pages of her
stories and find happily-ever-after.