Page 94 of Deserving Cora
The only person Lara felt truly comfortable around was Owl. He’d moved her into his cabin the day they’d returned to New Mexico, and they’d spent the last few cold months hunkered down together. Lara wasn’t ready to talk to Henley, their resident psychologist, so the woman was giving Owl pointers and tips so he could help her as much as possible.
Pipe hated that Lara was struggling so much. And he hated even more the nights when Cora cried in his arms because she felt so helpless to do anything for her best friend. She wasn’t a crier, but the thought of Lara suffering was enough to make her break down. Despite that, Cora refused to give up. She had hope that one day, Lara would be able to break through the bubble of fear she currently lived in. Until then, she continued to do everything she could to make Lara feel as if she was just as much a part of The Refuge as everyone else.
Pipe loved her all the more for it. Her stubbornness was one of the things he adored most about her.
“Thank you all for coming,” Tonka told the crowd. “It feels right to be doing this here, surrounded by the animals who were my salvation when I needed it the most. Before getting my head out of my butt when it came to Henley, I hid out here in the barn, feeling as if the four-legged creatures in the world understood me more than any human ever could. Henley saw through my gruffness, and with her patience and understanding, made me see that hiding wasn’t going to heal my pain. She shared her love, and her daughter, and helped me understand my past wasn’t ever going to disappear. It was always going to be there, lurking, ready to try to steal my joy. But it doesn’t have to dictate my future. And my future is here. With my wife, my daughter, our friends…and our new little one, who will be here in the fall.”
Tonka gently put his hand on Henley’s stomach.
Everyone let out a gasp, then clapped enthusiastically.
“Did you know?” Cora asked as she turned to look up at Pipe.
He grinned down at her, but didn’t respond.
“Of course you knew,” she mumbled with a small smile, turning back to their friends.
“Yup, I’m pregnant,” Henley said when the congratulations had died down. “We’d decided to let nature take its course, and surprise! Now, I’m going to keep this short because if I don’t, the goats are gonna overpower Robert and Luna and eat all our food.”
Everyone laughed as they looked toward the table and saw the chef and his daughter doing their best to protect it with brooms, wielding them as if they were knights of old brandishing their swords.
“Anyway, I’ve worked here almost since The Refuge opened, and I knew from the second I stepped onto the property that this place would make a difference in so many people’s lives. I just wasn’t expecting to beoneof those lives. When the worst thing in my life happened, you were all there for me and Jasna. That’s what family is. And I love you all so much.”
She sniffed, and Pipe smiled as Tonka leaned down and kissed the top of her head.
“And I’m so happy to be a big sister!” Jasna said excitedly.
Everyone clapped again, and when the noise settled down, Tonka made a point of meeting the gazes of his friends and co-owners of The Refuge. “This is not my thing, speeches, being the center of everyone’s attention, but there’s no one I’d rather celebrate my marriage with than all of you. Thank you for your patience with me. For your support. For being there no matter what.”
Pipe dipped his head in recognition of his friend’s words.
“Now…let’s eat!” Tonka exclaimed.
He leaned down and kissed his wife. Jasna ignored her parents and jumped off the short riser and headed to Scarlet to give her some attention. Everyone else made their way toward the food, but Pipe’s attention was on Cora.
She clicked off the phone, then turned to face him. She smiled…but he could tell she was sad about Lara.
“She’ll be okay,” he told her. “And maybe Tonka’s words will sink in. About his past not dictating his future.”
Cora sighed. “I hope so. I just…I have so many emotions when it comes to what happened. I can’t believe the FBIstillhas no idea where Creepy Guy is.”
Pipe’s lips twitched at her insistence on calling him Creepy Guy, but then he sobered. He also wasn’t happy that the man was in the wind. “They’ll find him,” he told her.
“I know. But I think Lara would feel a lot better, safer, if he was behind bars somewhere. She’s terrified he’s going to come after her.”
Pipe nodded. He and the rest of the guys weren’t exactly thrilled by that prospect. They’d discussed it at length, and he knew they’d all do everything in their power to keep that from happening. To stay vigilant. And they’d also had a long talk about actually purchasing a helicopter for The Refuge and putting in a helipad and a small hangar. It would mean cutting other things they’d planned to do on the property, at least for a while, but after Stone’s amazing flying had gotten them safely away from the estate in Arizona, they all realized how things could’ve gone downhill if that chopper wasn’t at their disposal. With Cora and Lara both hurt, and Grant having regained consciousness so quickly…
It wasn’t the worst idea to have a helicopter at their disposal at The Refuge, just in case they needed to evacuate.
“She’s going to be all right,” Pipe insisted. “She just needs the time she needs.”
Cora sighed. Then nodded.
It was another in a long line of things Pipe loved about her. She was resilient and trusted him with every ounce of her being. He vowed to never let her down. That trust was a gift. He knew it and cherished it.
She’d said something a week after they’d gotten back from Arizona that had stuck with him. They’d been talking about Grant, and why he was the way he was, and she’d commented that she should’ve been just like him. Angry and bitter. And maybe a criminal. He could acknowledge now that it was a miracle she wasn’t. She was wary of people, yes, but Pipe couldn’t blame her for that. And there were times when she slipped and questioned why he was with her, but overall, she was remarkably well-adjusted for someone with her background.
He loved her. So much it almost scared him sometimes. But he also embraced it. Cora made him a better person. Kept his demons at bay. Just being with her opened his eyes more to the beauty that was all around him. That was life itself.
