Chapter 54

Feeling as if she had been sleeping for a million years, Louise opened her eyes and smiled as she found Kid staring at her. Memories of yesterday came back full force, and she felt her whole body ooze and ache with sheer happiness. After riding all the way from Rock Creek to Saint Joseph, Kid had told her he loved her. That had been the most beautiful moment of her life. After that, they had made love several times all through the night, and Lou could not actually remember when she had eventually fallen asleep.

Louise yawned and stretched her arms. "What time is it?" she asked without taking her eyes off him.

"Almost noon."

"Kid, you shouldn't have let me sleep this long!" Louise exclaimed, slapping his naked shoulder teasingly.

"You needed your rest… especially after last night," Kid replied, wiggling his eyebrows pointedly. Louise giggled and let herself be cocooned in his arms once again. Kid wrapped his arms around her waist under the sheets and kissed her softly on the lips. "Good morning, my curse."

At his strange endearment, Louise frowned in confusion and echoed his words, "My curse?"

Kid smiled and a blush crept onto his cheeks. "That's what I kind of called you, you know, at the beginning." Louise gazed into his eyes with a mixture of amusement and mild reproach. "I don't want to hide anything from you… not anymore. Now you're my blessing… my special, lovely blessing."

His hand softly stroked her back, and Louise grinned, obviously pleased by his words. Kid kept staring at her with a faraway look, and such intensity made Lou color. "What's that face for?"

Her voice snapped Kid out of his momentary absorption, and he chuckled at himself before speaking up. "I was just thinking, 'oh Kid, she's so beautiful. How lucky can a man get? For some strange reason, she loves you, and on top of it all, she's already married to you.' Lou, I'm so, so, so lucky for having you."

Lou smiled once again, but as his words dawned on her, she was hit by reality and her gay expression turned into total despair. "Oh Kid!" she cried, clearly upset.

"What is it?" Kid asked, concerned by her sudden change. "You're scaring me."

"The divorce," Louise explained the reason behind her anguish. "We'll soon be divorced."

Kid could not help but grin. "I'm not so sure about that, Lou."

His cheerful disposition clearly gave away that he was hiding something. "What do you mean, Kid?"

"When you left… well, I couldn't bring myself to take the last step that would pull us apart forever, so I kept putting off going to the lawyer," he elaborated. "The papers are still sitting in the same drawer we put them in."

"Are you serious?" Louise asked, her face beaming at once.

Kid nodded, and they both burst out laughing. The cadence of both their laughter combined harmoniously, evidence of the host of emotions they had experienced in the last twenty-four hours. The echo of their joy resounded in the room, which would contrast with their countenances a couple of months ahead when they discovered that somebody had double-crossed them. "Lou," he whispered when he sobered as his hand softly brushed against her naked shoulder. "I really want to share everything with you… live every single day of my existence with you… walk with you… struggle through life with you… make a family with you, and grow old with you. If I could, I would pledge my wedding vows again right now."

"The vows you didn't mean the first time," Louise reminded him.

"Neither did you," he replied, teasingly touching the tip of her nose with his index finger.

Louise giggled again. It was so odd, but since last night she kept chortling like a schoolgirl for the simplest thing. This was the most extraordinary thing that had ever happened to her and she was feeling so joyous that she wanted to shout at the top of her lungs. "Kid, I want all that too," she whispered, caressing his face softly. "I love you."

"I love you too… I love you so much," Kid said just before his lips joined hers once again. Soon passion escalated. Their kiss deepened and their arms struggled to touch every single inch of each other's skin, and feel one another as close as possible.

A few knocks resounded in the silent room, but the couple did not even seem to hear it. They were back in their special, exclusive universe that nothing could disturb or cross its limits. Yet when a voice followed the knocks seconds later, the effect was instantaneous. "Louise, open up. I know you're in there."

Those simple words worked like magic. The spell broke instantly and the couple quickly pulled away. "Oh my God… it's… it's my father."

