Twelve, ten. She could feel her pulse throb in her neck. Judith stepped aside and Kyla's momentum carried her to an open door.

"Ky," he said. A gray face on a white pillow, the dark hair looking much darker in contrast. One arm came up. He could not move the other because of the tubes.

And the swollen, dark, pummeled termination of his leg.

"Oh, Whit!"

She kissed him, long and deep, an immensely satisfying declaration. The hand he could spare tangled in her hair and kept their mouths together long after she grew faint.

"I love you, Ky," he whispered. "Did you understand when I said it in the canyon?" Kyla nodded, dumb and breathless. "Thank G.o.d! I was afraid I hadn't made sense, because I wasn't making sense in the ambulance or the airplane."

"I heard," she said, replaying the unintelligible mutter, recognizing the cadence.I love you, Ky. Certainly only one syllable at the end, not two.

"Will you marry me?"

"Yes."

"How soon?"

"When you can sit in a wheel chair and sign your name. I'll push you to the office to buy the license."

"We'll be fine together, Ky. Neither of us would ever be able to find a lover who truly understands. About the rocks, and all, I mean."

"You're so right." For a moment she thought she heard Glenda screaming in protest, but it turned out to be a squeaky wheel on a cart trundling down the hall.

"There's something you've got to take care of."

"Anything, lover."

"I'll call the bank and my lawyer tomorrow. You go in, sign the papers so you can buy us a new truck. Neligh called this afternoon with the bad news. More rocks came down while he was out there with the insurance man, scared the fellow to death, and he ran a quarter mile screaming, 'Total loss!' My pickup's declared a historical monument, a permanent fixture of Fellows Canyon.

"Whit, I've never -- "

"Second thing, the coffee here's terrible." Kyla retrieved the bag from the floor and pulled out the coffee set.

"Do you believe in mental telepathy?" he asked, a bit awed.

"Mom and Dad swear they know each other's thoughts."

"Yesterday, did you tell someone to turn off the siren?"

"Yes. Colton kept blasting -- "

"You heard me! And today you got the word about the coffee."

"I've never bought a truck before. I won't know what to look for."

"Just read through the specs like you're talking to me, you'll hear me agree or disagree."

"I'll bring the specs for you to read," Kyla said firmly. "Miracles of telepathic communication are all very well in an emergency, but when buying a truck we'd better be more down to earth." Judith's head poked around the doorframe.

"Hate to tell you this, but visiting hours end in five minutes."

"And while you're out running around," Whit said, "pick up a diamond ring for yourself. Somewhere in my wallet -- Good Grief! I don't know where my wallet is.

Anyway, there's a charge card for a department store, and they'll have rings."

Kyla stroked Whit's immobile right hand. Their first disagreement on the horizon, and less than five minutes to deal with it. Maybe she should wait until tomorrow. No. Tell him now and let him come to terms with it overnight.

"Whit, a doctor uses her hands, and I've always found it difficult...with rings I mean." A reddening across his pale cheeks. A hint of...relief? He smiled broadly.

"I wondered how I'd tell you. I don't like rings. See, we were meant for each other." They were still kissing when a tinny loud-speaker voice ordered visitors out of the hospital.

"Dinner?" Judith asked as she drove out of the parking lot.

Kyla consulted her stomach, and discovered she was ravenous. After they had been seated in the casino cafe, Judith laid a large hand on the menu before Kyla opened it.

"That's what their first big argument was about," she said.

"Whose argument, about what?"

"Whit and Jenny's. Rings. He caved in, because he couldn't say no. Remember that. He's unable to say no to anyone he loves. You'll have to be very cautious what you ask for."

Whit was on the phone when Kyla arrived with a sheaf of papers requiring his signature, and the owner's manuals from six different trucks. "I can't believe it...Five men? You sure, Neligh? Thanks for letting me know." His foot, still supported in a sling, had shrunk considerably overnight and the skin tone resembled severe bruises more than death. Recognizably a foot, with five toes.

"Don't let the kids up there. Put them in jail if you have to. Drop in if you're up this way."

He saw her before he hung up, his hand came up, still grasping the receiver.

"What kids going where?" she asked in alarm.

"Jim and Vince caught Trace and Andy hiking up the ridge. Trace is certain the rock-fall exposed a silver vein."

"Oh good grief!" She placed the flowers and papers on the bedside table, leaned over to give him a peck on the cheek, but he pulled her across his chest. His fingers toyed with her hair, caressed her back.

"Did you see Chase dead?" he whispered.

"Yes."

"Neligh just told me. Nightmares?"

"Not yet, but everything keeps replaying in my head. Over and over."

"I'm the lucky one. They knocked me out and I'm just getting all the memories straight. Everything about you, though, I remembered straight off. The hospital wants to send in a shrink, to help me cope. But I told them we'd deal with this together, you and I. It's an incentive to get on my feet and get out of here.

The doctor says I can go to Judith's in a few days if I hire a nurse."

"I know a med student who needs a summer job."

"I thought you had one."

"I don't like the boss. I'm quitting."

"This boss will be very demanding."

"You've got it backwards. You're the patient, I'm the boss."

"Oh. Hey! I forgot the big news. They found Moira."

"De...?" She didn't want to hear.

"No, this morning a narcotics squad raided Penny Springs, and there she was.

Locked in a boarded up room. She told Neligh two men approached her when she was jogging, they bragged about how much money they'd have at harvest time, she went with them, and of course once she'd seen what was growing at Penny Springs, they wouldn't let her go. So they're facing more than cultivation of marijuana charges. Kidnapping, false imprisonment."

"Poor woman! And her husband dead!"

"All her dreams up in smoke. Or maybe I should say buried by rocks."

"I'd appreciate it if you'd not mention rocks. At least, don't say the word unless you have your arms around me." He embraced her lightly.

"Ky," he whispered into her hair. "There's one more thing. Before I go home, go furniture shopping and fill up that house."

"We'll wait until you're able to go shopping."

"No. Whatever you want, that's what I want. Empty, the house stays haunted. When I hobble through that door, I want to see a place ready for us to live in."

"A king sized bed on the dais in the bedroom?" she asked.

"Fine. Although that much s.p.a.ce will be a waste, because I won't let you ever get too far away. Except, of course, when you have to be in San Francisco and I've got to be on the ranch."

"Maybe queen-sized would do."

"When we get to Judith's..." His fingers said the rest, digging into her spine.

Kyla rested her elbows on the bed, leaned over, mouth slightly open -- "Oh, my G.o.d!" he exclaimed. Kyla jumped back.

"I hurt you! b.u.mped your leg?"

"The fountain! We left it running, and I never got around to hooking it up to the water line. Get hold of Jim or Vince, tell them -- "

"I need to call Glenda anyway," Kyla said. "I'll tell her to drive out and shut the thing off."

A perfect job to keep Glenda busy. Exactly what she would need to keep her mind occupied, after she learned that her little sister was marrying T. J. Whitaker.

The End