Except him.
She thought about confessing this morning. Before he took her to the wedding. But she wouldn’t spoil this day for him. Time enough tomorrow, before she left.
Today, Trey and Holly would tie the knot and Gemma would accompany Noah to the wedding in a move, universally acknowledged, to be dangerous to relationships. Weddings were fraught things, full of unintentionally—or perhaps, intentionally—contagious emotions. In the light of day, sometimes, those emotions were found to be more fantasy than real. She supposed the same could be said for weekend trips and chance encounters on rural docks.
Tomorrow, she would leave this place and Noah behind. Marietta had proven itself worthy of its romantic reputation and, like a food critic, she’d come, she’d drunk the water and here she was. Lying beside him, watching the morning shadows dance across his broad shoulders, wishing they had a future.
She lifted a hand to trace a scar on his shoulder with her fingertip. Her touch woke him and he opened his eyes with a smile. She smiled back.
“Morning,” she said softly, taking back her hand.
“Morning. Get much sleep?”
She shook her head. “I guess I don’t have to ask you that either.”
A slow smile spread across his face as he rolled over her and trapped her beneath him. He pressed his lips against her forehead. “It’s nice to wake up to you.”
“You, too.” His body was still warm with sleep, and she loved the feeling of his weight on her. But she felt suddenly shy with him watching her so closely. “Today’s the big day for Trey and Holly.”
He frowned. “What time is it?” The bedside clock read 9:30 a.m. He groaned and rubbed a hand down his face. “What time are we supposed to be at Olivia’s for the trail ride?”
“Eleven. On the dot. I told her we’d come. She basically gave us an imperative. Besides checking off your bucket list and all.”
He chuckled. “Right.”
“And what’s a trip to Montana without a horseback ride?”
“Maybe we should skip it. Entertain ourselves otherwise.”
“Otherwise?” She giggled.
“Maybe you’re the only thing on my bucket list this morning.”
“Flattery will get you almost anywhere. But I got the sense that this ride was something Trey wanted all of you to do.”
“Well,” he murmured, thumbing the hair off her cheek and pressing a kiss on her nose, “I suppose since this is his wedding day, we should accommodate him.”
“We definitely should.”
He slid his hand downward, past her hip, to splay across the top of her thigh. “But maybe we don’t have to leave just yet.”
“Noah—” she warned. She laughed, rolling out from under him and wrapping the sheet around her. “I need to shower and dress. And you’ll make us late.”
He tugged her back again and kissed her. She relented, giving in to his kiss until he’d trapped her again, sheet and all.
“Okay. You win,” he said. “But first, I’m curious. Or should I say…I’m wondering, what changed your mind about coming here last night?”
“I…” Gemma turned her face from him. “Does that really matter?”
“You’re not gonna tell me?”
“I would tell you, if I really knew. But half the things I do, I do for reasons that are a mystery, even to me.” She sighed. “That’s not to say I regret it. I don’t. Maybe I’ve done too much regretting lately. But tomorrow, I have to go back to my life and you, to yours. And even if we never see each other again after that, last night is one less thing I’ll have to regret. Sixty years from now, I won’t be looking back saying, what were you so afraid of? At least there’s that. Meanwhile, we just enjoy today. The wedding. Your friends. Try not think about the rest.”
“What if we could?” he asked.
“Could…what?”
“See each other again.”
That was the last thing she expected him to say. She had a one in ten chance that would happen after she told him the truth. She kissed him, cleared her throat and slipped out from under him, tugging the sheet back around her again. “I’m going to go back to my room, take a shower and get dressed. And then…we’re going to go to Olivia’s and ride some Montana horses. Let’s not worry about tomorrow. I want to be like those baby goats at the yoga class and live in the moment today.” She folded her hands prayerfully. “Namaste. So what do you say? Join me?”
His mouth quirked. “In the shower?”
She giggled. “Um…I meant living in the moment. But sure.”
And he did.
