“What’s all this about you talking to Elsie Garrett about us.”
And that was when he knew he had to tell them. And he had a captive audience for that. A skeptical and captive audience.
And by the time he was done, they were all silent.
“Well, shit,” Brody said. “I never thought you would fall in love.”
“Two down,” Tag said, looking a little triumphant.
“Hey, I am not resolved,” he said. “Don’t go celebrating yet.”
“She’ll come around,” Tag said.
“What if she doesn’t?”
“She will.”
“True love and all that,” Lachlan said.
Gus laughed. “True love. No such thing. You can choose to make something work, or not.”
“And you would know that how, Angus?”
“I told you. I’m the oldest.”
“Wish you’d get yourself a wife so that you could get this place cleaned.” The smart-ass remark came from Lachlan.
“If the right one comes along. Maybe I will.”
Nothing about love. Nothing quite so sappy for Angus McCloud.
And his brothers didn’t hug or cry, but things felt better with them. He didn’t feel quite so separate. And that had been the point of the whole thing.
By the time he got in his car to go, he’d had a beer too many, but it was a quick jaunt to his cabin. When he got there, a familiar truck was parked in the lot, and his heart went up to his throat. And he didn’t even care. Not anymore. That his emotions were...well, that they existed. Because he loved this ridiculous woman. She was standing barefoot in the dirt in his driveway in what was practically an evening gown.
“Dammit, Elsie,” he said when he got out.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, and she burst into tears.
“Don’t you apologize to me,” he said, moving in and pulling her in for a hug. Just a hug. “Elsie, baby. You don’t need to apologize to me.”
“Yes, I do,” she said. “Yes, I do. Because I ruined everything. I made a mess out of it. I made a mess out of us.”
“No, you didn’t. It just took you a little while longer to get to this place on the road.”
“How did you know?” she asked. “How did you know this whole time?
“I didn’t. Because it snuck up on me. Soft at first, and when it hit it was like a freight train. But I love you, Elsie.”
She looked up at him, and the wonder in her expression took his breath away. “You really love me.”
“Yes.”
“You see me...you know I’m a baby who was born in a barn, whose mother left her, whose father didn’t love her, and you love me like that.”
“Only if you can love me. I’m the son of a violent, horrible man, Elsie. The son of a mother who didn’t stay. But I know who I am when I stand here with you. You’re my reason. My forever. My fate.”
His chest felt like it was cracked open, and that was all right with him. All right because if he bled, it was for her. And that was a purpose that he could embrace. This all-consuming love. This wonderful, bright, brilliant, sharp, life-changing love.
“You’re mine,” she said. “You were right. It was all worth it to be standing here.”
“I’ll love you forever. And I want you to marry me.”
“I want to do that. I don’t know how to do it. I don’t know how to be married. I don’t know how to be in love. I just know that I am.”
“I know you are,” he said. “Because this was us. From the beginning. It was always going to be yes.”
They walked hand in hand from the driveway and on down to the river. Right by his favorite fishing spot. And while they walked, they talked.
“You act like you’ve always known.”
“Maybe I did. And maybe you did too. Maybe there’s some fate to it. The person that’s with you from the beginning.” He brushed his thumb over her cheekbone. “The one that’s always there to protect you.”
“Like you protected me?”
“And like you protected me.” He kissed her lips. “Remember when you put those bandages on me? When you were just a little girl. Because my father had finished beating the hell out of me?”
“Yes.” She blinked. “I do.”
“Elsie,” he said, “I really do think you have a cute ass.”
And she laughed, then balled her fist up and hit him on the shoulder. “I thought we were being romantic!”
Then he grabbed her around the waist, and heaved them both into the river.
When they came up, they were sputtering.
Well, Elsie was howling.
“Don’t you know, you vile little polecat,” he said, pressing his forehead to hers. “This is romance for us.”
And while she laughed, she kissed him. With cold, wet lips that he loved more than anything.
“Hunter,” she whispered. “I love you.”
He pushed her wet hair back from her face, and in that moment, he felt everything. “I love you too. And I will never leave.”
Elsie smiled. And it was like the sun had come out from behind the clouds after thirty-two long years of rain. “I believe you.”
EPILOGUE
ELSIE GARRETT HAD literally been born in a barn, but she cleaned up pretty nice if she said so herself.
She was a much prettier bride than she had ever anticipated being. Actually, being a bride was something she had never anticipated. And she was thrilled to be surrounded by her friends as she married the man of her dreams.
Even if she hadn’t known he was the man of her dreams.
Particularly precious was the presence of her best friend, Alaina, who was ready to stand with her as her bridesmaid.
Alaina might have had a long road to her own happiness, but the wedding ring that sparkled on her finger now was almost as bright as the smile on her face.
“This is nothing like we imagined, is it?” Alaina asked.
“No,” Elsie agreed, looking ahead at Hunter. “It’s better.”
And she lifted up the front of her dress and began to walk toward the lake, began to walk toward Hunter.
She looked at all the people who were gathered there by the lake. Their cousins. Eli, Connor and Kate, their spouses and their children. All there on Garrett land together.