by Eve Gaddy
“No. Yes.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Not exactly.”
“Are they for your girlfriend? Wife? Family member?”
“Uh, none of them. She’s my… ex-girlfriend.” He ran a hand through his hair, wishing he’d thought this thing through better. But who knew he’d be confronted with eight zillion varieties of flowers?
“Roses,” he said, inspired. All women liked roses, right?
“Any particular color?”
“Red.” Red roses. He was sure they meant something, not that he had a clue what it was. Theresa had talked a lot about flowers and their meanings, but he’d never paid attention. Now he wished he had.
“Good choice,” Risa said. “I’m sure she’ll love them. I happen to have some beautiful ones in the back. How many did you want?”
“A dozen? Two dozen?” He stopped because she was smiling at him. “I have no idea,” he admitted. “Just make them look nice.”
“Price?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
She laughed. “That’s what we love to hear. I’ll be back.”
While he waited he thought about what he’d say to Honey. Forgive me, I’m an ass? Is there a chance for us? I should never have left? What can I do to make things right?
I love you.
Maybe it would come to him on his way out to the McTavish ranch.
*
“Honey, someone’s coming this way with a big-ass vase of flowers. OMG, they’re roses.” Cindy, the high school girl who was a protégé of Honey’s, quit brushing Halo in favor of staring at whatever was coming. “I wonder who they’re for? Neither Tanner or Tucker is out here in the barn at the moment.”
“All I know is they’re not for me,” Honey said, her back to the walkway.
A moment later, Cindy said, “I think they are, Honey. For you, I mean.”
Honey turned around. Her heart beat faster. She blinked, wondering if she was seeing things.
Sean stopped in front of her and handed her the vase. “These are for you.”
Totally at a loss for words, Honey took the vase from him. Finally, she said, “Thank you.”
He looked uncomfortable. Nervous. She’d never known him to be nervous. Of course, she hadn’t known him all that long, but nervous wasn’t an emotion she would ever have associated with Sean Gallagher, emergency room doctor, cool under fire. What was going on?
“Can we go somewhere and talk?”
“I’m not finished—”
“Oh, yes you are,” Cindy interrupted her. “Go. I’ll take care of Halo.” She put a hand in Honey’s back and gave her a little push. “Go.”
She looked at Cindy, who patted her chest over her heart and sighed loudly. Honey rolled her eyes. “I’ll take the flowers up to my apartment,” she told Sean. Flowers? More like a garden. There must have been two dozen or more beautiful red roses. “We can talk there.”
Sean followed her through the tack room and up the stairs leading to the small apartment. She set the vase on the table for the moment. “These are beautiful, Sean. But… why?”
“Why am I here or why did I bring you flowers?”
“Yes. Both.”
“I thought the flowers were pretty obvious. Aren’t you supposed to give your girl flowers when you screw up? This is me, saying I screwed up. I’m sorry. Forgive me. I’m an ass.”
She had to laugh. “No, you’re not.”
“Oh, yeah. I am. As to why I’m here, I need to tell you something.”
Her heart rate sped up. “What?” she managed to say.
Sean took her hands into his, looked at her and smiled. “I love you, Honey. I’ve been fighting it, trying not to admit it. Because I know you look at us and only see the problems. And I look at us and all I can see is that I love you and whatever I have to do to be with you, I’ll do it.”
Her heart swelled. “Oh, Sean, I—”
He kept talking. “I don’t want you to give up rodeoing. But I wanted you to do it because it was your passion, not because it was your escape from an intolerable situation. But that’s not for me to decide. If that’s what you believe is right for you, then I have to respect the way you feel. So this is my roundabout way of telling you that I know you’ll be gone a lot. And while I’ll miss you when you are, I think we can work it out.”
“Sean, there’s something—”
“Let me finish. Please.”
Since he was obviously anxious to have his say, her news would keep. She nodded.
“Do you remember Harry Monroe?”
“Of course. Everyone knew Harry. He was killed by a—” She stopped mid-sentence. “He was your patient.”
“Yes, he was.” He walked over to the bank of windows and spoke with his back to her. “Harry’s death got to me. I don’t know whether it was because I knew him, or because he was so young, or because his death was so damn pointless. Or all of those reasons.”
He turned back around and looked at her. “I couldn’t save him.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“I am too.”
Though she wondered, she didn’t ask how all this related to the two of them.
“Not too long after we broke up, Dylan asked me to help a horse he’d bought. She was abused and didn’t trust any human. I wasn’t going to do it until Dylan told me her name. Harriet.”
“Harriet?”
“Yeah. I took it as a sign.” He tucked his hands into his jeans pockets. “I’m not big on signs. But this time I thought that maybe if I could help Harriet …” He shrugged, leaving the sentence unfinished.
“Were you able to help Harriet?”
“Yes. She’s coming along really well. She’s a sweetheart.” He looked at Honey and smiled. “You’re wondering what the hell this has to do with us.”
“Well, yes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you helped her. You know I think it’s something you’re meant to do.”
“I’m beginning to think so too.”
“Really? Oh, Sean, that would be wonderful.”
He lifted a shoulder. “Getting back to what all this has to do with you and me, Harriet was willing to trust again. To try again. If she can do that after what she’s been through, then I can sure as hell try to work things out with you. If you want to.”
“I can’t think of anything I want more. But Sean—”
“Thank God.” He pulled her into his arms, lowered his head and kissed her, effectively cutting off any thoughts at all. His lips moved over hers, his tongue sweeping into her mouth in one of those long, soul-drugging kisses he did so well.
