After a moment’s hesitation, Lance gestured with his head toward the skeleton frame that was springing up before their eyes. “You didn’t have to do this.”
“Sure I did. You think I want to live with that night on my conscience? No, sir—and every man here feels the same way. You’ve got a lot of us squirming, son.” Reaching up, he stretched out his hand, offering it to Lance. “If you’d accept my apology, maybe I’d quit feeling like a yellow-bellied snake.”
Slowly, coolly, Lance took the proffered hand, allowing Harlan’s handshake.
Beaming with what looked like relief, Harlan turned to face the crowd, calling for silence. “Hey, everybody! The Calders are here.” When the work stopped and all eyes had turned toward them, he added, “What do you say we give the newlyweds a cheer?”
From the shouts and applause that suddenly erupted from the crowd, it seemed as if some great event had occurred.
Reed limped up on his crutches just then. “It’s about time you two got here.” His blue eyes scanned them both, going from Summer to Lance. “She been keeping you in bed all day? I warned you, Lance. Summer’ll turn you into a lazy good-for-nothing if you let her.”
“Reed!” Summer protested, her cheeks flaming in response to her brother’s ribald comment.
Reed chuckled and cocked a thumb toward the emerging new house. “I appointed myself chief supervisor, but there are a dozen decisions I didn’t want to make for you. You better get started or they’ll be finished before you can get a word in.”
Not replying directly, Lance turned to look at Summer. “This is what you want, princess?”
She returned his gaze solemnly, love and loyalty shining clearly in her eyes. “If it’s what you want. It’s your decision, Lance.”
“So,” Reed demanded, “are you going to let us do all the work on your house, or are you going to pitch in?”
Lance’s hard mouth tentatively, reluctantly, curved in a slow grin. “I guess I better, if I mean to have any say at all in how it’s built.”
The collective relief his small audience evidently felt showed on all their faces: Amelia, Dusty, Reed, Harlan Fisk, all smiled up at him in gratitude. Lance felt their warmth and knew he had made the right decision.
He swung down from the sorrel, then reached up for his wife. When Summer slid down into his waiting arms, he stood there for a minute, holding her, while the others politely recognized his desire for privacy and left them alone.
Not loosening his grip, Lance gazed down at her intently. “I want you to know, I’m only doing this for our kid.”
Summer smiled up at him. “That’s a very good reason.”
“And because I love you.”
“That’s an even better reason.”
His mouth curved wryly as he glanced at the construction. “I didn’t figure on spending our honeymoon building our house.”
“I know. But we can’t reject the kindness of all these people. They really do want to make amends, Lance.”
“Yeah.” He turned back to her. “Even so, I’d rather do what your brother suggested—spend the day in bed with you.”
Reaching up, Summer brushed her fingertips caressingly over her husband’s lips. “I would, too, but there will be plenty of days in the future when we can be lazy together. We have forever.”
His ebony eyes searched hers intently. “That a promise?”
“A solemn, cross-my-heart promise, my love.”
His dark features softening at her answer, Lance took her hand and turned with Summer toward their developing house.
A dozen people called out greetings as they melded into the crowd. Lance greeted them back, even the men he recognized from his near lynching, but those were all the pleasantries he was allowed time for. Someone handed him a hammer and Summer a bucket of nails, while someone else demanded to know where the parlor fireplace was supposed to sit.
With a fleeting grin at his wife, Lance hefted the hammer and pointed to the framework for what should be the front left room on the lower floor. “You want to help me figure out what’s the parlor in this fancy house, princess? I don’t want to do this all alone.”
“You won’t have to,” Summer replied softly. “I’ll be with you.”
Sharing a smile, they went to work, building their new future together.