The Fall of Shane MacKade (The MacKade Brothers 4)

He rose again, resenting everyone who had ever taken her for granted, including himself. “Don’t tell me it’s too late for me to say them. I’ll make it up to you, Rebecca, if you let me.”

“I was afraid to tell you how much I love you. I thought you wouldn’t want me to.”

He took a moment before he tried to speak, a moment to let what she’d said seep in and heal his dented heart. “I want you to. I need you to. You’re not going.”

She was shaking her head when he pulled her into his arms. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“You’re in love with me.”

“Oh, yes.”

“Thank God.” He covered her mouth with his while joy fountained through him. “I’ve been falling for you since I picked you up at the airport. You were so snotty, I couldn’t resist you.” A thought intruded, made him wince. “Rebecca, last night—”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does. I was with my brothers, down at Devin’s office. I got drunk and slept it off on the cot in the back room. I was angry about what was happening here, and what had happened inside me, for you. Stupid.” He lowered his brow to hers. “I didn’t know if you just let go a little, it could all be so right. You were always meant to come here. Do you believe that?”

“Yes.” She cupped her hands on his cheeks. The full power of it struck her like light. “We’re connected.”

“That’s one way to put it. I like ‘I love you’ better. I really like that. Who’d have thought?”

“I like it, too, better than anything.” Blissful, she snuggled into his arms. “And I won’t leave my equipment spread around the house. Since we’re going to be living together, we need some sense of order.”

“Living together.” He tipped her face back, kissed her forehead, her nose, her lips. “Wrong. We’ve already been there, sort of. You’re going to marry me.”

“Marry.” Her head spun. “You.” Her legs turned to water. “I have to sit down now.”

“No, you don’t. I’ll hold you up.” That lightning MacKade grin flashed before he began to trace kisses over her face, move his hands up and down and over her. Damn, but she was cute when that brain of hers clicked off. “Marry me, Rebecca,” he murmured. “You might as well say yes. I’ll just talk you into it.”

Marriage. Family. Children. Shane. Why would he have to talk her into something she wanted more than anything in the world? “I can’t think.”

“Good.” They’d keep it that way awhile, he decided, and nipped gently at her jaw. “I love you. Mmm…pretty Rebecca, I love you. Say, ‘I love you, too.’”

The muscles in her thighs went lax. “I love you, too.”

“Marry me, Rebecca.” His curved lips skimmed over hers, down her chin and back again. “Be my wife, have my children, stay with me. Say yes. Say, ‘Yes, I’ll marry you, Shane.’”

“Yes.” The strength came back into her arms as she threw them around his neck. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Shane.”

He nibbled around to her ear. “Say, ‘I’ll cook for you night and day, Shane.’”

“I’ll—” Her eyes popped open. The most momentous event of her life ended in laughter. “Sneaky. Very sneaky, farm boy.”

“It was worth a shot, Becky.” Laughing with her, he gathered her into his arms and swept her in circles. “But I’ll take the best two out of three.”

Epilogue

Sunlight glinted off snow and the ice that crusted over it, so that the land sparkled clean and pure. They would all be there soon, Rebecca thought. All the MacKades, with their noise and their energy. And they would come here, to the meadow where a simple stone marker rose out of the untrampled snow and cast its thin gray shadow over white.

But she had come first. She and her husband. The word, even after three months of marriage, still made her heart trip with pure joy. Shane Cameron MacKade was her husband. This day, the first day of the new year, she had love, she had a family, and the future was hers.

She slipped her hand in his, the hand that carried the simple gold band she’d wanted on her finger. And together they stood.

“It’s what they all wanted,” Shane said quietly. “Acknowledgment for a life that ended too soon. Acknowledgment is a kind of peace, don’t you think?”

“That’s what you feel here now, in the air. And I’ll find his family’s descendants.” She turned her head, smiled up at Shane. “It’ll take time—but we have time.”

“I’ll help you.” He tipped her face up for a kiss. “We all will. It’s a MacKade project. And you’ve got to finish putting your book together. I want the first copy, hot off the press, of The Legends of Antietam by Rebecca Knight MacKade.”