by Cora Seton
Her heart felt so ragged—so tender—she wasn’t sure she could stand the love in Connor’s eyes when he pulled back again.
“You’re all I want, lass. Forever.”
“Connor, I know—”
After all, hadn’t he proven what he’d do to be with her? He’d followed her all around her garden, held her while she brewed tonics, made love to her in the maze, went off to save Jo’s puppies without hesitation—
And then charged back here to save her the moment he knew she was in danger.
He loved her.
Connor loved her.
It was love, Sadie knew, that turned on her abilities. Love that connected her to Two Willows.
And for better or for worse, Connor defined love for her. Had since the day she first saw him and fell for him before he even opened his mouth to speak.
“Where’s my answer?” Connor asked the sky.
“Right here.” She wrapped her arms around Connor’s neck, and gave into the beauty and mystery of pledging her heart to another human being. No one could know the future. No one could ever be perfectly sure of another human being—or of themselves. All they could do was take the leap and trust that love wouldn’t let them down. She wanted to make that leap with Connor.
“I want to make love to you,” he whispered against her neck. “But you’ve been through too much and they’re waiting for us.”
“Let them wait,” she whispered, twining her arms around his neck even more tightly.
When Connor began to undress her, she sighed in contentment, knowing she was exactly where she was supposed to be.
This time, instead of pressing her up against the stone, he laid her down on the grass and made love to her sweetly and slowly, teasing, tormenting her and coaxing her until her pleasure was complete. It was nearly an hour before they pulled apart, and drew their clothes back on. Sadie, fastening her bra, stopped and pointed. “What’s that?”
Connor turned to see something glinting among the branches of the hedge. He reached for it just as Sadie did, and together they lifted a locket free from where it was caught.
Sadie’s eyes filled with tears when she recognized it. “It was my mother’s,” she explained to Connor. “She lost it just a week before died. She was so sad—she wore it all the time. The General gave it to her when they were married.”
“Like the one he gave to Cass.”
“That’s right.” Sadie could barely keep her voice even. She opened the clasp and showed Connor the photo inside. “That’s my father.”
Connor glanced at her sharply and Sadie realized why. “The General,” she corrected herself. He was still the General. Still the man who wouldn’t come home—no matter how much she needed him.
“What does it mean, lass? Is it an answer?”
Sadie nodded, her heart full. No matter how angry she was with the General, her mother had loved him—deeply and always, until she drew her last breath.
“She’s telling us—she’s saying she’s happy,” Sadie managed to say. “She’s saying love can last.”
“Aye, lass. I believe that.”
Sadie believed it, too. She allowed Connor to fasten the locket around her neck, and touched it reverently. She could almost feel her mother’s presence nearby—
Suddenly she was in a hurry to finish dressing.
Connor followed her example and soon they were heading back through the maze.
“Do you think they’re halfway through the movie?” he asked.
“Probably halfway through the pizza at least.” It was strange to talk of such normal things after what had just happened, but by the time they’d reached the house, slipped upstairs to clean up, and come back down again, she’d regained her composure. She’d tucked the locket under her shirt to show her sisters later.
They found everyone in the front room, sitting on the floor, with Jo in the center, the puppies frisking and playing among them. Jo was petting Max, still wan and pale, but not as lost as she had been earlier. When Max reached up to lick her chin, she even smiled.
“Puppies. That your idea?” Connor asked in an undertone.
Sadie nodded. “I figured they’d help.”
“You’re making a big mistake,” Connor told the General that evening. “Sadie’s only going to get married once. You should be here.” He pet Max, who’d followed him into his room. He was beginning to think he’d have a constant companion from now on.
“Don’t tell me what I should or shouldn’t do.” The General bent close to the screen, until his face filled it. “If I came home now, Two Willows would be in an uproar. Lena would haul out the cannons. The others would take to the hills. It’ll be Sadie’s day; keep it about her.”
“You’re going to have to repair your relationship with your daughters someday.” His conversation with Sadie earlier made that clear. She loved her father. Missed him desperately, despite her anger. He had to try to get the General to the wedding.
“I know what I have to do, and you know what your orders are. Focus on that.”
“My orders are to marry your daughter, which I’m doing, and which means I have to keep her happy. It would make her happy to have her father walk her down the aisle.”
The General glanced away from the screen, and for a moment Connor saw vulnerability in the set of his jaw, but when he turned back, it was gone. “I’m coordinating missions all over the world; yours is just a side note. A way to get rid of a handful of troublesome men who overstepped their orders. End of story.”
Connor leaned forward, gripping the edge of the table. “I’m not the one who chose this mission, and I didn’t leave the Air Force voluntarily. You want to pull me back in, say the word. I’ll be there, ready to fight.”
“Like hell you will.” The General’s voice rose. “My daughters’ husbands are going to stay right there at Two Willows in Montana. They are not going to serve in Florida, they are not going to serve overseas. That’s not the life my daughters deserve!”
So the General understood what he’d done when he’d left his wife alone for so many years, Connor thought. And maybe—just maybe—he understood what he’d done to his daughters.
