“No, he hasn’t,” Connor acknowledged.
Though he hadn’t said anything about the matter to her, he was keenly aware of the fact that Clay Patton hadn’t gotten in contact with Amy’s lawyer, either to send back the signed divorce documents, or even to rail and make his own demands. He’d already called Cash a number of times to see if there had been any word from Amy’s no-account soon-to-be ex and been disappointed to hear that there hadn’t been.
“But look at the bright side. Even if he doesn’t sign the papers, Cash said that you can still get the divorce,” he reminded her, continuing to run his fingers lovingly along her body. “It’ll just be a divorce by default. One way or the other, you are going to shed that no-good cowboy and be a free woman,” he told her. “Very, very soon. Now, no more talk about Clay.” He moved her and drew her body over his. “We’ve got more important subjects demanding our attention.”
“Oh?” she asked brightly, feigning ignorance. “Such as?”
“Such as which side of your neck I should nibble on next,” Connor said. “This side?” He chose the side closest to him, pressing his lips against it. He heard her catch her breath and it fed his own excitement. “Or this side?” he asked, shifting her so that he could kiss the other side of her neck, as well.
“You know,” he told her, fitting her torso against his own, “I really can’t decide.” His lips were barely a fraction away from her skin. His breath sent hot shock waves all through her body. “Which is your favorite side?” he asked, his warm breath caressing her.
She felt his lips curving in a smile against her skin. She couldn’t help moving against him in growing anticipation of what was to come.
“I can’t decide, either,” she breathed, struggling to be coherent. “Do it again.”
“With pleasure,” he said just before he began kissing the sides of her neck again.
* * *
BUT AMY’S CONCERN regarding the divorce papers continued to linger, surfacing the next day after Connor had gone out to do his daily chores and tend to the horses. She knew that until the divorce was a done deal and became a thing of the past, it would go on haunting her. Part of her was still afraid that Clay would storm back into her life, not because he wanted her, not because he wanted to reconcile and make an attempt at a fresh start, but because, as she had told Connor, she had left him and his pride would not stand for something like that.
Maybe she was making too big a deal of it, Amy thought, trying to comfort herself. Maybe Clay was as glad to be rid of her as she was to be rid of him.
Maybe.
But in her heart, she doubted it.
Knowing that focusing on this would only drive her crazy, Amy forced herself to think about all the good things that were in her life. Good things like Jamie, who seemed to be thriving now that they were away from Clay’s toxic behavior. Good things like looking forward to spending Christmas with Connor and his big family.
And, best of all, for the first time in her life, she was with someone she loved who behaved as if he loved her back. Someone who made her look forward to each day—and especially to each night.
Even if nothing ever changed, she would be happy to stay right here like this for the rest of her life.
“What would you say,” Connor asked her at the table a few mornings later, “if, right after breakfast, we take a trip into town?”
She knew how Connor felt about faithfully following his daily routine. She didn’t want him changing things because of her. “What about the ranch?”
“The ranch’ll stay here,” he answered, a mischievous grin curving his mouth.
Amy gave him a look. “You know what I mean. Don’t you have work to do?”
The key to a happy life, he had come to believe, was balance.
“Yes, but I can work twice as hard tomorrow,” he told her. “I think you need an outing and I need to get a little shopping done.”
She didn’t understand why he needed to go to the general store. For the most part, it was something he shied away from if he could help it. “I thought Rita already got supplies this week,” she pointed out.
“Maybe I’m not shopping for supplies,” he replied, trying his best not to grin. “Maybe I need to do some Christmas shopping.”
Amy laughed in response.
He looked at her, puzzled. “What’s so funny?”
She waved her hand, as if silently asking for his indulgence. “I’m sorry. I just can’t picture you going Christmas shopping.”
“I’ll have you know that there are a lot of things you don’t know about me,” he said, pretending to be mysterious.
Her eyes sparkled as she answered, “Apparently. Okay, I’ll get ready right after breakfast. I’ve already fed Jamie.”
Connor nodded. “Well, that’ll make it easier for Rita.”
She wasn’t sure she understood what he meant by that. “Easier?”
“She’ll have less to do,” he explained. “I thought we’d have her watch Jamie while we go into town. We’re not going to be gone all that long and I’d like this outing to be just the two of us—unless that doesn’t meet with your approval.”
He was always being so considerate of her feelings, she thought. It never ceased to surprise her, especially after the way she had been treated before. Connor almost seemed too good to be true. Every day in every way, the man just kept winning her heart all over again, Amy thought.
“It meets with my wholehearted approval,” she told him.
That was the answer he was hoping for. “Good. Then I’ll go tell Rita that she gets to enjoy Jamie for a few hours and you go get ready.”
She was gone like a flash, leaving him standing there, chuckling under his breath. Amy never ceased to delight him, Connor thought in utter amazement.
His main reason for going into town was to see if he could coax her into pointing out something that she’d like for Christmas. He had a feeling that her five previous Christmases had been the kind that would have gladdened the heart of a Scrooge prior to his reformation, and he wanted this, their first Christmas together, to be a special one for her.
