For a moment, the only sound was the rush of water and the wild thumping of her heart. She blinked. A few more times faster, and the glimmer of gold on his ring finger came into sharp focus. Completely wrapped up in his unexpected presence, this was the first she’d noticed the evidence of their marriage—had he worn it all along?
“Is that better?” he asked again, concern roughening his voice.
“You’re wearing your ring.”
Colton’s stomach dropped at her quiet statement, but he didn’t say a word as he stared at her red fingers and fought the urge to hide his hand. Damn it. He’d become so accustomed to its slight weight, he’d forgotten to remove it. She pulled her hand from his and shut off the water before taking a step back. Away from him.
“Why did you come here?” she asked into the sudden, deafening silence.
He finally shoved his hands into his pockets, hiding the proof of his foolish heart. “Joel needed someone to drive the horses—”
“You could’ve said no.”
“He signs my paycheck,” he pointed out.
She shook her head, hands clasped together in front of her. “You could’ve said no.”
Yeah, okay, I get it. You wish I wouldn’t have come. Colton turned, suddenly wishing he’d left when he had the chance. She never would’ve seen the ring and he—
“You walked away that day without so much as a backward glance…”
Kendra’s words brought him around fast. “That’s the second time you’ve said that, but what about you?” he demanded in self-defense. “First flight out the next day pretty much covers it. Couldn’t wait to get back to the city and your money, and everything that goes with it, could you?”
For the first time that morning, she met and held his gaze. Confused anger blazed in her brown eyes. “If that’s the way you feel, then why are you still here?”
He gave a self-deprecating half-laugh. “You know, that’s a good question with a very simple answer. I—”
“He loves you.”
Colton whirled around to see a grinning Noah standing in the kitchen doorway in his pajamas. “What…where’d you get that idea?” he asked sharply.
Noah’s smile fell away. “J-Joel said that you—”
Colton banged his fist hard on the counter and Noah jumped back in surprise. Ignoring the stab of guilt for frightening the kid, he strode toward the door.
“Do you?”
Kendra’s soft question jerked him to a halt as if he were a puppet on a string. When he glanced back, the tip of her tongue swept along her lips, before her teeth caught the corner of her bottom one. Her mouth twitched, as if she were fighting a grin. Unbelievably, humor lit her eyes. Pain squeezed his heart, chest and lungs. She thought this was funny?
Of course—the poor cowboy falling for the rich city girl was always good for a laugh.
He bolted from the kitchen, damning Joel all the way to hell and back. His hand reached for the apartment door, but Kendra was suddenly in front of him, her back pressed to the wood, blocking his only escape.
“Do you?”
This time the question was infused with her demand for his answer.
Faced with the possibility of a future he wanted more than anything, the truth hit Colton like the impact of a hoof with a thousand pounds of horse behind it. For the first time since his father’s accident, he realized it wasn’t only guilt that’d kept him running the past eight years. He was scared. Terrified that if he opened himself to the kind of love his parents had shared, there was the chance that he, too, could lose it someday.
It was clear he had two options. Confirm Noah’s declaration for a fifty-fifty chance at having a life worth living; or deny it and lose one hundred percent.
In a low voice, he answered, “So what if I do? It doesn’t change anything.”
The smile he’d glimpsed in the kitchen made a full appearance. “Of course it does.”
He shook his head, unable to completely let go of the fear he’d carried for so long. “You married me for your money. It doesn’t get more cut and dried than that.”
“I married you for Noah,” she corrected.
Confusion rushed in. “For Noah?”
“Yes. If I didn’t get married, Robert retained custody. I tried to explain that morning, but you were so angry.”
God. He’d really screwed things up, hadn’t he? “I thought it was all for the money.” With a half turn and a jerk of his hand, he gestured toward the apartment behind him. “For this.”
Kendra shook her head with another wobbly smile. “Even after everything he did, I would’ve gladly given Robert the money, but never Noah. And if it’d only been the money, and you’d said no, I wouldn’t have gotten married at all.”
A slight frown creased his brow. “Really? You’d have given it all up? Just like that?”
“Money isn’t everything.”
“Easy to say when you have it.”
She tilted her head and crossed her arms. “I happen to know you haven’t cashed your check.”
He reached into the back pocket of his jeans and then handed her the folded, worn envelope.
After a glance inside, she looked up at him, dumbfounded. “Colton, this is like cash in your pocket! What if you lost it?”
He took a deep breath. He was still scared as hell, but it was time to quit running.
“I didn’t marry you for the money, either.”
Attention focused solely on her mouth, he lifted his hand, slid a knuckle along her jaw, then threaded his fingers through her hair to the nape of her neck. Finally, he gathered enough courage to raise his gaze to hers. The unmasked love in her eyes made him catch his breath, and his heart beat double-time.
