Billy was coming home. Mary held the telegram in her shaky, old hands as tears fell from her eyes. She hadn’t seen her oldest son for a long, five years. He had written to her of course about his adventures as the new Mayor of Colorado, and the day his twin sons were born. His wife, Elise Bovee, had a safe and clean birth as the medicines in this new day and age were more useful than when she had Billy those twenty eight years ago, and his baby sister.
Kendra....
Mary had to find her growing, twenty-two year old daughter and tell her the good news. She would be just as excited. Mary tucked back her blondish gray hair behind her ears, and shifted her long ponytail to one side of her neck before she gathered the stack of fresh newspapers, her blue lace shawl, and walked out of the Clarion with the biggest smile on her face.
“Mrs. Travis!” Matthew Wilmington shouted as he ran up to Mary. The youngest Wilmington child balanced his hat on his head, eager to see what the older woman was up to.
“Oh my, Matthew, you are looking jumpy today.” Mary smiled down at him, only he wasn’t the little boy she remembered him as. He was getting just as tall as his father and in a few years if not sooner, Mary would have to look up to him.
“I am doin’ fine, Mrs. Travis.” Matthew grinned, showing all his straight, white teeth. A beautiful smile. “Say, do you need any help with those papers?”
Before Mary could respond, he had the papers in his arms and started calling out to the locals if they wanted a paper and that they should get one before he ran out. Mary laughed out loud and watched the boy mimic Buck’s ways when he wanted to help her a long time ago with the paper hand outs. So much like Buck.
“Hey Mrs. Travis!” a sweet voice called from behind her. Mary turned and watched Willa Dunne strolling up to her.
“Hello Willa. How are you today?”
“I’m doin’ okay.” Willa said then looked up at Mary with eyes so soft and brown. “Is it true?”
“Is what true?”
“Is Mr. William Travis comin’ to this town?”
“It is true.” Mary said and stopped in the middle of town to look at the young woman who belonged to JD and Casey Dunne. Such an adorable couple when they were younger, but now since JD was head Sheriff in town, he’d grown older than his years and looked at life a little differently after the death of Josiah Sanchez and those birds of his that finally met up with him. Since Josiah had been a mentor to the young sheriff, after his death JD devoted his life and everyone in it to protect them. It didn’t matter if he was younger than the rest of the guys, his soul grew old and a part of him went with the old preacher when he passed. That was some three years ago, and still the town was sadden by the quietness without the raging ex-priest, but it was comforting to know that all of Josiah’s hard work in the church paid off when every Sunday there would be pray services after a priest moved into the town and carried on Josiah’s work.
Willa let out a sigh of relief, “I am so happy for you, Mrs. Travis. It will be a real treat to see your son again! Have you told Kendra yet?”
Mary pressed on, “I was just heading to tell her now.”
“She’s in the saloon, if you’re wonderin’.” Willa stated.
“Yes, I know.” Mary looked almost sad when she said the words and Willa stopped her walk and watched the older woman she grew up with walk through the saloon doors. Even when she was only seventeen years old, she knew about Kendra’s wild dance nights in the saloon with older men, and the crazy fights she’d get into and sometimes start on purpose. Mary Travis was a good woman who didn’t deserve a wild daughter like that. But it was hard to raise a daughter who didn’t appreciate everything Mary did. It was a shame she had to raise her alone.
When Mary stopped dead center in the saloon just behind the swinging doors, she wanted to cover her mouth in shock when she saw her daughter dancing on the bar. Her long, curly blond hair flipping all around her drunken face. In her leather pants and too tight of a corset busting out what Mary had kept hidden for all those years when she was in her youth. Kendra had no shame in what she did for a living, and that was being the bartender of the Standish Tavern. It almost shamed Mary for letting her daughter take such a job, but Kendra had been so persistent to get a job in town and bartending just had to be the one.
Mary scanned the bar; eyeing some men she recognized and watched grow to men in this very town and before her very eyes.
Elliott Standish was hitting the bar, urging Kendra to dance faster, harder and towards him as he waved a dollar bill between his index and middle fingers. He wasn’t much different from his father, Ezra, but at least Ezra had class and wouldn’t allow for bar dancing.
Rose Jackson sat in the corner of the bar with her father, Nathan, talking in their own conversation, ignoring the crowd by the bar.
“Hello Mary,” Rain said softly as she swept past Mary and joined her husband and daughter with little Marcus, their three year old son, holding her hand and sucking his thumb.
Mary smiled at the small family and felt a sense of peace for Nathan in his aging eyes as he listened closely to his ten year old daughter talk.
“Kendra!” a female voice screeched from the other side of the saloon and Mary looked to see who shouted. Instantly she shook her head and let out a loud, annoyed sigh when she watched Abby Wilmington slam down a shot of whiskey in her throat and run to her friend on the bar and stepped up and started dancing with her.
Kendra and Abby were like bread and butter. If you tried to separate these two growing women, they would fight anyone to their death. It wouldn’t have mattered if they hadn’t grown up with each other. Their fathers had been long, long friends before Mary even entered the picture, and it was no surprise to see them together as babies to women.
Abby Wilmington was Buck and Louisa’s first child, and they couldn’t stop after her. Soon Scott was born, then a year later Julia, and now Matthew the youngest. Scott had joined the Rangers in Texas, and Julia was away at college studying to be an English teacher. Matthew was more like the surprise child, one they weren’t expecting after the result of a long, boring evening alone without the children.
Mary focused her attention back on the bar and the gathering crowd of young men and even the older, disgusting drunks who liked the taste and feel of a young woman’s touch. Mary almost lost her breakfast thinking of a dirty man touching her baby. What would Chris Larabee think of that? Of someone treating his only daughter like a mangy dog. But the unspeakable truth of Chris’s whereabouts was hard for Mary to think on now.
Kendra flipped her hair over and almost lost her balance on her platform shoes and Abby caught her just before she had. They both laughed and Kendra choked down her laughter when she saw her mother standing by the saloon doors.
“Ma!” Kendra laughed, then jumped off the bar and walked up to her and swung her arms around her.
Mary instantly rejected when she smelled the first whiff of whiskey.
“What’s the problem?” Kendra wanted to know, and stepped back to keep space between them. It was clear to her that her mother wasn’t pleased to see her dancing like a crazy drunk again.
“I came here to tell you something.” Mary said her voice cold.
“You mean you didn’t come here to see me dance?” Kendra joked.
Mary glared at her and Kendra put on the straight face as good as she could. “What is it, mother?”
When Mary knew she had her daughter’s attention, she continued. “Billy’s coming to town tomorrow.”
“What?”
“Your brother….he’s coming home to visit for a few days, and he’s bringing Charles and Alexander, his new twins— your nephews.” Mary said then when she saw the doubt in her green eyes, so much like her father’s, she asked. “Aren’t you happy?”
