Saving Grace (#1 in the Red Valley Series)

Chapter 12

Cole eased Grace onto her side and leaned down to pull up the covers. That was when she really looked at him and noticed that he had lost weight. He lay back and she threw her leg over his and laid her head on his chest. "You've lost weight."

Cole chuckled. "Yeah, a little. Sam's not anywhere near the cook you are."

"You mean you didn't hire someone to replace me?"

Cole took her chin and gently lifted it so he could look her in the eye. "Darlin' nobody could ever replace you."

A small thrill ran through her body. Did that mean that he felt something for her other than just lust?"

"Marry me Grace."

Shock radiated through her body. "Why Cole? Why do you want to marry me?"

"Grace, you are going to have my baby, and I won't let any child of mine be born out of wedlock. He or she will have enough to deal with being part Indian, I won't add to that by letting it be a bastard too."

Hurt beyond belief she tilted her head back down. "Is that – the only reason you want me to marry you?"

He could hear it in her voice and it was then at that moment that he knew beyond a shadow of doubt. "No," Cole said softly. "That's not the only reason. I want you to marry me so we can take walks together, so we can sit in our rockers and watch the sun set, so I can look at your beauty every day and make love to you every night. But most of all, because I love you Grace. I think I fell in love with you the moment you walked out of that kitchen. It just took losing you to get my mind to understand what my heart felt all along."

Tears were in her eyes when she looked up again. "I love you too. But are you sure you want to marry me? You don't have to. I don't want you to feel like you have to marry me. I couldn't live like that; knowing that I had trapped you. You told me so many times that you didn't want any more children."

"Yes, I'm sure I want to marry you, and I'm positive that I love you, and we'll have ten more children if that's what you want. The thought of you being pregnant never crossed my mind; but it makes sense to me now, you throwing up that morning in Mintonville, then you not feeling well back at the ranch. If I had known, I would have done things so differently. You wouldn't have had to go through so much of your pregnancy alone. "He put his hand on her stomach again, loving the feel of his child moving inside of her. "Grace, why are you using my last name?"

"I – I wanted to give the baby your name. I hope you aren't angry with me."

"No, I'm not angry." He said, kissing the top of her head. "I'm glad really. At least you wanted my child to have my name."

"Cole, how did you know where to find me and why did you come looking for me now, after all these months?"

"Well, it seems that I'm not the only one looking for you. Two men came to town looking for Catherine Alford Weston. They had a picture of you. Andy saw it and knew that it was you, and came out to the Double C to tell me but he didn't know where you were. The next morning he came back out and told me where you had been living these past months."

Grace could feel the old panic start to rise as her heart began to pound. She knew the only people who would know to call her Catherine was Jeremiah or someone who worked for him. "Oh, my God! Cole, its Jeremiah, what am I going to do?"

"We are going to go home and I am going to keep you safe."

"NO! I have to leave and move to another town; maybe a big city."

"No Grace. We need to go home where we have friends there that can help us. The thing is I don't know if we need to go now or wait until the baby comes. How much longer do we have?"