Her hands unlocked from the banister and she reached for him. Ran her shaking fingers over the stain.
“It’s not my blood,” he assured her softly.
She threw her arms around his neck, clinging, and never felt anything as wondrous as when his arms closed around her, too. She pressed her face to his neck. “I would have died if something had happened to you.”
“I’m fine.” His arms were tight around her. “Mason and Sloan caught the guy. Your brother’s been tracking him down since the fire at your house. It was Maria Delgado’s brother.” He held her even tighter. “Max has him locked up good and tight at the jail and he’s wailing like a baby how he’d only wanted to make Sloan pay for Maria’s death. He couldn’t get to any of the Deuces, but when he put the word out about a hit, he knew it would be attributed to them.” His hands ran down her spine. “He figured he’d get retribution and they’d take the blame. But it’s all over. You won’t have to worry anymore.”
She couldn’t make herself loosen her hold. “Is Sloan…is he okay?”
“He got nicked in the arm, but yeah. He’s okay.”
“Nicked!” She swayed a little.
“He’ll be fine,” he promised.
She believed him. Gratitude made her knees week. “What about the church?”
“There’s some damage, but the fire department caught the blaze before it could spread to the sanctuary.” He tilted her head back. “A couple of weeks and it’ll be ready for another wedding.”
He caught her hands in his, detaching them from their death grip around his neck. “But I realized something today when I was waiting for you to appear at the back of the church with Leandra, and you didn’t.” His thumbs ran across her knuckles, then he let go of her hands altogether. “I want you to walk down that aisle toward me because that’s where you want to be, Tara. Regardless of the baby. Regardless of my family.”
She went still. Afraid to move, to breathe.
“I’ve been in love with you from practically the first time we met.” His voice went gruff. “I should have told you. Baby or no baby. Crazy brother of yours or no crazy brother of yours. Nosy family of mine or none. I want to marry you. I’ll even give up my job if that’s what it takes to prove to you that the life we can have will be different than what you fear.”
“Oh, Axel.” Everything inside her melted. Not just from the words, but from the naked emotion shining in his golden eyes. She pressed her fingers over his lips. “I do love your family,” she whispered. “But I’m in love with you. I have been since that weekend in Braden.” She sucked in a quick, shaking breath. “I’ve made my way in this world on my own for a long time. I could have kept on doing it even with our child. That was the safe route. But I don’t want that route anymore. I want you.” She looked up at him. “I know you’re not like my father. I know that now and it doesn’t matter what you do. You are who you are.” She took his hand and pressed it to the fluttering inside her abdomen. “I realized something, too. I don’t just want roots, Axel. I want the entire tree.” She smiled through her tears. “I want the branches, the buds, the leaves. That’s what loving you is like. It’s not only a root shooting down to the center of the earth. It’s everything else that moves outward. Upward. It’s what lifts me.”
His eyes gleamed. “I’ll plant you an orchard, then.”
She laughed brokenly and swiped her wet cheeks. She lifted his hand and pressed her lips to the skin over his knuckles that had healed since he’d broken Ryan’s picture. “But I don’t want to wait until the church is ready for another wedding. We can get married at the courthouse when it opens on Monday.”
“Courthouse?” Squire’s voice rang up to them on the landing. “What the hell kind of nonsense is that?”
“Squire,” Gloria tried hushing him, but he just planted his gnarled walking stick in front of him and stared at them when they looked down.
“If there’s one thing this family oughta be able to do by now is pull a wedding together,” he pointed out as if he were the last sensible person on the planet. “Barn’s already all set up for the reception, isn’t it?”
“That’s true,” Emily agreed and Tara turned with surprise. She’d forgotten all about Axel’s mother standing nearby. “Of course we’ll need to do something about your dress.” She looked misty-eyed as she tapped her finger against her lips.
“And we’ll have to round up Reverend Stone again,” Jefferson added from downstairs. Tara realized all the rifles were magically gone again. “At least he’s used to the weddings in this family not coming off quite like they’re planned.”
