“He couldn’t stand against that, not even with the best of reasons or noblest of motives. Because he loved her too.”
Cody fell silent, still looking into the fire.
“Thor,” Brooke murmured. “And Pepper.”
He nodded slightly. “Not too long ago, he and I were talking. It was one of those naked moments in life that come all too rarely even between close friends. He was talking about how Pepper had changed his life, his entire way of thinking. And there was…wonder in his voice. He said that it had taken him a long time to understand—to really understand. That the fear of losing what it had taken him so long to find had haunted him. But that he had slowly seen the truth, slowly understood what Pepper had known instinctively from the beginning.”
“What was it?” Brooke asked quietly.
“That love doesn’t weaken as it spreads.” Cody spoke slowly, obviously reaching for words. “Doesn’t lessen. And that those who love…boldly actually stand to lose less than those who hoard their love. Because the more you love, the less fate can hurt you. Loving freely and willingly isn’t an invitation to loss; it’s a protection against it.”
Cody turned suddenly to gaze at her, his golden eyes very sure. “My darling love—don’t you see? Love is as much a shield as a blanket; you carry it in your heart for warmth and protection. It isn’t something you can ever lose, because it’ll be with you all the days of your life.”
Brooke fumbled for words. “But…people can be lost. They get—hit by buses and die in plane crashes and have heart attacks. And you can never be sure because there are no guarantees, no certainties. There are—possible monsters lurking around every corner….”
“And happily-ever-after should be a promise? Is that what you want, my love? A guarantee?”
“I just can’t bear to lose anymore,” she whispered.
Cody lifted a hand to touch her cheek softly. “In the fairy tales happily-ever-after ends the story,” he reminded gently. “There is no more. No highs or lows. No loose ends dangling.” He smiled at her. “But in real life, happily-ever-after is just the beginning. It’s where life starts. Oh, there might be monsters around this or that corner, but those monsters are kind of like your dragons, love. Once you face them and fight them, you usually discover that they weren’t very fierce after all.”
“And if they are?” She looked at him wistfully. “If they’re too strong to fight and won’t go away? If they—take something? Someone?”
“Then we go on,” Cody said quietly. “Because we’re meant to live, just like those wolves. And while we live, we do so the best way we can.”
“My head understands that,” Brooke told him. “But my heart—Cody, I know that I should be able to ignore those possible monsters. Why look for trouble? But I’m afraid. Not so afraid now as I was once; I know that I’ll never lose what you’ve given me. I—I want you to understand that any reservations I have won’t be because of you. I think that, like Thor, it’s going to take me a while to fully understand.”
She took a deep breath, only beginning to understand, only beginning to open up and give of herself completely. “There are parts of me no one’s seen but you, and that doesn’t frighten me anymore. I love you, Cody. And I’m willing to risk all the possible monsters lurking around corners.”
His hands framed her face warmly, his golden eyes bright and full. “My darling love. Just as soon as we can dig our way out of this valley of yours, I’m taking you to church.”
Brooke laughed shakily. “Was that a proposal?”
“That, my love, was a flat declaration of intent. I’m going to marry you, lady. In a double-ring ceremony with music and flowers. We can throw out the word obey if you like, but I want this union of ours tied up neatly with ribbons and binding wherever possible.”
“Mmm.” Brooke linked her fingers together at the back of his neck, smiling at him. “So masterful. Well, I suppose I’ll have to go along with this caveman display—if only to save wear-and-tear on your ego.”
“I’ll get you for that.”
“You certainly will.”
“Cody?”
“Hmm?”
“What’s your apartment like?”
“It needs a woman’s touch,” he said judiciously after a moment’s thought.
Brooke snuggled a bit closer to him in the comfortable bed, giggling. “Now I know why you—proposed.”
“That’s a slur on my character, woman.”
“Probably the truth though.”
“No such thing. I merely answered your question.”
Suddenly serious she murmured, “I don’t know…if I’ll be able to cope with being around a lot of people again, darling.”
He hugged her hard. “You’ll cope, my love. We’ll work it out so it won’t be rough on you.”
“How?” she asked wryly.
Cody chuckled. “Somehow. Not that I think you’ll have any trouble. You’re stronger than you know.” He yawned hugely, adding comfortably, “We’ll work something out.”
Wonderingly she murmured, “Green eyes and psychic abilities.”
“Hmm?”
“It really doesn’t bother you, does it?”
“What?”
“My peculiar abilities.”
“Which peculiar abilities?”
“Very funny. The psychic ones.”
“Oh. That.”
“Yes—that!”
“My darling love,” Cody said politely, “please remember that I’ve fought dragons for you. My magic sword may be a bit dented, but it remains intact. Psychic abilities are nothing.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“I’m glad.”
“Besides, it may come in handy.”
“Ah? How?”
“We’ll play bridge with Thor and Pepper, and won’t even need signals.”
She giggled. “That’s cheating.”
“So? Pepper cheats.”
“At bridge?”
“At anything. The lady’s ruthless.”
