Meade glanced at the two men. “Which one?”
Libby poked him in the ribs. “Don’t play dense. I mean Sun Hawk, of course.
I know he had doubts about living on the ranch. Every time I get a letter from you, I expect you to tell me he’s decided he’d rather live on the reservation.”
“Oh, I think he got a little more than he bargained for when he agreed to try living here, but he’s adapting nicely. You heard for yourself earlier how well his English is coming along, and he and Skylar are able to visit his family fairly often. I actually think he likes it here.”
Like everyone else, Meade had been delighted when General Crook had used his considerable influence to get the Mescaleros transferred back to their own reservation. The citizens of New Mexico weren’t too happy about having the Apache tribe back, and some of Rancho Verde’s neighbors were still complaining because Consayka’s people had been permitted to come back to Verde where they belonged, but to Meade’s way of thinking, everything had worked out for the best.
Since Skylar was an Americanized citizen, more or less, Crook had been able to persuade the head of the Indian Bureau to allow Sun Hawk to live on Rancho Verde with the other Mescaleros. Meade was happy about that because it had made his wife happy.
“How do Rayna and Sun Hawk get along?” Libby asked him.
Meade chuckled. “They manage. Rayna hates it that he refuses to live in the house and prefers to camp among the Mescaleros, but she tolerates it because she doesn’t have any choice. You mark my words, though, before the year is out, she’ll have her brother-in-law sleeping in a bed.”
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Epilogue
[ e - r e a d s ]
“Oh, Meade,” Libby said with a sigh as she turned back toward the house.
“Life is a never-ending series of changes, isn’t it?”
“It is at Rancho Verde,” he commented dryly.
“What will you—”
The sound of a woman’s shrill cry cut her off, and Meade’s tanned face turned pale as a sheet. “Rayna!” he yelled as he began running toward the house. Libby hurried after him, and they heard another shriek and the sound of Lucas’s and Jenny’s high-pitched voices as they darted through the walled garden and into the arcade.
“Rayna, what’s wrong?” Meade called out urgently as he burst into the courtyard, and then stumbled to a halt. Rayna was standing in the courtyard blindfolded, her arms flailing wildly as she tried to find the giggling niece and nephew who were dancing around her just beyond her reach. His beautiful seven-months-pregnant wife was playing blindman’s buff!
“Where are they, Meade? Am I hot or cold?” she begged him to tell her as she spun around, lunged at Jenny, and came up with an armful of air.
“What the devil do you think you’re doing?” he asked, charging across the courtyard. He yanked the blindfold off her face and threw it to the ground.
Rayna sighed with exasperation and looked at Jenny and Lucas.
“Obviously your Uncle Meade’s education has been seriously lacking if he doesn’t know a game of blindman’s buff when he sees one. Shall we show him how it’s played?” She stooped to retrieve the blindfold, but it required Meade’s hand on her elbow to help her back up again. She smiled at him sweetly and offered him the strip of cloth. “Would you like to be the blind man for a while?”
Meade bit down on his tongue and reined in his temper before he finally answered, “No, thank you. Three children in the house are more than enough.” He looked at Jenny and Lucas. “Why don’t you two run out to the corral? I think your father and Sun Hawk are about ready to ride El Niño.”
“Yes, sir,” Lucas said gravely. Then he and Jenny were off and running.
Meade turned back to his wife. “Rayna, don’t you have even a single lick of sense? You could have fallen and hurt yourself or the baby.”
“Don’t be silly,” she scolded. “I had a little peephole in the blindfold that allowed me to see everything.”
“Oh, wonderful. My wife is not only reckless, she’s an unscrupulous cheat.”
Rayna batted her eyelashes at him and grinned. “Of course. How do you think I keep beating you so badly at poker? No one’s luck is that bad, darling.”
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Epilogue
[ e - r e a d s ]
Meade sighed heavily as he pulled her into his arms. Her swollen belly made it a little more of a stretch each day, but he couldn’t complain. “Good Lord, what am I going to do with you?”
She laced her arms around his neck and looked up at him coquettishly.
“The same thing you’ve always done. When you get the urge to strangle me, kiss me instead.”
He cocked one eyebrow at her. “I suppose you realize that means we’re going to have a very large family?” he asked, and then his lips closed over hers, silencing her laughter.
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About the Author
CONSTANCE BENNETT is the award winning, best-selling author of twenty contemporary and historical romances. A native of Missouri, she spent four years in Los Angeles performing live theatre and studying film and television acting before returning home to launch her writing career in 1985. Her Harlequin Superromances, PLAYING BY
THE RULES and THINKING OF YOU, were both
nominated by Romantic Times as Best Superromance in their respective years of publication, and PLAYING BY THE RULES went on to win a Romantic Times achievement award as best
Romantic Mystery of 1990. Two years later, Bennett received the first of her two prestigious Rita Award nominations from Romance Writers of America.
Her Berkley/Diamond historical, BLOSSOM, was nominated for a Rita in 1992, and in 1995 her Harlequin Superromance SINGLE... WITH CHILDREN was nominated as Best Contemporary
Category Romance. That book was also her first Waldenbooks bestseller.