“And we’ll get your brother,” Axel added quietly, taking her in his arms as the discussion seemed to take on a life of its own right around them. “Except I’m pretty sure he’s not going to want to give you away to me.”
She looped her hands around his neck, feeling like her heart might burst right out of her, she felt so full. “There’s nothing for him to give. I’m already yours. I have been since you told me to make a wish and blow out the candles on that birthday cake in Braden.”
His hands slid up her spine and his mouth hovered over hers. “What’d you wish for?”
“You,” she said simply. “I wished for you.”
“That was a good wish,” he said huskily, and closed his lips over hers.
Epilogue
In the end, it wasn’t until that night before Axel and Tara could take their place together in front of Reverend Stone to say their vows.
They’d had to send someone into town to retrieve the marriage license that had been in the pastor’s office, which was thankfully untouched by the blaze. But that had entailed both Max and Tristan working around the fire department, who’d deemed the entire facility off limits.
Then there was Sloan and getting him out of the clutches of the ER doctors who’d sewn up the slash in his arm where the bullet had grazed him. Fortunately, Rebecca had some sway when it came to the workings of her own hospital.
And of course there were the dozens of times Axel had to stop what he was doing to explain to yet another person what had transpired in Weaver that afternoon.
Tara, who’d spent a good portion of that time in a bedroom behind the stairs while the women in Axel’s family fussed around her, had fairly floated through the hours. The only thing she cared about was Axel.
But finally, the details had all been taken care of, and the only thing left to do was for Tara to dress. All she was waiting for was Leandra, who was going to help her.
But the person who knocked at the bedroom door didn’t turn out to be Axel’s sister at all. It was Sloan who stuck his head in. “I don’t suppose I can talk you out of this?”
She shook her head. Laughed a little. “No.”
He grimaced. “Yeah. Well, I just want to get this out before I don’t have a chance to.” He closed the door on the laughter they could hear drifting through the house. He was wearing a borrowed black jacket over his bandaged arm. “I thought I was doing the right thing. I lost Maria. I didn’t want to lose you, too.”
“Oh, bean. Axel told me about her. I’m so sorry. I know if he could change what happened—” She shook her head, her hands spreading.
His lips twisted. “Blaming him seemed easier than blaming myself. I told her the truth about me. About you.” He shook his head. “She must have told her brother. I never meant to ruin your life, Tara.”
Her eyes filled. “What’s ruined? I’ve found what I never thought I’d find. A place in this world.”
“Weaver?”
“Beside the man I’m marrying. The man I love,” she corrected, letting out a shaky breath. “I never understood before why Mom stayed with Dad. But maybe I’m beginning to.” She tugged at his jacket lapel. “I just wish you’d stay for a while.”
“I have to get back to Chicago to finish testifying. But after that?” He gave a faint smile that was almost reminiscent of the old Sloan. “I might have to come back and make sure you bring that nie
ce or nephew of mine into the world all right. For now, though, you are going to be a beautiful bride.”
“Only if I get dressed first.” The gown that Emily, Maggie and Jaimie had furiously wielded their sewing needles over was draped across the bed. It was Gloria who’d unearthed the lace gown that had belonged to Squire’s first wife, Sarah. The woman who’d given him his five sons before tragedy had taken her.
“Well.” Her brother looked awkward for a moment and she made a face, pulling him into her arms for a hug. He hugged her back. “I’ll be in the living room when you’re ready,” he said, sounding a little hoarse, before leaving the room.
Tara let out a long breath, dashing her hands down the front of the robe that Jaimie had loaned her. She wandered to the French doors that overlooked the rear of the house and peered out. It was dark, but in the distance, she could see the new barn. All lit up, ready and waiting for a wedding reception.
But first, there needed to be a wedding and for that, there needed to be a bride. Preferably one wearing something other than a robe.
