Kinley felt a good deal of shame with his tongue lashing, which was well overdue. Even she knew that. “I know,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry I left, Reed. I just… it’s just that you shouldn’t get mixed up with someone like me. But if we keep going the way we’re going, we’re going to have five kids and twenty years under our belt and you will have spent those years with a broken woman. That’s not fair to you. Don’t you get that?”
He sighed heavily. “I will have spent those years with the woman I love,” he said, watching her eyes widened. “That’s right; I love you. You were broken but you’re on your way to healing yourself. I can see it in you; yesterday was such a big day for you, Kinley. You worked through so much pain yesterday. And I want to be there for your continued journey but if you keep running out on me, at some point, I’m going to get sick of bringing you back. I love you and I want to marry you, but I can’t do that if you keep running.”
Kinley simply stared at him, her mouth working as if she were trying to speak but the words wouldn’t seem to come. Finally, she hissed. “I don’t know if I can open myself up again,” she whispered. “I love you, too, and I’m scared to death about it.”
Reed had been waiting his entire life to hear those words come out of her mouth. He went to her, cupping her face between his two big hands, and fixed her in the eye even as men from the sheriff’s department came into the office and began surveying the two dead men on the floor. To Reed, there simply wasn’t anyone else in the room. He had something to say to Kinley and no death or blood or carnage was going to stop that.
“So am I,” he confessed. “But I swear to you that nothing is going to happen to me. I come from a long line of knights and that makes me invincible, remember? I’ll always be here for you, to walk beside you as you heal from your past and whatever comes, I will love you for the rest of your life. Will you at least give me that chance?”
Kinley’s eyes filled with tears, but this time, they were tears of joy. For the first time in three years, they were not tears of sorrow. “So I have my own knight in shining armor?” she said hoarsely. “I kind of like that.”
He smiled because she was. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“What question?”
“Will you give me the chance to love you?”
Kinley nodded. “I will.”
“No more running?”
She shook her head. “No more, I swear,” she murmured sincerely. Suddenly, she didn’t feel any shame or confusion. When she looked at Reed, all she felt was… hope. She definitely felt hope, as if it had been there all along. “I feel as if… as if my running has ended, here in this little hick town. When I came here, I always thought I was running from something but now… now it seems like maybe I was running to something. I was running to you.”
Reed’s answer was to kiss her, more deeply and more emotionally than he had ever kissed anyone in his life, ever. From that moment forward, Kinley’s healing in earnest began with the deputy whose life she once saved. He had been her destiny all along.
Here, in the town named after the river, Kinley’s running finally ended.
~THE END~
ABOUT KATHRYN LE VEQUE
KATHRYN LE VEQUE is a USA TODAY Bestselling author, Amazon All-Star author, and a #1 bestselling, award-winning, multi-published author in Medieval Historical Romance, Historical Fiction, and Contemporary Romance. She has been featured in THE NEW YORK TIMES and on USA TODAY's HEA blog along with numerous other publications and blogs.
You can find Kathryn on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, ibooks, Kobo, and Smashwords. Please visit Kathryn Le Veque’s website for a complete list of books and ordering information.
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River's End--World of de Wolfe Pack Page 9