“To answer your original question, I came because I missed you…and yes, because I love you.”
He bent his head, took her mouth with his, and did his damndest to prove the depth of his love. She threw her arms around his neck and did a little proving of her own. With the hot seduction of her lips and tongue, and the emotion he now recognized in her kiss, he was amazed his heart didn’t burst from his chest.
She pulled back a few minutes later. Winded, flushed, and absolutely beautiful. He would never let her go again.
“I love you, Colton.”
He smiled against her soft lips, and kissed her again while digging into his front jeans pocket. When he yanked to free his hand, she pulled back and laughed through a frown.
“What the heck are you doing?”
At last, he held her wedding ring up between his thumb and forefinger. Her eyes widened, then instantly filled with more tears. “My ring! I looked for it all over the guest house living room. I thought I’d never see it again.”
“I had your necklace fixed, too, but this—uh, uh.” He lifted the ring out of her reach but enjoyed her attempt to retrieve it. “This I want to put back where it belongs.”
She gave up with a breathless smile. “Like yours?”
“Damn straight.” Giving up the macho image, he took her left hand and admitted, “I wore gloves at work for three weeks, just couldn’t bring myself to take it off.”
He slowly slid the ring on before leaning over to brush her lips with his. Tears filled her shining eyes once more before she hugged him as if she’d never let go. Fine with him. He ran his hands down her back to rest them on her hips. His fingers edged under the back waistband of her jeans and she leaned back with a sexy smile. The flare of desire in her eyes heated his blood, making him wish it was night instead of morning.
And with the anticipation of evening came another thought. Still holding her close, he lifted one hand to cup her face. “There’s a conversation we agreed to have almost a month ago.”
She leaned into his touch, her expression now completely serious. “I would’ve called you.”
Disappointment struck deep in his chest. He worked to keep his voice even. “We didn’t use anything last night, either…something to do with you driving me absolutely crazy.”
“I think, subconsciously, you have ulterior motives.”
“Would you mind?” he asked hopefully, surprised to discover he was nervous for her answer.
With a radiant smile, she shook her head again, and he expelled his breath from tight lungs. When he leaned in for another kiss, a low groan sounded from behind his back.
Geez, Noah! Good thing he’d kept the kisses PG-13.
Colton swung Kendra around to see her little brother sitting on the couch, watching them, the phone to his ear.
“They just keep kissing,” he said with the genuine disgust of an eight-year-old.
“Who is that?” Kendra exclaimed.
Noah’s revulsion morphed into a mischievous grin. “Joel.”
Colton leaned his head back with a deep chuckle, his earlier suspicions confirmed. “Tell him I owe him a pair of boots.” Kendra’s confused look and the laughter that burst through the phone prompted him to whisper against her ear, “I’ll explain later.”
She shivered in his arms, and he just knew it was going to be a heck of a long day.
“Can we go back to Colorado now?” Noah wanted to know.
Colton’s humor faded; he hadn’t thought that far ahead.
But Kendra’s immediate emphatic answer surprised him. “Yes. Please.”
Noah whooped for joy. Over the noise, Kendra’s conversation with Britt echoed in Colton’s mind with utter clarity. He didn’t want to live in this crazy, crowded, loud city, but he didn’t want her to make such a big decision without giving it serious thought. “Really? You’re sure?”
Not even a split-second of hesitation preceded her nod. “I tried to convince myself this is where we belonged, but I was only kidding myself, coming back here. The last month has been miserable. Everything is so busy and loud and crowded.”
Had she read his mind? He let the smile in his heart curve his mouth. “You’re not just saying that?”
She reached up to link her hands behind his neck. “There’s only two other things in my life I’ve been this sure of. Saving Noah and loving you.”
His world tilted, steadied, and became right for the first time in a very long time. After another kiss that held the promise of their future together, Kendra stated with absolute conviction, “Take us home, Colton.”
Epilogue
Kendra smiled at her father as he approached her in the church foyer, his elbow extended so he could walk her down the aisle to her husband. Her hand was steady as she placed it on Jack’s arm, a testament to how confident she was of this second wedding.
They were doing it right this time—the church, the dress, their families—everything. Colton had even proposed to her on one knee as she stood on the porch of their new ranch house, not far from JBM Ranch. Kendra had laughed, but it only took a second to see he was serious as he presented her with an engagement ring to match her beloved wedding band.
Just remembering that day turned her misty eyed. She blinked rapidly, fanning her face so she didn’t ruin her make-up. Waiting to walk the aisle ahead of her as matron of honor, Britt noticed Kendra’s motions and lifted her eyebrows with concern. She cast her sister-in-law a reassuring smile just as the organist played Britt’s cue.
Jack leaned close to say, “I never thought I’d get to do this.”
