Meant-To-Be Marriage

Back in Cannon, the beard had made him seem more untouchable and intimidating. Without it, he…

She rubbed her arms as if she were freezing to death. In truth she was burning up inside with so many emotions, she couldn’t name them all. But topping the list was rage and anger for his coming here to enlarge the wound that had never healed.

“I have to admit you’re the last person on earth I ever expected to see again in this lifetime…let alone here,” she began.

Jarod’s eyes glittered. “Evidently you didn’t get my note.”

Sydney struggled to catch her breath. “What note?”

“The one I left inside the front door screen of your cabin at Old Faithful.”

She put a hand to her throat. “When did you do that?”

“Saturday.”

Saturday she’d been told he was ill, yet seeing him she realized he’d never looked healthier.

“I—I’d already moved out and was at my parents’.”

I had the greatest breakdown of my life by driving over to Cannon to see you. But you weren’t there, and you’re not ill. What’s going on?

He grimaced. “When I didn’t hear from you all day today, I had a talk with Chief Ranger Archer. He told me you’d accepted a teaching job here, so I called around until I found you.”

Shock still held her in its grip. “I—I can’t imagine how you even knew I was a ranger.”

“It’s a long story,” his voice rasped. “I came as soon as I could.”

She stared at him in utter bewilderment. “What do you mean?”

He cocked his dark, attractive head. “The day you left Cannon you said, ‘I can’t stay, and you can’t come, can you?’ At the time, I couldn’t give you an answer.”

That moment had been so excruciating, she experienced physical pain all over again remembering it. For him to be so inhuman as to remind her of it—

Anger consumed her.

“So now you’ve decided you can?” she mocked in raw agony, remembering the kiss he’d given her that had said “goodbye forever.”

She backed away from him. “If you thought it would be safe to take a vacation from the Lord with me, then you never knew me, and I never knew you.” Her pain resounded off the walls of the living room. “Find someone else with whom you can indulge your needs before returning to your unsuspecting flock, Father Kendall.”

His features hardened like a block of chiseled granite. He made no move to go. “My name is Jarod. I’d like to hear you say it.”

She shook her head. “You mean you want me to use it while you’re away from Cannon and no one can see us?”

But even as she questioned his motives, she had to inspect her own motives that had propelled her to Cannon two days ago.

He gazed at her for a troubling moment. “You obviously need more time to absorb the fact I’m really here.”

“Time?” she bit out. “I admit there was a time when even though I knew it was impossible, the foolish part of me needed to hear you tell me you loved me so much, you would give up your vocation for me.

“That’s how naive, stupid, lovestruck and pathetic I once was. But after fifteen months, that person no longer exists.

“You’re the delusional one if you think you can just show up here without your collar and expect me to fall at your feet because you’ve got a little time on your hands away from everyone who knows you.”

The second the words left her lips, she realized how foolish that sounded. Minutes ago she’d almost fainted at the sight of him. In the next breath she cried, “I have no interest in you or your life!”

What a hypocrite she was.

“Please go!”