Chapter 17
THE RADIO BEEPED and Cade’s voice, clear and smooth, announced Eli had taken his place.
Emma faced Tyson and Reagan. “Ready?”
Reagan let out a little sob. “Yes, please. I’d begun to worry that time had stopped.”
“Not quite,” Tyson said with quiet assurance. “It just paused, giving you a moment to breathe.”
“Longest breath ever,” Reagan grumbled as they started from the house and Emma laughed.
“That’s how these things go. And in fifteen minutes? It’ll all be over. You’ll be Mrs. Elijah Covington. All this hype for a fast ceremony, but we’ve all dreamed about our perfect Prince Charming since we were girls.” Emma smiled softly. “You’re just lucky enough to be marrying yours.”
The three of them made their way to the event hall, arriving to find Cade stationed outside the closed doorway.
Emma frowned. “You’re supposed to be inside, standing next to Eli.”
“I want to walk you down the aisle.”
“What?” she gasped. “No! Get inside and take your place. As maid of honor, I walk alone.”
“Not today, Ms. Graystone.” He proffered his arm.
“Now, we can stand out here arguing where the back half of the hall can probably hear us, or you can take my arm and walk down the aisle with me. I’ll make sure you’re situated before our beautiful bride takes her stroll down the aisle. Choice is yours.”
Emma bit the inside of her cheek, thinking. This wasn’t worth dragging the ceremony out over. “I wish you’d mentioned this last night.”
“You’d have wiggled out of it.” He grasped her right hand and tucked it around his arm before looking at Ty. “Do not dance her down the aisle. Eli’s about to stroke out as is.”
Ty grinned. “I’m on my best behavior.”
Cade laughed. “That’s what terrifies me. It’s then that your most creative ideas are usually generated.”
Without further ado, Cade saw Emma inside and the music began to play. They walked down the aisle to the traditional Cannon in D, and Cade kept the pace slow and leisurely.
“You look absolutely stunning,” he murmured.
Eyes straight ahead, she replied with a terse, “Thanks.”
“I mean it, Emma. The sight of you blew me away.”
People stared at them as they passed, checking her out as if she was from the “Stranger of the Month” club and needed a thorough examination to ensure her urban aura wouldn’t taint the community’s supply of single men, Bingo hall or water supply.
“Stop. Talking,” she said out the side of her mouth.
“Nah. Most of these folks would think we were stuffy if we didn’t chat a little.”
Her hand flexed on his arm. “Shh.”
Cade grinned as they reached the front of the hall and he deposited her on the second step of the stage.
“First step,” she hissed.
“Why?” He backed away. “I want to be equal with you in all things.”
Her eyes widened at the same time as her lips parted. “What?”
Shaking his head, he took his place across from her and signaled the string quartet.
The music changed, transitioning seamlessly to “Here Comes the Bride” as the minister they’d chosen took center stage and motioned for everyone to stand.
Tyson appeared with Reagan on his arm, looking like the proudest brother-in-law a woman could have. The pair moved down the aisle with effortless grace.
Eli moved, transfixed, to the woman who would be his wife. He couldn’t wait for her to get to him but had to go to her, to meet her and bring her the rest of the way. The two brothers and the woman between them met roughly a dozen feet from the stage.
The minister smiled. “An anxious groom is a good sign.”
The crowd chuckled.
“Who gives this woman’s hand in marriage?” the man called out.
“We, the Covingtons, who have loved her all our lives, stand for her today,” Tyson answered.
And so the ceremony went. It was short but moving, and, as predicted, over in fifteen minutes. The minister declared Eli and Reagan man and wife and Emma’s sob of happiness and heartbreak was lost to the cheers of the guests as Eli laid a heavy kiss on his new wife.
She wanted that. Craved it with everything she was. And she might have had it, but she’d lost it. Lost it because one letter had been buried so deep in a file she hadn’t found it.
Oh, he wanted her now. The chemistry between them still existed, hot as ever. But when she’d asked, he hadn’t been able to give her anything more. She wanted to be needed for who she was, and she wasn’t sure she and Cade would ever transcend the darker part of their history.
Grinning as if they’d won the love lottery, Eli and Reagan nearly sprinted down the hall. The moment the doors closed, a muted but decidedly masculine shout of joy could be heard. Guests laughed and the minister said something, but Emma had eyes only for Cade.
He crossed to her and offered her his arm.
She took it easier this time, allowing him to lead her out of the room and into the dining hall, where the reception would be held.
“What’s going on in that mind of yours, Emma?” he asked quietly before they reached the head table, where he helped her into her chair.
She smiled a little too brightly. “Just really happy for Eli and Reagan. It’s so amazing when it all comes together like this. Rare...” Her voice trailed off as guests began to file in.
Food and drink were shared, toasts were made and the party was in full swing when Emma couldn’t take it anymore.
She had to get out of the oppressing happiness that made it near impossible to breathe in Cade’s presence.
This entire wedding had her fingerprints on it, and none of it would ever be for her.
