by Kait Nolan
Misty’s heart leapt at the sight of him, but she hesitated near the register. She didn’t know what to think or how to feel. Why was he here? Knowing he could see her in the dim light, she went ahead and opened the door.
“Can I come in?” His face was back to that stony expression that she knew now was the front he put on for everyone.
Misty stepped back to let him in, then locked the door behind him. “I’m working.” Without waiting for a reply, she went on to the back, knowing he’d follow.
“The arbor is finished and set up over at the inn.”
“Good. I need to get started tomorrow night.”
As he came around the counter, Moxie leapt up from her bed and all but vaulted into his arms. He chuckled softly, scooping her up and scratching her behind the ears while she bathed his face in kisses. Impatient and ridiculously envious of her dog, Misty pulled the first batch of flowers from the cooler. Better to keep her hands busy. She spread them out on one of the tables and began the process of stripping lower leaves, ignoring Denver as he loved on Moxie.
Was this it? Was he just here to talk about the wedding or was he working his way up to something resembling an explanation?
“My father was diagnosed when I was twenty.”
Whatever she’d expected him to say, it wasn’t that. Her hands stilled on the flowers, but she didn’t look at him.
“He was already stage three by the time they found it. Went in for something else, had some scans or whatever, and bam. Everything changed. We were suddenly charting food and meds and bathroom habits. He was still functional, could still do the job, but everything else revolved around keeping his kidneys functioning as long as possible. Then we ran into problems with his insurance. Probably the same kind of shit you dealt with. And while we were waiting for them to sort it out, he slid into stage four.”
Misty’s heart clenched. Because she knew this story. She’d dealt with this story so many times, with so many people. It was one of the core components of why her job had been slowly sucking her soul away.
“That’s when I started taking over stuff. He had a hard time concentrating. Wasn’t sleeping for shit and hurting more often than not. And when the numbness hit his fingers, he couldn’t do the work a lot of the time. He started losing out on jobs because he couldn’t get them done fast enough. Some of them he just couldn’t do, and I wasn’t good enough yet. He’d started dialysis, gotten on the transplant list. Things just kept getting worse. And the insurance company didn’t give a good damn about it. He wasn’t a person to them. Wasn’t a face. He was just a name. A file. A string of eventually denied claims.” Denver’s voice was flat, but she could see the strain in his face as he spoke. She wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around him, give him whatever comfort she could. But she didn’t know if she’d be welcome, so she stayed quiet, listening, as he continued to stroke Moxie.
“I was twenty-five when they basically told us he’d maxed out his coverage. I spent so many hours on the phone arguing, trying to get him taken care of. He had a fucking chronic disease. What did they expect us to do? Nobody had an answer. And there wasn’t someone like you on the other end even trying to find one.” He lifted his gaze to hers. “I lost my father because the system is broken. And I despise them for it.”
Misty thought she understood now. “And telling you my story brought everything back for you.”
He gave one short, sharp nod.
Regret sliced through her. He’d been so close to his dad. That had been obvious in nearly every conversation they’d had. She hated that she was a reminder of the worst parts of losing him. Hated, too, that the part of her life she’d tried to leave behind was tarnishing something she’d come to value so much.
Misty spread her hands. “I can’t change my past, Denver.”
“I wouldn’t want you to. You aren’t the system. You aren’t the one who denied my father’s claims. And I was an asshole for acting like you were.”
Something in his tone let her know that he had more to say. “But?”
“No buts. I’m sorry for walking out on you when you were struggling. I’m sorry for shutting you out this week. And I’m sorry I didn’t have the stones to just explain what was going through my head. You deserve better than that.”
The better than me was implied.
Misty wanted to wrap her arms around him, offer some kind of comfort. But he still held Moxie and looked very much as if he wanted this conversation to be over. Maybe he needed all their conversations to be over. Even now, he didn’t seem to quite be able to look at her. She wished, more than anything, that they could go back to last week, before she’d told him. But it would have come up eventually. And if this was a deal breaker for him, it was better to know now than before they got in any deeper.
“Thank you for telling me.” What else could she say? If he still wanted a relationship with her, he had to say so. She wasn’t going to force her company on him—wouldn’t want to if that company came with a permanent reminder of his loss.
Denver’s throat worked and he set Moxie down. “I know you’ve got a lot of work to do. I’ll let you get to it.”
She wanted to stop him, to press for more. Instead, she followed him to the door. “I guess I’ll see you at the wedding.”
