by Ava Miles
“We’re not finished yet,” he said, taking her hand and raising it to his lips. “Come. Let’s see the rest of the collection. They have six hundred quilts, and I think we’ve only seen a quarter of them so far. I have a feeling you’ll want to see them all.”
And so they did. They passed by one masterpiece after the other. Sadie wondered if this was how a person felt in a cathedral like St. Paul’s in London or Notre Dame in Paris.
She walked through the rest of the museum in bliss. Riley walked quietly next to her, a happy smile on his face. Sometimes she would become animated and start explaining technical things he didn’t understand, much like he might do at a superhero museum, but he didn’t seem to mind. He’d simply gaze at her while she spoke with her hands.
And when she whispered a curse about not being able to take pictures of the quilts—of course she understood artistic propriety and all—he muffled his laughter. But she’d have an easy time recalling the images and styles of quilting that had sparked her interest the most. Plus, there was a gift shop.
And what a gift shop…
She bought a stack of books about the collection and quilting books she’d never come across anywhere else. Of course, Riley insisted on buying her a Keep Calm and Quilt T-shirt in hot pink. She jumped up and down when he presented it to her, and she didn’t care who noticed. While some of their fabric pieces were tempting—like an array of silk in peacock tones—she decided to pass. She could buy any fabric at Oodles for a discount, and if they couldn’t get it, she could always go online. Plus, Riley kept finding her vintage clothing for her treasure chest. She could never have enough fabric—it was like some people with shoes—but she didn’t want to linger over the pieces for too long. Riley had arranged this for her, and she wanted to spend time with him.
When they reached their charming log cabin in the woods with the river view, she fell onto the couch and kicked off her shoes. “This has been one of the best days of my life.” And after everything that had happened with her daddy, it felt like the biggest blessing in the world.
He stopped by the couch with the bags and leaned down to kiss her. “I’m so glad you think so. I’m going to put these in our room.”
“I would get up and see it, but I’m too happy to move.” Our room. She shivered. Oh, how she loved hearing him say that.
“You really need to see this room, Sadie,” he called to her. “We have a huge fireplace, and the most amazing view of the Ohio. There are birds on it.”
“Birds, huh? Imagine birds on a river. Okay, I’m coming.”
She rolled off the couch and padded in the direction he’d taken. When she reached the doorway, her heart flew to her throat.
“Where did you get that?” she asked, stunned speechless by the wedding quilt arranged on the bed. No way had it simply been there—it was far too beautiful and intricate.
“I…ah…commissioned it from Mae,” he said, undoing the button on his sport coat. “Come take a look.”
She walked closer, the geometric interlocking rings of the wedding quilt capturing her complete attention. The quilt itself was a delicate ivory, and the rings were rendered in ocean blue, red, yellow, and sea green fabric. Then she saw the jewelry box lying open inside the center of the quilt and turned to him.
He was kneeling by her side, his face radiant with love.
“Sadie McGuiness, will you marry me?” he asked in a deep and strong voice.
She launched herself at him, and he toppled back onto the rug. “Yes. Oh, Riley. Yes! A million times yes.”
He rolled her onto her back and peppered her with kisses. “Thank God, because the rest of this weekend would have been pretty awkward otherwise!” He grinned as he said it, but quickly became serious again. “We’re going to be so happy. I…I never thought I’d ever feel this way about anyone. I love you, Sadie.”
She locked her hands behind his neck. “Oh, I love you too, and yes, we are going to be so happy. Know why I know that? Because I’m already happy with you. Riley, you gave me a wedding quilt. And today… You see me and celebrate me like I never imagined someone would.”
“Come see your ring,” he said. “I… Well, I designed it, and I…okay, I’m just going to be quiet and let you look. If you don’t like it—”
She pressed her fingers to his lips. “I can’t imagine not loving it. Show it to me.”
He rose and helped her up and then extended the ring to her. “I wanted to give you something special.”
