Geez, Noah! Good thing he’d kept the kisses PG-13.
Colton swung Kendra around to see her little brother sitting on the couch, watching them, the phone to his ear.
“They just keep kissing,” he said with the genuine disgust of an eight-year-old.
“Who is that?” Kendra exclaimed.
Noah’s revulsion morphed into a mischievous grin. “Joel.”
Colton leaned his head back with a deep chuckle, his earlier suspicions confirmed. “Tell him I owe him a pair of boots.” Kendra’s confused look and the laughter that burst through the phone prompted him to whisper against her ear, “I’ll explain later.”
She shivered in his arms, and he just knew it was going to be a heck of a long day.
“Can we go back to Colorado now?” Noah wanted to know.
Colton’s humor faded; he hadn’t thought that far ahead.
But Kendra’s immediate emphatic answer surprised him. “Yes. Please.”
Noah whooped for joy. Over the noise, Kendra’s conversation with Britt echoed in Colton’s mind with utter clarity. He didn’t want to live in this crazy, crowded, loud city, but he didn’t want her to make such a big decision without giving it serious thought. “Really? You’re sure?”
Not even a split-second of hesitation preceded her nod. “I tried to convince myself this is where we belonged, but I was only kidding myself, coming back here. The last month has been miserable. Everything is so busy and loud and crowded.”
Had she read his mind? He let the smile in his heart curve his mouth. “You’re not just saying that?”
She reached up to link her hands behind his neck. “There’s only two other things in my life I’ve been this sure of. Saving Noah and loving you.”
His world tilted, steadied, and became right for the first time in a very long time. After another kiss that held the promise of their future together, Kendra stated with absolute conviction, “Take us home, Colton.”
Epilogue
Kendra smiled at her father as he approached her in the church foyer, his elbow extended so he could walk her down the aisle to her husband. Her hand was steady as she placed it on Jack’s arm, a testament to how confident she was of this second wedding.
They were doing it right this time—the church, the dress, their families—everything. Colton had even proposed to her on one knee as she stood on the porch of their new ranch house, not far from JBM Ranch. Kendra had laughed, but it only took a second to see he was serious as he presented her with an engagement ring to match her beloved wedding band.
Just remembering that day turned her misty eyed. She blinked rapidly, fanning her face so she didn’t ruin her make-up. Waiting to walk the aisle ahead of her as matron of honor, Britt noticed Kendra’s motions and lifted her eyebrows with concern. She cast her sister-in-law a reassuring smile just as the organist played Britt’s cue.
Jack leaned close to say, “I never thought I’d get to do this.”
With a brief thought for the father she’d known until she was sixteen, who’d been mostly good to her despite his idiosyncrasies, she looked up at the father she’d come to know and love these past few weeks. Happiness widened her smile. “Me neither.”
Kendra’s cue sounded from the organist’s keys.
Jack glanced toward the door nervously. “This is it. Ready?”
She rearranged the slightly trailing hem of her dress, clutched her small bouquet of white roses, squeezed her father’s arm, and gave a firm nod of anticipation. In her heart she’d married Colton on her birthday. This was simply a formality for everyone else.
Once through the inner doorway of the church, it amazed her that the sight of her husband could startle the butterflies in her stomach every time.
Today was no exception, especially in his classic black tux and snow-white shirt.
Colton’s breath caught at the sight of Kendra in the back of the small, stone church. She was incredible. The dress she’d chosen was similar to the one she’d worn at the courthouse, but cut lower to reveal the sparkling diamond pendant that hung on the chain around her neck.
His gaze swept over the glitter of intricate beading that covered the sleeveless white silk of the bodice. But he didn’t care about that, or the way its simple line flowed elegantly over the curve of her hip as she walked, accenting her slender figure before falling past her ankles.
It was the color of the dress that made him smile. Starting just below her breasts, pure white graduated to a light rum color and deepened almost to burgundy by the time the hem swept the floor.
When he accepted his wife’s hand from his father-in-law, his first whispered words were, “The color is perfect, and you are stunning.”