Louise was out of the bed in no time, and once she had found her nightgown, she threw it over her head. "Lou, don't open the door. He'll eventually leave," Kid asked her, sitting on the bed.

"I can't do that!" Louise exclaimed as if he was suggesting she do some atrocious act. "Don't worry. I'll get rid of him."

Before Kid could protest, Lou ran to the door but stopped for a second to smooth out the material of her nightgown and her tousled hair. She then took a deep breath and as she opened the door a crack, she found herself face-to-face with the person who had become a nightmare for her in the last years. "Hello, sir. I… I'm sorry for making you wait. I was feeling a bit unwell this morning, and that's why I was taking a nap."

Boggs did not say anything. His eyes looked Lou up and down, studying her, scrutinizing her. Meanwhile, feeling self-conscious for his unconcealed appraisal, Louise kept running her fingers though her hair in a poor attempt to make it look presentable. After the incredible night with Kid, she knew every single hair on her head was in disarray. Her eyes lifted to his, and she noticed his indifference turn into irritation. "Do you think I'm a gullible idiot?" he barked angrily. "Do you actually believe I don't know what you've been up to? Hear me out, I won't have you whoring around like a vulgar…"

At the same time his irritation translated into his speech, Boggs pushed Louise forcefully, shoving her in to the room. As he stepped inside, his voice faltered when his eyes discovered what his daughter had actually tried to hide from him.

On seeing his father-in-law, Kid quickly wrapped the quilt around his lower middle and pushed himself up into a sitting position against the head board. Boggs stared at him as if he was seeing a ghost, and Louise decided to speak up. "Kid came to see me yesterday. We talked and sorted out our differences. We're back together… for good."

Kid smiled and shared a knowing look with his wife. "Uh… I'll leave you now then," Boggs said in obvious discomfort. "I'll wait for you two at the restaurant."

Lou nodded, and Boggs ran out of the place, slamming the door shut as if the devil was hot on his heels. When the echo of the sound died down, Lou and Kid shared another look and burst out laughing at the same time. When they sobered, Louise walked back to the bed, and creeping up to him, she hooked her arms around his neck. "So where were we before my father interrupted?" she asked and her mouth eagerly found his.

"Lou, your father's waiting," Kid protested weakly, his own body contradicting what his lips were uttering.

Louise stopped momentarily, and looking into his eyes, she said, "Let him wait… I don't care… I don't care anymore." That was her last word and her mouth was soon speaking another language, a language she was becoming very fluent in, and wanted to practice for the rest of her life.


Walking hand in hand down the hotel corridor, the couple kept sending each other smiles and looks. A sigh escaped Lou's lips, and she could not help but say, "Oh Kid, I feel so happy that I'm scared."

The Southerner smiled even more if that was possible, and tilting his head to her, he whispered, "No need to be scared. I'm here, and I plan to work hard to make you happy every single day of our lives." Louise grinned gleefully and as they reached the stairs Kid made a sour face as he said, "Lou, I don't really want to talk to your father. I'm not sure I can sit at the same table as him and be civil. All I can think of is the way he treated you when he visited us in Rock Creek. Thinking about that makes my blood boil."

"I don't feel like talking to him either. Just think of this as a social commitment we have to go through. It won't take long, and we better not make an enemy out of him."

Her last words surprised him. "What do you mean by that? Why are you so scared of him?"

"I'm not scared… not anymore, but I know him too well. If we upset him, well… we better not try that."

Kid gazed at her with curiosity, but Lou did not elaborate. The pair made their way down the staircase in silence. As soon as they stepped into the almost empty restaurant, they saw Boggs sitting at one of the tables at the farthest corner next to a window. The couple approached, and Boggs stood up to greet them the way he had not done before.

"I took the liberty to order some lunch for the three of us," Boggs said as they sat down at the table. Kid and Lou looked at each other, suspecting this would take longer than what they had counted on, but they knew they could not refuse the invitation.