Kendra took another step back, her heart falling to her feet, hoping someone else was coming to town rather than her big brother Billy who finally decided to come visit after five years.
“Yeah sure, ma.” Kendra mumbled.
Mary tried to search her eyes, “What’s the matter, Kendra? I thought you’d be as excited as I am.”
“Well, you thought wrong.” Kendra fired, turned away, and crossed her arms over her chest.
Mary wanted to ask what the matter was again, but didn’t. Not when there were people she knew and loved as friends to hear of her family crisis. “Okay,” she said. “Will you come home then so we can discuss this further?”
“There’s nothin’ to discuss, mother. I’m not excited Billy’s comin’ home and I don’t know why you are either.” Kendra said as cold as the winter wind and then hopped back on the bar with a stilled Abby, who watched and listened and wondered what her friend’s problem was.
Mary was hurt and she bit her bottom lip to not continue any more conversation until she was in private with Kendra. She turned around, listened to the piano player start the music back up, and then a yippy yell from Kendra to get the dancing started again.
When she was out of the clear of the saloon, Mary let the tears fall and she tightened her shawl around her body. As she crossed the alley to the Clarion, she spotted a young woman she could recognize from a mile away if she wanted to.
The young woman must have heard Mary coming and she looked up from the end of the wooden porch where she sat, reading a book, and saw Mary’s glistening eyes.
“Mrs. Travis?”
Mary shook her head, “How many times must I tell you, dear? Call me Mary.” She took a seat next to her.
“It sounds weird to me.”
“I’ve known you since the day you were born, Sasha Tanner. Don’t think it’s weird.” Mary said and patted the eighteen year old on the arm.
Sasha looked up and into Mary’s hurt eyes. “Why you cryin’?”
“Oh, dear, I’m just sad. I have a daughter I can’t control. A son who I can’t be more proud of and a husband who seems to have wiped off the face of the earth.”
“Do you think Kendra misses her daddy?” Sasha asked and closed the book she was reading. Mary closed her eyes and remembered the day Chris left all those eleven years ago. Kendra had just been a little girl then, and didn’t understand why her daddy had to leave, and why he never wrote. And Sasha….she had been so young then when Chris left with her daddy’s body.
Fresh tears filled her eyes, and she peered down at Sasha and smooth back her light brown hair as she studied her young face structure, so much like Vin’s. “I think she does, child.”
Sasha nodded, looked off in the distance. “I know how she feels then. I miss my daddy too. Even though I was just a little girl when he died, I still have my memories of him. It’s all I have.”
Mary’s heart went out to her. Sasha had lived a life much like Vin had when growing up. Her mother died while giving birth to her, she had her daddy to take care of her, and then he died before he had a chance to show her the world. Mary would never forget that day when Vin’s life was taken away so unexpectedly. And it was an enemy he had that he didn’t know of, and Chris had blamed himself for his death, and it tore his soul to pieces. Chris had left with Vin’s body, and he never went to Tascosa to turn his body in and collect the bounty. Vin was respected more than that to Chris, a good friend—his right hand man. It was only a few days after his death that Chris had the body returned and Josiah, and the other Seven buried him under a large oak tree just a few miles outside of town.
The day of Vin’s funeral sent chills down Mary’s spine as she gazed at the only person in this whole that proved Vin existed. She watched Sasha take a deep breath then exhale seconds later. She was thinking about Vin, Mary saw it in the way her eyes looked at her, then away at her feet. Vin had wanted Chris and Mary to raise his little girl, but it had only been Mary to take the responsibility. Chris went nuts and left and never came back. He wrote her five letters total over the last eleven years, and not any in the last three. And in each letter he never left a return address, never said I love you, never wondered what Kendra or Billy were up to. But at the end of each of the five letters he told Mary to love Sasha as if she were her own. To never stop loving her, and Mary never had.
Sasha was different from Kendra, much different. She had a good soul, a big heart, and a thoughtful conscience. Kendra had been angry with Mary all her life, always blaming her for making her daddy leave. But Mary had told her time after time that her daddy left on his own accord. That he had to find his peace in this world and when he had he would come back to them, to her.
Those words only held out for so long until Kendra grasped and used them against poor Mary when she discovered Chris had been gone longer than she thought. Kendra grew older, grew to a fitful, beautiful woman and she was throwing it all away on booze and men.
It always came down to Sasha and what Chris wanted for her, never Kendra. Never his own daughter and that tore Kendra’s young heart to pieces knowing her daddy loved another little girl that was never his. Kendra hadn’t been the same, she was jealous of Sasha. Every time Mary came to tell her good news Kendra always expected it to be about Chris, if he would ever come back. Her baby girl was mad at her, mad at the world, but she was never mad at Chris for leaving her. Just heart broken and Kendra wanted to ask him why he ran away from her.
“Mary....” Sasha said slowly, dragging her name out to remind herself that it was okay to call her guardian by first name.
“Yes?”
“Do you think....” Sasha chewed on her bottom lip. “Do you think my daddy would have lived if Chris was with him?”
Mary tried to swallow down the fear lodged in her throat, “Your father was a great man. He didn’t need anyone to protect him.”
“But what if?” Sasha looked back at her, her eyes so big and round with wonder.
Mary wanted to pull her into her arms and never let her go and shake all the worry and sadness from her body. Sasha didn’t deserve to feel this much pain and guilt at her age. She was suppose to live her life and love and explore the open land, and hoped to fall in love and start a family. Everything she wanted for Kendra.
Mary smoothed down Sasha’s hair that was caught in the wind blow. “Yes, sweetheart. He would still be alive.”
Then Sasha turned away, as if that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. “That was so long ago, Mary. I don’t remember any of it except putting flowers on his grave. You know out by that oak tree.”
“Where you visit every day?”
Sasha looked down at her feet, almost embarrassed Mary knew her routine about going out and putting fresh flowers on Vin’s grave, and just sitting there and talking to him. Foolish, Sasha knew, but every time she went to visit her father’s grave, she felt a sense of peace. She was complete when she went.
“I’m glad to see Billy coming back home.” Sasha said lowly, changing the subject.
Mary took a deep breath but never left her gaze from Sasha’s profile. “So am I. I just wish Kendra was.”
Sasha shook her head in disgust then stood up and turned to face Mary. “Kendra doesn’t care about anything or anyone but herself. I don’t understand why you still let her talk to you the way she does. She should be happy her big brother is coming back home. The Mayor of Colorado for goodness sakes!”
Taken back by her outrage, Mary tried to restrain her hands from pulling Sasha into her and giving her a big, gentle hug to calm her stress.
“It will take time for her, Sasha. You know this.” Mary said.
“I know Kendra is never happy about anything. She won’t give it time. I know her. You know her.” Sasha shifted her weight, leaned on her right hip, and crossed her arms. “She hates me, Mary. She always has.”
“Don’t say that, child.”
