Shepard's Promise
an excerpt

The morning of Kelly’s wedding dawned bright and sunny. The day promised to be warm but not too hot. Shel finished up his morning chores and was headed back to the ranch house for a shower and breakfast. He stopped by the barn door and stared to the east as the sun rose filling the sky with rose, peach and finally a soft blue. Sot fluffy cotton balls of clouds floated across the sky. Normally this fresh sunrise would fill Shel with a sense of hope for the future but today he couldn’t fill anything.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy for his newly found younger sister. He was happy she had found true love with his best friend and Military buddy Bryant Mitchell. He wished them happiness, but couldn’t really believe that such a thing existed.
His mother had started a tradition of women running away from the Sheldon ranch. Shel had had trouble believing that Kelly would stay. A city born girl would soon begin to yearn for the warmth and vitality of the city. The countryside of an isolated Montana ranch offered only endless sky and more endless landscape.
Kelly had surprised him, making herself totally at home in their Grandmother’s old home. She had left the house to Shel’s mother Kate who had made sure Kelly got it.
The second woman to run away from the ranch was Shel’s wife Marianne. He had met her one day between tours in the Military. She had swept him off his feet and they were married just a month after they met. He had to return to duty and she decided to stay in the city till he returned. He did return but with a part him missing. He brought Marianne to the ranch where he continued his recover from losing his leg in Afghanistan. It didn’t take her long to realize she couldn’t handle the isolation of the ranch or the fact shell was no longer a whole man. She lasted six months before slipping off one day while Shel was off helping herd the cattle to winter pasture. He hadn’t heard from her since, not even for to serve him with divorce papers.
Shel leaned on the fence watching the sun rise over the rise where the fall before he abd Bryant and many others had rescued his nephew Sheldon from Kelly’s stepfather. The man was the one who had lured his mother away many years before and had now come back to get revenge on the family for them being prosperous while he wasn’t. He believed they owed him somehow for his raising Kelly, if the abuse he put her through growing up could be called raising her.
Kelly seemed to have been able to put the episode behind her and look forward to a future with Bryant. Shel wished he had a future to look forward to.
He sighed as he pushed off from the fence and headed toward the ranch house. He smiled when he saw Kelly and Sheldon walking from the direction of their house a mile up a dirt track. He waved and they waved back. He heard a shout from behind him as Bryant emerged from the barn. Shel watched with envy as his nephew Sheldon broke in a run to meet his new daddy. Bryant grabbed the boy and swung him into the air. The lucky guy Shel thought, I’ll never have a child run into my arms like that. It ad been nearly three years now since Marianne had left. Nearly three years since he had even thought of another woman, except for that lovely nurse who had lured him down to the hospital Bryant was in year before last.
Now, what made him think of her all of a sudden? Shel shook his head. He had even imagined earlier in the week that he had seen her. Like, he would remember her after all this time. The thing is he did remember her. He remembered her slender lithe body in her uniform. He remembered how she tilted her head to talk to him as she led him down the hall to Bryant’s room. He remembered her straight brown hair cut in that cute bob. And, most of all he remembered those large doe brown eyes just above her very kissable lips.
Shel sighed and just managed to pull himself together and smile at Kelly as they met in the path. She stopped to let him catch up with her before heading up the path to the house where Rosa would have a big breakfast ready. The tuned as laughter rang out behind them and watched as Bryant swung Sheldon onto his shoulders and bucked like a horse. Sheldon was laughing as he hung on. Shel saw the smile of happiness cross Kelly’s face and he had to smile also. He may be envious of her happiness but he was also happy she had it.
“They look good together,” He said softly. He saw the tiniest ghost of apprehension cross her face and laid his hand on her arm. “He’s nothing like Morris.”
“I know,” Kelly smiled back. “I know, but I can’t help but wonder if he’ll still love Sheldon if a child of his own comes along.”
“Bryant has a big capacity for love,” Shel replied. “I am sure there is enough for as many kids as the two of you can have and never forget his love for Sheldon. Just let anybody tell him he’s not the boy’s father now.”
“Yeah, just let them,” Kelly repeated. She looked into Shel’s eyes and saw something there. “You Okay?”
Shel was quick to smile, “I am fine. I am just trying to think if we remembered everything for this afternoon.”
“I thought that was my job to worry about?”
“Not with your big brother around to do it for you.”
