by Jenna Kernan
“I don’t need it, by myself. But we do.”
I caught my breath. “Gale, stop. You make a hundred and thirty-five dollars a month, you told me so yourself. You can’t afford to buy this house.”
“Yes, I can. I sold one of my paintings. Did you know I paint pictures? Anyway, I sold one. For twelve thousand dollars!”
He stopped suddenly. “Unless you don’t want to marry me. Do you? I mean, will you? Marry me?”
“But—”
“Sell your house to me, Lilah. That way I can support you.”
“But you work for the Rocking K.”
“Not anymore. My cabin’s not big enough for the two of us. We need room for you to write. And for me to paint. I can sure as hell support a wife on twelve thousand dollars. And that’s for just one painting! God, I can hardly believe it.”
I stared at him. “Gale, you’re bubbling like a little boy with a new toy.”
“That painting was a portrait of you, Lilah. And I just finished a second one.”
“I know.”
His green eyes widened. “How could you know?”
“I cannot tell you.”
“Alice,” he murmured. “She shipped that painting to the gallery in Chicago and—”
“Gale.”
“And she must have—”
“Gale?”
“Yeah? Lilah, let’s get married right away. Today.”
I circled my arms around his neck, stretched up on tiptoe and kissed him very, very thoroughly. Mrs. Hinckley dropped her spectacles a second time.
“Take me to bed, Gale.”
“Huh? But what about getting married today?”
I kissed him again. “Today is Christmas Eve. We can get married tomorrow.”
“Don’t know if I can wait,” he whispered near my ear.
Suddenly I felt as if I could fly, just spread my wings and soar up off the porch and over the town and look down on the snow-blanketed roofs and wish that everyone in the world could be as happy as I was. And all it took was one kiss from Gale McBurney and another whisper in my ear before we wound our arms around each other and stumbled upstairs to my bedroom, where we gave thanks for laughter and for love.
And for being with each other.
Epilogue
For weeks following the wedding of Lilah Cornwell and Gale McBurney, the entire county talked about the event.
Whitey Poletti, the barber, strolled around dressed in a spangly Venice boatman’s costume, playing Italian love songs on his well-used accordion. The Ness twins, Edith and Noralee, somehow convinced sawmill owner Ike Bruhn to construct them each a pair of eight-foot stilts, and the girls cavorted about tossing paper flowers down on the assembled guests.
A heavily masked clown juggled Alice Kingman’s best china dinner plates, at one point tossing six in the air at the same time, whereupon Alice had to sit down and fan herself. The guests all wondered who it was, and to this day, no one knows for sure.
Musicians who usually performed at barn dances, a fiddle, two guitars, a banjo and a washtub bass, played the “Wedding March,” accompanied by a children’s chorus of comb-and-tissue-paper kazoos.
And when Gale and Lilah stood hand in hand before Reverend Pollock and repeated their vows, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.
After the ceremony, waltzes and polkas reverberated through the church hall until long past midnight, when Gale lifted his bride into his arms, white lace gown and all, and strode out the door and down the snowy street to the house with the orange picket fence.
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781460340820
WILD WEST CHRISTMAS
Copyright © 2014 by Harlequin Books S.A.
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holders of the individual works as follows:
A FAMILY FOR THE RANCHER
Copyright © 2014 by Jeannette H. Monaco
DANCE WITH A COWBOY
Copyright © 2014 by Kathryn Albright
CHRISTMAS IN SMOKE RIVER
Copyright © 2014 by The Woolston Family Trust
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