(this one is for Paola,
who’s been longing for a happy ending Kid/Lou story. Hope you like it…)
Every day I'll be here Loving you
All through the years And it's true
There's so much freedom in knowin'
How sure we are that we're goin' All the way
People ask me think y'all can make it
And I tell them honestly
This ain't no fleeting thing We're not imagining
This is it, we know it's meant to be
'Cause I love you, love you completely
Kid awoke with a smile upon his face. He was thinking about all that was going to happen this fine day.
With a touch of nervousness, he thought, ‘It’s actually happening, it’s my wedding day. I wonder how Lou’s doing?’
As Kid sat up in his bunk, the other men started to stir in their beds too. Across the room a grinning Jimmy leaned up on an elbow to look at his best friend. “So, how’s it feel Kid, your last morning as a free man?”
Noah gave Jimmy a dirty look but couldn’t help asking himself, “You sure about getting married Kid? You know, it still ain’t too late…”
Kid grabbed his pants and started putting them on as he looked around the room at his friends, “Ain’t nothing you can say to ruin this day for me. Not when I’ve got the most beautiful girl in the world whose about to become mine for life!”
The other’s laughed with Kid, whose good mood was infectious.
“I wonder how Lou’s doing?” Kid mentioned to no one in particular as he buttoned his shirt.
“If you want, I’ll go make sure she didn’t run off during the night for you,” Cody teased.
“Well, I appreciate the offer Cody, but I’d really rather Jimmy go see how she is this morning,” Kid replied looking expectantly at his best friend who had just finished putting on his boot.
“What do you say, Jimmy?” Kid asked, his eyes begging, needing to know how his true love was doing on her wedding morning.
Walking over to the door, Jimmy winked at Kid and said to everyone, “Why don’t I just go over the house and see how the blushing bride is doing?”
Kid sighed in relief, knowing that Jimmy would tell him if anything was wrong.
Jimmy was halfway across the yard when Kid caught up to him and stopped him with a hand upon his arm.
“Ya need something else Kid?” he questioned.
“Could you tell Lou something for me Jimmy?” he asked all serious.
“Sure, why not?” came his reply as he waited for Kid to tell him what the message was.
Kid looked around nervously to see if anyone might overhear him and when he noticed Buck and Cody coming onto the bunkhouse porch, he leaned over and whispered his message in Jimmy’s ear.
Jimmy’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Kid. “You sure you want me to tell Lou that?”
Shoving his hands in his pockets, Kid kicked at a rock before looking up at Jimmy and nodding that he did.
Shrugging, Jimmy said, “If you say so…” and continued on his way to the house.
Kid walked back to the bunkhouse porch and stood watching from the steps where Buck and Cody still stood, joined by Noah.
“Looks like it’s gonna be a fine day for a wedding, huh Kid?” Noah asked putting his hat on just as Rachel, who appointed herself as protector of the bride for the morning so that the groom would not see the bride before the wedding, opened the front door.
Rachel had mentioned something about “bad luck” the night before at the dinner table and with having lost Ike not to long ago, none of them wanted to tempt fate, so they remained away from the house.
Except Jimmy, that is and he was being ushered into the house by a smiling Rachel.
“Good morning, Rachel. I just came to see how Lou is doing this morning,” Jimmy told the woman as she let him into the living room.
“Kid sent you over, did he?” she asked leading him into the kitchen.
“Well, yeah, he did. But I’d really like to see her myself too…” he let his voice trail off as Lou’s voice was heard calling from upstairs, “It had better not be Kid down there with you Rachel!”
Laughing, Rachel called back, “Don’t you worry none, Lou. It’s just Jimmy come to see you.”
“Oh,” Lou said running down the stairs and into the kitchen. She was wearing one of the new skirts and blouses that she had had made in the last several weeks since she stopped riding out on runs.
The sight of her, in her feminine clothing and her cheeks tinged pink and a sparkle in her eyes, made Jimmy’s breath catch as he thought, ‘Kid sure is a lucky man.’
Going over to give her a hug, Jimmy asked her, “So how’s the beautiful bride this morning?”
Lou hugged him back and planted a sisterly kiss on his cheek with a smile. “Couldn’t be better. How’s Kid? Is he driving you all crazy? I know how worried he gets when he wants thing to go just right…”
Jimmy grimaced, which told her all she needed to know. “Well, tell Kid for me that there’s no need to worry. Today will be just perfect. How could it not, since I’m marrying him?!”
Accepting the cup of coffee that Rachel poured for him, Jimmy sat across from Lou.
“That reminds me, Kid asked me to give you a message,” Jimmy told her turning red and falling silent.
Lou watched her friend, wondering what was making him squirm in his chair. “Well?” she prompted.
“Uh, I’m suppose to tell you, ‘Every day, I'll be here, loving you, all through the years…’ and I’m suppose to give you this,” Jimmy told her leaning over to give her a kiss on the cheek.
His face still red, Jimmy sat back down as Lou went all dewy-eyed at Kid’s message. “I think he meant a kiss on the lips but I didn’t think he’d like my doing that to his bride on your wedding day ‘n all.”