“Yeah.” He glanced her way, just once, then slipped out the door and clearly out of her life.
~*~
“I, Kennedy, take thee, Alexander, to be my husband—”
From several rows back, Denver bounced his leg. He was a man on a mission, and he just needed this ceremony over so he could get to it. He didn’t know a lot about weddings, but he’d been sure that the florist’s job was done once the flowers were dropped off. Apparently not. Despite the fact that he’d arrived early—with several gallons of his spiked lemonade for the reception—he hadn’t managed five minutes to talk to Misty. He hadn’t even managed to get close enough for five words.
When he’d left her at Moonbeams and Sweet Dreams the other night, he’d felt better having made his apologies. In telling her the truth, he’d finally been able to set aside the noxious emotional brew that had been eating at him for a week. But as he’d come home to Oscar, who’d stopped wagging almost as soon as he realized Moxie and Misty hadn’t been with him, a whole different level of shitty had rolled in to fill that void. He missed Misty. He missed hanging out with her and the dogs. He missed talking over his day with her. He missed seeing what flowers she’d tucked into her hair every day. By wallowing in his old wounds, he’d cut her out and left a gaping hole in his life. That was when he realized he hadn’t fixed shit. At least not all the way. He wanted her to give him another chance. He’d been all raring to go to follow through, but Misty had been busy with the wedding—the last two days were her prime go time—so he’d had to wait.
Once he’d made up his mind about something, Denver hated waiting.
The woman in the next seat turned a fulminating glare on him. Denver stopped bouncing his knee and rubbed damp palms on his pants. They just had to get through the rest of the ceremony, then he could corner her during pictures. Except once the I dos were said and the bride was kissed, Misty disappeared and Denver got drafted to help quickly move all the tables at the perimeter and set up for the reception.
Where the hell did she go?
“Denver Hershal, I had no idea you were so talented!” Essie Vaughn, dispatcher and receptionist at the Sheriff’s Office, stepped into his path. “That arbor is just beautiful.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Vaughn.”
“Where did you learn how to do that?”
“My dad taught me. He was a cabinetmaker and master carpenter.” Denver scanned the crowds of people busily placing chairs around the moved tables.
“Such a wonderful skill to have. A dying art.”
He worked up a smile because he wasn’t a total dick. “Thanks, Mrs. Vaughn. If you’ll excuse me, I need to go find Misty.”
Essie beamed at him and tapped her nose
. “Of course you do. Go right on ahead, honey.”
Denver cut a swath through the other guests, making a beeline for outside. Maybe she’d gone up to the inn to help with food? He got waylaid again four more times by people offering praise or asking questions about the damned arbor. Xander’s mama tried to talk him into building one out at their place. It took him another fifteen minutes to shake loose of her without being rude. It seemed prudent to make the effort since her son could arrest him. This. This was why he didn’t do this for a living. His fuse was getting shorter by the minute. He needed to find Misty.
There! Denver spotted her across the barn, adjusting the centerpieces on each table.
Head down, he plowed through the crowd like the offensive lines he used to break in high school football. Misty’s eyes widened as he made it to the table. As she’d known he’d be here, he could only imagine he looked pretty intense.
“I need to talk to you.”
“Is something wrong?” she asked
Everything. “There are some things I need to say.”
Misty frowned. “Here?”
“Yeah.” Denver paused, aware of all the people milling about. “Well, not right on this spot. C’mon.” He took her hand, relieved when she didn’t protest as he pulled her out of the barn.
There were more people milling about, working on transferring food for the buffet, and the wedding party was taking pictures across the yard, but it wasn’t wall-to-wall bodies. He kept going until he hit a bench on an overlook a little ways from the house, out of earshot and out of the line of the camera. He paused there, looking out over the mountains he’d made home, waiting for the peace they usually brought to seep into him. It didn’t.
He turned to Misty and tightened his grip on the hand he still held. It was daisies twined in her hair today. They were always his favorite. Something simple and cheerful that suited the sweet nature he’d come to crave. He wanted her back in his life as more than somebody to wave to on the street. “I was wrong.”
She shook her head, clearly not understanding. “Denver, you already apologized. We’re good.”
“No we’re not. The apology was part of it, but after I finished prying my head out of my ass, I realized exactly how badly I screwed up. Because there’s a you-sized hole in my life.”
Misty stared at him.
Hell, he was screwing this up. Impatient, he ran a hand over his hair. “I miss you. And Oscar may never forgive me if he doesn’t get to see Moxie again. We want you back, if you can see your way to forgiving me for being a dumbass.”