She didn’t know what was keeping Leandra, but that didn’t mean Tara couldn’t step into a lace gown on her own. She started to turn to the bed, but a movement outside caught her eye. A man, heading away from the house.
She wasn’t sure why she peered harder through the windowpane. Leftover adrenaline. Curiosity. Or maybe just the fact that he seemed familiar. But she did, and just then, he looked back and light from the big house caught him square in the face.
She blinked, too stunned for a moment to react. But then the man turned away again, and she scrabbled with the latch on the French door, finally throwing it open to run out on the deck. “Ryan!”
The figure hesitated for a fraction of a second, only to keep moving.
She gathered the robe around her legs and raced across the deck. Her slippers nearly came off when she hit the snow, but she didn’t stop as she chased after the swiftly moving man. It wasn’t just his face that had been familiar. “Wait! Please wait!”
By some miracle, the tall man turned and headed back toward her. “You’re nuts,” Ryan Clay said bluntly, taking in her robe and slippers.
She caught his sleeve, afraid he’d disappear into the night. “You were outside the church this afternoon,” she realized breathlessly. “I thought you were a guest. I’m Tara—”
“I know who you are. I’m just surprised it took Axel five years to get you to the altar.”
She blinked at that. “Why are you out here hiding in the shadows?”
His lips twisted. “I shouldn’t have come.”
“Shouldn’t have…Now you’re the one who’s nuts! Don’t you know how happy everyone will be to see you? Why come at all, if not to see your family?”
“You don’t even know me.” He shook off her hand and headed away.
She shivered. “I know Axel,” she said after him. “I know he never gave up on you. And I know only too well that he deserves better than to have to lie to everyone he loves about you.”
But her words just seemed to disappear in the snowflakes that drifted in the air.
She blew out a breath, her hands clenching in the robe.
“Tara?”
She whirled. Leandra was standing on the deck, staring after her as if she’d lost her mind.
Maybe she had. Maybe Ryan was a figment of her imagination. A wishful conjuring that could finally put Axel’s mind at ease.
She gathered up her robe and picked her way back to the deck.
“You all right?” Leandra followed her inside. “What were you doing?” She dashed her hands over the few snowflakes on Tara’s shoulders.
Tara sighed and managed a smile. “I don’t know. Wishing on the stars, I guess.”
“For a second I was afraid you were running out on Axel.”
At that, Tara’s heart settled. “Never.”
Leandra studied her for another moment. Whatever she saw must have reassured her, for she relaxed and shook her head wryly. “I think maybe I should have brought you some food when I hit the kitchen a few minutes ago,” she murmured. “So let’s get you dressed so we can get to the spread over in the barn sometime yet tonight.”
Within minutes, the robe was replaced by the gown; the slippers by delicate heels that were thoroughly impractical considering the snow outside. But they were beautiful and Tara couldn’t help feeling a little like Cinderella.
Leandra fussed around her for a few minutes then handed her a bouquet. Not the peonies, since they’d perished in the bride’s room at the church. “It’s sage,” she said. “Not exactly roses, but it does smell good.”
Tara held the ribbon-bound bouquet to her nose. The stalks did smell good. She also knew the herb signified wisdom which seemed pretty fitting, all things considered.
Leandra handed her the ivory cashmere cloak that had been a contribution from Axel’s Aunt Maggie. “I’ll go out and get the ball rolling.” She winked and Tara swung the cloak around her shoulders before following her out to the living room where Sloan was waiting.
“I knew you’d be beautiful,” he said, tucking her arm through his and heading for the front door. “But only Wyoming folk would think nothing of putting on a wedding outside on a March night. You know it’s snowing, right?”
“I think it’s perfect,” she assured him as they stepped out onto the porch.
She sucked in a breath of delight at the sight that awaited across the circular drive.
Tiny white lights were strung through the trees, twinkling against the gentle drift of snowflakes that fell on the family gathered there.
Her family now, too.
