by D. L. Roan
Sincerely,
Dani and Clay
and the
McLendon and Sterling families
Chapter Twenty-One
Five Months Later
Wedding Countdown: One Day
Gabby closed the book in her lap, the words inside still stirring in her heart as she traced her fingers over the scrolling font on the cover. The Legacy of Falcon Ridge. About a month after Cade’s wake, a heavy, unwieldy box was delivered to them. Stacked inside were two dozen hardback books with Cade’s picture on the back, the pages inside filled with all his captivating stories and a chapter dedicated to each family member, recounting his favorite memories with them. She hadn’t read her chapter yet. The wound of his passing was still too raw, but the laughter and joy the other chapters had inspired was helping her heal a little more every day.
She glanced up at the urn sitting on the mantle, still in awe that something so small could contain the man Cade was. She’d been touched by the multitudes who’d come to his wake to say goodbye: every one of their neighbors, the townspeople from Grassland, many of his former colleagues, and people who’d worked with and for him throughout his years in both government and his private security business ventures. Even Connor and Carson’s maternal grandparents, whom she hadn’t seen in ages, came to pay their respects. Cade may have been a private person, but his life had been full of people who were proud to have called him a friend.
Tears stung her eyes at the memory of Daniel’s heartbreaking eulogy, and she plucked a tissue from the box on the end table. He’d left Falcon Ridge after Christmas and spent the New Year holiday in Utah with his daughter and her family. He’d asked them to keep the urn until his return a few weeks ago, when he’d announced his decision to go back to Grant and Thalia’s soon after Dani’s wedding. Although he’d assured them his leaving was only temporary, she could see the sadness growing in his eyes since he’d come home.
She’d wanted to protest, but she understood his need to put some distance between himself and Falcon Ridge, and that there was a good chance he may decide to move away permanently one day.
The thought spurred more tears and she reached for another tissue. Daniel was the only father she’d ever known, and she’d miss him tremendously, but hoped he’d find the healing he needed. But he was home for now, and now that winter was over, they could scatter Cade’s ashes over Falcon Ridge as he’d requested. Maybe then Daniel would find the closure he needed.
They’d decided to take a hike up to the ridge after Dani’s wedding, but when Dani told Clay of their plans, he’d offered to rent a plane and release Cade’s ashes from the air, as he’d done with his mother’s ashes over their ranch. Both Gran and Daniel agreed that Cade would love the idea. She did, too.
A high-pitched wail crackled over the baby monitor and Gabby grinned, the sound soothing her sadness. She set the book on the coffee table and climbed the stairs to their new nursery, only to find Grey already there, their granddaughter cradled in his arms.
Johanna Cadence McLendon, born a healthy six pounds and fourteen ounces on Christmas Eve, cooed up at Grey. Gabby leaned against the doorframe and watched them in the soft glow of the pink unicorn lamp beside the crib. She hadn’t thought anything could compete with the feeling of holding her own child for the first time, but the second she laid eyes on her first grandchild, she felt an indescribable joy like none she’d ever known before.
Grey caught her watching and his perpetual grin widened with his wink. She paced into the room, shaking her head. “You do know we have to give her back when they get home, right?”
Grey made a goofy face that made Jo cackle. “I told Jonah we’d keep her overnight if they wanted to stay at the party.”
Gabby pressed her lips together to suppress her giggle but one bubbled out anyway.
“What?” Grey asked innocently. “It’s Clay’s bachelor party. I’m sure they’ll want to stay late and drink.”
Gabby’s grin grew wider, her cheeks hurting from her effort not to laugh. Bachelor party or not, it was only the second time Chloe, Pryce, and Jonah had left Jo for any length of time. If the number of times Chloe’d called her the first time was any indication, she expected her daughter-in-law home from Dani’s bachelorette party any moment with Jonah and Pryce at her side, completely sober and as anxious as ever to see their baby.
“Are you sure you don’t want another one of these?” Grey asked, the blissful glint in his eyes testing her resolve not to have another baby.