“Point taken, sir. But with all due respect, there’s still time for you to—”
“You take care of Sadie. Don’t let her down.”
The General signed off and the screen went blank.
“It’s beautiful,” Keira said as she walked through the finished walled garden with Sadie ten days later. They’d first checked Sadie’s market stand to make sure all was well, and collected the honor system cash that had been left by purchasers. On their way to the garden, they’d passed Jo, who was handing over the last of the puppies to their delighted new owners. Sadie was glad to see that Jo already seemed more like herself. Her voice was confident when she spoke to her customers, and she wasn’t overly sad at letting the puppies go. But then her sister always felt it was her duty to spread the joy of animals in the world. “People are better when they go through life with animals,” she always said.
“It is beautiful,” Sadie told Keira. Connor, Sean, Brian and Dalton had worked together every day to get it done before the wedding. Their work was impeccable, the capstones giving the rough walls an orderly appearance. She could imagine the enclosed space filled with pathways, flowerbeds, fruit trees and climbing vines. One day her children would play in here, and feel as if they’d stepped into a fairy tale. All that was missing were the gates.
“Do you know what you’ll plant here?”
“I have some ideas.” She’d begun to sketch out plans for the garden, realizing how much she loved to design the shape of the paths and the beds, and what plant should go where.
“Everything seems ready for the wedding.”
Sadie read the unasked question in her voice. “I’m ready, too.” She was. She would step into her marriage with more assurance than most women, she thought. She and Connor had already been through the wringer. They’d seen what the worst could brin
g out in each other, and they’d come back together again, stronger and wiser. She wore her mother’s locket every day as a talisman. She’d shown it to her sisters who’d all been touched to see it, and they’d agreed that after the wedding they’d take turns keeping possession of it. None of them mentioned that the General was the enemy. It was their mother’s locket—which made it beyond reproach.
“What about you? You’ll be going home soon.” She wondered what would happen then. Connor’s parents had gotten very chummy these past few weeks.
“Yes, I’ll be going home soon.” Keira smiled. “Sean will join me in about a month.” She held up her hand, where a beautiful ring sparkled on her fourth finger.
Sadie gasped. “You’re getting remarried?”
Keira nodded. “We’ll set the ceremony far enough in the future when you two can come and join us. I want my whole family there when I walk down the aisle to marry the man I love.”
Sadie embraced her. “I’m so happy for you. I think Connor will be thrilled. But where are you going to live?”
“Half the year in Ireland, and half the year here. We want to travel, too. After all, that’s how we met in the first place. Sean plans to retire. Dalton will run my family’s ranch, and I’ll step back and give him the room he needs. I hope he finds a wife soon, too.”
As they walked back to the house, Two Willows glowed in the strong summer sunshine, and Sadie’s heart was full. “This is where I belong.”
“This is where you belong,” Keira agreed. “With my son.” She smiled at something over Cass’s shoulder. “Speaking of the devil…”
Sadie turned to see Connor striding toward them, Max at his heels like usual these days.
“I’ll give you two lovebirds some privacy,” Keira said. “See you back at the house.” She gave Connor a peck on his cheek as she passed him. “I’m so happy for both of you,” she told him.
“I’m happy, too,” he said, taking Sadie’s hand and kissing her. Max danced off to explore this new area. “So, is it everything you hoped for?” Connor asked, turning in a circle to indicate the garden. “We still need some plants in here, but otherwise—”
“Otherwise, it’s perfect,” she told him. “I can’t wait to get some trees in the ground.”
Connor smiled. “I’m glad to hear it. I was hanging out in your garden last night and your plants told me a secret.”
“Oh, yeah? What did they say?”
“That a walled garden was useless without a garden gate to shut out the world.”
“We’ll have to get on that.”
“Be right back.”
Sadie looked forward to designing the perfect gate for the garden and wondered if Connor and the other men could build it, or if they’d need—
Sadie gasped as Connor and Brian lugged a heavy wooden door into view. Her eyes filled as she took in the beautiful craftsmanship. Unable to speak, she could only stand while the men maneuvered it into place. Made of solid vertical planks, it was arched, with a circular portal and a wrought-iron handle.
“This is what it’ll look like when it’s hung. What do you think?”
“I think it’s going to make this look like a fairy garden. Connor, it’s wonderful. Where did you find it?”
The smile that spread across her fiancé’s face made Sadie’s heart contract. “I had it custom made. I designed it the first night we talked, and found a local man who could do the work.”
“The first night?” He’d known all along what would please her? He’d ordered the gate before they’d even begun the work? How had he seen the vision in her head?
If she’d had any remaining doubts about Connor, that would have put all of them to rest. But Sadie didn’t have any remaining doubts. Not about him—
Not about her love for him.
Brian steadied the door while Connor came to join her. “It fits, doesn’t it?”
“Absolutely. This garden will be everything I could have dreamed of. More, even.”
“I’ve got one more gift for you, lass.” Connor rejoined Brian and they lifted the gate to one side and leaned it against the wall. Connor disappeared around the wall and came back a moment later, struggling to carry something wrapped in burlap. When he set it down, Sadie realized what it was.
“A tree!”
