Page 42 of Wicked Cowboy
I’d be thrilled to take him as my husband and mean every word of my vows.
He snapped his fingers. We walked in the field and as we headed closer to the horses, he said, “You seemed happy tonight.”
His lips pressed together, and I raised my eyebrow and asked, “Is that a crime?”
He massaged the back of his neck. “No. It’s good to be happy. You’re good for Chelsea.”
I wasn’t stupid. I stared off at the sunset that was in its last dip before it disappeared for the night. The air still had that crowning moment of red haze, but the stars were populating the sky. This was the moment people wished for in movies and I said, “She’s why I came here.”
I squared my shoulders and he asked me in a more gravelly tone, “Did you promise that at her christening?”
I slowed. “Yeah. You were overseas at the time.”
His jaw ticked, and he pushed his hands in his back pockets. “Since I moved back, they’d come over and I promised Bernie I’d be there if something ever happened to him.”
I bumped into his arm. “The night before the wedding, you brought Bernie back to the hotel from the bachelor party completely wasted.”
“He spent the night talking about how Chloe was the best. I was slightly jealous of him.” His lips curled higher like he was lost in the memory of riding in the limo with the wedding party. “But also happy for him. We were young, and he was always the responsible one.”
“That night, you watched out for him, and he trusted you with his daughter.” My adrenaline grew, but I fixed my hair behind my ear. “At least Chelsea knew you and had someone to protect her. With me, she only knew my voice on the phone, so any transition without you would have been hard.”
We made it to the edge of a field. The moon in the distance almost turned the reds in the sky dark but shined a different energy in the air.
My body practically vibrated. When he glanced at me and asked, “Why didn’t you come down more?”
I fixed the collar of my shirt that felt tight. “I… I haven’t been to Texas since her christening. I just got busy… with my own life.”
He lowered his head. “Well, tomorrow we’re supposed to get married.”
My hair stood on its ends. Had he seen I wasn’t good enough tonight?
I hugged my waist and asked, “Supposed?”
He kicked some dirt. “I just wanted to check that this is what you want.”
My heart raced, “What I want?”
I hadn’t meant that screechy sound in my tone. I wasn’t a little girl.
He glanced up at me, and I saw his brown eyes were still magnetic, but he said, “Yeah. It’s a big step. My parents never spoke to each other unless it was about me.”
So much for hope.
“That’s hard. I didn’t know that.” I ignored how my eyes misted. I’d not cry.
“It’s okay, I know what it’s like to be a bargaining chip in a business deal. I lived that life.”
Ahh. He didn’t love me. Got it. I didn’t need that as a map, but I swallowed and glanced at the barn with the horses. “My parents were in love. My mother couldn’t imagine her life without my father and that’s why she lost her will to live. But they loved me and each other.”
“Another way we’re different.” He let out a frustrated sigh. “And why our deal is bad for both of us.”
Guess I had the basis of this conversation. I knew I shouldn’t be in his world. My skin was cold despite the heat, but I didn’t want to hear him tell me to leave.
I sniffled and said, “It’s tragic. Half of my sisters were so mad at her.“
He studied my face, and my heart pumped even more wildly as he asked, “And you?”
I licked my lips that might never be kissed again if this conversation ended the way my nerves endings suggested It might, but I said, “I took care of her everyday… I saw how unhappy she was.”