*
They arrived at Lane’s End, the Canaday ranch, a few minutes before eleven. Summer was buzzing in the trees surrounding the farm and the sky was achingly blue. Olivia’s family—her husband Jake were there. So was her half-sister Ali and her husband Adam, whose daughter—a teenage girl whose name Noah didn’t know—was already saddling up for the ride. Kate was there, too, helping to saddle up the horses. Olivia’s parents were manning the fort, pushing four of their grandkids in the swings under the cottonwood trees. Trey and Holly were conspicuously absent. But he’d assumed, in her condition, she wouldn’t be riding today and they were probably preparing for the ceremony.
Jase, Mick and Paul were here already, saddled up and ready to go. They watched the arrival of Noah and Gemma together with barely concealed amusement.
“You made it!” Olivia called to them. “I picked out a couple of horses for you, but we were waiting to see if you’d come.”
“Sorry we’re late.” Gemma reached up to pet the gray gelding with the soulful eyes, who was tied to the fencepost.
“No, you are just in time. Noah, have you ridden before?”
He studied the horse, a black gelding with white stockings. “I’ve watched John Wayne mount horses a bunch of times. Does that count?”
“Not really,” she said, laughing. “But at least you’ll know which side to mount from, right?”
He frowned, trying to recall that essential detail. “Uh…”
“Left,” Olivia instructed with a grin. “Always on the left.”
Kate had thrown a saddle blanket and saddle on the gelding for him and she tightened the girth. “This is Náhkohe. That means ‘bear’ in Cheyenne. Up you go!”
Bear. He wondered if that was a bad sign. He took hold of the reins and saddle horn, hoisting himself up into the saddle.
The brothers gave him an amused slow clap for the effort. He bent at the waist in acknowledgment.
“We’re all pretty much experts at this riding thing after last Christmas,” Mick teased. “In the snow. Icicles dripping from our facial hair. But since you were a no-show and clearly not that comfortable on a horse, maybe we should hold your reins for you, Noah. You know, so you don’t fall off.”
“Not likely, Wonder Boy,” he retorted, watching Mick’s horse lay her ears back as Jase’s horse got a little too close to her rear end. “I’d pay attention to my own ass if I were you.”
Mick’s horse bucked a little and nipped at Paul’s ride with a furious little whinny. Mick almost flew over the horse’s neck, but dragged himself upright by the saddle horn as Paul laughed and steered his horse out of harm’s way.
Mick blushed as only the Viking could. “All right, all right. Maybe I deserved that.”
“Hell, yeah, you did,” Cowboy agreed with a grin. “But, uh…Noah, if you do need someone to hold your reins for you…”
That provoked another burst of laughter from the others as Gemma mounted her gray mare. She was biting her lips together and trying not to meet Noah’s eye.
“I mean, c’mon,” he whispered to her as she drew close. “How hard can riding a horse be?”
*
The branch that had knocked him off was still seesawing above him as his horse trotted away after the others who were ahead of him. One minute they’d been breezing along the path and the next, he lay sprawled on the sage-littered ground, staring at the blue, blue sky a
bove him and wondering why he’d hadn’t just kept Gemma in bed this morning. Whose idea was this forced march across the valley on horseback, anyway?
“Hey! You okay?”
Gemma was off her horse and leaning over him with real concern.
“Fine. Bruises—” he said, rubbing that spot “—notwithstanding.”
She winced. “Sorry.”
He sat up. Slowly. “Ow. I think I heard that horse laughing as he ran away.”
Gemma chuckled.
“You okay back there?” Olivia called.
Noah raised his hand in the universal signal for still breathing!
Gemma extended a hand down to him and helped him up. He brushed the weeds off him as Mick led his horse back to him with an I-warned-you smile on his face.
“Don’t say a word,” Noah ordered as he limped over to his gelding, testing his knee. He glanced at his watch. “I thought you said this would only be a short trail ride.”
“We’re almost there,” Mick said, reining his horse back in the other direction.
“Almost where?”