And while they were in town, he also wanted to quickly swing by the law firm for a face-to-face meeting with Cash. He wanted to find out firsthand if there had been any word back from Clay. He highly doubted it, confident that at the very least Cash would have given either Amy or him a call if there had been any feedback. However, since he was going to be in town, it didn’t hurt to ask.
More than anything, he wanted to set Amy’s mind at ease and he knew that wasn’t going to be the case until this whole matter was over and behind her.
She wouldn’t have to be going through this if he had only had the courage of his convictions and asked her to marry him the way he’d wanted to five years ago. If he had, he would have spared her all the anguish she had gone through.
But by the same token, he reminded himself, she wouldn’t have had Jamie, and anyone could see that Jamie meant the world to her.
Every dark cloud has a silver lining, his father had been fond of saying.
Probably because there had been so many dark clouds in their world at the time. But despite all that, despite the death of his wife and all the rough times they’d had, his father, the man he had always admired the most in this world, had never given up.
If you’re going through hell, just keep on going had been one of his father’s mottoes, and that was exactly what he intended to do. He intended to keep on going no matter what. Keep on going until he managed to get that divorce for Amy, come hell or high water.
And once that was in place—which he really hoped was soon—he intended to ask her to marry him. Because even after the short amount of time they’d had together, he could not begin to imagine life without Amy—or without her son.
Cody was right.
They were a family now. Somehow, when he wasn’t looking, all the pieces had come together. Those pieces that had always, until recently, felt missing from his life—they had come together. And now he felt whole because they were a family, he and Amy and Jamie. And nothing had ever felt so right to him before.
He intended to fight to keep this family. And that meant sweeping Clay Patton out of Amy’s life once and for all.
Connor couldn’t wait to make that happen.
Chapter Eighteen
The first thing Amy noticed as they drove into Forever was that the town Christmas tree was now fully decked out. All the boxes and ladders that had been part of the decorating ceremony had been cleaned up and put away, allowing attention to be focused on the finished product in all its glory.
“The tree looks absolutely beautiful,” Amy noted in awe.
Wanting to get a better, unobstructed view of the tree, she rolled down the truck window on her side so she could stick out her head.
Cold air came in, but it didn’t have any impact for a couple of minutes. She was that enthralled with what she could see. It took a couple of minutes before the nippy air got the better of her and she rolled the window up.
Sitting back in her seat, she was almost glowing as she looked at Connor. “You were right.”
“About?”
“That knowing I was part of helping to make that all come about by decorating the tree does feel good.” She sighed as she recalled other Christmases from her adolescence. “I missed that feeling these last five years.”
“Don’t think about that part,” he told her. “Just think about the fact that you’re here now and part of Forever again.”
She saw the diner on their left. “Are we going to be stopping at the diner?”
Aside from seeing Cash and visiting the general store, Connor was open to anything she was up for. “If you want to.”
She nodded. Unlike her first trip into town, she was through with hiding.
“I want to. But business first, then pleasure,” she said. “Let’s go talk to Cash.” She saw the surprised expression on Connor’s face and almost laughed. “What, you didn’t think I knew that was why you wanted to come into Forever?”
He didn’t want it to seem as if he was trying to put one over on her. “I thought that since we were going to be in town anyway—”
“Uh-huh,” she murmured.
She knew his heart was in the right place, and since she’d voiced her concern about Clay not signing the divorce papers, this was his way of trying to restore her peace of mind. Connor was really one of a kind, she thought, and she had no idea why she hadn’t seen that years earlier.
“C’mon,” she urged, eager to get talking to the lawyer out of the way. “Let’s do this so we can enjoy the rest of our visit.”
* * *
CASH LOOKED UP, surprised to see them when Cassidy ushered her brother and Amy into his office. Saving the file he’d been reviewing on his computer screen, Cash half rose in his chair.
“Connor, Amy, please, sit down,” he said, gesturing toward the two chairs that were right in front of his desk. His brow furrowed slightly as he tried to remember. “Did I forget an appointment today?”
“No, we didn’t make one,” Connor confessed. “We’re not here to take up any of your time,” he explained as both he and Amy remained standing. They intended to leave as soon as this was out of the way. “We just wanted to ask if you’d heard anything back from—”
“Clay Patton?” Cash guessed. “No, regrettably, I haven’t. I would have notified you immediately, Amy,” he assured her.
Amy nodded, flashing an apologetic smile at the man. “That’s what we thought. It’s just that I was hoping maybe you’d gotten caught up in something and didn’t get a chance to call me.”
Cash grinned. “Amy, you haven’t been gone that long,” he pointed out. “This is Forever. Not exactly a hotbed of illegal shenanigans. All I’ve been dealing with are just the regular wills and an occasional property-line dispute.” He decided to fill her in on the steps he’d taken regarding her case. “I sent a courier to serve Clay with the divorce papers, which he did. So if Clay wasn’t aware of your intentions to divorce him before, he definitely is now.”
