Chapter 17 #2
Inside the living room, the Christmas tree reached clear to the rafters, loaded with ornaments the Daniels family had collected over four generations.
Everyone was there—Chance and Joy at the kitchen pass-through, Boone leaning against the mantel with Tildi, Tanner pretending to read a cattle magazine, and Kenzie pacing the floor.
Before they entered the room, Trace pulled her aside.
“I want you to trust me, little fox. This is one of those times I need you to believe. If you can’t believe in us yet, believe in me.
When all this is over, if you want to go your own way, I’ll let you go.
It will kill me, but I’ll do it. For now, I know this is what we need to do. ”
She believed in him with all her heart. She trusted him.
What he didn’t realize was that he shouldn’t trust her.
Because when all this was over, she would never have the strength to leave.
She’d love him even more tomorrow than she did today.
Even though it broke her heart, if she was ever going to run now was the time.
Blinking to hold back what she prayed he thought were happy tears, she nodded. “All right, Daddy. I love you.”
His smile almost sent her to her knees. “I love you, too, Foxy,” he said, and guided her into the living room. Trace didn’t bother with a preamble. “Kip and I are getting married at four o’clock. Judge Langford’s coming out to do it.”
A beat of silence, then the room detonated.
Tanner let out a whoop that rattled the windows. Kenzie squealed and tackled Kip in a hug. Joy and Tilde started talking over each other about dresses and flowers. Ruby, quiet Ruby, just smiled as if she’d known all along.
Kip tried one last protest. “It’s not—we’re only doing this because—”
“Because he loves you and you’re too stubborn to see it,” Kenzie finished.
“That’s not—”
“Hush,” Tilde said, patting Kip’s cheek. “You’re getting married. We’re excited. Let us have this.”
Kip looked around at all of them. All the faces she’d come to love in the short, terrifying months since she’d stumbled into Wilder, running from things she still couldn’t name out loud. The fight leaked out of her like air from a punctured tire.
Trace cleared his throat. “One more thing. Until further notice, no Little is to leave the ranch without clearing it with their Daddy first. Kenzie, you can ask any of your brothers. No exceptions. Ruby, obviously, you don’t have to ask, but we’d all appreciate it if you’d tell somebody whenever you need to leave. ”
That was it. That quiet, matter-of-fact announcement from Trace, and something inside her shattered completely. She was the problem. Again. Always the blizzard rolling in to ruin everyone’s sunshine.
Kip didn’t say a word. She just turned and walked as calmly as she could manage to the old pine stairs. She climbed fast, hoping no one would see her. She made it to her room, slamming the door behind her, and let the tears come hot and furious.
She was so tired of being the reason everyone had to circle the wagons and load the rifles.
For the first time, the room, which still didn’t feel like hers, seemed too small.
She was getting married in a few hours, and all she could think about was the burden she was to everyone.
Besides that, all she had to wear was her jeans, a flannel shirt, and a worn-out black sweater that looked like it had lost a fight with a barbed-wire fence.
Nothing white. Nothing pretty. Nothing that said bride.
Her throat locked up so hard it hurt to breathe. She stood there, fists balled at her sides, when the truth punched her right in the chest. She didn’t own one thing worthy of the day her Daddy decided they were having.
She gazed out the window, the snow beyond it, the long, cold miles to anywhere else.
Every cell in her body urged her to run again.
Well, except those in her heart. Her fingers brushed the frame Trace had hung the day after she almost ran before.
He’d framed it, and honestly, it did her heart good to see it every day.
You are wanted here. Stay.
Pressing her forehead to the cool wood, she cried silent, angry tears that tasted like heartache and surrender. She hated crying, hated how small she felt, hated that even now she was the reason everyone downstairs had to rearrange their lives.
A sudden knock startled her. Then Kenzie called, “Open up, bride.”
Kip wiped her face and opened the door. Kenzie, Joy, and Tilde spilled in, arms full. Ruby followed behind, carrying a mason jar bouquet of forced hothouse roses and baby’s breath tied with red ribbon.
As soon as Tildi saw Kip, she ran to her and enveloped her in a hug. “Oh, Kip, you’re crying! Don’t you want to marry Trace?”
