Chapter Eighteen
“What are you doing just standing there?” Aunt Eileen whizzed past Ryan, a heavy tray in her hand. “There’s cases of water that need to be brought out to the coolers.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Ryan tipped his hat.
“Oh, wait.” Aunt Eileen stopped short. “How’s the shoulder feeling?”
Raising his arm, rotating it left then right, he grinned at her. “Like nothing ever happened.”
“Well, good.” She blew him a kiss. “I’m just so happy that Mariah agreed to attend the wedding here. This is so much easier than having it at the hotel in Sadieville.”
He couldn’t argue with her there. Something had shifted in his mother after the cave in. She didn’t say anything, and by no means was everything suddenly bright and rosy, but at least his mother wasn’t muttering nasty jabs under her breath anymore.
“Hey there, handsome.” Nicole snuck up beside him, curled around him, and planted a sweet but too brief kiss on his lips. “We need some help in the kitchen. Aunt Eileen wants the reception area all set up and ready to go before the ceremony starts.”
“I’ve been told. I was assigned water transport.”
Together, they returned to the kitchen and he hefted a couple of cases while she grabbed another food tray.
At the covered area where the tables and dance floor had been set up, Ryan looked to his Aunt Eileen, fussing over some flower arrangement with his Aunt Anne.
And again, to his surprise, his mother was doing the same only a few feet away. “I still can’t believe it.”
“What?” Nicole set the food down on the table and turned to face Ryan.
“My mother making nice with people she worked so hard to keep us away from.”
“I guess near tragedy works well to bring people together.”
Looping his arm around her waist, he spun her about to face him, lifting her chin with one finger. “Have I mentioned how much I love you?”
“Not today.” She smiled up at him.
“I do. Love you.”
“And I,” she eased up on her tippy toes and kissed his lips again, “love you.”
“And that’s the whole problem!” his mother’s voice carried across the reception area.
“Uh oh.” Ryan looked up. Pretty much anyone within shouting distance stopped to look at Mariah Farraday, standing with hands on her hips, looking ready to breathe fire at his aunts.
He slid his hand down to snatch up Nicole’s.
“We’d better get over there and cool her off before the whole day is ruined. ”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Aunt Anne, who always had the sweetest disposition, seemed to be ready to come to blows with his mother.
Stomping like a mad bull, Aunt Eileen crossed the small space. “Now is not the time.”
“She started it,” the two women echoed as they pointed to each other.
Anne blew out a sigh. “All I did was mention how many lovely weddings have been held here at the ranch, always so romantic, makes everyone want to be close to the ones they love.”
Biting down hard on her back teeth, her gaze narrowed with a deadly stare directed at Anne, his mother repeated, “And that’s the problem. You can’t keep your hands off my husband.”
Eyebrows climbed to the hairlines of just about every person within earshot.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Anne shouted back. Uncle Brian came to stand behind his wife, his hands gently caressing her arms. No doubt in an effort to bring calm to the currently insane moment.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. It was the Brady wedding.”
Anne blinked, sheer confusion taking over her face.
“The bride and groom were cutting the cake, the band played a soft version of ‘When Somebody Loves You’ as background music. I looked over and saw you pulling my Patrick in for a long slow kiss.”
“I never.” Anne’s expression shifted from confusion to indignation.
“Mariah,” Ryan’s dad sidled up beside his wife, “you promised you wouldn’t start anything. This is Quinn’s big day.”
Her hands fisting at her side, his mom was almost vibrating with anger. “I know. I tried. I really tried. Everyone was so…kind to me when Ryan was trapped. So supportive. But when she started talking about all the weddings and I remembered that day you kissed her…”
“I what?” Now it was his dad’s face covered in confusion. “I’ve never even looked at another woman since I found you.”
Mariah blinked at him, her expression softening, her lower lip almost quivering. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.” Tumbled over, “He’s not.”
“Which wedding are we talking about?” Uncle Brian looked at his sister-in-law.
“The Brady wedding. Paul or Peter, I forget which one.”
Uncle Brian continued to stare at her, his mind clearly running through every Brady wedding they’d ever been to here at the ranch.
She spun around and both hands flat on her husband’s chest, she brushed at invisible lint. “You wore your favorite jacket. The one with the elbow patches. You said it made you feel like a rich lord.”
His dad smiled. “Still does. And it still fits.”
That had his mother teetering on a smile for half a second. “It crushed me to see you wrapped around Anne. Until that day I had believed that whatever had been between you two was buried in the past. I knew, if I didn’t want to lose you, I’d have to keep you far away from this place.”
“What?” His dad shook his head. “I have never, ever kissed another woman since finding you. Not Anne, not anyone.”
“But I saw you. And you were so sullen and lost after we went home. You hardly spoke to any of us. I knew you were regretting letting her get away.”
Ryan squeezed Nicole’s hand. What a day to air the family laundry.
He made a strong note to self, never ever let Nicole doubt how much he loved her.
For the rest of his life, he was going to make sure she felt very loved by him.