“Two trees actually. Apple trees—a male and a female, so they’ll pollinate and thrive. It seemed right, somehow.”
Sadie listened to the garden for a moment and realized it was right; she didn’t have any apple trees and the ranch needed some.
“Where do you want them?”
She listened again. Pointed. “One there. The other there.”
Brian brought them a shovel. Connor dug the holes. When they’d managed to plant the small trees, Sadie couldn’t stop smiling. Someday their children would play under them. Someday they’d all eat their fruit.
Connor took her hand and stood beside her. “I see our kids. Two boys and a girl,” he said. When he bent to kiss her, she was already rising up on tiptoe to meet him.
“Two girls and a boy, you mean. I love you,” she added.
“I love you, too.”
Chapter Fifteen
‡
When the morning of his wedding dawned cloudy, Connor wondered if it was a sign, and doubt momentarily pierced all his resolve. What if he couldn’t be a good husband to Sadie? What if somebody else could have made her far happier? He was grateful when he went downstairs, Max at his heels, that Brian was the only one else awake so early.
“I already checked the weather report,” Brian said without even looking up from his eggs. “The sun will come out at about ten, and by the time you’re standing at the altar, you’ll be sweating.”
He shoved his phone across the table, and Connor picked it up, looked at the weather report as Max went to inspect his food dish, and his heart eased.
“Just want Sadie to be happy on her wedding day.”
“Bullshit. You thought you were doomed.”
Connor laughed heartily, and it was just what he needed to loosen up. The rest of the morning flew by, helping to set up for the wedding, playing with Max, getting gussied up for the ceremony and making sure he had the wedding bands he’d purchased at Thayer’s. Sooner than he thought possible, he was making his way to the temporary altar set up outside, where Reverend Halpern stood already.
“Fine day for a wedding,” Halpern said.
“Fine day, indeed,” Dalton said, coming to stand by Connor’s side. “Hot, though.”
Connor relished the heat. He relished the murmur of voices of their guests chattering in their folding seats placed out on the lawn. This was his wedding day, and he wasn’t running away. He was taking his stand here at the altar, waiting for his bride.
He didn’t know how many minutes passed until the music struck up, and Jo appeared in the doorway, wearing the same spring-green colored bridesmaid gown she’d worn for Cass’s wedding. She looked far older than she had the day he’d first come to Two Willows, but Connor thought she was already on the mend. He saw something steely in her eyes these days. For the first time he thought she might be a match for Hunter, after all.
The assembled crowd sighed in pleasure as first Jo, then Lena, then Alice, then Cass began to walk up the aisle, but Connor had eyes only for Sadie, and when she stepped out of the house in her mother’s wedding gown, his heart stopped for a beat before picking up again with a fast thump, thump, thump. The long aisle gave him plenty of time to gaze at the woman who’d stolen his heart as she walked toward him. In the front row of the audience, happy tears streaked down his mother’s face, and she dabbed at them with a cloth handkerchief, his father holding her hand.
So much love filled this assembly, Connor could barely take it in. He hadn’t felt this way since he was a child, back in the small house in Ireland where his family used to live. His heart swelled and broke through the hard shell he’d protected it with all these years. Feeling free for the first time since he set foot
in this country with his father, Connor realized there was plenty of time left in his life to heal all the wounds that had come before. His wife would help him. So would his family. And he found himself thanking God the General had given him this mission. But it went back even earlier than that, didn’t it? It was Halil and Fatima he really needed to thank, with their example of what true love could look like. He would always hold them up as a beacon in his marriage; something to strive for.
As Sadie joined him, and her sisters took their places, he realized he knew what true happiness was. He took Sadie’s hand, only then noticing the faded ribbon she’d tied around her wrist. The red, white and blue stripes seemed like a promise to Connor—that fate was on their side. That they were meant to be together.
That his family would be whole again.
He turned to face the reverend, his heart full, ready for everything—ready for the rest of his life.
Many hours later, hoarse from talking and laughing, her feet aching from dancing in her high-heeled shoes, face sore from smiling so much, Sadie entered the house to take a moment to herself. She was crossing the kitchen when Jean Finney came out of the hall, from the direction of the bathroom. She rushed forward to take Sadie’s hand.
“Congratulations! I’m so happy for you, Sadie. I cried through the whole ceremony, it was so beautiful.”
“How are you doing? Don’t overdo it today, okay?” Sadie led her to the table and tugged her to sit down in a chair. She sat, too, in order to make sure Jean stayed there for a minute.
“I’m doing great,” Jean said with a wide smile. “I went to the doctor yesterday. Had an ultrasound. The baby is doing fine. The heartbeat is strong. The doctor says I should be out of trouble, and I should carry the baby to term.”
Sadie threw her arms around her friend, overjoyed. She would never take her gift for granted again. Jean was doing so well and she wasn’t the only one. Ellie had come to see her the other day. Sadie had been thrilled to hand her the tonic she needed, but even more thrilled to hear Caitlyn had agreed to a fifty-fifty partnership.
“I feel as if a weight is off my shoulders,” Ellie had confessed. “I didn’t realize I needed a break until you told me to take one!”