And oh, how she’d been tested. Three times over and then some. Mason, Matt, and Grey were insatiable after they’d first discussed the idea. For a short time, they’d all been swept up in the fantasy, acting like careless teenage lovers, but doubts had crept in after Chloe’s scare. The risks began to weigh heavily on them all, and they’d decided it would be wise to be careful until they saw her doctor.
The day Cade passed away, the pendulum swung the other way. Her heart had nearly burst at the idea of another sweet, beautiful child waiting in some special place, eager to become theirs. The next day, her thoughts had been consumed by the possibility. She’d been at Connor and Carson’s, preparing for Cade’s wake, when she’d inadvertently opened a drawer in the bathroom containing several of Breezy’s unopened pregnancy tests. After so many years, she’d felt silly even opening the box, but her heart raced as she waited for the results, the pendulum swinging wildly with both anxiety and hope. When the second line failed to appear, she’d admit there had been a spark of disappointment, but there’d been definitively more relief. She’d known then that that part of her life was over. Now, looking down at her grandchild lying peacefully in Grey’s arms, she was more than eager to embrace the next chapter.
In that perfect moment, a stench wafted up between them, a choking odor only an infant could create. Suppressing her grin, Gabby held Grey’s gaze, and her breath, as he stubbornly tried to ignore it, waiting for her reply. She had to hand it to him. His will was strong, but whatever awaited them in Jo’s diaper was stronger. His eyes watered. His face turned a mottled red. His smile wavered, until finally he cracked, his last breath whooshing out in a choked cough.
“Na, me neither,” he croaked as he paced to the changing table.
Laughing, she fanned the air as she followed him across the room. “Let me,” she offered, snagging a fresh diaper from the hutch beside the changing table.
“I’ve got it.” Grey took the diaper and tucked it beneath his arm. “I’m sure you have your hands full with last minute wedding stuff.”
“Nope.” She plucked a couple of wipes from the dispenser and handed them to him. “Everything’s ready.”
She’d been secretly glad Dani and Clay had decided to postpone their wedding. Dani had been pushing herself way too hard, trying to graduate early, build a house, and prepare to move her entire life to Texas, all in a matter of a few weeks. She’d needed time to grieve, and being home, surrounded by her family, had been the best place for her to heal. It had also given her fathers more time to prepare themselves for this new phase of their lives.
She placed a tender hand on her husband’s back, feeling the hidden tension in his tight muscles. “Are you ready for tomorrow?” she asked as Grey snapped Jo’s onesie closed.
He smiled and kissed their granddaughter’s forehead, barely meeting Gabby’s gaze as he lifted her back into his arms. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Wedding
Satisfied with the knot in his tie, Grey plucked his suit coat from the hanger on the back of the bathroom door and slipped it on. He adjusted his cuffs and studied himself in the mirror. “Pretty damn good, if I don’t say so myself.”
“Do,” Mason corrected him as he blew into the bathroom like a tornado.
“What?”
Mason growled as he frantically dug through the dirty clothes hamper, scattering its contents piece-by-piece over the bathroom floor. “It’s ‘if I do say so myself’, not don�
��t.”
“Huh?” Grey narrowed his eyes, confusion diluting his irritation as he watched Mason stuff the clothes back into the hamper, then search the shower, closing the glass door so hard he thought it would shatter. “What the hell are you looking for?”
“I can’t find my tie,” he said, flipping all the towels off the rack.
“And you expected to find it in the shower?” Grey chuckled, amused by his brother’s latest spastic breakdown. As Mason searched the linen closet, he leaned against the vanity and watched the entertaining display. He’d heard the whispered wagers over the last few days. They’d all bet on him being the first to lose his shit today. At the rate Mason was going, he was going to win that bet any minute now.
“Did you check the closet?” Matt asked as he rushed in to tie his tie.
“Yes, dammit!” Mason fled the bathroom in a huff.
Grey turned back to the mirror and caught Matt’s gaze, sharing a grin with him before he noticed the tremble in Matt’s fingers.