She caught the wedding quilt pattern on the ring immediately, and her heart burst in her chest. “Oh, Riley. It’s…exquisite. You did this for me?”
Tears were filling her eyes, but darn it all if it wasn’t normal to shed a few tears when you were agreeing to marry the man you loved.
“There’s an inscription too,” he said. “God, I hope you don’t think it’s corny.”
She turned the inside of the ring toward the light. “You’re the fabric of my life.” Sinking onto the bed when her knees went weak, she gazed up at him. “It’s perfect, and Riley… You’re the fabric of my life too.”
His throat moved, and he nodded. “Shall we put it on then?”
She held out her left hand, and he took the ring and slid it down until it was nestled in the right place. The diamond sparkled, and the unique style of the ring seemed to awaken something powerful in her heart.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered, letting the tears fall. “Thank you, Riley.”
“Thank you,” he said, sitting next to her. “I want to tell you that I talked to Jess and she’s fully on board.”
She put her hand to her mouth. “Oh, I should have asked. How terrible of me.”
“You were overcome,” he said softly. “So was I. In fact, I forgot to mention that I asked for your hand in marriage from both J.P. and your mom. I knew I didn’t need their permission, but I wanted to honor you. In some ways, you’re a traditionalist, and I respect that.”
Once again, she felt choked up. It felt so wonderful to be seen, to be honored. “Oh, that makes me so happy. What did my mama and J.P. say? Anything?”
He pressed the bridge of his nose. “I’m so overcome, my brain is dead. I can’t remember.” Laughing, he shook his head. “But Jess chose my outfit for today, for the whole weekend really, and she approved of my plans. I asked if she wanted to be with me when I proposed, but she informed me that wasn’t how it was done. Then she said a few things about chick flicks, I think. It might be her new language. She’s growing up so fast.”
She took his hand and pressed it to her heart. “I promise to be good with her. To love and cherish her. Like I plan to love and cherish you.”
“Cherish, huh? That kinda chokes me up, but don’t tell anyone, okay? Mark will give me such flak for that.”
Sadie doubted it, but she understood he felt vulnerable about being an emotional man. “It will be between us.”
“How about I cherish you a little now and then we go out later and hit the town? There’s Robert Dafford’s famous Wall to Wall murals along the river and the Bricolage Art Collective. I’m really excited about them. This place is perfect for us. It has quilts and art. It’s a match made in heaven.”
She linked her arms around his neck again. “We’re a match made in heaven.”
“Yes, we are,” he said in a steady voice.
Then he tipped her back and made love to her sweetly and thoroughly on the wedding quilt, sealing their promise for a lifetime.
Chapter 29
After Riley and Sadie became engaged, he felt like a superhero at the end of a movie. It felt like they were being ushered from one celebration to another. Sadie’s extended family had thrown them an impromptu engagement party, and the following weekend Riley’s parents and his brother’s family had flown in to meet Sadie and welcome her to the Thomson clan. His parents had been a little awkward at first, commenting on how much Jess had grown, but they were trying in their own way. They might never be as close as they’d once been, bu
t he was glad the door was still open. Of course, Paige, Mark, and Haley had also thrown them a bash on a school night to celebrate her joining what Mark called their neighborhood clan.
But his daughter’s celebration of Sadie had touched him the most. She’d insisted on making Sadie macaroni and cheese, one of her favorite meals, and had presented her with a homemade card decorated with a big heart. The sight of that card had put tears in his eyes.
Jess was as happy as he was, and that meant everything.
His woman had become family to his daughter, and Riley figured no single dad could ask for more.
Sadie seemed to be walking on clouds too, so much so that she’d become clumsier. He teased her about it, and she slayed him by saying, “It’s this beautiful ring you made me. When the light catches it or I feel it on my finger, I just can’t help but look down at it.”
He stopped teasing her, and simply made more of an effort to keep his hand on her back and steer her away from things like lampposts or doorways.