“As long as I am here and with you and acting like your daughter, she will always hate me.”
“She doesn’t hate you, Sasha.” Mary said and stood up to grab her by the shoulders. “She just doesn’t know how to control what she feels. She has so many—“
“Grudges against me because she thinks I took her spot in your family. That Billy will be more excited to see me more than her. I can’t stand that, Mary. I can’t stand for Kendra to look at me in disgust.” Sasha pulled out of Mary’s hold. “I look at her like my big sister. She is my sister. We may not be blood sisters, but she’s my sister and she hates me.”
Mary swallowed down the tears that welled in her eyes, pained for the child before her, and wanted to reach out again but knew Sasha would hold back. In all the years, Mary had never seen Sasha cry unless she skinned a knee, or broke her ankle that one Christmas. She had so many cuts and bruises as a child she never cried once….only when she thought of daddy did she cry.
Sasha was an adult now and she never cried anymore. She never let anyone see her emotions, or allow anyone near her for what she may reveal. She was the hard woman who would never back down.
Looking at Sasha, Mary knew how much she reminded her of Vin that she almost cried out for her. Vin was a great man, he didn’t deserve to die and leave his daughter behind in complete misery. She may have been young when he died, but she was old enough to remember and have it scar her heart forever.
The quietness between them was uncomfortable and Sasha turned to leave but Mary stopped her with a gentle squeeze on her arm.
“Kendra cares. She loves you like a sister. She always will. And I love you like a daughter, and I always will. You have to put faith in yourself to believe that’s true.” Mary said.
“Even when her own daddy tells you to watch out for me and not her?” Oh yes, Sasha had read the letters and Mary didn’t know until now. She moved out of Mary’s hold again and walked down the town lot with her head hung low until she disappeared into an alley.
Kendra hopped off the bar, took a few deep breaths, and then swallowed down two shots of whiskey with Elliott Standish right by her side.
“You never sist to amaze me, girl.” Elliott said after he winced the drink away, all his taste buds going crazy, and steadied his gaze on the blond beauty.
Kendra gave him a sultry glance, “I’ll have you on you back before you could count to ten.”
“Is that an offer, Miss. Larabee?”
For a moment both Elliott and Kendra locked their eyes but laughed it off seconds later. They had been friends growing up, pulled each other’s hair, played pranks on the other their whole youth. They were more like brother and sister than lovers, and nothing could ever change that. But Kendra had changed over the years. She had gotten mean, harder, and sometimes uncontrollable when she got angry. And then when she was drunk, she always went to Elliott and cried out all her problems about how her daddy left her in the middle of the day without a kiss goodbye. How Chris Larabee didn’t love her, and always wanted to know about Sasha Tanner, the daughter that wasn’t even his.
Kendra would get real mean when it came to Sasha. She would be drinking of course when she said such horrible things about the girl, but Elliott knew it was the whiskey making her say those things. But without the booze, Kendra would hardly look at Sasha when she came into the saloon, and that was rare. She kept her distance from everything Kendra did. She didn’t want to step on her toes and cause a scene since Kendra held the grudge against Sasha that Chris loved her more.
Kendra kicked away from the bar and stepped outside with Elliott on her heels, and she moved her hair from her face and took a deep, refreshing breath. She didn’t know what time it was, didn’t care, and craved to take a nap. After a few good hours in the smoky saloon, table dancing, and drinking—Kendra was ready for nothing but her bed.
“Mr. Travis is here! Mr. Travis is here!” Todd Dunne yelled as he ran down the street toward the fast stagecoach rounding the corner into town.
“Great,” Kendra breathed as she watched Sheriff Dunne’s eight year old boy running toward the excitement.
“What’s goin’ on?” Abby asked as she walked outside the saloon to meet up with Kendra and Elliott.
“Big bro’s here. Finally.” Kendra said sarcastically, waving her hands in the air as if to wave and see if Billy could see her from the stagecoach window. Of course he couldn’t since she was so far away.
“You’re not excited?” Abby asked her.
Kendra rolled her eyes. “I’m excited that he’s here for ma, but all I’m excited about right now is my bed.” Then she stepped off the saloon porch and headed toward Madison’s Hotel at the end of the strip that was once named Virginia’s Hotel. Why they changed the name she didn’t know, and didn’t care as she disappeared into the dark entrance, leaving her friends in the dust.
Billy Travis stepped off the stagecoach and gave everyone around him hugs and kisses and to even some of the locals he didn’t know. He was just glad to be back home, to familiar surroundings of his childhood, and in his mother’s arms like the old days. He gave Sasha a big bear hug, lifted her off her feet and she let out a loud laugh that almost surprised Mary to hear after their earlier conversation. But Sasha didn’t stick around for any of the personal conversations she knew Mary would want to ask her son and of course see her new grandchildren. Billy would be in town for a week so Sasha had more than enough time to sit down and talk with him.
So before anyone could stop her, Sasha adjusted the straps of her buffalo skin backpack on her shoulders, held a bunch of flowers in her fist, and stalked out of town, up to the place where her father lay and have her visit.
He groaned under his breath as he unsaddled this new horse he just bought after the other one, his beautiful wild stallion he had for years passed two days ago. They had been together through thick and thin, through endless rides in the dark nights, and the dirty gunfights. He had to say to goodbye to his horse and that was the hardest thing he ever had to do in years. And he had dealt with greater situations than losing a horse.
Chris Larabee stretched his legs, bent down to curve his spine and stretch as much as possible to relieve the arthritis his bones were going through. His hands were brittle to the touch; he aged eleven years, his blond hair turning a slight of silver. Not in a million years did he think he would live long enough to see silver hair. To him, he had expired years ago from the deaths he had to go through; his wife and son, his best friend. He wished it was the killing spree he went on after Vin’s death that would have brought him peace and would somehow allow him to go back home to the people who loved him. But now after these years of death caused by his own hands, the only thing that would bring him peace would be his own death. To discover that answer had been dreadful and he would have given up a long time ago if it weren’t for the people in Four Corners, for the men he had at his back, for the woman who loved him, and the daughter he left behind.
Kendra....
Chris moaned out loud, bent down one more time to ease pressure from his spine. He didn’t want to think of what had happened to his only child after he left. She was still so young but old enough to wonder why he had left without her. Chris wondered if Kendra hated him for leaving, or she would even recognize him when he went back to her. He had grown older since the last time she saw him some odd eleven years ago.
Chris looked up, despair washing over him, tears rolling in the back of his eyes, begging for release but he wouldn’t allow it. He searched over the open land he and his comrades had rode across time after time going after the bad guy. The times were different now. The Seven had grown older, wiser, and had children of their own and not going out looking for trouble anymore.