Lou and Rachel laughed, making Jimmy feel more at ease.
“I’d send one back, but I’m sure you don’t want to go kissin’ Kid for me,” Lou teased.
Shaking his head, Jimmy agreed. “No. No I don’t think I do Lou. Sorry, you’ll just have to give it to him when you see him later.”
“I think it’s time for me to start fixing Lou’s hair for the wedding, Jimmy. Why don’t you run along and ease Kid’s mind for everyone. Oh, if Cody hasn’t found it yet, I left some breakfast warming on the stove for you all.”
Taking that as his cue to get going, Jimmy stood, hat in hand and looked again at Lou.
“You are going to be the most beautiful bride Lou, I swear! Kid sure is a lucky man.”
Blushing from his compliment, Lou stood and gave Jimmy one more hug before he left.
As he was opening the door, Lou called out, “Make sure you’re here ten minutes before the wedding so that you can take me to the church and walk me down the aisle, Jimmy!”
Smiling, Jimmy turned and yelled back, “Don’t you worry Lou. I wouldn’t miss walking you down the aisle for nothing in the world.”
At the appointed time of ten minutes to eleven, Jimmy arrived back at the front door to the station’s house. Rachel had just left on Teaspoon’s arm only moments ago and the others had departed about five minutes before them.
Knocking on the door, Jimmy waited for Lou’s okay to come in.
“It’s open Jimmy,” he heard her call out.
Upon opening the door, he was stopped in his tracks as he caught view of Lou standing in the middle of the living room waiting for him in her wedding dress.
“What do you think?” she asked a bit shakily, becoming more nervous the closer it got to say her vows.
Jimmy stammered for a moment before finding his voice, “God, Lou! I ain’t never seen you look more beautiful than you do right now. Kid’s gonna faint when he gets an eye full of you!”
Lou laughed at the idea and teased back, “I sure hope not. You and the other’s would never let him forget it if he did.”
Glancing at her friend, she added with a giggle, “Neither would I!”
Offering her his arm, Jimmy asked, “Shall we, my dear?”
“Please,” she replied linking her arm through his as they went out the front door to the waiting buggy that Kid had rented to take her to the church.
“They’re here!” Jesse called out to Teaspoon with excitement as he watched Jimmy tooling the buggy up to the front steps of the church.
Kid craned his neck to try and see his bride from where he stood at the front of the church, but could not catch a glimpse of her due to all of the guests that had stood as the organists first notes began to play signaling the start of the wedding.
Jesse handed Lou her bouquet of flowers before hurrying down the side of the pews to stand in the front row with Rachel and the rest of the riders.
Jimmy leaned over and teasingly whispered, “It ain’t too late to run away with me you know Lou…”
Lou looked up at him and smiled, whispering right back, not missing a beat, “Ain’t gonna happen Jimmy.”
Jimmy shrugged and whispered, “It was worth a try. We’d best get going before Kid comes back and gets you himself!”
Teaspoon looked dapper in the new suit that Rachel had made special for the occasion and he was beaming with pride at his ‘daughter’ as one of his ‘sons’ walked her down the aisle to where he would join her in marriage to another of his ‘sons’.
Kid moved closer to the end of the pews where he could see Lou. Seeing how beautiful she looked in her wedding dress with its lace collar and the flowers in her hair, he had a hard time catching his breath.
His heart skipped a beat as Jimmy and Lou stopped just short of where he stood, thanking God in his mind for letting him find the love of his life.
As Jimmy handed Lou over to Kid, he went to stand beside the groom, having been asked to be the best man.
When the music finished, Teaspoon cleared his throat, beginning with, “It brings me great pleasure to stand before you all today, to join this beautiful young woman and this handsome young man in holy matrimony…”
The guests got a chuckle when Teaspoon asked, “Who gives this woman to be wed,” and all the riders, including Jesse stood and answered, “We do!”
The ceremony passed in a blur for the bride and groom, so wrapped up in each other, that Teaspoon had to prompt them more than once on their responses and Jimmy nudged Kid in the back when he didn’t reply to being asked if he took this woman to be his wedded wife.
Everyone held their breath anxiously when Teaspoon waited for Kid to finally offer his real name and were disappointed when Kid leaned over and whispered something in the man’s ear, causing Teaspoon to lean back with a raised eyebrow and a wince, before he cleared his throat again and continued using the name they knew the groom by, Kid.
“Aw,” mumbled Cody, disappointed that Kid’s name was still a secret as Buck elbowed him in the side and Noah whispered, “Shh!”
As Teaspoon pronounced the couple, “…Husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride,” a cheer went up from the Express family as Kid kissed Lou with great enthusiasm.
The couple turned towards the guests and made their way down the aisle to the front of the church, where they waited with the rest of their family greeting everyone on the way out and on their way to the reception.
As the last guest disappeared, Kid drew Lou close to him and whispered, “You’ve made me the happiest man on earth today and I look forward to spending the rest of my life with you by my side, Mrs. McCloud.”
Lou looked up at her husband with love shining in her eyes, looped her arms around his neck bringing his head down towards hers and murmured, “I love you too…” as her lips met his.