30. Bradyn
CHAPTER 30
brADYN
K ennedy crosses over and hops up to sit on the tailgate of my truck. As soon as she’s settled, I reach behind me and grab another thick blanket then tuck it around her shoulders so she doesn’t get cold. At least, it’s a bit warmer than the last time we were outside together.
And this time there’s no sleeting rain.
Ideally, we’d remain inside until this is all over, but I don’t want her to feel trapped. I feel like an idiot as it is, that I didn’t put two and two together and realize she was going to feel just like she did back then.
That’s the last thing I want.
“Warm?” I ask.
“I am.” She smiles at me. “What are we eating? It smells delicious.”
“Pot roast and potatoes,” I reply.
Her face lights up. “That was the first meal your mom made when I started working for the ranch. It was the first home-cooked meal I’d had since—” She trails off. “Since Cillian took me in.”
“Cillian is the veterinarian?”
“Yeah. He’s great. A good man.”
I take the lid off of a glass food container and offer it to her along with a fork. “Tell me about him.”
She sighs. “He’d lost his wife a few months before I showed up. They’d never had any children, so he was all alone. His apartment was over the top of his clinic. He helped me up the stairs and took care of me.”
“What made you leave?”
“I caught sight of two of Klive’s guys on the street about three months after Cillian first found me. I was worried they were getting close, so I took off in the middle of the night. I left him a note, told him that I was sorry but I couldn’t risk his life.” She shifts her gaze to the pond. “I still send him postcards every so often. I don’t know if he’s alive or if he even gets them, but I send them.”
“He’s alive,” I tell her.
Her head whips toward me. “What? How do you know that?”
“We looked him up. After you first told us about him. He’s alive and well, still running his clinic.”
Her eyes fill with tears, and I wish I’d told her this news sooner. “He’s alive?”
I nod.
Kennedy smiles and closes her eyes. “Thank you, God,” she whispers.
She speaks it with such confidence that my heart soars. This woman, who a week ago was closed off from her faith, has been working to reconnect with it so much so that she’s seeking Him in everything.
And that, in and of itself, is a beautiful miracle.
“I’m so glad he’s okay.”
“When this is all over, I can take you to see him if you’d like. I can even wait outside, but if you don’t want to go alone?—”
“I would love for you to come with me,” she says. “You can meet. Two men who saved my life.”
I swallow hard. “I haven’t yet.”
“You have,” she says. “In more ways than one.”
We eat in silence for a few minutes with only the sound of the light breeze surrounding us. Does she know how much she means to me? How absolutely head over heels I’ve fallen in such a short period of time?
Would it scare her to know how I feel?
“Tell me something about you,” she finally says. “Something I don’t already know.”
I laugh and set my now empty plate to the side. “I’m not entirely sure what you don’t know.”
“Given that all I know is that you were in the service, still operate as a soldier, run a ranch, and have a dog named Bravo, I’d say not much.”
Chuckling, I raise my bottle of water to my lips and take a drink. “I played football in high school, for a league that was mainly made up of other homeschoolers, was in both 4-H and FFA, the latter until I graduated high school, and spent every spare moment I had helping out at the church.”
“4-H? FFA?”
“Future Farmers of America,” I tell her. “And 4-H is close to the same thing, just for younger kids. I showed sheep when I was in 4-H then steer when I was in FFA.”
“You showed them? Like a horse show?”
“Did that too,” I tell her. “I enjoyed it all, but I’m not one for the spotlight to be on me, so I was glad when it was all over too.”
“That why you didn’t want to keep playing football after high school?”
I laugh. “Something like that. I also took a nasty hit and ended up with a pretty gnarly concussion. After that, I just didn’t see the point in playing since I didn’t have a desire to continue after school.”
“I played chess.”
I turn toward her. “Really?”
She nods. “Was pretty great too. I played competitively all the way into college.” When she catches me staring at her, she blushes. “What?”
“You just keep surprising me,” I tell her. “Amazing with animals, strong, beautiful, intelligent, and great at chess.”
The color of her cheeks deepens, and she smiles softly. “I’m feeling more like myself than I have in a long time, Bradyn. Thanks for that.”
“That’s not me. It’s all you.”
“Not all of it.” She sets her food aside and stares out at the pond. “It’s beautiful out here. I don’t think I’ve ever been to this part of the ranch.”
“We don’t use it until the spring,” I tell her. “In early April, we’ll rotate the cattle out here so they can enjoy it. But it stays vacant all winter since it’s so far from the main house.”
“Makes sense.”
I’m not entirely sure how she’s going to take it, but I’m desperate to hold her, so I push off the tailgate and hold out my hand. “Want to dance?”
“Dance? There’s no music.”
“I can fix that.” Reaching into my pocket, I withdraw my cell phone and hit shuffle on my worship playlist. Then, after setting it on my tailgate, I hold out my hand again. “How’s that?”
She answers by shoving the blanket from her shoulders and taking my hand. I pull her into my arms, and she snakes one hand over my neck while I place one on her waist. The music is steady, and I move slowly, carefully pulling her in closer.
Kennedy leans in and rests her head against my chest.
And in this moment, all is right in my world.
There is no danger looming overhead. No mysteries.
Just Kennedy and me.
“I haven’t danced in years,” she says. “Not since the prom our church put on for the homeschooled high schoolers.”
“It’s been a while for me, too,” I admit.
“This is nice.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
We keep moving slowly, and I lose myself in the feel of her pressed against my chest. This beautiful woman who’s suffered more than her fair share of trauma but still manages to keep her head up.
What strength one must have to do that. To face down the darkness and refuse to bow to it.
The music shifts from one song to another, and Kennedy pulls back to look up into my eyes. “Thank you for tonight, Bradyn. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.”
Because I can’t help myself, I raise the hand that was on her waist and brush some hair out of her face. My gaze drops to lips I’ve wanted to taste from the moment I first ran into her on the street. And even though I have no idea what the future holds for us, I lower my head and capture them with mine.
The world tilts, pieces fitting together like they were made for each other. Like we were made for each other. Desire hums through my veins, and I lose more of myself to her in this moment.
“I’ve wanted to do that since we first met.” My voice is breathless as I speak, my mind already on kissing her again.
“I’ve wanted it too,” she replies. “I’ve wondered what it would feel like since we bumped into each other. Even though I also knew it was a mistake since I had no idea how long I was staying.” Reaching up, she touches my lips with her gentle fingertips.
“Life is uncertain,” I tell her. “But does that mean we shouldn’t live?”
“No,” she replies. “It doesn’t.” Kennedy pulls me back down, and I capture her lips again. She opens beneath me, and I lose myself in the kiss, burying my hand in her thick hair.
She grips my shoulders, pulling me in and stretching up on her tiptoes to get closer.
I’m surrounded by Kennedy Smith.
Utterly and completely captivated.
And I never want to let go.
Even if it kills me.