“You’ll see.”
They’d been riding for almost a half hour over some of the most beautiful country he’d frankly ever seen. Before being unceremoniously unseated, he wouldn’t have thought to complain about how far they’d gone or how long until they finished. Being out here was like breathing air for the first time. Doing so with Gemma at his side was fun. He’d done worse in his life than getting thrown off a horse. His new knee was in one piece, so there was that.
He remounted and took a tighter grip on the reins. Náhkohe tossed a look back at him, probably gauging how long before he could buck him off again.
Gemma pulled up beside him and fell into step there. “Your knee okay?”
He nodded. “Luckily it was my ego that took the hit, not my knee.”
“Anyone who rides knows they’ll eventually have to fall off in an embarrassing way at least once. It’s a rule I’m pretty sure ol’ Náhkohe is familiar with.”
He stroked the gelding’s neck. “Thanks for holding up your end, pal.”
Gemma laughed. “So pretty out here, isn’t it? I can’t think of anyplace I’ve been that’s as pretty.”
“I’m with you there,” he said. “Being here, away from the concrete canyons of New York City is like…well, I’m starting to understand why Trey moved here. And Cowboy. Even Mick is talking about it.”
“Really?”
“So he says. There might be a woman involved.”
“Ah…” she said, tilting a look at the blue sky. “I almost think I could live here.”
“Really?”
“I’d have to let go of my love of the rain, of course,” she mused, patting her horse’s neck. “Mossy sidewalks. Temperate weather. The ocean.”
“You have a point.”
“Oh!” she said, sitting up straighter. “Look! What’s that?”
Up ahead, as the trail edged down into a dip in the green, glorious valley, he saw the riders ahead had stopped and there was—what the hell?—a celebration set up in the middle of nowhere. Linen covered long tables, chairs, flowers and even a makeshift, flower-covered willow arch. There was a dance floor laid out on the grass and a band setting up. A little farther to the left, two large horse trailers, and several catering vans were already parked and a bus was delivering a stream of guests to what could only be a surprise venue for Trey and Holly’s wedding. There were the elder Canadays and their grandkids. And half of Marietta by the looks of it.
He and Gemma exchanged looks and Mick turned back to him with a grin.
“You knew about this?” Noah said.
“Somebody had to get you yahoos here.”
“But we’re not dressed for the wedding,” Gemma pointed out, looking down at her jeans and boots.
“I think that’s how they wanted it,” Noah said. All the guests seemed to be dressed in casual clothes. He had to hand it to Trey. They’d warned there would be some surprises and this was a good one.
They dismounted and handed the horses over to a pair of wranglers standing by to take them back to the trailers. Making their way to the white chairs lined up in rows beside the willow arch, they were shown to the front rows with the rest of the brothers. The place for family. Already seated beside them was Nio, Trey’s brother. Noah extended his hand to him.
“Nio. It’s great to see you again.”
“And you,” the other man said, getting to his feet with a wide smile. He was as good-looking as Trey, but with a smoother edge. “You remember Becca.”
Noah turned to the pretty woman at Nio’s side with the darling baby boy squirming on her hip. “Becca. Beautiful as ever.” He kissed her cheek and gently ruffled the little boy’s dark hair. “And I finally get to meet Raphael. Look how big he’s gotten!”
“Like a weed in my father’s garden,” Nio said, obviously smitten.
Beside them, the old man named Juan Luis—Nio and Trey’s father—chimed in with a laugh. “Ah, you know there are no weeds in my garden, mis hijos!”
Juan Luis, gardener extraordinaire, had spent several months at his son Nio’s fabulous home in Northern California when the SEAL team had been recuperating there from the wounds of war. He’d cooked his famous enchiladas and chile rellenos for them and reminded them all of what family meant. He was beloved by all of them, as was Nio—an official honorary member of the Band of Brothers for all he’d done for them.
Noah tugged Gemma closer. “And this is my friend, Gemma Wayne.”