“Didn’t sound like she cheated in getting Thor.”
“Yes, she did. I have it on the best authority that she openly and innocently declared her intentions of chasing him and, in so doing, knocked the poor guy completely off his guard.”
“Oh? On whose authority?”
“Thor’s.”
Brooke giggled.
“Original approach, huh?” Cody observed thoughtfully.
“I’ll say.”
“And speaking of the new parents, I suppose we’d better call them tomorrow. Invite them to the wedding.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Are we going to throw out obey?”
“Is that worrying you?”
“Not at all. I’m above such things.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I suppose we could leave it in. Traditional vows, and all that.”
“Cody.”
“Well, you need somebody to take care of you. And if you promise to obey, at least I’ve got a chance to do that.”
“Noble reasoning?”
“Of course.”
“Mmm. Well, I’ll promise to obey within reason.”
“I don’t think that’s the way it was written.”
“I’m meeting you halfway on this; don’t expect more.”
“Uh…right. You’ll love, honor, and obey within reason.”
“It does sound strange when you put it like that.”
“I hoped you’d notice.”
“Nevertheless, I’m marrying you because I love you, not because I need a keeper.”
“Husband,” Cody told her, “originally meant ‘caretaker.’”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Reasonably.”
“I’ll look it up tomorrow.”
“D’you doubt my word?”
“Just your motives.”
“That hurt.”
“Sorry.”
“And after all my patience too.”
/>
“That’s what worries me.”
“What?”
“Your patience. It’s bound to have worn thin by now. For all I know you’re ripe for revenge.”
“Ha-ha.”
“Well.”
“My darling love, I solemnly promise never to take advantage of your promise to obey. How’s that?”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Damn.”
Brooke yawned. “We’ll argue about it later.”
“I never argue,” Cody protested, offended. “I reason.”
“Then we’ll reason later.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Cody?”
“Hmm?”
“Can we have a cat?”
“We’ll have a panther if you like.”
“The indulgent husband.”
“Always.”
“I suppose I should make the best deal I can now, while you’re still the happy bridegroom-to-be?”
“Your chances for stacking the deck in your favor will never be better.”
“I’ll make up a list of demands.”
“You do that.”
“Will they be honored?”
“Within reason.”
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist that.”
“Say good night, my love. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.”
“How so?”
“Tomorrow we start digging out.”
“So soon?”
“You betcha. We’re heading for the altar, obey or no obey.”
“My darling Cody—if it means so much to you, I’ll promise to obey. I’d hate for you to ruin your track record by losing patience with me.”
“I’d never—”
“Good night, darling.”
“Pepper? Pepper!” Cody shook his head slightly and shot Brooke a laugh-filled grin. “She’s dropped the phone. I heard a panicked yell from Thor just a minute before. D’you suppose he’ll ever get the hang of being a father?”
Brooke started laughing. “I don’t know, but Pepper may have to hire a nurse for the babies and spend her time soothing her husband!”
“Pepper? Oh—you’re back. What happened?”
He listened for a moment, his grin widening, then lifted an eyebrow at Brooke. “One of the twins got the hiccups.”
“And Thor panicked?”
Cody listened a bit longer, then burst out laughing. To Brooke he explained, “Pepper says he’s throwing back straight whiskey and muttering something about hostages.”
“Poor man.”
“Listen, Pepper, we just—Right. A couple of weeks probably. Now, don’t start arranging a—Pepper? Pepper!”
He hung up the phone and turned to Brooke, shaking his head. “She hung up. Her excuse was feeding time, but I know her. The woman’s ruthless. She’s probably on the phone now booking Saint Peter’s Cathedral for the wedding.”
“Was she surprised?” Brooke had spoken only briefly to Pepper, allowing Cody to break the news.
“No,” he said wryly. He pulled her to her feet, wrapping his arms around her. “My darling love, Pepper had this planned from the beginning. I suspected as much when I came up here, but once I’d met you, I didn’t give a damn whose the original idea was.”
“Mmm.” Brooke reached up suddenly, pulling his head down and kissing him very tenderly.
Cody smiled at her. “Well, what’d I do to deserve that?”
“Oh…nothing.” Brooke smiled slowly. “I just decided it was time to turn my dragon into my prince.”
“My Brooke…”
“Cody? Uh…I thought we were going to start digging out?”
“Later.”
TEN
“YOU KNOW,” CODY said musingly, “I think Thor’s finally gotten the hang of being a daddy.”
They were driving south along the Maine coastline, heading for their apartment-home in Virginia. It was a fairly long trip by car, but both Brooke and Cody enjoyed the drive; they had made it several times during the past two years.
Sitting close beside her husband in the powerfully purring Mercedes, Brooke laughed. “You noticed that too? I think I realized it when Jenna fell down and skinned her knee, and instead of calling an ambulance, Thor just put a Band-Aid on it and told her to watch where she was going.”