If it were only that easy. “Of course I do. I love him.”
“Then what’s the prob, sis?” Kenzie asked. “Has he said something stupid. Because you know, that’s usually Tanner, but Trace has his moment. Do I need to go yell at him?”
“No! Trace is incredible. It’s me. I don’t want him to feel like he has to marry and then regret it later. And all of you, you’ve all been so nice, and I don’t do anything but cause trouble. None of these bad things would have happened if it weren’t for me.”
“Girl,” Joy said, “we have got to get you caught up on ranch history. I think it’s called Wild River around here for a reason. There have been some wild, scary things that have happened to Tildi and me. You don’t even come close to causing the most drama.”
“She’s not wrong,” Ruby said, but her eyes were filled with love.
“And as far as Trace is concerned, let me tell you a story. When Trace was around eleven years old, this city fella showed up at the Wilder Rodeo with a big black stallion nobody could ride named Bastion. He offered five hundred dollars, cash money, to anyone who could stay in the saddle for eight seconds, but they had to give him fifty if they didn’t.
“Every man there took a turn. Some of them got thrown so hard they limped for a week. But your Trace, skinny as a fence post and half their size, watched from the rails with his arms folded just like he does now. When he decided he’d seen enough, he told the owner he wanted to try.
Well, the owner laughed and told him to go home to his mama.
Trace climbed that fence, looked that man dead in the eye, and said, ‘You said anybody here. I’m here, and I’m anybody.
And I’ll bet you the papers on that horse that I can ride him until he settles. ’
“Everybody there tried to talk him out of it, but he’d made up his mind.
Didn’t matter that he didn’t have the money to pay if he got bucked off.
Didn’t matter that every cowboy there called him foolish.
He never flinched, never looked back. Ten minutes later, the stallion was Trace’s, and the city fella was out one horse.
And all because Trace decided he didn’t feel like being thrown that day. ”
Ruby smiled, soft but sure. “Honey, that boy has never done one single thing he didn’t choose with his whole heart. Still hasn’t.”
Kip released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She’d needed to hear those words. Ruby wouldn’t lie. Neither would Trace. It was time for her to stop listening to her fears and start listening to her heart.
Running to Ruby, she threw herself in the woman’s arms. “Thank you, Ruby. You always know just what to say to make me feel better.”
Kenzi cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention, then laid a garment bag across the bed, unzipping it with reverence.
“Trace never does anything unless he wants to, but he’s still a man.
And leave it to a man to spring something incidental on his girl.
You know, like her wedding!” Rolling her eyes, she pushed the sides of the bag open.
Inside was ivory lace, tea-length, simple but luminous.
“Kenzie!” Kip whispered her name, “It’s beautiful, but… how? How did you have a wedding dress just lying around?”
Kenzie ran her fingers down the tea-length, ivory lace dress, simple yet luminous. Turning her attention to Kip, she smiled even though her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. “It isn’t mine. This is the dress my mother wore when she married my dad forty years ago.”
Kip stepped back from the dress, honored but horrified. “Kenzie, it’s beautiful, but I can’t wear something so valuable.” What if she spilled something on it?
“She’d want you to wear it, and Trace will like it, too. It'll almost be like she’s here with us.”
“Great!” Tildi cried out. “Now I’m crying. That’s so sweet! It’s perfect.”
“I’m shorter than your mom,” Kip whispered. “It will get dirty on the bottom.”
“Two inches,” Kenzie said. “We’ll tuck the hem if we have to. Try it on at least.”
Snick. Snick.
The sound caught Kip’s attention. Joy was moving around the room, taking pictures with the fanciest camera Kip had ever seen. After snapping a few more, she looked up. “I know it would mean the world to Trace. Go ahead. Put it on,” she said, and then ducked back behind her camera.
They helped her into the dress as if she were made of glass.
The lace skimmed her collarbones and stopped just below her knees.
Kenzie pinned the hem with straight pins while Tilde brushed Kip’s crimson hair into a low twist. Ruby dabbed concealer under her eyes and added the faintest pink to her lips.
Tilde produced a pair of low-heeled cream leather pumps still in their box. “These were mine. I bet they’ll fit.”