The last Chris heard was Josiah had passed, JD was sheriff of Four Corners, and Nathan had married the only love of his life, and they had two small children. Buck Wilmington had a farm just outside of town in a nice spot under massive oak trees, raising horses as well as his children. Before Chris left, Buck had only two children, now he had four. And young Billy Travis had twins he had learned just yesterday when he stopped to rest in Eagle Bend.
Ezra still lived in Four Corners with his only son, Elliott. His wife had passed a few years back from cancer, and if Chris could remember, Elliott was born around the same time Kendra was. Maybe a day or two older.
Chris cursed under his breath as he thought back on the life he ran away from. He couldn’t even remember how old his own daughter was now. All he could think about was Vin Tanner’s little girl, and how sad she looked up at him with those big, round eyes as he whisked her father away. Chris couldn’t get that little girl’s look out of his thoughts and never would. God….she would be eighteen. A woman by now, and if she was lucky to have her mother’s looks and Vin’s strength, Sasha Tanner would be beautiful and skillful.
Chris rubbed his face, hating to feel this guilt he held in his gut. He was more anxious to see how Sasha turned out than his own daughter. And why was that? Because he felt he had to devote his life to Vin and his daughter and go and search for the killer and bring forth justice? To give Vin revenge for his unexpected death? For the bullet lodged in his back that killed him? He had to take revenge for Vin, for Sasha, for himself or he wouldn’t be able to live if he hadn’t.
And now he had. His soul was calm but not at peace and he was finally able to take the first steps and go home.
From where he stood on top of the hill, he could see Four Corners in the far distance, and he was only a few miles from Vin’s grave where he would stop first and pay his respects for after so long.
Mary wanted to jump up and down from the sight of her two, brand new grandsons. After she hugged Billy tightly for at least two minutes straight, smelled his cologne, convincing himself he was truly there, holding him, she let him go and watched his wife Elise step out of the stagecoach with Charles....or Alexander....
“How can you tell them apart?” Mary laughed through joyful tears.
“Well,” Elise said. “Charles has a little birth mark on the bridge of his nose, and Alexander doesn’t. That’s all we’ve come up with so far.”
“And they’re still so brand new. Sweetheart, you must be tired.” Mary reached out to grab Elise’s back and lead her into the Clarion. Then she gestured for Billy. “Son, why don’t you boil some water? We can have some tea and then you two can rest before we go to dinner. How does that sound?”
“Sounds perfect, mother.” Billy smiled and kissed Mary’s cheek before helping his wife by taking Alexander from her so she could hold Charles more secure.
Matthew Wilmington came and offered to help with Billy and Elise’s luggage and Mary was pleased, and then she saw Elliott Standish and Buck Wilmington himself come up to the stagecoach to help.
“Very nice of you all,” Mary said. “And you Buck. It’s good to see you here in town. Always a pleasure.”
Buck walked past her, his face aging ten years but he still had that sparkle in his eyes, the cutesy smile gracing her. “And you, Mrs. Travis. It’s always a pleasure to see you still around here.”
“Where else would I be, Mr. Wilmington?” Mary teased with a smile, her youth showing through her blue eyes.
Then Buck turned serious and he set down the suitcase in his hand. “I’m being serious, Mary. You’ve done a real good job here. Over the years, raising two children and one you didn’t have to. It ain’t easy....believe me....I have four. And you haven’t cracked once. I’m proud of ya.”
His words were staggering and again the tears stung her eyes. “Thank you, Buck. You have no idea how much you mean to me.” She leaned forward and kissed his cheek, and for a moment they shared something special. Something neither had felt for the other in years. Buck saw Mary almost fall to her knees in misery the past eleven years with worry of not knowing where Chris was, and raising Kendra who was a hellion on wheels. Buck and Mary knew the kind of pain Kendra was feeling now, for most of her youth, and they both wish they could do something to take the pain away, but there was simply nothing and Kendra was through listening.
“Better get on inside now, Mary. Go see visit with your boy. You see me all the time.” Buck said, picked up the suitcase again, and nudged past her with a smile on his face.
Sasha walked up the steep hill until she reached the top and turned around to overlook the journey she just took. Doing the same thing everyday, the running out of breath, and not being about to catch it stopped after the first few weeks and her body was use to it. It was good exercise.
Taking a couple of calm breaths, Sasha turned around and walked a further more until she came up on the same large oak tree, and to the same grave that seemed to have aged over the years. At first it had been hard to come up to Vin’s grave and say nothing, and only cry of what she had left. Now as she looked down upon it and as she grew up, she accepted the fact she would never see her daddy in person again until it was her time to go to heaven.
Like she had done all those other times, Sasha kneeled in the cool grass and released the flowers bunched in her fist over the grave, picking at the weeds growing around the tombstone.
“Hi daddy,” Sasha said softly, then picked up the flowers she brought up the day before. “Sorry about those flowers. Today I wanted to bring you up some bright ones. The weather hasn’t been kind to any of us so those dull flowers died down pretty quickly. I made sure to bring you the brightest in the bunch.” She smoothed down the week ago flowers that were still holding up strong, and glided her fingers along the fresh ones she brought just now. Her eyes wandered up at the tombstone that turned a stained brown mixed with stone gray. The sculpted lettering had faded, the dates of birth and death so long ago. A black Mother Nature stain leaked out of the letters as if they were crying.
For a long time since she started coming up here alone, Sasha never brought herself to look at her father’s name, knowing if she looked she would accept he was really gone and that the nightmare would come true. As she grew up she became stronger emotionally and tried not to break down and cry when death truly meant something to her, and that it was a fact of life. For so long she had denied death until it stared her in the face.
“He’s not there....” a grungy, old voice said from behind her. Shocked to see her at her weakest, Sasha didn’t want to turn around and see who sneaked up on her.
“I know he’s not,” she said back.
There was quiet, then the wind blowing past, whipping her hair to one side of her neck. Chris shuddered to the cool breeze but he kept his stare locked on Sasha’s back. He wasn’t expecting to have company already but he knew it couldn’t have been anyone else visiting Vin’s grave other than Sasha.
“Sasha Tanner....”
Stricken, Sasha wanted to jump up and run back to town, but her legs locked in place and she stared at her father’s grave.
Chris grinded his hands into fists when he saw she was scared of him, if she even knew who he was. He tugged on his horse’s reins and slowly walked toward her.
“You don’t need to be afraid, girl.” Chris said gently. He cleared his throat and was now only inches from her.
“Who are you?” Sasha asked.
Chris hesitated, “Chris Larabee.”
Sasha shot up and turned to face him. If her knees were a little weaker she would have cracked and fallen back to the grass but she remained still, her eyes fixated on the man who claimed to be Chris Larabee, the man she hadn’t seen since she was seven years old.
“Prove it,” she ordered.
Chris let out a sigh, looked behind her at Vin’s grave, then closed his eyes. “You’re Sasha Elizabeth Tanner. You’re Vin Tanner’s only child. Your mother died bringing into this world. You were born in May on the thirtieth. I last saw you when you were just a little girl and I had taken your father’s body with me, and I haven’t been back since.”