They talked about a January wedding, both eager to move in together and start their lives. Of course, she’d checked to make sure Shelby was okay with that since her sister was planning a fanfare-filled wedding in May. Shelby had told her it hardly mattered who got married first—she and Vander spent every night together. Otherwise, she’d never make it to May.
Riley understood. Even though they were engaged, he still didn’t feel comfortable having her sleep over, and she agreed that they should wait. Fortunately, Jess could still spend the night next door, but he didn’t like to divert from their routine more than twice a week. He was her dad, after all, and dads watched over their kids at night.
His weekends became ever more filled with family events. Though he and Sadie kept their date nights sacrosanct, Jess and Haley had asked to take country line dancing, much to his chagrin, so he and the Bradshaws took turns taking them to the Saturday class. Sadie would usually come over for dinner in their neighborhood afterward. Then Sunday rolled around, and he and Jess and the Bradshaws met up with everyone for Sunday family dinner at one of the McGuinesses’ homes.
But today marked a special Sunday dinner. Paige was hosting for the first time. And she was as nervous as hell.
“Of course I’m nervous,” she shot back in response to his teasing. He and Mark, on her orders, were setting up the dining room. “Rye Crenshaw is going to be in my house!”
“It’s not like you haven’t met him,” Riley said, setting another folding table next to the trio that already filled the rearranged dining room. “I mean, we’ve even been to his house.”
That had been a day. All five of the dogs—three of Rye’s and two of Annabelle and Rory’s—had gone swimming in Dare River and returned a wet mess with a special gift for the kids. The dead duck had made Annabelle scream, setting off a chain of ear-piercing responses from Haley and Jess. Shelby had added her own chorus to the melody of screams before Rye had roared, “Enough,” and taken the dead bird out back to dispose of it.
“That was different,” she grumbled, shaking out yet another tablecloth he’d never seen her use. “This is my house. Our house. Sorry, honey.”
“No skin off my back,” Mark said, brushing off the dust on his shirt from the attic. “What else do you need us to help with?”
She cast a look around the room, and Riley fought a wince. She was going to change things up again. He just knew it.
Sure enough, an hour later, they were still moving the tables and chairs. Finally, she settled on her original idea of opening the French doors to the family room and arranging the tables end on end. Of course, that meant he and Mark had to follow her orders on where she wanted the family room furniture to be repositioned. When she finally said they were finished and headed to the kitchen, he and Mark man-hugged each other jokingly.
“I thought it was never going to end,” Riley said.
“I heard that,” Paige said. “For that, I’m going to have you peel the onions and chop the garlic.”
“Great,” Riley said, rolling his eyes at Mark. “I’m sure Sadie will have an extra tough time resisting me after that.”
“You seem to be doing just fine,” Mark said, slapping him on the back.
Nothing could be more true, so he ignored the ripe smell of fresh onions and garlic no amount of washing his hands could eradicate. He also ignored the crazy antics of Jess and Haley. They’d been running back and forth between the houses all day like crazy people.
“Okay, Madame General, I’m going to head home and shower,” Riley told Paige, who was chopping the colorful trio of bell peppers into bite-sized pieces for the kebabs she’d agreed to make for everyone.
“I wish I’d never listened to you about the kebobs, Riley,” she said, wiping her brow with the back of her hand. “I mean, it’s going to take forever to do all of these. I should have done a casserole or—”
“But you hate casseroles, honey,” Mark said, crossing to his wife. “Besides, didn’t Sadie and the rest of the girls think this was a great idea? Sadie is crazy about Riley’s kebobs.”
“Not for Sunday family dinner!”
“Hey,” Mark said, pressing his cheek to hers. “Come on, you’ve been working since dawn on all of this. Why don’t you take a break while I spear the kebobs?”
“Mark.”
“Paige.”
Riley knew when to make himself scarce. “I’ll be back in a jiffy.”
Racing to his house, he let himself inside and listened for the girls. Nothing. He decided to check on them and took the stairs two at a time to the playroom. The door was closed, which wasn’t unusual. Jess had informed him a couple weeks ago that they were growing up and she and Haley needed privacy. Privacy. A word to make a father tremble in terror.