“What?” Matt asked, pausing when he caught Grey watching him.
“Nothing,” he snickered, leaving Matt to his bottled nerves and crooked tie. Oh, yeah. He had this in the bag.
He paced to his nightstand to retrieve his watch but jerked to a stop when Gabby appeared in the doorway, looking like a timeless Madonna straight out of one of the classic mafia movies his dads liked to watch, Mason’s tie dangling from her fingers.
“Thank God,” Mason sighed. “Wow, you look amazing, sweetheart.”
Amazing? Holy Christ, she stole his breath. Yanked it right out of his chest. He raked his stunned gaze from her thick mahogany hair, swept off her shoulders revealing her slender neck, over the mouthwatering slope of her exposed collarbone, taking in every sculpted curve and dip, each accented to perfection by the platinum, knee-length dress she wore.
Class. Every cell in her body had been crafted from pure class and he wondered, not for the first time, how he and his cowboy brothers had ever convinced a woman like her to take a chance on them so many years ago. Even in his wildest dreams, he’d have never imagined the life they’d shared together, or loving her more than he had in those first days, but he did. He loved and wanted her more with each passing year. Hell, each passing second.
“Hold still,” she instructed Mason as she strung the tie around his neck, her voice drawing Grey’s attention to her glossy lips. He watched with wonder as she expertly knotted the spring green silk. He’d always loved the way her brows dipped with her focused concentration, and he held his breath, waiting for her tongue to dart out and curl over her top lip.
And there it is.
He was a goner, closing the space between them in a fraction of a second.
“Grey, what are you—oh no you don’t.” She twisted out of his grip with a giggle. “I’m serious!” she protested as he stalked her across the room. “It took me forever to get into this dress and it’s not—oh!” She startled when she backed into Matt.
Matt caged her in his arms, placing a tender kiss below her ear. “Damn, darlin’, you smell almost as good as you look.”
“Grey,” she warned as he approached.
As strong as the day he met her, the carnal urge to possess her completely raced through his bloodstream, but the second he touched his lips to hers, he was mesmerized all over again. Awe tempered his assault, and he tenderly cupped her cheeks, deepening their kiss, savoring her familiar taste, time and time again, until he won her surrender and she melted with a whimper between him and Matt.
“I’m all for this idea,” Mason said beside them, “as long as you promise to retie my tie.”
“No!” Gabby stopped him as he pulled at the knot and she twisted away from them again. “We can’t do this now. We don’t have time.” Grey glared at Mason as she lined the three of them up side-by-side and inspected their suits. “I know you’re nervous,” she said to him, smoothing her hands over his shoulders, tugging at his coat sleeves, “but you can do this.”
“I’m not nervous,” Grey insisted.
“Just don’t walk too fast,” she continued. “And remember to pause at the beginning of the aisle and wait for Con and Car to start playing the processional.”
“And don’t try walking Dani past the altar, either,” Matt added with a smirk as she moved to him, straightening his tie. “Papa Joe told me about your kidnapping plan,” he continued when Grey rolled his eyes.
“That was months ago,” Grey insisted. “And I was joking.”
“I have the horse tranqs ready,” Mason warned, “and you know I’m not afraid to use them.”
Grey snorted. “You gonna tranq yourself?” He captured Gabby’s wrists when she reached to straighten his tie again. “My tie is fine, baby,” he insisted. “I’m fine.” He smiled, leaning down to give her a last assuring kiss. “I know you’re worried, but don’t be. I’m ready for this.”
Gabby held his gaze. “Okay,” she said, her apprehensive smile contradicting her agreement.
Grey grinned. That was okay. He’d show them.
“Mom?” Cory knocked lightly on the doorframe. “Gran sent me to get you guys. They’re ready to start.”
As his brothers followed Cory, Grey snagged his watch from the bedside table, pausing to wait for Gabby who’d stopped at her vanity table to check her lipstick.
“You might want to bring that lipstick with you,” he suggested, his gaze glued to her perfectly rounded backside. “As good as you look in that dress, I guarantee it won’t be the last time it gets smudged today.”
