MATCH MADE IN WYOMING
Page 22
"I'm glad."
He turned off the engine and faced her. "You don't look glad."
She looked at him then, knowing tears were caught among her lashes, hoping they wouldn't fall.
"I am, Cal. I can't think of anything in this world that I wanted more than for you to open your heart, so you would see the good in life, so you could live the good in life."
"Nothing you wanted more? Not even being loved back, when you said you loved me?"
She understood his need to ask. Because she'd been his guide of sorts, and he was still feeling his way, exploring the possibilities, but it was becoming an increasingly painful lesson to teach.
"Not even that. Because you couldn't really love while you kept believing the things you believed."
He cupped her cheek, and so much in her wanted to turn into the touch, to close her eyes and pretend everything was okay.
"You showed me how to believe new things." Gratitude. That was what she heard. He'd learned to open his heart and she would rejoice in knowing how much happier his life would be from now on … later, after she'd cried out the pain burning her throat and searing her heart. She turned her head, away from his touch.
"Cal, please, I want to go back now."
He swore under his breath.
"Not until I've shown you what we came up here for." His grim tone was matched by his expression when he came around to her side of the truck and opened the door, silently waiting for her to get out.
From that expression she knew the fastest way – the only way – to get this finished was to do what he wanted.
He took her elbow and steered her to a spot that overlooked a slope down to a creek bed, then a rise up the opposite hill. The entire area was covered with an undercoat of green that was topped with spikes of purplish-rosy flowers.
"I wanted you to see this, Taylor. It's fireweed. All grown-up and blooming."
Only then did she recognize this as the same spot they'd come to when he'd lectured her about fire walls, and where sprouts of green had made her feel so hopeful.
Cal kept talking. "You knew fireweed comes back first after an area's been burned, but did you know it likes disturbed ground to grow in? And it helps people with transformations."
"It's beautiful, but…?"
He took her left hand. When she tried to tug free, he held on tighter. "I told you love was a weapon people used to manipulate the person who was weak enough to love. It took me a while, but it finally hit me, when I saw Christina, what an idiot I'd been for lumping everybody together. I'd handed you that weapon almost from the start, and you've never once used it against me, even when I gave you plenty of reason to. But you were wrong about one thing—" he sounded almost belligerent "—even when I didn't believe in it, I did love you. I do love you."
Taylor gaped at him, sorting through his absence, the grim challenge in his voice, the field of wildflowers. They all came into focus when she met his eyes.
They held the familiar heat, but the ice was gone. Gone completely, and in its place was a light she'd seen only rarely there.
"Oh, Cal, you idiot!"
She flung herself into his arms, knowing he'd catch her, and he did. His hold was strong and sure, even as uncertainty lingered in his voice.
"I'm no bargain, Taylor. I've made a start, but I've still got burned-out stretches inside. Will you be my fireweed, take hold where it looked like nothing could grow, and help me change?"
"Try and stop me. Just try and stop me."
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Epilogue
« ^
"I still don't understand how you got that rash," Matty said, staring at the red patch that remained on Taylor's arm more than a week later.
As hostess, Matty had taken Taylor's arm to draw her into the Slash-C main house, where Dave and Matty were having Cal and Taylor over for dinner.
Taylor felt heat rising up from her chest across her throat and into her face. It wasn't from embarrassment, but from memories. Making love in a field of fireweed probably wasn't the smartest thing to do for someone with sensitive skin, but she would do it again anytime Cal wanted.
Especially if he volunteered again to smooth lotion over all her prickled flesh afterward.
She glanced at him, saw the deepened grooves and the light in his eyes, and the heat spread lower.
"Taylor probably got the rash tramping around checking out the place Cal's buying," Dave offered blandly.
But Taylor caught an exchange of looks between him and Matty, and heard the understanding in Matty's drawnout "Oh." If Taylor hadn't already been bright pink, she would have blushed.
"We have been looking at the place," she said, trying to redirect the conversation. "It's going to need a good deal of work to get it in shape."
"I could get started now if my boss wasn't making me finish out the summer," Cal grumbled.
"Hey, I let you be gone two months," Matty shot back, "so quit griping."
The exchange didn't fool anyone, since the four people in the room knew Cal had been the one to insist that he pick up the reins as Matty's foreman until she found a replacement and he could close on the purchase of his ranch in the fall.
Matty gestured for them to sit on the couch, then perched on the arm of the easy chair Dave sat in. "Well, you've got plenty of experience with turning around a run-down place after bringing the Flying W back to life."
"Helping you bring it back," he corrected.
"You should have driven a harder bargain for that company back East and you would have had all the money you'd need."
"I'll have plenty of money." He gave Taylor a significant look, and she felt a fresh surge of heat. Money for things like a family. They'd talked about starting one last night, and then they'd done more than talk about it. A lot more.
"Looks like you got too much sun, Taylor," Matty said, with a devilish glint in her eye. "You should be more careful."
Cal made a noise between a snort and chuckle, put his arm around her shoulders and took her hand with his free one. "Honey, I don't think this announcement is going to hold until dessert."
Taylor tore her gaze from her soon-to-be husband and looked at her friends, both grinning widely.
"We wanted you to be the first to know," she started. And got no further with their plans for a fall wedding, and a move into the main house at Cal's new ranch – their ranch.
Matty burst out laughing, leaving it to Dave to explain. "I think my wife is trying to say we were the first to know – at least Matty was – and long before you two finally woke up."
"You mean the snowstorm," Taylor said.
"Before," Matty got out, still laughing.
"When you maneuvered me into bringing Sin out to him."
"And me into keeping him," Cal added.
"Before."
"New Year's Eve and your mistletoe ambush," Cal said. "Before," Matty insisted. "Hey, you guys have to let me plan a party for you to celebrate, okay? This'll be fun. We can have it here and invite everyone."
Dave pretended to groan, shaking his head as he told Cal, "Run. Run while you have the chance – Matty's planning again!"
Cal's arm tightened around Taylor. "That's okay, her last plan turned out." Just before his lips touched Taylor's, he added, "Turned out fine."
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