Bryant approached then and tipped Sheldon over into a flip off his back guiding the boy to the ground to land on his feet.
“Uncle Shel,” the boy bounced on his toes and launched into a tight hug of his uncle. “Can we go for a ride after breakfast?”
“I think we will be a bit busy after breakfast,” Shel told his rambunctious nephew. “But, I promise you that after mommy and daddy leave for their honeymoon, you and I will go for a camping trip up at the cabin. He saw the smile on Kelly’s face as she glanced at Bryant. Ah yes, they would have fond memories of that cabin. That’s where they met. Bryant was nearly hit by lightening, and accidentally attacked Kelly while sleep walking. He then got his eyesight back and fell instantly in love. Shel wondered how that felt. For the life of him he could not remember an instant affinity for Marianne, lust maybe but not instant love. He had told himself it was love but now he had to wonder.
“Hey,” a shout from the house called out. “You all going to stand there all day or come eat breakfast. If you let it get cold I won’t be able to hold Rosa off.” They all laughed as they herded into the house. Rosa was the housekeeper and cook. She lorded over them like she was the queen of the castle. Nothing made her happier than to see them all attacking the food she set on the table.
The conversation turned to the upcoming wedding that afternoon and all the things still not done. Breakfast was nearly over when the front doorbell rang. Nobody used the front door. All their friends knew to come around back and walk on into the kitchen. Shel was finished so he stood up to answer it.
“Wonder who that could be?” Kelly wondered aloud. “Has everything been delivered?”
“Far as I know,” Weldon replied. “Everything has been taken to your place and set up yesterday. The cake and flowers will arrive just before noon and they taking them straight to the house. Mavis is coming but she wouldn’t go to the front door.”
“Neither would anybody else who knows us,” Shel said as he headed for the front of the house. “You all finish up; I’ll take care of it. I bet it’s somebody lost.” That has happened from time to time and with all the people heading to the ranch for the wedding he was sure there was a newcomer or two who weren’t sure which place to go.
Shel opened the door to a nice looking young lady who was standing there holding the hand of a sweet little girl.
“Can I help you?”
“I am looking for Sheldon Shepard.”
“That would be me,” Shel smiled down on the lady. She was not very tall, maybe 5 foot 3 at best. Her eyes were a pale gray and her hair a washed out blonde. He was sure he had never met her before. “What can I do for you?”
“I brought you something.”
“I don’t even know you?”
“You know my sister.”
“And she would be?” Shel was never the patient type but he was sure this lady was stalling. Getting information from her was like pulling teeth, long and painful.
She hesitated a second before glancing down at the little girl. Shel followed her eyes and looked at the child once again. That’s when she looked up and smiled. It hit Shel between the eyes and he thought he was going down. His legs suddenly went weak and his head spun. The eyes looking back at him were the color of the sky. The same as his were, as Kelly’s were, even the same as Weldon and Sheldon. They all had the Shepard’s blue eyes. This child had them, and the strawberry hair and tiny oval face. He was staring into the eyes of his child. He knew it just as surely as he was standing there. Then the lady finally spoke the words he wasn’t surprised to hear.
“Marianne,” she said simply. It actually explained it all, at least for the moment. Right now nothing mattered except this little doll standing smiling up at him.
Shel knelt down in front of her and smiled back. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to smile but it came. It came with a soft filling flowing through him. This was his child, the child he thought he would never have.
“Hi,” he said softly
“Hi,” she answered him back shyly.
“Do you have a name?”
She nodded but said nothing looking up at the woman. The woman smiled down at her and Shel suddenly saw a little of Marianne in her. She may not be as stunning as her sister but there was a resemblance. He watched as she leaned over and erge the child to tell him her name.
“I’m Shelby and I’m this many old,” she said as she held up three fingers.
Shel had to gulp in the air. That would be about right, Marianne must have just been pregnant when she left. It seems that history for the Shepard men was truly repeating.
“Hi Shelby,” he whispered in a suddenly tight voice. “I’m Sheldon.”
“You’re daddy,” she said bluntly. Shel’s heart stopped then and there and he was sure it wouldn’t start again. He stood and gulped a few more times before he could speak again.
“I think you better come inside,” he said as he moved aside to let the woman usher the child in the door. “I have a feeling this will be a long story.”
He led them to the sofa and gestured for them to sit.