Ruby retrieved the bouquet from the dresser. “Flowers from the greenhouse. They’re not much, but they’re alive.”
Kip touched the lace with trembling fingers. “I don’t deserve this.”
Joy snorted. “If we all waited for what we deserved, we’d all be naked. Speaking of that, once everything calms down, we’ll go to my studio, and I’ll take some pictures Trace will really like.”
When they turned her to the mirror, Kip didn’t recognize the woman staring back. She looked… soft. Hopeful. Like someone who truly belonged somewhere. Her chest cracked wide open. She wanted this. God, she wanted this so much it terrified her.
Downstairs, the grandfather clock chimed four just as they finished.
Judge Langford’s voice boomed up the staircase. “Folks, let’s get these two hitched before the snow starts.”
Taking her place at the top of the stairs, she looked down at Trace. She knew the second he recognized whose dress she was wearing. The smile on his face confirmed Kenzie was right.
As they descended single file, Kelsey Hart’s Doing Life with You began to play.
The living room had been rearranged so the chairs formed a half-circle in front of the Christmas tree, its lights twinkling like stars in a cloudless sky.
Trace stepped up to the tree in dark jeans, a starched white shirt, and a black bolo tie with a silver tip shaped like a running horse. His eyes met hers and didn’t look away.
Ruby stood as a witness while Boone, Chance, and Tanner flanked Trace like sentries. Kenzie and Tildi stood behind Kip, forming a lace-and-denim honor guard, while Joy wandered around the room taking more pictures.
Judge Langford opened a small leather book. “We are gathered today on this ranch, in the presence of family, to join Ezekiel James Daniels, III, and Kipling Renee Harper in marriage."
Kip barely heard the words. She was lost in Trace’s steady gaze and the warmth of his hands when he took hers.
“Trace, repeat after me…”
Her Daddy’s voice was rough but sure. “I, Trace, take you, Kip, to be my wife. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.”
The vow felt enormous in the small room.
When Kip’s turn came, her voice cracked on the first word. She steadied herself on the second and meant every syllable.
Judge Langford grinned. “By the authority vested in me by the great state of Wyoming, I pronounce you husband and wife. Kiss your bride, son.”
Trace cupped her face and kissed her—slow, deliberate, like he was sealing something that had been true long before the paperwork. The room erupted in cheers and boot-stomping.
When they pulled apart, Trace reached into his pocket and took out a small box. Inside was a Christmas ornament — a delicate glass disc painted with snow-covered pines and the words Our First Christmas Together in gold script.
“I ran back into town while you ladies were upstairs,” he said quietly. “Not much of a wedding present.”
Kip’s eyes welled up again. Together, they hung the ornament on the tree, where the light caught it and scattered tiny rainbows across the lace of her dress.
Later, after cake Ruby had somehow produced from thin air, after toasts with cider because no one trusted whiskey around the judge, and at least one dance with everyone there, everyone blew bubbles as Trace carried her upstairs.
She was beyond exhaustion. Her limbs weighed heavy, but her heart was too full for words.
He ran a bath in the old clawfoot tub, water steaming.
Peeling the dress off her as if it were sacred, he folded it over a chair.
Then, kneeling by the tub, he washed her hair, his strong fingers working shampoo through the strands, rinsing with the handheld sprayer until the water ran clear.
He bathed her gently, thoroughly, all the while telling her how beautiful and precious she was to him.
When he lifted her out and wrapped her in a towel, she was half-asleep.
He dried her hair and braided it loosely the way she liked before carrying her to bed. Once he had tucked her under the flannel sheets and quilts, he slid in behind her, chest to her back, arm heavy across her waist.
Kip turned in the circle of his arms until they were face to face.
“Daddy,” she whispered.
“Yeah?”
“I didn’t say yes because of the license.”
“I know.”
“I said yes because I love you so much it scares me.”
He brushed his thumb across her cheekbone. “Good thing I’m not going anywhere.”
“Neither am I,” she whispered.
Outside, the snow finally began to fall. Thick, silent flakes floated past the window, covering everything in pure white.
Inside, Kip let herself drift into a restful sleep, safe for the first time in years, anchored by the steady beat of her husband’s heart against her own.