Cody chuckled softly. “Quite a change, isn’t it? But he’s had two years with the twins; it’s high time he realized that they aren’t made of glass. One hour with the indestructible Master Jamie should prove that to anyone; I fished him out of the lake twice and rescued two ducks and one frog from his inquisitive little fingers. Thor threatened to put a leash on him.”
“You men came up with the idea of the picnic,” Brooke reminded dryly. “And if you hadn’t mentioned the lake, Jamie wouldn’t have demanded to see the ducks.”
“Mmm.” After a moment Cody said with deceptive casualness, “Pepper was certainly glowing.”
“She always does,” Brooke murmured offhandedly.
Cody looked at his wife, opened his mouth to say something, then apparently thought better of it. Brooke watched him for a while, smiling, then relented.
“Yes,” she said, as if Cody had asked a question.
He grinned. “Really? Thor doesn’t know yet, I take it?”
“No. Pepper just found out; the doctor called with the test results while we were packing the picnic basket, as a matter of fact. She’s planning to tell him tonight.”
“Wonder how he’ll take it this time,” Cody mused.
“I don’t know, but I’d love to be a fly on the wall.”
“How does Pepper think he’ll take it?”
Brooke giggled suddenly. “Well, she told me quite cheerfully that he’d go off the deep end, especially since it’ll be a cesarean delivery. Apparently that was what nearly flattened him when the twins were born; Pepper hadn’t warned him because she didn’t want him to worry.”
“Poor Thor,” Cody murmured.
“He’ll survive,” Brooke told her husband, resting her head on his shoulder with a smile. Now? she wondered, then decided not. He was driving a car, after all. She was reasonably sure that Cody would be delighted by her news and not go off the deep end. Reasonably sure. They both wanted children, although they’d been in no hurry about it.
Still, she had a suspicion that Cody, amused though he was by his friend Thor’s bemused fatherhood, would be a bit less casual about his own offspring. He probably wouldn’t go into a tailspin over each tear from an infant eye, but she considered it an ironclad certainty that any child of theirs would have to be guarded against being spoiled to death by his or her father.
The soft music playing on the car’s radio was the only sound to break the silence between them—a companionable silence. Dreamily Brooke allowed her mind to wander back over the two years of happiness that had more than made up for the pain and bitterness that had gone before.
They had kept the lodge in Montana, dividing the year fairly equally between it and the apartment in Virginia. It might, perhaps, have seemed curious to some people that Brooke and Cody could enjoy going off to spend as much as six months at a time way out in the back of beyond with only each other for company; it didn’t seem so to them.
Cody had decided to stop traveling, becoming instead a free-lance consultant with a partner and a fixed office in Washington, D.C. And that, too, probably seemed curious to outsiders, because his partner in the business was, like Cody, a man who preferred to work only several months a year. So the two men divided equal time at the office, giving each as much as six months away from it.
It had worked out beautifully for Brooke and Cody. She enjoyed the contact with other people she met through Cody’s work, now finding herself relaxed and casual even around strangers. And the time spent together at the lodge had strengthened the bond between her and Cody, giving them the chance to know each other with a thoroughness rarely possible for other couples in the hectic pace of modern life.
They’d
been so lucky, she thought, to find each other. And lucky to have been snowed in at the lodge all during those first weeks because it had drawn them closer and given them the time they’d needed to find each other.
So lucky…
Cody realized that she’d fallen asleep, her head resting familiarly on his shoulder. He shifted position only slightly, drawing her a bit closer and making sure that she was comfortable. They’d had to start for home early this morning because he had a business appointment tomorrow, and he wondered anxiously if the poker game last night, lasting well into the morning hours because he and Thor had been struggling against Brooke’s psychic abilities and Pepper’s clear cheating, had tired her too much.
He delighted in pampering her, in taking care of her. Brooke was a strong woman; he didn’t often get the chance to baby her openly. There had been a bout with the flu last winter; she’d laughed at him for his anxious concern, but he could remember her bemused surprise at being taken care of by him.
That she could still be surprised by that told Cody her scars were still present, and he wanted to wrap her in his love until the warmth of it wiped out the past.
As for himself, Cody, too, felt surprise. Whenever his gaze fell on her, whenever her green eyes met his, whenever she touched him, he felt the delighted surprise that she loved him. That feeling had never dimmed, never lessened. It was something he never wanted to lose. When they were old and gray, he knew instinctively that he would still look at her with surprise, the surprise of a man who’d stumbled on a pearl far, far beyond price and been given the inestimable right of calling it his.
God, how he loved her!
Sunning himself in the bright warmth of that feeling, Cody rubbed his chin gently against his sleeping wife’s forehead, heading for home.
Brooke enjoyed her dream visits with the dragon, even though she was aware that it was just her own mind finding a way to solve problems and hold discussions with itself. The dreams were by no means every-night occurrences; in two years worth of nights, she could count the dreams on her fingers.
So they were rare enough still to hold enchantment, and she looked forward to them. But it seemed that she’d outgrown her need for the dragon’s counsel; he told her so himself.