Page 40 of The Cowboy's Forbidden Bride

And there were a thousand things that Wilder could have said. He could have mounted arguments. Or told him that it was none of his business, but that didn’t really work with a twin who was as much him as he was. He could have laid the entire situation out, end-to-end, because he wasn’t worried about protecting Cat from Ryder. Ryder took as much delight in poking and prodding Wilder as Wilder did him, but that was between them. That was theirs. They were and always had been their own safe space.

He could have claimed that he was following in Harlan’s footsteps, getting in on that final request that Zeke had put out to them. And maybe there was more truth than he wanted to admit, because even thinking that seemed to… stick a little bit.

Wilder even could have told Ryder that he was pretty sure that Cat had called his bluff because she knew that he’d figured she might balk, though now, looking back, he couldn’t even say that was true. He couldn’t seem to remember not having asked the question, much less notwantingto ask it.

Instead, he looked out at the mountains and let them work their magic inside him. He could feel them, the way he always did. As if he was a part of them.

He shifted against the cold step. “Do you remember when we were about five, we thought it would be such a great idea to climb up to the top of that rock and throw ourselves into the swimming hole to see what would happen?”

Ryder nodded. “I do.”

They’d been holy terrors. Everyone had said so.

Looking back, he could see why everyone thought that—and he still carried a ton of regret about it—but on the other side, there were moments like that day at the swimming hole.

There’d been no one around. They had run off from whatever it was they were supposed to be doing. Given their age, it was likely because their mother had been sick. They probably escaped the watchful eye of mean old cousin Roberta, who had made no secret of the fact that she thought that having such rambunctious twins had gotten Alice sick in the first place.

She’d shared that opinion pretty freely, as Wilder recalled.

What he remembered that particular day was streaking off across the yard, neck in neck with Ryder. They’d run and they’d run, back when they were small and running had felt like flying, and they had headed directly to the place they knew they weren’t supposed to go. The place they had been expressly forbidden to ever go.

The rules were clear that they were only allowed near bodies of water when in the presence of an adult, but they hadn’t much cared about rules. They’d climbed a tree, but had deemed it not dangerous enough to excite them. Then they’d eyed that rock, big and imposing, that stood on one side of the swimming hole, jutting out from the mountainside, and they’d known. That was the one.

It had been so steep that they’d had to do it together, hauling each other up and sliding down—repeatedly. There’d been scrapes and maybe a few tears, but they’d finally gotten to the top. It was flat up there and for a couple of small kids, it provided the optimal running start.

Wilder and Ryder had looked at each other. Then they’d grabbed hold of each other, and they’d taken off.

They’d run as fast as they could, catapulting themselves off the side of that rock, and for a single, glorious moment, they’d gotten some hang time.

Wilder remembered it perfectly.

It had been a bright summer day. The sky above had been too blue to bear. The water below had matched it. And for that long, perfect moment, it was like they were suspended there in all of that blue eternity.

It had been still and sweet and exhilarating beyond the telling of it.

It had been pure magic.

Beside him, now, Ryder nodded like he was remembering it all, the same as Wilder.

“Okay, then,” was all he said. “Cat Lisle it is.”

That was all that was needed. And just like always, Wilder figured that if he had Ryder’s support, he could handle anything else that came his way.

And that was how he felt the next day, his wedding day. He drove down to Marietta with Ryder in his passenger seat and Boone and Knox in the second row. They were all dressed in button-downs, jackets, and their best boots, like they were going to church. Harlan and Kendall followed with Zeke and Belinda behind them.

Once they drove through Cowboy Point Wilder could see Tennessee’s truck and behind it, Jenny’s, already winding their way down the same mountain road toward Marietta.

Like a little caravan of a blood feud, he thought.

“You can still back out,” Knox said from the backseat when they made it to the bottom of Copper Mountain. “And honor Matthew Carey as our family has always done until now.”

“He’s not backing out,” Ryder said. He reached back and cuffed Knox on the shoulder. “Try shutting up and maybe you’ll understand what the adults are talking about. Pipsqueak.”

This was particularly entertaining to everyone in the truck except Knox, since he was, in fact, over six feet tall and not a pipsqueak of any kind.

“I’m sorry,” he replied. “Who are you again? I thought this was a family-only wedding?”

Ryder laughed, lounging there in the front passenger seat as Wilder drove into Marietta proper. “If you think that just because it’s Wilder’s wedding day I won’t kick your ass, you have another think coming, little brother.”

---