Chapter Forty-four
Ada grabs the shot glass and throws it back, her nose scrunching as the harsh liquor goes down her throat.
“Ack,” she sticks her tongue out, “it doesn’t get nicer.”
I chuckle and pluck the shot glass off the bar, and then clear up the salt and lime.
“See you tomorrow?” She asks, gathering up her purse and coat.
“Off already?”
“I am desperate for a shower,” she waves at Niamh behind me and raps her knuckles against the bar, “Also tell that fiancé of yours that Dottie is learning a thing or two from Granger. A real natural. With some hard training, you may have a new cutting horse on your hands.”
I grin. “I’ll let him know.”
She waves goodbye and tucks her coat close as she heads out.
Winter’s come early to the mountains, turning the vibrant landscape white with frost and the promise of snow soon.
I thought it was beautiful in the summer, but then fall came and set fire to the mountains.
The nights grew colder, the air crisper.
“Mind taking this to table seven?” Niamh slides a tray toward me and points to the shadowy booth set at the back of the bar.
“Sure!” I slide out from behind the counter and pluck up the tray.
It’s a single whiskey on the rocks, the color of the liquid reminding me of the color of Silas’s eyes.
He proposed to me two months ago, on a warm summer night while the ranch slept around us.
The ring glimmers in the low light of the bar; the oval citrine surrounded by diamonds shaped into flowers on a platinum band.
There was no doubt in my mind when I said yes. Perhaps it was quick, rather soon after Calvin’s death, but Silas is the one for me. I had thought little about soulmates; I suppose I didn’t believe in them, not until him at least.
“Here you go,” I smile at the customer, concentrating on not tipping over the glass as I place it on the table.
They say nothing as I turn to leave, but then a hand slides around my hip and I’m tugged back, my spine landing against a warm, hard chest.
“I missed you, Honeybee,” Silas’s voice purrs beside my ear before I feel the graze of his pointed canine tug my earlobe.
My body immediately responds, skin breaking out into goosebumps as his hand slides to my stomach and he pulls me in closer.
“Silas,” I tilt my head to the side, the scratch of his facial hair brushing against my cheek. “What are you doing here?”
“Am I not allowed to visit my wife at work?”
My cheeks bloom with heat. “I’m not your wife yet.
” There’s a teasing edge to my voice. We haven’t set a date for the wedding, but I’m happy to wait.
We’re happy where we are, living together, sleeping together and working together.
The kids are back at school, and since Beth retired a month ago, we’ve found a routine with them too.
They’re not mine, but it feels like they are. I love them as if they were.
“We should rectify that,” he rasps, brushing his lips along my jaw.
I chuckle, “Should we now?”
“Mmhmm,” he mumbles, “Go get your things. I want to take you somewhere.”
“Now?” I squeak. “I’m working.”
“Niamh is good with it, I checked.”
“You checked, did you?” I grin, “Are you lying?”
“Never,” he chuckles warmly, patting my hip, “just humor me, baby.”
“I’ll be right back.” I kiss the corner of his mouth and hop out of the booth, jogging back to the bar.
“Did you agree with Silas that I could leave early?” I ask Niamh.
“Oh yeah,” she winks, “you kids have fun.”
She says it as if she’s not the same age as me.
Shaking my head, I grab my purse and coat and meet Silas by the door, accepting his hand when he offers it to me. He guides me to his truck, the cab still warm from his ride over here.
“Where are we going?” I buckle in, turning to him, his face in shadow behind the wheel.
“Patience, baby. It’s a surprise.”
Since it all went down with Darcy and Calvin, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind to try to clean up all the messes that were left behind.
Roman and Silas hired a new team of vets, a husband and wife duo that took over the cabin and the care of the animals, and they’re settling in nicely.
Calvin’s ranch was shut down and sold off.
His family came and collected his body to be buried, but I didn’t attend.
I let go of that chapter, have been seeing a therapist for a couple of months now, and I never want to look back.
