“Zip it, Wy,” Knox said. “This thing was Dad’s pride and joy. It just needs a little more TLC.”
Frankly, York was with Wyatt and nearly pronounced it a goner when another man walked into the barn.
All the men looked up and over at him. Reuben set the spark plug on the top of the tractor. Knox grabbed another rag and started wiping his hands.
“Hey, Hardwin,” Reuben said and shook his hand.
Hardwin. The name sounded familiar. Over six foot, he wore a pair of pressed jeans, boots, a jean shirt, and a leather cowboy hat over gray hair. His leathery face suggested hours outdoors, but he was clean shaven and smelled as if he might be going out on a date.
Oh. Right.
Hardwin was the man dating RJ’s mother.
See, York could remember good things.
Although, by the way the posse gathered, maybe it wasn’t such a good thing.
“I hear congratulations are in order,” Hardwin said to Knox.
“Thanks,” Knox said. “We’ve been talking about it for a while, and we were thinking of running off to Hawaii but…I couldn’t wait.” He smiled, glanced at Tate, winked.
And for some reason, it only stirred a desire inside York.
Since she’d kissed him at the motel, his feelings for RJ were flooding in—everything from sheer panic to admiration to frustration to the desire to dig his hands into her hair and pull her to himself and kiss her.
Really kiss her. Because when he was with her, he felt…well, maybe not like the man he barely remembered, but also not like Mack, the man he didn’t really know. And he didn’t feel confused or lost or even angry.
He felt right. As if it didn’t matter who he was or wasn’t, but with her—like last night by the pool—he was exactly who he wanted to be.
A man who could be trusted. A man who would protect. A man who wanted to be better.
Yes, that’s what it was. She made him feel like he was better.
He could admit that he needed RJ.
And maybe that meant, too, that he loved her.
He just couldn’t remember, exactly, what that felt like either.
“I understand that, son.” Hardwin dropped his hand. Cleared his throat. Smiled. “Actually, that’s what I was hoping to talk to you about. And since you’re all here…um…” He took a breath. “I’m going to ask your mother to marry me.”
This was probably where York should sneak out.
“And I was hoping to get your blessings.”
Yep. York edged toward the door.
Silence filled the barn, and suddenly he wasn’t sure if Hardwin needed backup. Because York might be on the receiving end of those quiet, dangerous expressions someday if…
What? He asked to marry RJ?
Did he want to marry RJ? Yes, I think I could be happy in a small town, eating lasagna for dinner. Could you?
“You want to marry Ma,” Tate said.
“I do,” Hardwin responded, his deep voice unwavering. “She and I have plenty of good years left, and even if we don’t, I love her. She is…well, she brings sunlight to my life after a very long darkness. And I think I do the same for her.”
York had paused by the door, caught in his words.
Sunlight in darkness. That was exactly the sense he had when he first met RJ, as Sydney, back in Shelly. A light trying to break through his layers of shadows.
“When my wife first died, I tried to hang on to all the memories we had. And I think that got in the way between your mother and me. But she’s…she taught me that I don’t have to say goodbye to all my memories to embrace new ones. And neither does she. I’m not here to replace your father—I could never do that. But I’m hoping to be someone who could make your mother happy in this new season.”
York slipped out, walking away from the scene, pretty sure that Hardwin was going to get a yes.
But his words wrapped around York. I don’t have to say goodbye to all my memories to embrace new ones. RJ was right. Not all his memories were bad. Maybe he simply remembered the good ones and went forward into a new season.
He stopped by the corral, resting his hands on the top rail as he watched the bull in the yard. Wide shoulders, a ring in his nose, the bull snuffled through hay.
“That’s Gordo, my brother’s prize bull,” RJ said, coming up next to him. She’d changed into a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt, looking very cowgirlish in her cowboy boots. “He lost Hot Pete in the bombing in San Antonio, but apparently, Gordo sired another upcoming champion. And he still has some good straws in him.”
“Straws?”
“Seeds. You know…” She grinned at him, waggled her eyebrows.
Oh, right.
She put one foot on the lower rail. “So, have you remembered anything more about Martin, the guy you recognized when he arrested you?”
He looked at her, frowned. “No. Why?”
She drew in a breath. “I don’t know. Just, you know…trying to figure out why they would want you.”
He looked back at Gordo. “I don’t care anymore. I just want to leave it behind. I know enough to know that life is over. And I’m grateful to have been given a second chance. And no, I don’t want to be Mack—but I do want a new season.” He looked over at her. “A lasagna season.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Lasagna, huh?”
“I’d eat turnips if it meant you were with me.”
And he didn’t know where that came from, but it felt right, even when she swallowed hard but didn’t look away.
So, “I think I love you, RJ.”
She closed her eyes, drew in a shaky breath. He touched her cheek, ran his thumb down it.
Then he leaned over and kissed her. Gently, as if for the first time.
She didn’t step toward him, but she softened her lips, kissing him back.
Pouring sunlight into his soul.
He heard voices emerging from the barn and drew away, his gaze in hers. She smiled ever so slightly.
“So, when are you going to ask her?” Wyatt, walking up beside Hardwin. “Because, you know, we could have a big Marshall family wedding.”
“Ask who, what?” RJ said to York.
“Oh, you’ll see,” he said.
The Marshall family knew how to put on a celebratory spread. Smoked ribs, homemade rolls, a feta-orange-arugula salad, cheesy potatoes, and chocolate cake. Knox told the story of how, after hearing York’s tale of losing his memory and nearly his life, he got in his car and drove to Cannon Beach, picked up Kelsey, and refused to wait another second to marry her.
RJ kept looking at York across the table, probably replaying his words in her head. And he kept glancing at Hardwin, who spent most of the night with a crazy smile pinned to his face as if by betraying any other emotion he might give himself away.
Only, all the guys knew, and that meant they, too, kept looking at him and wearing stupid smiles, and finally, Hardwin stood up.
“You all know that I love your mother,” he said, looking at Gerri, whose face had paled. “I never thought I’d find someone who I could love again, but I do, and I know she feels the same about me.”
Gerri took a quick breath, her eyes wide. And then Hardwin turned to her and pulled out a velvet box. “Gerri. You brought light into my world when it was dark. You make me a better man, every day. And I want to spend the rest of my life making your life bright and safe and better too. A new season for us. Will you marry me?”