“And there’s been no word?” Amy confirmed, disappointed.
“Other than the barrage of curses Clay heaped on the courier? I’m afraid not. We’ll give him to the end of the month,” Cash went on to say, “and if he makes no effort to get in contact with my office or mail back the divorce papers, we’ll go ahead and start the process to have you divorce him in absentia.” The look in his eyes was nothing if not encouraging. “Hang in there, Amy,” he told her. “This’ll all be over with soon.”
Amy sighed deeply. “Not soon enough for me,” she said with sincerity.
Connor took hold of her arm, tugging lightly and drawing her attention toward the door.
“C’mon,” he encouraged. “Let’s go get some of Miss Joan’s pie. Everything always looks better after some of her pie.”
“Amen to that,” Cash agreed. “Tell my stepgrandmother I said hi. And the minute I know anything, so will you.”
Amy smiled her gratitude. “Can’t ask for more than that.”
“It’s going to be all right,” Connor said with wholehearted sincerity the moment they were outside the law firm.
She wasn’t nearly as sure as he seemed to be about the matter. “Clay probably tore up the papers and threw them out.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Connor said, then reminded her, “Remember what Cash said. You don’t need Clay’s okay to go ahead with this. It’ll take a bit longer,” he granted, “but ultimately you’ll get the results you want—to be free of him.”
She took a deep breath, trying to remain positive. “You’re right.”
“Not always,” Connor admitted. “But in this case,” he said with confidence, “I am.”
She slipped her arm through his. He was such a positive person. Connor was good for her. “Let’s walk to Miss Joan’s.”
“You sure?” he asked uncertainly. “It’s kind of cold out.”
“It’s crisp,” she corrected. “Crisp and clear. And right now, I feel like walking.”
He smiled at her, willing to do anything she wanted to do. All he ever wanted was to make her happy. “Then we’ll walk.”
Amy was very tempted to tell him that he was spoiling her, but she was afraid he might take it as a criticism and she was enjoying being indulged way too much to have it stop abruptly. So she said nothing. She merely looked up at Connor and smiled her gratitude.
* * *
ALTHOUGH SHE WAS all the way across the diner, Miss Joan spotted them the moment they walked in. She withheld a greeting, waiting to see where they’d sit. When they approached the counter, she was obviously pleased. There was even a hint of a smile on her thin lips as she made her way over to them.
“Haven’t seen you two in a while,” she commented.
“It hasn’t been that long,” Connor told her.
Miss Joan pinned him with a look. “When you get to be my age, every day is long. So, what’ll it be?” she asked.
“We’ll have two coffees and some of your smile-inducing pie,” Connor said.
“Angel’s pie. Angel makes the pie,” she informed them as if they didn’t know. “I make the coffee.”
Connor smiled. Miss Joan was almost fanatical when it came to not taking credit when it wasn’t hers to take. Inclining his head, he corrected himself. “Then we’ll have two cups of your coffee and two slices of Angel’s pie.”
“For here?” Miss Joan asked, her eyes washing over them. “Or to go?”
“For here,” Connor answered.
Miss Joan nodded her approval. “Good,” the woman pronounced. “
Be back in a minute,” she promised, making eye contact with Amy rather than Connor. It was as if she was telling the young woman that there was a covenant between them.
True to her word, Miss Joan returned with the slices of pie in less than a minute. The coffee took her another minute to pour and bring over.
She placed the small metal container filled with cream between them. “Anything else?”
Amy smiled her thanks. “Not right now.”
Miss Joan nodded as if in response to some private conversation she’d been having in her head. “Then I’ll let you enjoy Angel’s pie in peace,” she told them, withdrawing.
“Well, that’s a first,” Connor commented under his breath.
Despite his quiet voice, Miss Joan responded, “I heard that,” from further down the counter.
Connor grinned in response. “I knew you would.” Like everyone else in town, he was aware that there was nothing wrong with either the woman’s hearing or her vision, despite the fact that Miss Joan would never see middle age again.
“I feel sinful, having dessert without having a meal first,” Amy confessed to him, sinking her fork into the pie on her plate again. “But this is just too good to pass up.”
Affection filled him the way it did nearly a dozen times a day. Every time he looked at her, he couldn’t believe that she was back in his life, that he’d been granted a second chance at happiness.
“This isn’t even close to sinful,” Connor said. “But if you’re feeling guilty, we can stick around and have lunch later if you’d like.”
She did, but there was a slight problem. “What about Rita? We told her we’d only be gone for a couple of hours at most.”
“I know, but Jamie’s only six months old—”
“Almost seven,” Amy interjected proudly.
“Only almost seven months old,” he amended without skipping a beat. “It’s not as if she has to chase after him all over the house. Rita might look formidable, but that woman really enjoys taking care of babies, so I know she won’t mind if we’re gone a few more hours than we said we would be.”
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