“We just need to make a quick stop at the house,” he tells me, “So you can change.”
“Change?” I look at the jeans and sweater I’m wearing. “What’s wrong with this?”
But all he does is wink at me and then turn the volume up on the radio so I can’t ask any more questions.
Suspicion has my stomach knotting, and when we make it back to the ranch, Rosie and Caleb are waiting on the porch with their uncle Roman.
They look smart, too. Rosie is in a pretty pink dress with flower embellishments and a white fluffy coat, and Caleb is dressed in a little suit and tie, looking utterly adorable.
“What is going on?” I press Silas, climbing out of the truck.
“Just trust me, Honeybee,” he stops me from walking into the house and cups my face, begging me with open and clear eyes to do just that.
“I do,” I whisper, pressing onto my toes so I can kiss him.
“There’s a dress on the back of the bedroom door. Can you put it on?”
He leaves me to do that, but when I get to the bedroom and spot the dress, I realize exactly what it is he wants me to do.
That is no ordinary dress.
It’s a wedding dress.
One I had been looking at with Ada only a few weeks ago when we had visited the city to grab a few things we can’t get back in Sunstone Ridge.
Ada had encouraged me to try it on, nothing serious, and I’d loved it, but ultimately, we put it back and went on with our day.
Now it’s hanging on my door.
The sleeves are long and sheer with a sweetheart neckline and flowing skirts; the material a mix of silk and lace. It’s beautiful.
Are we really about to do what I think we’re going to do?
My hands shake as I pull the dress off the hanger and gently lay it on the bed so I can strip out of the clothes I’m in.
This isn’t how I imagined it going down at all, but now that I am here, putting on a wedding dress, I realize this is exactly how I’d want it to be.
Spontaneous. Unexpected. Just like us.
I slide the dress on, reaching behind me so I can do up the buttons and then dash into the bathroom so I can gather my hair into a somewhat elegant updo. Curled strands fall around my face, and I pin them in place. From the front it looks fine, and the back is none of my business.
I slip my feet into my cowboy boots and rush back out to them. Roman is now gone, and the three of them are waiting by the truck, looking slightly awkward and nervous.
“Holy shit,” Silas breathes when his eyes land on me.
“Bad word!” Rosie hollers.
“Shh,” Caleb mutters.
“But he said a bad word!”
“You look…” Silas doesn’t seem to hear what his kids are saying. He’s utterly focused on me. “Stunning.”
“What are we doing?” I ask when I’m closer.
“I am asking, as a man completely in love with you, if you’ll do me the honor of becoming my wife. Right now.”
“Now?” I laugh.
“I don’t want to wait to do something I already know is perfect and right. You’re a Knight, Juni. You have been from the moment I laid eyes on you.”
“Okay,” I breathe. “Where?”
“Oh!” Caleb jumps on the spot. “We’ve gotta go, Dad, or we’ll miss it!”
“Miss what?” I ask as Caleb grasps my hand and tugs me to the passenger side of the truck, urging me inside.
I gather up the skirts of my dress and climb in as the rest of them bundle into the car and Silas gets the engine on.
It takes twenty minutes to get to where we need to be.
The clearing where we watched the stars all those months ago has been transformed.
String lights have been hung from poles dug into the ground, creating an aisle down to where an officiant waits, the sky above clear, the stars twinkling against a sea of velvet black.
“Ready?” Silas asks, cutting the engine.
“For you?” I smile, “Always.”
He chuckles and gets out of the car, crossing around to my side to open my door and help me out.
There’s a fine sparkle to the ground, an early frost setting in and the icy mountain air bites at the skin I have on show, but I don’t feel the cold.
Not when Silas is holding one hand and Rosie is holding the other.
Caleb is with his dad, grasping his hand as the four of us walk down the makeshift aisle, grass crunching under our feet.
“Well,” the officiant grins, “should we get this thing started?”
I’m not sure I could have ever imagined anything as perfect as this for us. Just me and him, Rosie and Caleb, and the stars above us.