With a brief thought for the father she’d known until she was sixteen, who’d been mostly good to her despite his idiosyncrasies, she looked up at the father she’d come to know and love these past few weeks. Happiness widened her smile. “Me neither.”
Kendra’s cue sounded from the organist’s keys.
Jack glanced toward the door nervously. “This is it. Ready?”
She rearranged the slightly trailing hem of her dress, clutched her small bouquet of white roses, squeezed her father’s arm, and gave a firm nod of anticipation. In her heart she’d married Colton on her birthday. This was simply a formality for everyone else.
Once through the inner doorway of the church, it amazed her that the sight of her husband could startle the butterflies in her stomach every time.
Today was no exception, especially in his classic black tux and snow-white shirt.
Colton’s breath caught at the sight of Kendra in the back of the small, stone church. She was incredible. The dress she’d chosen was similar to the one she’d worn at the courthouse, but cut lower to reveal the sparkling diamond pendant that hung on the chain around her neck.
His gaze swept over the glitter of intricate beading that covered the sleeveless white silk of the bodice. But he didn’t care about that, or the way its simple line flowed elegantly over the curve of her hip as she walked, accenting her slender figure before falling past her ankles.
It was the color of the dress that made him smile. Starting just below her breasts, pure white graduated to a light rum color and deepened almost to burgundy by the time the hem swept the floor.
When he accepted his wife’s hand from his father-in-law, his first whispered words were, “The color is perfect, and you are stunning.”
Her radiant smile eclipsed the sun-drenched stained-glass windows lining the stone walls. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
This time, they exchanged personal vows they’d written together. God, they’d had such fun coming up with them about three in the morning a few weeks ago. Colton sent a brief glance toward heaven, but couldn’t quite summon any guilt for enjoying such a memory—not even in church.
He repeated his part after the priest, his husky voice full of promise for the honeymoon ahead. By the gleam in her eye and flush on her cheeks, Kendra’s thoughts had taken the same sensual stroll down memory lane. When her turn came, her clear, heaven-sent voice echoed through the century-old stone building.
Vows complete, the priest peered over his reading glasses. “May I have the rings, please?”
Colton turned to his best man. Noah dug into his suit pocket and then stepped forward to hand the priest the two rings entrusted to his solemn care. Before Noah resumed his spot, Colton reached out to squeeze the boy’s shoulder. They’d bonded over the past couple months and he was honored he’d be part of Noah’s upbringing from here on out.
After a silent exchange of mutual respect, Colton turned back to his wife as the priest finished blessing the rings and handed the first one to him. Though he’d done it twice already, sliding the symbol of his eternal commitment over Kendra’s slim finger never lost its magic.
He smiled into her eyes as she returned the gesture, gifting him with her honor, her life, her love. Indescribable elation lifted and constricted his heart simultaneously. He glanced at his mother, who beamed teary-eyed approval from the front pew. She’d welcomed her daughter-in-law with open arms.
For so many years he’d believed he didn’t deserve this. Someone like Kendra. Happiness. Love. Looking back, it was unbelievable how empty his life had been without her and Noah.
Sadness still shadowed the years his mother and father had lost, but he finally understood how his mother could go on without bitterness poisoning her days. Understood that cliché so many people spouted without truly knowing the depth of its meaning.
Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
Now he believed. And if he lost Kendra tomorrow, it would be pure hell, but he knew he’d forever treasure every single second he was lucky to have had with her. Like his mother cherished the time with his father.
In the meantime, he’d do everything in his power to keep her happy, ‘til death did they part—God willing, many, many years from today.
“I now pronounce you Man and Wife.”
Kendra’s fingers tightened on his. Colton glanced at the priest before locking his gaze with hers once more. Happiness radiated from those beautiful, expressive eyes and wide smile.
“Mr. Lawe, you may kiss your bride.”
Colton wasted no time pulling her into hi
s arms with a rakish grin. Heat stole through him as his lips staked their own claim for life. He remembered kissing her after their first marriage ceremony almost three months ago. It’d been a sarcastic, over-the-top, in-your-face kiss for the witnesses in the courthouse.
It had left him angrier than ever because he’d wanted the marriage to be real—for the right reasons.
And now it was.
So this kiss was everything the other one hadn’t been. Tender, loving, passionate. It was for her alone, not the audience of family and friends who clapped and whistled as a crimson sunset spilled over the Rocky Mountains behind them.
A word about the author...
Stacey Joy Netzel fell in love with books at a young age, so for her it seemed only natural to graduate to writing them. A member of RWA and WisRWA, she credits not only her parents for encouraging her dreams of becoming a published author, but also the very talented friends she’s made in WisRWA since joining in 2004. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and kids, a couple of horses, and some barn cats. When not writing and living life in general, she loves to read and watch movies—Happily Ever After’s a must.
She loves to hear from readers;
you can contact her at:
www.StaceyJoyNetzel.com
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