The thought had barely passed through his mind when the words rest of his life began spinning around in his head.
The rest of his life. That was what he wanted.
What he’d fight for if he had to. What he had to convince her of.
Letting go of her hand, he let his hand slide around her waist and tucked her in a little closer, kissing her temple lightly. “Sorry about all this.”
She shook her head. “Don’t be. It strikes me it’s past high time they resolved this feud.”
“Wait a minute.” Brian stepped out from behind his wife. “Are you referring to the wedding where I was the best man?”
Mariah shrugged. “Maybe, I don’t remember.”
“The one,” Brian stared at her pointedly, “where I slipped in the mud a few minutes before I had to make the toast?”
Looking up, his mother squinted as though trying to read the answer without her glasses. “Did you?”
“And I,” Ryan’s dad, came around to stand between his brother and his wife, “loaned Brian my clean jacket to wear for the toast.”
“And then my wife told me how proud she was of my great speech and gave me a long big kiss that had me wishing the reception would end sooner than later.” Uncle Brian reached beside him to take hold of Aunt Anne’s hand. “And then I gave my brother back his jacket.”
Now his mom’s eyes were as round as a silver dollar. Her head jerked around to face her husband, who was bobbing his head, and then back to her brother-in-law, who had his arms crossed in front of him, glaring at her.
“Dear Lord.” Aunt Eileen stepped into the fray. “Do you mean to tell me that all these years, all this pain, was because you didn’t know your husband loaned his brother a jacket for a few minutes at a wedding?”
Her mouth slightly open, her eyes filled with a different kind of pain, his mother spun around and hugged his dad. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t tell me,” Patrick Farraday said softly.
Holding back tears and sniffles, she slowly turned to face the two women she’d been estranged from for too many years. “I don’t know how to say I’m sorry. For ever thinking, never mind believing…”
Aunt Anne extended her hand to Mariah’s arm.
“Anyone could have made that mistake under the circumstances. I just wish you’d told us all those years ago.
” Anne proceeded to pull her sister-in-law into a hug.
Within moments, all three women were hugging and crying and apologizing and the men standing behind their wives merely looked relieved this entire mess was now behind them. At least Ryan hoped so.
“Just a little misunderstanding.” Nicole was beyond flabbergasted that something so little as a momentarily loaned jacket could have created so many years of loss and hurt for so many people.
“I just can’t imagine.” Her gaze shifted to Ryan, her heart swelling with something uniquely strange to her, and yet, something she desperately wanted.
Not for today, not for now, but for always.
“I guess this is why communication is key.” Ryan grabbed her hand and tugged her away from the crowd.
Without hesitating, she followed him. Truth was, she’d follow Ryan anywhere.
And wasn’t that something unexpected coming from her.
She’d always assumed that someday she’d find a good man to marry and settle down with, whatever that meant, but this, this feeling that took root deep down inside her, it was more than she ever expected.
And something she desperately didn’t want to lose.
“I don’t think I can blame your mom for fighting the only way she knew how to keep the man she loved. ”
“But it wasn’t necessary.” Ryan sighed. Coming to a stop around the corner to where chairs and a red carpet had been set up for the ceremony in front of a lovely altar with a flowing drapery hanging from the canopy. The view of God’s country behind it making the perfect backdrop for lifetime vows.
“To her it was.” She paused to look up at the makeshift church. Bows tied at every chair along the aisle. Massive flower pots creating walls on the far sides. “What an amazing place for a wedding.”
“I was just thinking that. Every wedding at the ranch is slightly different and yet always perfect.”
She took a step over to one of the dark cedar posts holding up the sheer fabric draped from above. “Definitely perfect.”
Ryan tugged at her hand, spinning her around to face him. Except he wasn’t there. Her gaze dropped, as did her mouth. Wide open with one hand flying to her lips as she stared down at Ryan on one knee.
“I’m sorry to say, I don’t have a ring. Until a few minutes ago, I didn’t even know I was going to do this.
But my one takeaway from the recent drama is that I never, ever want to lose you.
I want to share the rest of my life with you.
For better, for worse, and for all the crazy relatives and mysteries that life has to offer.
I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone but you, and I promise,” he paused to draw an X over his heart then wrapped her hand again in both of his, “that I will never give you any reason to ever doubt just how much I love you. Ever. Will you marry me, Nicole?”
Her hands still pressing against her open mouth, she managed to hold back the tears of joy and nod her head. “Yes, yes, and yes.”
Springing up to his full height. Ryan pulled her into a tight embrace. “Just so you know, I’ll go wherever you want, back to Oklahoma, to Sadieville, here in Tuckers Bluff or Timbuktu. As long as you’re with me.”
“Ditto.” She flung her arms around his neck and his head dipped, his lips pressing against hers with a kiss that was sweet, and powerful, and full of all the love she felt in her heart.
A sudden explosion of applause had them easing apart and looking over to where the sound had come from. Half the family stood, smiling—no, grinning like fools.
Grinning himself, Ryan pulled her close against his side. “She said yes.”