Tyson, her dance partner at that moment, kissed her cheek when the band’s latest country cover ended, and she slipped off the dance floor. She needed air. Distance. A logical means of escape. She’d promised to stay a couple more days, but it wasn’t going to happen.
A speaker squawked in protest as the microphone moved too close to someone’s mouth. There were shouts of jovial teasing as the band moved things around.
Her hand was on the door lever when that voice, Cade’s voice, cut through the crowd and quieted them down. “Stop right there, Ms. Graystone.”
Cold settled between her shoulder blades.
“Surely you didn’t think you’d just slink off in the early evening hours? Because for all you’ve been here, I’ve not had my say.”
She couldn’t force her numb feet to continue forward, not without giving Cade this moment to balance the scales between them. They needed this for the break between them to be clean. No matter how badly it hurt, it had to happen.
Squaring her shoulders, she moved as gracefully as she could to face him.
He stood on the stage, staring at her rather passively.
“When I first met you, I was pretty sure you were going to be a pain in the ass.” The crowd chuckled. “Imagine my surprise when I was right.” The crowd chuckled louder.
Her face flamed. “Do tell, Mr. Covington. I don’t believe I could leave here without knowing which ass cheek I chafed most. Why, I might never sleep well again for not knowing.” The dry response garnered fewer chuckles as people tried to figure out what was going on.
“Let me be perfectly clear, Ms. Graystone. You affected both ass cheeks equally. But more than that? You proved devastating to Lassos & Latigos.”
She steeled herself.
“You took one of the Covington brothers out of commission, Ms. Graystone.” He tipped the brim of his hat up a fraction.
“He couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t eat. He couldn’t think.
He couldn’t install a window in your cabin that would close properly.
” He paused. “And he couldn’t find the faith necessary on a bright morning to believe a woman of your caliber was innocent of what appeared to be rather black-and-white in front of him.
” A small hand signal and the band started to play.
“I failed you, Emma. I professed to love you, and yet I let the first obstacle in our relationship decimate the house of cards we’d built.
I will never be able to apologize enough, so I thought I’d put this out there and humble myself in a way you understand.
I sang my mother out of her life at her request. I thought it was the hardest thing I’d ever experience.
But you leaving me? That’s hurt worse. My heart’s demanding I at least try, Emma.
But instead of singing you out, I’m going to do my damnedest to sing you right back into my life. ”
The band began at his nod and he opened his mouth. The magic was instant, the crowd totally silent as he sang Dierks Bentley’s “Say You Do.”
She began to shiver at the first refrain, shaking her head.
Tyson moved out of the crowd and took her hand, leading her onto the vacant dance floor.
“Don’t do this to me, Ty,” she whispered raggedly. “I can’t survive this again.”
“Have a little faith, Emma.” He spun her out—and right into Cade’s arms.
He handed off the microphone but kept singing, dancing with her in front of everyone.
The song wound down and silence ruled the moment as it seemed everyone waited with bated breath for the result of what was the most heartfelt apology she’d ever witnessed.
Cade stepped away from her and went to one knee, pulling out a blue velvet box and flipping the lid open.
He took a deep breath. “Emmaline Graystone, I have loved you from our first thunderstorm. I thought I could live without you. I thought I could carve out some semblance of life in your absence. I was wrong. Nothing’s the same without you.
I go through the motions but find no joy in life.
You, you, are my joy. In everything, you are my heart, the reason I take my next breath, the only sense I can find in life.
I can’t go another day without that. Without you.
Would you do me the greatest honor, Emma, and be my wife? ”
The ring he’d bought was a classic diamond solitaire, asscher cut, with trillions on the side, large but not gaudy, set in white gold.
It was what she would have picked out for herself if anyone had asked what her tastes were.
How he knew her so well in such a short amount of time, she would never understand.
“Knee’s beginning to go numb, Emma,” Cade said, his tone joking, his eyes filled with desperation.
She looked at him, truly looked at him, and saw everything she’d missed, everything that had been missing, since she left. “I want to live here.”
“I don’t want to live in New York, so that’s fine.”
“I want a house of our own.”
“Done,” he answered.
“All the windows have to work.”
“You’re pushing your luck, Emma,” he growled. “I’ll give you any damn thing you want if you’ll just say yes.”
“Yes,” she whispered.
The crowd erupted in a cheer. Shouted congratulations were thrown at them as he tenderly placed the ring on her finger, and then exploded off the floor, pulling her into his arms and kissing her with unrestrained passion despite their audience.
“Your business?” he murmured against her lips.
“In the process of being sold to a group of investors headed up by my personal assistant.” She grinned.
“I love you, Emma.” Cade dipped his head and kissed her again, softer this time. “Be my wife.”
“Only if you’re offering forever.”
“Nothing else would ever be enough,” he said gruffly, pulling her into a slow waltz step as the band struck up their next cover song. “I’ll never have enough of you.” He led her around the floor slowly, his gaze loving. “When does this ‘forever’ start?”
“When the time’s right,” she whispered.
His brow creased. “And that would be when?”
“Now.”