Page 71 of Rawhide and Ransom

“Yep.” He claimed her mouth again, loving the way she always melted into his kisses. When he finally let her up for air, he muttered, “I’m done waiting. Can we get married now?”

“Now?” Her voice adopted an anxious squeak. “How soon are we talking about?”

“As soon as possible.” He couldn’t wait to be married to her, which reminded him of the wooden box sitting inside the cabin. “Before I forget, Running Bear brought us a wedding gift a few minutes before you got home. You only missed him by a minute, maybe less.”

“A gift?” She sounded as excited as a kid on Christmas morning.

“Whatever it is, it’s inside that carved wooden box that had you so curious.”

“Oh, my goodness!” She reached for his hands, tugging him backward toward the entrance of the cabin. “Let’s go find out what’s in it.”

The glint of the setting sun caught the oval diamond on her engagement ring, making it flash like lightning. His mother’s ring looked good on her. Really good.

Once they were inside the cabin, she waved at the mysterious box. “I’m almost afraid to touch it.”

“You should be.” He wiggled his eyebrows playfully at her. “According to Running Bear, whatever is inside is more dangerous than a snake.”

“Ooo!” She clapped her hands in anticipation. “The plot thickens, as they like to say in all the old detective movies.”

He lifted the box and carried it to the living room. “Where would you like to do the honors?”

“On the sofa.” She took a seat and patted the cushion beside her.

He sat and reached for the lid. “Are you ready?”

“Not at all.” She chuckled. “But maybe we should just get it over with.”

He lifted the lid, and they stared down at the sheaf of papers inside. “No way!”

It was a stack of U.S. Savings Bonds. He picked up the first few to examine them more closely. One was over twenty years old. Another one was nearly thirty years old. They were in varying increments. Most of them, however, as he thumbed through them were for $10,000. Since there were dozens of them, he estimated that they were looking at a few hundred thousand dollars.

“What a generous wedding gift!” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“No kidding!” Which in no way explained Running Bear’s warning. “How is this worse than a snake?” He no longer had any questions about where Running Bear had gotten the money to build the park and gardens behind the cabin.

“It only has thepotentialto be bad, depending on what we do with it,” she reminded. “As the old saying goes,the love of money is the root of all evil.”

“Makes sense.” Running Bear’s gift wasn’t just generous. It was insanely generous. He hoped the fella could afford to give that much money away, not that he ever spent much money on anything for himself. His Harley motorcycle was his one indulgence.

Annalee’s forehead wrinkled with the same questions. “I wonder where he got so much money.”

“With him, there’s no telling.” It probably wouldn’t do any good to ask, either. Running Bear was an open book about so many things, but there were a few things he never talked about. His personal wealth was one of those things, probably because so many members of their tribe lived in poverty. He certainly didn’t live like he was wealthy, always spending more on others than he spent on himself. There was an important lesson embedded in his actions that Hawk took to heart.

He would be praying for wisdom to be the councilman his tribe deserved as well as the husband that Annalee deserved.

“Can you hold off another week or two?” she asked softly.

He raised his eyebrows at her.

“To get married?” she explained hastily.

“One week sounds a lot better than two,” he countered.

“Okay,” she agreed. “One week.”

Epilogue

One week later

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