Chapter 12 Jude #2
“You’ve been nothin’ but honest with me, so I’m goin’ to do the same,” she starts.
“I’d just lost Dad, I was tryin’ hard to hide how lost I was and be strong for my brothers, and then there was you.
” She smiles over at me. “Perfect, helpful, always there, and confusin’ me to no end because of the way you make me feel whenever I’m around you.
’ My lips part, my heart literally tries to punch its way out of my chest. “But I also knew it wasn’t fair to anyone if I stayed on the mountain out of obligation.
Not when I knew everythin’ I needed to get myself together was back here in Palmer. ”
“Everythin’ you needed?” My voice is rougher, but I’m not ever going to hide my emotions from her. Never her.
She waves her spare hand in the air. “A sense of normalcy, my job. All of it. For the record, I realize now that I had already started fallin’ for you, even back then.
Even when my world was crumblin’ and my heart was breakin’.
I just didn’t have the capacity to think about—let alone process—how I could feel so connected to a stranger I’d just met and who’d married me because Dad asked him to. It felt wrong to be drawn to you.”
“Because I’m a Cooper?” I ask.
I catch a glimpse of her spark this time as she glares at me for a moment as if to say, ‘as if.’
“It was too much, too soon.” She turns her hand over to lace her fingers with mine. A slow rolling wave of rightness spreads out from the touch, filling me with a sense that I’m exactly where I’m meant to be.
“As much as I had a moment when I wished our weddin’ was real, I never really thought it could be,” she continues.
“And even with both of us knowin’ what it was and why we were doin’ it, you never acted as if it was fake.
You gave me and my Dad the best possible memory you could have, and for that, I’m endlessly grateful. ”
“I just did what anyone would do,” I reply.
“You did it because you’re you, Jude. A kind, thoughtful, selfless man who didn’t even stop to think about it before acceptin’ a dyin’ man’s unreasonable request.”
I flex my fingers in hers, losing myself in her expressive gaze, loving the fact that I could—no, will—have a lifetime of moments like this. She’s letting me in, allowing me to see every part of her. “I can’t explain it, I just knew that it was somethin’ I was meant to do.”
“Marryin’ me or helpin’ Dad?” she asks. “Because what I remember is you turnin’ up out of nowhere and in a room that had been suffocatin’ me with dread and heartbreak for days, I suddenly felt like I could breathe again.
When you stepped behind me, I knew you had my back.
We didn’t know each other and yet you bein’ there gave me the freedom to let go if I needed to. ”
Not for the first time, I wonder if this is how the Call is for everyone. It’s like I want to brand her onto my heart. I want her and only her. She’s literally on my mind from sunup to sundown. Everything I do, I do it with her in mind.
My life is not just the ranch and my brothers anymore, there’s Em too. My wife. My One. My future everything.
“I meant every word I wrote in that letter.” I rub the back of my neck.
“Though, I do have to confess that the prenup—the thing that should have been lodged—was not.” She gasps and I rush to reassure her.
“But I’m told it can be easily fixed with a post-nup.
We can do that whenever you’re ready, but I give you my word, what’s yours now and forever will also just be yours.
“Wait… “ Her body stills. “You’re tellin’ me the document that should have been lodged, wasn’t. And the one that shouldn’t have been, was?”
I laugh at the irony, grinning wide when she joins me. “I mean it, Em. I don’t want anythin’ belongin’ to your family. Just you.”
“What about what you own?”
“You’re my wife. What’s mine is yours,” I say matter-of-factly.
“Jude,” she says gently. “You’ve got to protect yourself.
What if this doesn’t work out—” I pin her with a questioning stare and she holds her hands up in surrender with a knowing glint in her eye.
“OK. I love the faith in us, but what would you have done if I didn’t believe in the Call?
Or the existence of the mountain spirit?
What if I was completely against ever returnin’ to Timber Falls. What if—”
I dip my head so our eyes are level. “Wherever you are is where I want to be, Em. Full stop. End of sentence. I don’t care how long you need, or how long it takes, or even if it happens at all.
You’re my One and I’m yours,” I tell her.
“I’m already strugglin’ bein’ apart from you and that’s before we’ve even gone down the road of completin’ the Call.
” Her eyes flash at that and I can see she’s remembering exactly what that means.