Then when she and Sloan crossed the drive, the sweet strains of a violin filled the air. Casey, she realized with some surprise, spotting him off to one side with the instrument.
Reverend Stone was standing at the head of the impromptu aisle where Leandra and Evan were already waiting.
And then the only one Tara had eyes for was Axel as her brother escorted her across the snow toward him.
The torn gray suit and tie he’d worn at the church had been replaced by a dark blazer over a collarless shirt. It wasn’t traditional. But it was oh-so-perfect for him.
And when she stopped next to him, he closed his warm hands around hers and his slow smile that was just for her could have stolen her heart if she hadn’t already given it to him.
Reverend Stone cleared his throat slightly. “Who gives this woman to this man?”
Sloan stepped forward again. “I guess that’d be me.”
A few chuckles sounded at that. Her brother looked hesitant for a moment, then dropped a kiss on her cheek and stepped away again.
The minister looked pleased. “Marriage is an honorable estate,” he began. “Not to be entered into unadvisedly, but reverently and—”
“Impatiently,” Axel murmured into her ear.
She buried her smile in the bouquet of sage.
But when it came time to say “I do,” their voices rang true and serious. And when Reverend Stone finally got to the part where the groom could sweetly kiss the bride, cheers sounded through the night.
There was no chance for a walk back down the aisle with her brand new husband then, because the family simply descended on them with hugs and kisses and a great deal of laughter.
“D’ya think we might be smart enough to get outta the snow?” Squire’s complaint carried above the celebrating. “I’m an old man. This ain’t good for me.”
“You’re an old man who wants to get to that wedding cake that’s been waiting all day in the barn,” Jefferson drawled. His arms were looped around his wife’s waist.
“Smart-aleck son,” Squire grumbled, stomping the tip of his cane into the snow. “Don’t know where the hell you get it from.”
“From you,” Tara said, then bit her lip in the sudden silence that followed as Squire moved closer to her. She almost quailed as his crafty gaze ran her up and down.
“Guess you’d be right about
that,” he finally agreed. “That dress belonged to Axel’s grandma, you know.”
She looked down at the yards of lace. She did know. Which had made it so very special. “Do you mind?” Gloria had promised that he wouldn’t.
His eyes narrowed even more. “You look right nice, actually. My Sarah would’ve been pleased to see it. And it’s true. The only thing I mind right now is waiting around for that cake. It’s chocolate, I’m told.” He thumped his cane again. “So let’s get to it!”
And so they did. Some of them loaded up in vehicles to drive the short distance. Some just headed out across the field, despite the snow on the ground and in the air.
Axel simply swept Tara up in his arms, making her heart dance. “Can’t have your feet getting any colder in those shoes,” he murmured.
She looped her hands around his shoulders. Happiness was a bubble inside her, ready to burst. “It’s going to take a miracle, you know, if you intend on carrying me—us—all the way to the barn.”
Axel’s gaze met hers and the love that was there was enough to spend a lifetime savoring. Cherishing. “You and our baby are the only miracles I need.” His lips covered hers in a long, long kiss.
Then he lifted his head and continued carrying her, walking right across the field in the wake of the others who’d gone ahead of them.
She tilted her head back, blinking at the snowflakes that drifted into her face. This. This was her place. In the arms of the man she loved.
She lifted her head again to savor the sight of her husband’s face, and caught a glimpse of a man behind them.
Not moving into the shadows. But out of them.
Toward them.
She smiled and pressed her cheek against Axel’s broad shoulder. “Oh, my love,” she whispered, “I think there is still room tonight for another miracle…”
Mills & Boon® Special Moments™ brings you a sneak preview.
In Their Second-Chance Child Tony Herrera must have been crazy to hire his ex-wife Rebecca to oversee his vocational bakery for foster kids! But Becca was best for the job…and his four-year-old daughter fell for Becca instantly. Were Tony and Becca heading down the road to renewed heartache or was this the second chance they never dreamed possible?
A Weaver Wedding Page 19
