Chapter 2 #2
He told her what Conri told him about it.
“They don’t know who did it, but it’s safe to say that it was someone in the pack.
They work all over the city in different capacities that help us out when necessary.
Nothing illegal, but sometimes it helps to have papers filed rather than going through the steps of doing it the old-fashioned way.
That’s the way that Conri and Cass were married.
Someone just put the paperwork in the right places, and they were finished with it. Would you like a large wedding?”
“No. I have no one who would be on my side.” He said his family would be there for both sides. “I guess so. So there’s nothing to worry about? You’re not mad that the two of us are married now?”
“I have a ring that I made when I was younger. I have it on me now.” He got down on his knees and smiled up at her. “Sharon Grace Taylor, will you marry me? I know we’ve sort of skipped a few steps, but I’m all right with that if you are.”
“This is so sudden, don’t you think? I mean, we’ve only known one another for about a week now. I’m all right with it if you are.” He told her that she wasn’t too romantic. “I don’t know how to be romantic. No one has ever proposed to me before.”
“And no one ever will so long as I have breath in my body.” He slipped the ring on her finger and kissed her finger.
“It fits you like you were there when I made it.” She looked down at the ring, and he described how he’d made it.
“I was just getting into gems and things when my mom suggested that I make some more simple things to sell. I started and stopped on this one so many times that I wasn’t sure I’d ever get it right.
Then Conri found his first wife—we never say her name if we don’t have to—and I thought I was going to make something for my future wife when she came along.
That was how I’d come up with that design. ”
The band was made of a wide piece of silver that he’d made too.
There were little wolves in the design that he had fallen in love with when he’d put them on the soft metal.
Once he got them just right, the ring sort of worked out on its own, so that he came up with the design that she was now wearing. He asked her if she liked it.
“I love it. It’s just what I would have picked out for myself if I had the choice of any ring in the world.” She held it above her head and looked up at it. “I love the wolves. I saw you the other night while you were out playing with your brothers.”
“I wondered if you knew it was us. Rette called and said he needed a good run, so we decided to get together. We usually do it at night when there are fewer people around.” She looked at him. “Do you really like it? We can get you something else if you want.”
“No. This was made for me, and I intend to wear it for all time. It’s perfect.
” He stood up and pulled her into his arms. “Are you going to kiss me now? I think that would be terribly romantic. I’m beginning to fall for you, Kendrick Valley.
And when I do, it will be forever. So I hope you’re right in saying that you’ll never lie to me.
I’d hate to have my heart broken after all of this. ”
“I promise that I will love you for all time. And I do too. Love you, I mean.” She looked up at him when he lifted her chin up. “I’d like that kiss now if you don’t mind. As you said, it would be the perfect way to start out our lives together.”
She came into his embrace, and he pulled her tightly to his body.
Brushing his lips over hers once, he was rewarded with her tongue coming out and licking them moist. Kissing her the second time, he deepened the kiss to the point of wanting her, but he never pushed her too far.
She was beginning to trust him, and he wasn’t going to put her on guard again for a single kiss.
They had all the time in the world, and he was going to earn her trust if it was the last thing he did in his life.
~*~
“Whatcha reading?” Rachel said the hometown paper where she’d grown up. “Why do you care what goes on there when you have this beautiful town that we live in?”
David walked away, and she continued to read the paper.
He hated that she loved to read, and when she started a book, Rachel would read the last chapter before starting on the book so that she’d know the ending first. So she was reading the paper the same way.
Starting at the back and making her way to the front.
It was the best way to work up to the news on the front page if you asked her.
Not that it was ever all that much to deal with.
As she skimmed through the paper, she thought of her daughter.
It was the first time she’d thought of Sharon since she’d moved here all those years ago.
She’d be in her mid-twenties about now, she thought.
Just old enough to be getting married on her own.
As she got to the middle two pages, she skimmed lightly over the meals that would be going out on the senior meals this week, and then something caught her eye.
It wasn’t as if she actually knew the Valley people.
She knew who they were but didn’t know which was which.
She’d always thought that it would be wonderful to be married to one of them; the money alone would have allowed her to put up with a lot of things.
But they’d been handsome and witty. Something her ex-husband, Richard, had never been.
He didn’t have two pennies to rub together most of the time.
She hated being broke almost as much as she hated him.
One of the Valley men had gotten married.
Having to go to the first page to read the beginning of the article, she was pissed that they’d not put it all on one page.
So that she could read it all at once. But the front page had a blurred picture of the man and one of the woman with her name underneath of it.
Picking up her glasses to make sure she was reading it right, she couldn’t believe she saw her daughter’s name as the bride.
Calling for David, she had him read the name to her three times until she was satisfied that it really was her daughter.
“It says right there that her name is Sharon Grace Taylor. I didn’t know you had a daughter old enough to be getting married.
You said you were a single mom, and I just figured it was a kid out there someplace.
” She thanked him. “I don’t know why you’re thanking me.
I always thought you were older than you said. ”
“Prick. I do have a daughter, and she’s getting married to money.
” Not that she’d be able to get any of it.
She lived clear out here in California, and her daughter lived in Ohio.
It was a shame, really, that that much space separated them.
She would really have liked to have seen her.
“I have to call Richard and let him know. He’ll be so pissed off.
I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that he’ll be there with his hand out. ”
“Won’t you?” She thought about it and then shook her head. “I don’t believe you. I’ve even heard of the Valley men. They’re shifters and are as old as dirt. I’d have my hand out wanting a piece of whatever she’s getting.”
“I don’t want any of it. Let her have a good life.
” And she knew she believed that too. She had a good life out here and wasn’t going to go to Sharon after all this time, thinking or saying that she owed her something.
She more than likely thought that she owed her the way that she’d left her with her mother.
Rachel then wondered about her mother and wondered if, by chance, she was still around too.
Picking up the phone after reading the entire article, she called Richard.
Of course, his latest woman thing answered the phone.
“Why do you not carry it around like you’re supposed to do? It’s a mobile phone for Christ’s sake. You’re supposed to have it on you all the time.” He said that all those who called him were bill collectors anyway. “I just wanted you to know that Sharon is getting married.”
“Who? I don’t know anyone by that name, and if they say differently, I’ll have them sued. Why would I care if she’s getting married in the first place?” She explained that it was their daughter. “I thought her name was Rachel or something.”
“No, that’s my name, you moron. I’m Rachel, and her name is Sharon Grace Taylor.
Have you been drinking again? That’s the only way that I’ll believe that you’ve forgotten our daughter’s name after all this time.
” He told her that it had been too long.
“I would say that’s what she’d say too if we were to show up and tell her we’re still around.
I just wanted you to know. She’s marrying into the Val—” She stopped, and he asked her what she was going to say.
“The Valeria family. Do you remember them?”
“No. Might if I was to see their face, I might be able to place them, but I’m terrible with names.
” She had a feeling that if he knew that their daughter was marrying into the Valley family, he’d be on the next plane to her.
And she didn’t want that from him for her.
“Is that all you wanted? To tell me some brat we had long ago is getting married? If she thinks I’m paying for a wedding for her, she’s going to be shit out of luck.
I can’t afford my rent, much less whatever is going on with her. ”