Sasha dropped her mouth, shocked, but remained calm and took a better look at him. He was Chris Larabee. She knew it from Mary’s personal photo collection of him and her on their wedding day. A family photo when Kendra was born. Chris holding Kendra just after Mary had her. Photos of Chris and her Uncle Buck. Photos of him and her daddy.
Sasha didn’t know whether to be glad or angry with him after all these years of Mary worrying and Kendra having fits and crying for her daddy all those dark and lonely nights growing up.
Instantly she turned on her heel, her body limp and numb as she kneeled back down, facing her daddy’s grave, her back to Chris Larabee, the man she didn’t know anymore.
“Sasha....I’m sorry.” Chris mumbled. “You have no idea how much I am.”
“Don’t say sorry to me. You did nothing wrong to me. But you did everything wrong to Kendra. Do you remember her?”
Chris felt as if he’d been punched. How could this little girl have so much anger towards him? “How is Kendra?”
Sasha smoothed down the flowers, the dirt around her father’s grave. “She’s a different person. Not the way you remember her at all.”
Wondering what she meant but not asking right away, Chris slowly moved toward her, and Sasha sensed his closeness. “When I left, it wasn’t for the reasons you think.”
Sasha almost laughed. “I was only seven years old when you left with my daddy’s body. I didn’t know what to think except that you were coming back. But you never did, and I was lost.”
“I had to leave, Sasha. If you only understood....” Chris said, his heart aching, and he thought about his daughter he left behind too. “Tell me about Kendra. Please.”
After Sasha was through rearranging Vin’s grave, she eased up on her knees and let the cool wind brush her face. “She grew up if that’s what you want to know. She’s not the same little girl you remember. She works in the Standish Saloon—the bartender—and does more than serve the drinks. She’s also the entertainer.” She paused, waited for him to speak but when he didn’t, she continued. “And she has a mean soul. She takes out all her anger on Mary, me, and when she’s drunk—she’s at her worst.” Sasha looked down at Vin’s grave again, tears welling in her eyes. “She’s even thought about buying her own gun for protection. Too many crazies out in the world Kendra said. Mary tried to talk her out of it, but it was too late and Kendra never listens to anyone but herself. When she showed off her gun to me, I was so afraid that she would pull the trigger on purpose just to get me out of her life. She always blamed me that I am the reason you left. That if it weren’t for me, she would still have her daddy.” Sasha swallowed down a pained cry, and looked up high in the heavens. “She wants to kill me, Chris. And if not me— then herself.”
Chris wanted to cover his ears and disregard what all Sasha said about his little girl. No way could Kendra be a cold-hearted killer like him. He never wanted that for her when he left, and never thought it would happen. He had to get back to town and apologize a thousand times to Mary, his wife he loved but couldn’t have the courage or heart to show her just how much, the stepson he called his own that went off to become something great, and a daughter who was on the brink of losing her mind. Kendra had turned out like him after all. He only hoped he could get back to town in time and tell her how much he missed her, and loved her and not a day went by when he didn’t think about her.
“Sasha, come on.” Chris mumbled and extended his arm to help her stand. When she turned and faced him, his breath caught in his throat, stunned by how much she looked like Vin, yet beautiful like her mother. She had the soft round eyes Vin had, the perfect curved lips that seemed to never smile. This young woman had endured so much pain in her life so far, Chris wasn’t sure if she could go back to being the happy child he remembered her as before Vin’s death.
But death did have its pains when it came to losing someone close to you. You were never the same person after someone dies. A part of Sasha, and Chris was gone forever when Vin had passed.
“Are you coming back home, Chris?” Sasha asked after a few moments of silence.
“Yes. I’m comin’ home.” He said, and gently nudged her to move in the direction of town so he could get his life back in order after eleven years.
Kendra slammed her glass against the wall and whiskey spilled everywhere. She screamed and carried on about how wonderful it must be for her mother to have her only son at home, and her favorite girl always lurking around her place. It was never Kendra Mary wanted to have around. Never Kendra who wanted so much for her mother to hug her instead of pushing away or trying to dodge the mother, daughter talks. It was always Sasha she listened to!
Kendra screamed again, hating the world and everyone living in it. And most of all she hated her father who insisted to never come back to her. She scorned she didn’t have a father for so long she started to believe the truth that Chris would never come back. The infamous gunslinger, the fastest man alive, the one who always put up a fight, the man she called her daddy. And he was no where to be found.
“Why!” Kendra screamed as she fell to the floor in her hotel room, sobbing. “Why have you abandoned me, daddy?”
Then there was a knock at her door and Kendra didn’t bother to let the person in. Elliott Standish decided not to wait for an introduction so he opened the door, closed it behind him, and walked around the bed to Kendra practically lying on the floor, drowning in her own tears.
“Kendra....what’s the matter with you?” Elliott said and grabbed her arms to sit her up.
“He doesn’t love me….” Kendra mumbled. “And he’ll never come back!”
“Who?”
She looked up at him with eyes so sad, “My daddy.”
Elliott hesitated then shook his head. He was tired of hearing the ranting of how Kendra will never see her father again. Elliott knew about Chris Larabee from the stories passed down from his own father, and the Seven that still stayed around town. Even Sheriff Dunne could never forget his old mentor. Kendra was lost without Chris, and she had been all her life. She turned to the devil and booze when she was angry, and always let out her pain either on him or Sasha Tanner who never deserved it. Elliott could put up with her cries and her mean streak a mile wide, but Sasha didn’t have to. She was always the victim when Kendra wanted to lash out.
“Get up, Kendra.” Elliott said and tugged on her shoulders to help her stand, but she was too drunk to keep her strength up. He laid her on the bed, took off her boots, and when he tried to cover her half naked body up with the blankets, Kendra tore away from him and stood back up, but fell down.
Elliott cursed under his breath, “Not now, Kendra. Get some rest and you’ll be your old self in the morning. I don’t have time for this. Go to sleep.” He tried to pick her up again, but Kendra pushed him away and reached into her nightstand drawer and pulled out her newly bought pistol.
When Elliott saw the shiny tool, he literally jumped back with question in his eyes. “What are you doing with that, Kendra?”
“I need it,” Kendra mumbled.
“For what? You’re not thinking about killing anyone. You don’t have it in you!” Elliott took another step back as Kendra stood to her feet and walked closer to him, the pistol aimed high.
“You want to try me?” she snarled, and Elliott stared into her cold, green eyes. He didn’t want to take any chances and try to pry it out of her hands for he might just get a bullet in him in return. He put his hands up in defense and Kendra laughed it off. Through drunken eyes, Elliott was her best friend. She would always know it was him, and she would never do anything to harm him.