When he lifted his head, she put her fingers on his lips. “Hold that thought. I’m not sure how much people can see up here,” she said, motioning to the bank of windows overlooking the arena. “But I really don’t want an audience.”
“Can we go in another room?”
Honey laughed. “This is it. But I can close the blinds.” She turned around. “Sean, there’s something—”
“I know what you’re going to say,” he said, interrupting her.
“No, I don’t think you do.”
“We’ll work it out. I love you, Honey. Even if we are only together once a month, it’s better than not at all.”
“Sean.”
“What?”
“Shut up.”
He stared at her a moment before his slow smile spread. “You’ve been dying to say that to me, haven’t you?”
“Of course.” She took his hand and dragged him over to sit on the love seat. “But I really do need you to listen to me.”
“I’m listening.”
“My father is in rehab.” She told him an abbreviated version of what had finally opened her eyes, the intervention she and her brothers had with their father, and the upshot of it. “I’m not covering for him anymore. Which means I can stay in Marietta as much as I want. I’ll still run barrels, but I’m going to be a lot more choosy about the races I pick.”
“I’m glad for your sake, as well as mine. You kno
w it’s going to be hard.”
“I know. Not going to bail him out of jail, or even going to the Wolf Den before that, was a huge step for me. I know that rehab might not work this time either. And if it doesn’t, I’ll learn to deal with it. But I won’t run away. Not anymore. There’s someone very important to me who lives in Marietta and I want to be with him.”
“He wants to be with you, too.”
“I was going to your place this afternoon to tell you what I’d decided and to ask you if we could try again, but you beat me to it. I love you, Sean.”
She kissed him, then slipped her hand beneath his shirt to help him take it off.
“Honey.”
“Take off your shirt.” She pulled her own T-shirt off and tossed it aside.
He grabbed her hand before she could unhook her bra. “Wait. I don’t have a condom.”
One-handed, Honey unhooked her bra, slipped it off, and let it drop to the floor. “That’s not a problem.”
He groaned, his gaze riveted on her breasts. “Why not? Do you have one?”
“No.” She kissed him again and said, “But right before we broke up—” Abandoning his shirt, she undid his belt and started on his jeans. “I got a birth control implant.”
His smile was slow and wicked. “In that case,” he said, and kissed her.
Epilogue
Wyatt Gallagher needed a miracle.
He’d known something was up the moment his brother Sean called a meeting of all the brothers at the Gallagher ranch. Before he got there, he’d thought the private detective they’d hired had found their sister, Glenna. No such luck.
Jack was there, along with his family. Carmen and Gina flanked a very pregnant Maya, who sat at the kitchen table. His nieces were so excited about their new baby brother who was due any day now, that they refused to leave Maya’s side except to go to school. Glory was happily doing her duties, bustling around bringing out more food.
Glory was always afraid that ‘her boys’ were going to waste away. No danger of that happening, but try to tell that to her. Of course, with a pregnant woman to take care of on top of her boys, their long-time housekeeper was in double heaven.
Dylan leaned back against the kitchen island, snacking on some of Glory’s homemade apple crumb cake and drinking coffee. And finally, Sean, who’d called the meeting, was standing around holding Honey’s hand, and the two of them were looking at each other like they needed to get a room. Which he would have pointed out if his sixteen-year-old nieces hadn’t been present.
*
So he wasn’t totally blindsided when Sean made his announcement.
“Okay, listen up,” Sean said. “Honey and I are getting married.”
The teenagers squealed and actually left Maya’s side to gather around Honey and Sean and demand to see the ring. Wyatt wasn’t sure how he’d managed it, since Sean and Honey hadn’t been back together but a couple of days, but Honey had a nice, big diamond on her left hand, just in front of her splint.
“We want to get married at Christmas,” Sean said. “On the 23rd.”
Christmas? That was only a few weeks away. Why the rush?
“Where are you having this wedding?” Dylan asked.
“Everything’s booked,” Sean said. “At least anywhere we thought we might want was booked.”
“You can have it here,” Dylan said. “Wyatt and I don’t mind, and I’m sure Glory would like it.”
“Glory would love it,” she said. “We’ll have to start planning right away.”
They don’t know. None of them has any idea what happened before you moved here, Wyatt reminded himself.
“Is this all right with you, Wyatt?” Honey asked, looking worried. “We can find somewhere else if you’d rather.”
Great. He’d probably looked as poleaxed as he felt. “Why would I mind? You should have it here,” he said.
“If you’re sure,” Honey said.
“Of course he’s sure,” Dylan said. “Besides, he’s just staying here temporarily, so he doesn’t get much of a say.”
Wyatt started to flip him off, then remembered the girls hanging on every word and action. He gave his youngest brother a dirty look.
“It’s settled, then,” Sean said. “December 23, here at the ranch. We’re having a wedding.”
And he was going to have to figure out how to get through his brother’s wedding, not to mention his nephew’s birth, without losing it. There was only one person who knew exactly what had gone down. One person he knew he could depend on. Wyatt’s best friend, the woman who’d gotten him through the worst night of his life.
Mia Watson.
The End
Meet the Gallaghers of Montana
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The 78th Copper Mountain Rodeo Series
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About the Author
Eve Gaddy is the best-selling award-winning author of more than seventeen novels. Her books have won and been nominated for awards from Romantic Times, Golden Quill, Bookseller’s Best, Holt Medallion, Texas Gold, Daphne Du Maurier and more. She was nominated for a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Innovative Series romance as well as winning the 2008 Romantic Times Career Achievement award for Series Storyteller of the year. Eve’s books have sold over a million copies worldwide and been published in many foreign countries. Eve lives in East Texas with her husband of many years.
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