He knocked. “Dad alert. Hide the silverware.”
“Don’t come in!” came the alarmed reply.
His patience was wearing thin after playing the part of Mr. Mover for the past couple hours. “Girls. What are you doing?”
Jess cracked open the door and gave him the stare. “Dad, we’re doing some things.”
He counted to three. “What things?”
“Surprise things,” she said, looking over her shoulder for a moment. Sometimes he could hear his own snarkiness in her voice and didn’t like it.
Haley said something Riley couldn’t hear, and Jess added, “For the party. Is that okay?”
“Sure.” This wasn’t worth engaging over. “I’m going to shower now and get dressed. Paige is getting ready too. Haley, when are you going to head over? Your mom is going to want…”
He bit off the rest of the sentence. Paige was going to have ideas about her daughter’s outfit tonight, and the little girl wasn’t going to like it.
“Your mom might need your help figuring out what to wear,” he said instead.
“She’ll be fine,” Haley yelled from behind the door.
“It would be nice if I could see Haley when I’m talking to her, Jess,” he told his daughter.
“We’re almost done,” she said. “Then Haley is going to get dressed with me.”
This was news. “What? Haley, do you have clothes?”
“Yes, Mr. Thomson, I brought them over.” She appeared behind Jess. “Hi.”
She looked at Jess and then back at him, and his gut stirred. What were they up to?
“Jess thought it would be fun to get dressed together since Mom is so whoo-hoo today. She started vacuuming at seven o’clock this morning. Even Dad was like, ‘she’s crazy.’”
Riley doubted Mark had ever said that about his wife. “Okay, you wrap whatever you’ve got going on and then get dressed and come over. I could use your help shucking the corn.”
“Dad, seriously, corn silk will stick to our clothes.”
He put his hand on the doorframe. “You can wear an apron or something.”
Jess mumbled something.
“Huh?” He cocked his ear.
“Nothing,” Haley said, elbowing Je
ss. “We’ll be over soon, Mr. Thomson.”
“Great. Off to get handsome.”
“Good luck,” Haley said sweetly as Jess shut the door in his face.
Everybody was acting a little crazy today. Except for Mark and him. Maybe Paige and the girls had drunk some special water from the local mental institution. Oh, his comic book mind liked that. He took off to the shower to let the ideas filter in for a new story. He was getting closer. At least he had his superhero’s backstory. She had been institutionalized for saying she was the daughter of Clotho, one of the three fates from Greek mythology, who’d spun the threads of life. Nathaniel Gray would find her lying in the middle of the street after her escape from the asylum, and he’d take her home when she told him something about his past.
Bah! But he still didn’t know her name or what she did with time. Well, it would come.
When the girls finally arrived at the Bradshaws, Riley did a double take. The sides of Jess’ hair were caught up in butterfly barrettes, and she was wearing one of her best dresses with the new red cowboy boots she’d begged him to buy. Haley had on a fancy purple dress as well, paired with pink cowboy boots.
“Goodness,” Mark said, drying his hands on his apron. The two of them were wrapping up the last of the kebobs in the kitchen. “Don’t ya’ll look fancy.”
Haley twirled but Jess stayed in place and touched the edge of her navy dress.
“You think so, Mr. Bradshaw?” his daughter asked.
Riley caught the hint of vulnerability in her voice. Was this part of his little girl growing up? Was she struggling with self-esteem?
“You look like a country rockstar,” Mark told her. “Beautiful. Sophisticated. Lovely as a rose. Right, Riley?”
He came forward and sank down in front of her. “Yes, all of that. Except for the rose part. My daughter isn’t just a regular rose. She’s the rarest of the roses: a desert rose. The kind of rose that only comes along once in a hundred years.”
Jess’ mouth lifted up, but she said nothing.
“I love the way you talk, Mr. Thomson,” Haley said. “Can I be a desert rose too?”