“I can’t imagine I’ll be able to cope with a day, let alone a night, from you after that. ” Shit. Have I rambled too much now?
“Please don’t take that back,” she whispers. Not only can I see her emotions lying just beneath the surface, I feel them tugging at my soul. “What you said confirms everythin’ I know about the man you are. It’s why I believe you’re my One too.”
I never could have imagined how good that would feel to hear.
“OK,” I rumble quietly, not trusting myself to say anything more right now.
We both fall silent. “That day I turned up with Sutt and Blair to your ranch. I think the mountain knew you needed me.”
“Because I did without even knowin’ it—without knowin’ you.
“Wasn’t expectin’ Sully Wilson to ask me to stand up and marry his only daughter, that’s for sure,” I reply, “or that he would tell us all that you were the one who would put the mountain back together.”
Em smirks. “Nobody would’ve seen that comin’.”
“As soon as I looked him in the eye, I knew he meant it, that he wanted me to be there for you. It was never just a dyin’ man’s wish for me.”
“He must’ve known.” She looks down to her glass with a wry smile. “And now look at us, our first date and I’m already gettin’ all deep and meaningful.”
“You can be however you want to be, wifey. I’m an open book when it comes to you. What you see is what you get.”
She stares at me for a good long while, tilting her head as if studying me. “You really mean that, don’t you?”
I nod and we end up just staring at each other over the table while the rest of the diners around us go about their business.
It’s like they fade from existence, the lively conversation and bustle of staff muting as I lose myself in my wife’s soulful gaze.
My attention is drawn to her lips and all I can think about is kissing her again.
The last—and only—time was when Pete pronounced us husband and wife.
Last weekend’s cheek kiss was barely enough to keep me at bay. But denying myself a taste of her until we’re both in the same place emotionally is more important to me than getting what I want right now. Because I know it’ll be worth the wait.
A slow growing smile tips my lips as I pull my hand away. “I do have one very important question to ask you though, and it might affect how we move forward from here…”
She frowns, looking adorably confused. “What’s that?”
“Are you a sharer or a hogger?”
A startled giggle escapes her. “What are you talkin’ about?”
I pick up the menu and shake it between us. “Dessert.”
Ever so slowly, she arches a single brow my way as she drops her voice to a sultry whisper. “I guess that depends on you.”
Now she’s playing me at my own game and I willingly let myself be reeled in. “On what?”
She leans in and I mirror the move. “On what you want, of course.”
I slowly lift a brow. “What’s mine is yours, wifey. Remember?”
Her eyes flash with heat and god do I want to reach out and trace those smirking lips of hers with my thumb. Or my tongue.
Then, as if the spell is broken, she sits up straight and tugs the menu out of my hand, laughing as I stare at her dumbfounded. She totally had me then.
“In that case, we’re gettin’ the lava cake and a banana split. I’m sure my husband knows the way to a woman’s heart is with chocolate and ice cream. “She beams at me. I realize then that there’s no way I can—or ever will—deny my wife anything. I’m screwed… but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“What’s the sayin’? Happy wife, happy life. I’m sure Dad always told us that. So order whatever you’d like, Mrs. Cooper.” The minute the word is out of my mouth, my eyes jump wide, locking with hers as it registers what I just said. “Sorry, I—“
“Why not Wilson-Cooper?” she challenges. “Why does a wife always have to only take her husband’s name?”
My whole body jerks. “I just meant—”
“Or Cooper-Wilson?” she continues, her eyes dancing as I continue to squirm in my seat. “What’s wrong, hubby? Cat got your tongue?”
“Whatever you want, Em. You’re the boss,” I say with a knowing smirk.
She pulls her shoulders back, grinning wide. “You’re a quick study, hubby.”
“Anythin’ for you, wifey.”
I somehow manage to control myself, even when I lead her to the front door of her house.
“See you next week, Em,” I say, my lips brushing against the soft skin of her cheek as I fight every instinct to end this date right.
“My turn next time,” she whispers, turning her head to kiss the corner of my mouth.
I pull back, my hands resting on her waist. All I want to do is pull her in and show her just how grateful I am that she’s giving us—me—a chance.
“It’s a date.”
And the drive back to my BnB for the night, and the whole trip home the next day, there’s nothing and no one that can wipe the smile off my face. Seems to be a thing for me after spending time with Em.
As far as I’m concerned, our next date can’t come soon enough.