She blushed as she shook their hands. “So nice to meet you all.”
“I wish we could have gotten up here earlier for the festivities, but work got in the way,” Nio said. “Isn’t this place great?”
No arguing with that. Nio was a tech genius who had made a lot of money in Silicon Valley. Noah was very glad he’d made it to the wedding in time, but he’d had little doubt he’d move heaven and earth to make it happen.
A waiter passed around glasses of champagne as people took their seats. As everyone settled, the band started playing a cover of “Amazed,” by Lonestar, and Trey and Mick appeared at the front of the audience beneath the flowered arch beside a minister. Trey looked happy. Happier than he’d ever seen him. He pointed at Noah and the others, as if to say, I see you. I am so glad you’re here.
Predictably, Trey wasn’t in a tux, but a dark blue suit and an open blue shirt. He and Mick—who’d also added a sports coat to his trail-ready clothes—had small white flowers as boutonnieres and their gazes were pinned to the back of the audience where Holly’s sister-in-law, Megan, had started down the cloth-covered aisle first. Right beside her, her daughter, Maddie, tossed flower petals from a small basket.
Noah reached for Gemma’s hand and she squeezed it. Their eyes met for a brief moment before Holly appeared at the end of the aisle, on the arm of Eve, Kate and Olivia’s father, Trey’s boss, Reed Canaday, who could not have looked prouder to be walking her down the aisle.
She was carrying some kind of white flowers and wearing a blush-colored gown, which pretty much matched the color on her cheeks as she met Trey’s gaze. Noah had known Holly for years, but today, she looked as beautiful as he’d ever seen her. And happy as the man she was about to marry. He knew—they all knew—how much she’d wanted children with her first husband, Tommy. And how that had never happened with them. Now, here she was, months away from a new family with the new love of her life.
Emotions welled in his throat. He wasn’t normally sappy about these things—weddings—in fact, he hardly ever attended them. Not that he wasn’t invited. But weddings had always made him feel on the wrong side of things. Like he was looking through a glass he would personally never get on the other side of. And for a long, long time, he’d been fine with that. He’d told himself that anyway. But sitting here at Trey’s wedding, feeling the love here between them, holding the hand of the woman who’d made him imagine changing that trajectory in his life—as unrealistic as he
knew that was—he felt the choke of emotions that were nearly unrecognizable to him. Things he hadn’t felt, or even allowed himself to feel, for years.
Gemma leaned her head on his shoulder as she watched Holly walk toward them and the pang of something else ricocheted through him—the dread of what tomorrow would bring, when they said goodbye. He threaded an arm around her and forced himself to focus on the wedding at hand.
Holly reached Trey, handed her flowers to Megan, and Reed gave her away. They spoke their handwritten vows to each other and not one of the brothers had a dry eye when Noah looked at them. Nor did he. And when the pair had said everything there was to say, they kissed each other with abandon to a cheering crowd who applauded their happiness as they danced down the aisle.
*
The wedding had been perfect, in Gemma’s humble opinion, as full of love and happiness as weddings were meant to be. And watching hardly hurt at all, considering this was the first one she’d been to since her own. But having Noah standing beside her helped—in a way it really, really shouldn’t have.
The reception their wedding coordinator, Eve Canaday, had planned so well was all set up in the grassy space beside the wedding. The lawn ran alongside the Yellowstone River not fifty feet away and they could hear the water from here as the current moved along the sandy banks and the rocks strewn along the way. Trey and Holly spent some time taking photos in the beautiful location while the guests mingled with catered appetizers and drinks. Noah stuck by her side and together they talked with Paul and Cowboy as the band struck up some music in the background. More than a few couples found their way onto the dance floor.
Once or twice, she caught an older man she hadn’t met staring at Noah with a funny expression and finally, he asked him, “Do we know each other from somewhere?”
Noah’s expression flattened and instantly, his palm began to sweat against hers. “I don’t think so. No.”
“That’s weird. I could swear…”
Unexpected Hero Page 13