She laughed off her anger, “I love you, Elliott. You know that.” She watched him move toward the door and she quickly grabbed him by his jacket collar. “Where you goin’, Elliott?”
“It was a bad idea to come here, Kendra. Sleep off your crazy thoughts and give me that gun.” Elliott gathered enough guts to reach for the pistol, but Kendra pulled it away.
“I don’t think so, my love. Since you’re not man enough to have your own pistol, then I am.” Kendra pushed aside him, Elliott slammed into the wooden dresser, the empty bottles of booze crashing to the floor, and Kendra laughed it off and ran out of the room, pulling on a leather jacket as she went with Elliott following.
Sasha stopped her walk when she reached the alley just before The Clarion. She knew Mary was just inside most likely having tea with Billy, talking about all the things she had missed these last five years. Sasha felt guilty for the poor woman she grew to love as a mother when her own son abandoned her to pursue his career in the government. She didn’t have him, or her husband. But now Chris came back out of the blue and Sasha was more than thrilled to tell Mary.
Though she held her distance and waited for Chris to meet her by the alley. When he did, she looked over at him, her expression calm.
“I think you ought to go see her,” Sasha said.
Chris took a deep breath, his breathing labor. “I think you’re right. It’s been too long.”
“She’ll forgive you,” the young woman said and Chris looked directly at her, sensing her worry and wonderment of what he was going to do next. If he would actually pull through and have guts to give his apologies to the wife he wasn’t sure he loved all these years. Mary Travis was a good woman, a good wife during their years together before and after the birth of their daughter. She had also been a hard woman to know through her worries over the newspaper, her government speeches, and what she thought was right or wrong. She was a tough old bird, and always had been. Chris only wondered now if she had changed any over the years of his absence. Even if Mary were to forgive him, Chris knew he didn’t deserve it. Not for why he left when he did, without nothing from him but the sight of his back leaving town.
Chris eased his glare on the young woman next to him. The child he knew when he left who grew to be a beautiful, intelligent woman. He wondered what else had changed while he’d been gone.
“Do you think she’ll forgive me, Sasha?”
His question was so delicately asked, Sasha wasn’t sure how to respond except, “That’s not my decision.” She gave a tiny shrug. “Only one way to find out though.”
Chris looked at the closed, lively lit door of the Clarion he remembered going in and out of through most of his time spent here at Four Corners. He raced through those doors when Kendra was born, shouting to the whole town his baby girl had just been brought into the world.
Many great and sad memories washed over him, and he looked at Sasha one more time, before he abandoned his horse to her, and walked up the steps to the Clarion, and knocked.
Mary was at her desk when she heard the soft knock at her front door. She frowned at the ink mess she made on a clean sheet of paper and when another knock came she quickly stood up to get it before the disturbance woke the guests in her home.
Expecting to see young Matthew or Willa, Mary caught her shock in her throat before she let it swallow her whole. His dark features ached her heart; his once blondish hair turned a tint of silver under his dirty, rugged hat. His green eyes darkened the sky behind him, bringing in a round of lightning and thunder rolling in after. Her old heart tried to take in what her eyes could not, and she near collapsed from the sight of him.
Never in a million years now had she thought Chris Larabee would again reappear on her doorstep.
“Chris?” Mary breathed. “What….how….”
The rain started to come now and Chris tipped his hat down further on his forehead to block out the chilling drops. “Mary.” He looked up and met her eyes. “Can I come in? It’s startin’ to really rain out here, and I can’t afford to get sick now.”
Still dumbfounded, Mary stepped out of the doorway and allowed Chris to come inside her warm home. She grabbed the opening of her dress shirt and held it that much tighter as Chris moved inside and turned to look at her again.
Mary didn’t know what to say and from the looks of it Chris didn’t know either.
“Look,” he started and took off his hat. “I know ya have company now, and I don’t wanna intrude but I came back because I wanted to tell ya somethin’.”
Mary took controlled breaths and listened, still hurt and torn what Chris had done to her family, to their daughter.
“I’m not really sure where to start—“ Chris said.
“Maybe at the beginning?” Mary snapped.
Chris looked that much harder at her, then released a breath of hot air and turned back around to face the fire in the fireplace. “You’ve known me for the better part of my life, and I thank God you didn’t know me in my youth. It’s been so hard, Mary, these last years without you. Without Kendra, and Vin.”
“Kendra is not dead, Chris. You left her too.”
“I know I did!” Chris snapped, but forgot himself and looked back into her sad eyes. “I’m here now to say I am sorry....to both you and her.”
“I’m not even sure why you’ve come back. I wasn’t even sure you were still alive, Chris. Do you have any idea what I went through after you left? I was stuck raising three small children. I stopped running out of lies to tell our daughter about why you had to leave, and weren’t coming back. You have no idea how much I hated to lie to her!” Mary calmed, put a hand over her mouth to stop from yelling out her heart of what she went through for eleven years without him. She wanted to cry, wanted to run into his arms, and beg him to take away all the pain he caused. She was mad at him that he left her without anything in return. But she would always love him. He gave her a child and for that she would be forever thankful to him.
About Kendra though....she was a young woman running wild against the wind, having her own parties, her own drinking contests. Mary was lost about how to make her baby girl right again. Growing up Kendra had always been the handful. And then she stopped believing the lies Mary told her about where Chris was. Kendra was indeed older than her years and that killed Mary to know her own daughter didn’t trust her. She never wanted to come to her and talk. Never wanted to open up to anyone.
Chris felt as if someone was digging a hole in his stomach. He hated the pain on Mary’s older face than what he remembered. To him, she looked more beautiful than the day he first laid eyes on her. Even when the years had been good to her, the years had been awful mentally.
“I’m not the one you should apologize to, Chris.” Mary spoke softer.
“Where is she?” Chris asked, already knowing who Mary meant.
“I haven’t seen her since this afternoon. She was in the saloon.”
Chris cursed under his breath. “It’s all true then.”
“What?”
“Sasha told me everything about Kendra.” Chris turned around, his hat in his hands as he played with the brim. “Does she stay here with you?”
Mary shook her head, “She hasn’t for awhile. She takes comfort at the hotel.”
“I gotta go see her.” Chris said and walked to the door again.
“Chris....” Mary said, and Chris turned toward her again. “I don’t think that’s a good idea just yet. You just got in town. Why don’t you stay here for a while and rest. You can use my bed.”
Chris declined, “I haven’t seen my daughter for over eleven years. I won’t wait another second.”
“And what will that other second do? Nothing at all. As far as I’m concerned, you’re dead to Kendra.”
Mary’s comment hit home and Chris felt his legs weaken, his heart ache, his whole body shake. That couldn’t be true. He loved Kendra. He wanted her to know he was alive and wanted to see her. He had to see her.
Moments later after Chris regained his posture; he looked up at Mary with eyes so sad and red. “For what it’s worth, Mary, I am so sorry. And I still love you.” Then Chris was gone and disappeared in the pouring rain.