Boggs motioned the waiter to start serving their food, and three steaming plates of juicy meat, tender vegetables and creamy soft mashed potatoes were soon before them. "I have to say I'm quite thrown with this unexpected surprise. I didn't expect to find you together. In her note Louise sounded very sure your marriage was over."

"It was my fault," Kid awkwardly replied, unsure how to explain their situation without getting into much detail. "I was a fool. We could have sorted out our problems sooner. I shouldn't have let things go this far."

Boggs nodded slowly, but by his expression Kid was not sure if he actually agreed with him, or his nod was just an instinct reaction. The man's next words confirmed the rider's suspicions. "To tell you the truth, this unexpected change is quite an inconvenience."

"An inconvenience?" Kid echoed, glimpsing at Lou out of the corner of his eye. "What do you mean by that?"

"I consider myself a man of honor, and when my daughter let me know she was as good as single, I did what any other father would in my position."

Louise felt a shiver run all through her body, foreseeing that one of her father's surprises would be coming. Even though she was certain, she would not like what was in store for her, she could not help but ask, "What have you done, father?"

For the first time Boggs turned his eyes to his daughter, and said, "Wicks is back and wants you. We reached an agreement. He'll make you his wife and I get some benefits. You know, I can't go back on my word now."

The mere mention of the man's name made Lou almost gag, and all of a sudden, she became a nervous wreck. Her heart was pounding in her chest powerfully, and the air seemed to reach her in very short supply. "But… but… but that's crazy! I already have a husband! I'm married to Kid! You married me off to him!"

"That can be fixed easily enough," Boggs replied and turning his attention to Kid, he added, "You name the figure. I'm ready to be very generous if you agree to divorce my daughter."

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Lou exclaimed loudly, not caring who might hear her. "You're insulting my husband, not to mention, me!"

"Lou's not for sale," Kid stated seriously.

Boggs ignored his daughter's protests, and kept addressing the rider. "That's not what you thought when you accepted the money I put in your hands for marrying her."

Kid cringed at the reference. That was the moment in his life he felt most ashamed of. He did not regret marrying Lou because meeting her and becoming her husband was the best gift that destiny could ever give him, but he wished circumstances had been different. "That's in the past. Lou's my wife and you can't treat her as if she were merchandise!"

"Before being your wife, she's my daughter," Boggs counterattacked. "And I have every right to decide what is best for her."

"What's best for me?" Lou echoed sarcastically. "Don't you mean what is best for you, father? How much do you plan to earn by selling me? Father, this is my life! MY life and I have a say in all this. I've endured your tyrannical ways all my life, but this time I won't let you win! Kid's my husband, and I won't leave him… ever!"

Boggs stared at her impassive as if her passionate speech had nothing to do with him. When she finished, a smirk showed on his face while he said, "Very well. If you don't want to leave him, that's fine by me. But… you know, a man can't marry a woman who's already married, but he can always marry a widow."

The shine in his brown eyes made the meaning of his words clear. Lou stared at her father with big eyes in total shock. Suddenly, she felt so terrified that she could not talk, she could not move, she could not think. The room seemed to spin around her, and she thought she was going to faint. But, no, she remained there, watching the monster her father actually was. His cynical face looked back at her, and she knew she could not stand it anymore. She had to leave, and in an almost knee-jerk reaction, she jumped to her feet, tipping over the chair as she ran out of the place.

"Lou!" Kid called urgently, but she was already gone. When he turned his eyes back to Boggs and noticed his smirk, Kid's anger soared. "Let me tell you just one thing. If you dare to touch or harm my wife again, I'll forget you're her father. Mark my words because that might be the last thing you do in your life."

Tossing his napkin on the table, Kid walked away to find Lou. Boggs remained at the table alone, and in the same impassive attitude he picked up his fork and resumed eating his lunch. The meat was especially delicious today, and he made a mental note to congratulate Mrs. Cooper, the cook because she really deserved it.