She paused, catching his gaze in the mirror, then dropped the lipstick into a small bag that matched her dress. “I hope not,” she teased, giving his ass a playful slap before she took his arm and he escorted her from the room.
He was floating on a cloud as he followed Gabby and his brothers down the stairs. Pryce was waiting for them by the front door, his camera strung around his neck. “Hey, son. Grab a picture of us with our beautiful wife.”
Pryce gave them his usual nervous nod, but as they gathered together in the foyer, his son-in-law’s gaze darted over their heads. When he pointed the camera at the top of the stairs, Grey turned around to see what he was looking at, and that cloud he’d been floating on disappeared.
Evaporated.
Gone.
The room began to spin as he freefell through a lifetime of memories, trying to place the face of the breathtaking woman standing at the top of the stairs, smiling down at him as if he should know her.
“Sweet Jesus.” Matt sank down onto the bench beside the door.
“Oh, Dani, honey,” Gabby gasped, and Grey looked at his wife, bewildered by the tears glistening in her eyes. “You look exquisite.”
Mason’s toothy grin was equally confusing, until he pulled a whiskey flask from the inside pocket of his suit coat, unscrewed the cap, and shamelessly guzzled its contents.
Cheating bastard.
A familiar giggle drew Grey’s gaze back to the top of the stairs, and that’s when he saw her, a vision of his little girl playing dress-up in her mother’s wedding gown. He narrowed his eyes, ready to scold her. His own voice echoed in his memories, ordering her to go back to her room and take off that dress. Before the words could pass his lips, Dani’s voice fluttered through the hazy memory. Only, it wasn’t the voice of his little girl.
“Daddy?”
Grey blinked.
“Daddy? Are you okay?”
The room came back into focus and his gaze fell on his daughter once again, still standing at the top of the stairs, looking like an angel, and all he could think of was the day she was born, so small he could hold her in the palm of one hand.
“Grey?”
“I was so wrong,” he breathed out as Dani descended the steps, realizing too late that he was nowhere near ready for this.
The sound of Pryce’s camera clicked like the second hand on an old clock that had been wound too tightly, far too fast and erratic, matching the rhythm of his heart
beating against his eardrums.
“Grey?” Gabby’s harsh whisper caught his attention.
His eyes cut to his wife, and the prodding warning in her eyes. “Um, yeah,” he stammered, and rushed to meet Dani at the bottom of the stairs despite the overwhelming urge to run in the opposite direction. “Baby girl, you look…”
“Stunning,” Mason finished for him, taking her other hand.
Stringing together a complete sentence was pointless, so Grey nodded his agreement instead.
“I told you,” Dani’s friend, Molly, said behind her as she fussed with Dani’s hair, her presence having completely escaped him. “Clay isn’t gonna know what hit him.”
Clay. Only then did he remember there was another man at the center of Dani’s heart. A man who was waiting on her, on them, to hand her over to him. Forever. How was he supposed to do that?
“Dad? You okay?”
Ready to spout whatever lie came to him first to reassure her, Grey followed Dani’s gaze to Matt who still sat on the bench beside the door, his elbows resting on his knees, his chin perched atop his clasped fists.
“I’m just takin’ you all in, darlin’,” Matt said with a dreamy smile. “I can’t believe that’s you.”
“Me either,” Dani gushed, looking down at her dress. “It really is perfect.”
“You’re perfect,” Gabby said, taking her hand from Grey’s. “I love you, honey. And I’m so happy for you.”
“I love you, too, Mom.”
Pryce’s camera clicked in the background as Gabby hugged their daughter, then gave them each a quick kiss. “I’ll see you in the front row,” she whispered with a wink and whisked through the front door, leaving Grey staring longingly after her.
How was he supposed to do this without her?
“Oh, I almost forgot! I have something for you.” Dani took a large envelope from Molly and passed it to Grey. “I was going to frame it, but Mom thought I should let you do that, since you’re rearranging all the family pictures anyway.”