After Sasha dropped Chris’s horse in the livery, she walked along the sidewalk, taking deep breaths to put fresh, cool air into her lungs. She thought over of what just happened up at father’s grave with Chris Larabee. Sasha thought what Mary said to him when she saw him, and then his old comrades who still lurked around town.
It was close to dinnertime and Buck Wilmington and his family would be coming in for dinner soon as they did every Sunday evening as a tradition. Sasha wondered why it was always Sunday in town to have family dinners, but she discarded the thought when she spotted Sheriff Dunne in front of the jailhouse.
“Sheriff Dunne,” Sasha said, quickening her pace toward him.
“Hey there, Sasha,” JD said as she approached him. Father of two now, JD had grown to be a fine, respected sheriff of the people living in Four Corners. He had a lot of growing up to do from being the small, young gunslinger, not knowing about the real world revolving into a husky, well-built lawman. And he now had a family to protect as well as a booming town.
Sasha had to tell JD that Chris was back. “Have you seen him yet?”
“Seen who?” JD asked, looking the other way.
“Chris Larabee,” she said on a whispered breath.
JD paused, stilled his whole body then turned to face her. “What?”
“He’s back, kid.” Sasha said then smiled when she saw the look on JD’s face when she referred to him as kid. Chris always called him that. But she didn’t wait for him to ask when and where Chris was. She walked by him with the same smile on her face and the dumbfounded look on his. Sasha wasn’t sure whether to be happy or afraid Chris was back. It only meant more trouble for their quiet town with Kendra in the mix. She knew after Chris and Mary talked, he would go find Kendra in a heartbeat. It was just a question of what Kendra would do.
Later in the evening, Kendra fell to the ground, skidded her bare knees, and marked up her blue dress Elliott threw at her just before she showed the whole town her nakedness. Thankful to his generosity, Kendra flipped around and planted a wet, juicy kiss in the center of his mouth then went on her way out the hotel.
Elliott wasn’t surprised with her outburst and the way she handled herself when drunk. Fact was Kendra was a mean and silly drunk who wouldn’t know a thing of what she had done until the next morning with a headache knocking on her head.
“It’s my life, Elliott! I’ll live however I please!” Kendra shouted then stumbled out into the pouring rain with her newly bought pistol in her hand.
“Kendra, you fool, it’s raining!” Elliott shouted to her and tried to grab her arm but she ripped away.
From the jailhouse window, Buck Wilmington saw the anger and glee in Kendra’s eyes and body figure as she ambled down the town lot with that dupe Elliott behind her, trying to keep her out of the rain. Buck almost laughed but the scene began to turn serious and the dark rain clouds weren’t helping his mood.
“What have we here?” Nathan asked as he walked up behind Buck and peered outside the window. “What is she doin’ now?”
“Who knows,” Buck said. He thanked God his children were already out of town and at home where it was warm and safe. Even though he knew Kendra just when she was a baby and respected her father than any other man dead or alive, his offspring was a mystery, and a ruined child who didn’t deserve some of the situations she’d been through.
When JD busted through the door both Nathan and Buck turned toward the hustling sheriff with concern.
“What the hell’s wrong?” Buck demanded to know.
JD looked at the two men. “He’s back, men.”
“Who’s back?” Nathan asked.
“Chris.”
Buck felt like the wind just got kicked out of him as he was just thinking about his old friend. Talk about reading the minds. Buck took a minute to take in what JD said then looked at Nathan and then back outside.
“Buck.... did you hear what I just said?” JD stammered out.
“Yeah, JD. And he’s right outside.” Buck moaned and hurried past JD and Nathan and ran outside in the pouring rain.
Chris had a couple of things he wanted to get done before he saw any of his old comrades from back in the day. He had just talked to Mary, settled a few scores with her and the conversation could have gone better but what the hell did he expect? He’d been gone for the better part of their lives. He would have been surprised if Mary accepted every word he fed her. Truth was, Chris wasn’t so sure he could forgive himself for leaving her behind to raise three children alone. He felt like a bastard and Mary had every right to be angry with him.
So here he walked down the long stretch of Four Corners, remembering the buildings and then not so much the newer buildings since he’d gone. The rain poured harder and it was harder to tell which buildings were still the same and weren’t. The names had changed he saw but nothing else besides the length of town had expanded, and it was hard for his old bones to walk from one end to the other without help. He was getting old, and it was a fact he didn’t want to accept.
Chris looked up and under the rim of his old black hat and saw a long, lengthy figure of a woman walking toward him. He wasn’t sure if she saw him or not, but as he neared her, and she stumbled to the muddy gravel and a young man behind her helped her back to her feet. From the downpour, Chris couldn’t make out who the couple were but he could tell from his distance that the young man looked a lot like his old friend Ezra Standish. Fancy looking hat and all.
Then it became aware to him that he and these two people were the only ones outside. Everyone else had moved inside the walls of warmth and safety from the rain. Chris saw he was getting closer to the jailhouse where he had many great moments with his friends, and then the hotel where Mary told him Kendra was staying. His heart raced, his stomach fluttered with butterflies. He wasn’t sure how his daughter would react to seeing him. He had in the back of his mind that she would shut the door in his face or scream at him to get away from her. That she didn’t have a father. That very thought tore Chris’s insides to shreds, and he had to take a couple of deep breaths to maintain his calmness.
But calmness didn’t come and wouldn’t come back. Chris heard a door open and watched Mary and Billy come out on the front porch of the Clarion. Mary wore a long black veil that shaded her eyes, and covered every inch of her slender body. Billy stood next to her, his arm outstretched as if he was trying to say something to him. Chris stopped to admire the little boy he remembered grow into a man. He was one of the main reasons he wanted to come back to town because he knew Billy was coming home for a visit. He wanted to see Billy, and congratulate him on his success and his new family.
“Chris! Watch out!” Buck shouted from the opposite side of town, and Chris jerked to look at him and time stood still.
Sasha stopped her walk to the hotel when she heard the round of bullets being fired and heard the screams from Kendra Larabee herself as she shot at the dark shadow lingering toward her. She turned and looked at Kendra in the focal of town, on her knees, screaming into the dark skies as the rain poured on her. Elliott about gave up to pull her out of the rain. Kendra wailed and screamed and carried on for what seemed like hours before anyone would give a damn and go out to her.
“Kendra!” Abby Wilmington shouted as she slammed through the saloon swinging doors to go out to her friend, but she stopped dead in her tracks when Kendra fired another round of bullets from her pistol.
“Kendra!” Sasha heard a familiar voice shout and she watched Chris Larabee run toward her.
Kendra tried to wipe away the rain in her eyes when she saw a man running up to her. She cried out, her tears mixing with the rain, as she again fell to the mud, her once blue dress a sloppy brown.
“Daddy?” she cried, and looked around the blazing looks in the people’s eyes who came out of their home to see what was going on.
Chris knelt to the ground and grabbed Kendra’s arms and made her look at him, his own heart breaking at the sight of her. What had he done to her?
“Yes, baby, daddy’s here.” Chris said and smoothed down her wet hair as she rolled her head against his shoulder. “I’m never gonna leave you.”
Kendra pulled away and looked up at him. “Daddy, is it you?”
Chris looked into her green eyes, red with tears, red from her anger she had for him. “Yes.”
Kendra shook her head, and rolled her eyes in the back of her head. Chris didn’t take his eyes off her as he held her up so he could look at her better. She was beautiful, so much like Mary, and so lost like he was. And she was drunk; Chris could smell that on her breath. She was so young. Still had so much life to live and he knew deep down he did this to her because he left.
“Why did you leave me, daddy?” Kendra mumbled.
Chris’s heart gave, and then he felt the striking pain in his chest he tried to ignore. Blood began to soak over his cotton shirt, through his black duster. Chris swallowed down the bile in his throat and the tears in his eyes. He looked down at his chest, and realized one of Kendra’s bullets had hit him right where it counted. He wasn’t hoping for their first confrontation to begin and end this way.
Chris choked back a sob, then leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “I’ve never stopped thinkin’ about you. All these years we’ve been apart.” He grabbed her hand, and put it to his chest. When Kendra pulled away a puddle of blood spilled in her palm. She looked at him.
“I’ll always be with you.” He made sure Kendra heard every word he spoke before he bent forward and kissed her forehead.
Chris stood up, his kneels going weak, and his body tired of walking and thinking. He looked around the town lot and saw familiar faces and the old ones. He locked eyes with Mary, her eyes full of concern and worry, and then gave her a soft smile. He walked around Kendra at his feet, her tears ripping through him as her bullet was slowly killing him. He didn’t look at Elliott as he walked past him, or Buck, Nathan, and JD as they were calling out his name for him to stop. He ignored their eyes, their shouts and kept walking.
Sasha was going out of her mind wondering what had happened. Why he wasn’t going to Kendra. The worry boiled in her veins and she ran out in the pouring ran toward him and grabbed his arms.
Chris looked at her then when he was forced to stop. He didn’t speak, didn’t moan, and barely breathed. He ran the back of his rough hand against her cheek, smiled when it hurt the most, and told her with his eyes that he was sorry for everything. About Vin Tanner. About Kendra. About ruining her youth.
Sasha shook her head, tears welling in her eyes when she saw blood on his coat and knew he didn’t have much time. She didn’t want to be the one to stop him from doing what he had planned to do when it was his time to die.
Chris pulled gently out of Sasha’s hold and walked around her, and out of town. When he knew he was out of eyesight, he knelt in the wet grass, looked up in the dark skies on top of the hill, and grabbed his chest. His final minutes were slowly coming to an end. Too quiet and in pain to care about the rain, he rolled his head back and laid slowly in the grass, his hands still clutching his chest wound, and then he rolled onto his back. His life flashed before his eyes: His wedding to Sarah, the birth of his son, their death, the many lives he’s taken, meeting Vin Tanner, falling in love with Mary Travis, being a father to Billy, Kendra’s birth, Sasha’s birth, Vin’s death, his escape.
And then Chris closed his eyes and took his last breath.
“What have you done?” Buck shouted as he ran to Kendra and grabbed her by the arms, yanking her up and pushed Elliott away. “What have you done to him?” He tried to look into her eyes but she kept them closed and wailed out a painful cry. Buck dropped her then and went running in the direction Chris went, leaving Mary, Billy, and everyone else behind.
Once Buck reached the hill, the rain had let up and the dark clouds moved around and the sun started to show. But what Buck came to, there was nothing glorious about the sight. Falling to his knees, he leaned over his dear old friend and wept with shock and anger boiling his tears. There Chris’s body lay in the muddy atmosphere, his whole being shamed and taken from the only person in the world that mattered to him. Moving so slowly, Buck reached out and grabbed Chris’s hand, giving it a squeeze, and knew there was no life in him. His hand was ice cold from the rain, and death. His body was stiff, his face held an expression indescribable. Chris had died in pain not just from the gunshot wound but the pain of a broken heart.
Kendra Larabee was thrown in jail literally by JD Dunne. She had done a lot of wrong in the town and taking the only mentor, the only father figure JD ever had taken a toll on not only his life but the lives of others who knew and respected Chris. No one cared what Chris had done in the past. Kendra was blind from any goodness she saw in her father before she put a bullet in him, and she cried in her hands and rocked herself back and forth having it clear what she had done. Only time will serve when it came down to punish Kendra for the murder of Chris Larabee.
A week later
Sasha Tanner tilted her head high but narrowed her eyes in sorrow as she bent down to pick several daisies growing outside the Clarion. It had been two weeks of living hell since Chris’s death, and Kendra had been punished with only the guilt she had left in her soul for what she caused the town. For that she would have to live the rest of her life with the guilt, with the scorn looks from the locals, and it drove the young woman mad that she apologized to Mary, to Nathan and Buck, and the Sheriff, and rode out of town to let them all be free of her.
It was better for the town, better for Kendra.
Mary stepped outside the Clarion door, her body language a slight older now since the events of her husband’s death and their daughter leaving town. It all happened so quickly. In one second she lost her entire world. Sasha helped her get through the three toughest days of her life following the funeral arrangements and then the burial. Mary would forever be thankful to Sasha for getting her through it, but in her heart she would never get through the loneliness.
Billy and family had gone since then, leaving after the funeral and getting back to their modern lives without the old west. Sheriff Dunne had breathed a little easier when he saw the town getting back to normal, and Buck Wilmington and his wild bunch of children going about their day as if nothing happened. But Buck would always look different to Sasha. Like Mary, he carried his body differently. Looked older than he was with a pained look on his face whenever she spoke to him. He lost his best friend, and there would never be another man like Chris Larabee Buck had told her time and time again.
“Are you going up there, child?” Mary asked her voice no louder than a whisper.
Sasha leaned back after she gathered a lovely bouquet of flowers. “Yes.”
Mary crossed the shawl around her arms and smiled sadly. “Will you tell them I said hello?”
Sasha watched the sorrow pass in Mary’s blue eyes as she turned and walked back inside the Clarion. “I won’t forget.” She whispered and went on her way toward her father’s gravesite.
When she arrived a short time later, she separated the bouquet of flowers in two and laid each set on her father’s grave and the other on Chris’s fresh grave next to it. Sasha smoothed the flowers down like she had every time she came to visit their graves, and took a moment to think about the past, but she knew thinking about it never did much good. It wouldn’t bring Chris back; it wouldn’t bring her daddy back. She had to learn to accept they would never come back but she would see them one day again and that knowing would keep her alive.