There. He’d said it. He’d put the whole thing out there. Now, heart in his throat, Denver held his breath, knowing it was out of his hands.
~*~
We want you back.
He might have been slow, but he’d finally made a move. And it was exactly what Misty had wanted him to say the other night. But though her heart pounded with hope, with excitement, there was no little bit of fear mixed in. She’d let down her walls with this man. She’d let him into her life further than any man in years, and at the first sign of trouble, he’d run. What guarantee did she have that he wouldn’t do it again? That the memories she inadvertently evoked for him wouldn’t get thrown back in her face somewhere down the line?
I was wrong.
Did he really mean it? He looked so penitent staring down at her with those clear gray eyes. A rare streak of vulnerability colored his expression, and Misty realized she had the capacity to hurt him, too. This big, intense, broody man was actually holding his breath, waiting for her to answer. Maybe that told her everything she needed to know.
“Having an emotional trauma and choosing to go off and deal with it on your own instead of taking it directly out on me does not make you a dumbass.” Misty had worked her away around to that over the past couple of days. She wished he’d told her at the time, but she realized that, in his own way, he’d been trying to protect her from his reaction. “You could have been incredibly ugly to me over the whole thing. I know ugly. I’ve been used to being blamed for things that aren’t my fault, that I had no actual control over. You didn’t do that. My story brought up some big emotional stuff for you—stuff you usually keep locked away—and rather than unleash it on me unfairly, you went off to brood on your own. And yeah, that hurt me, so let’s not do that ever again. But I can understand it. I even see a strength of character in how you handled yourself.”
Denver ducked his head. Was he blushing? Sure enough, color was creeping up his neck. “Does that mean you’ll give me another chance?”
He’d come this far on his own. She could meet him the rest of the way. Sliding her arms around his neck, Misty rose to her toes and brushed her lips against his. “We can’t break the dogs’ hearts, now can we?”
Denver’s arms closed around her and Misty found herself off the ground as he spun her in a fast circle, before his mouth came down on hers for a kiss that meant serious business. It was the smattering of applause that brought Misty back to herself. Pulling back, she felt her own cheeks heat as she realized half the wedding guests had spilled out onto the lawn and were watching, as were the wedding party.
“Well. I guess they came for the wedding and got an extra show,” she muttered.
“Don’t mind us,” Denver hollered. “I’m just kissing my girl.”
The guests grinned. Across the yard, Misty spotted Cayla and Kennedy sharing a high five. Most of those who saw it probably thought they were congratulating themselves on the nigh flawless execution of a quick wedding. But as they both shot matching grins in her direction, she knew what it was really about. She was far too grateful to be annoyed.
Pivoting back into his arms, she arched both brows. “Your girl, huh?”
A flicker of doubt crossed his face. “Minus a week of me being pig-headed, I kinda thought we were headed in that direction.”
“We were,” she conceded. “But a girl likes to be asked.”
Denver’s smile spread like sun-warmed honey as he pulled her closer. “Misty Pennebaker, will you be my girlfriend?”
“I’d love to,” she said, and lifted her lips to his.
A Note From Kait
I hope you’ve enjoyed this visit to Eden’s Ridge. I’ve had a lot of fun branching out to explore a new setting and enjoyed the challenge of making something entirely different from my Wishful series. If you haven’t read the first book in the series, be sure to check out When You Got A Good Thing, the story of Kennedy and Xander so you can find out exactly what they overcame to get to this wedding! And if you have read Book 1, be on the lookout for Pru and Flynn’s story, Those Sweet Words, later this fall. Be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you don’t miss out!
As a special gift from me, you’ll get a FREE copy of Be Careful, It’s My Heart, Book 2 in my Wishful Romance series. It can totally be read out of order, but if you’d like to start with Book 1, To Get Me To You is permafree everywhere ebooks are sold.
Here’s the naked link, just in case: http://kaitnolan.com/free-copy-be-careful-its-my-heart/
You can also like my page on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/kaitnolanwriter
Anyway, thanks for reading! And if you loved the book, please consider leaving a review or telling a friend. These days, it's harder than ever to get a new book noticed. Many of the promotional opportunities out there require a minimum number of reviews—10 at the low end, 50+ at the high. If you enjoyed this book, taking just a minute of your time to click the star rating and write a few words would help me tremendously, and allow me to continue to bring you the stories you enjoy.
Other Books By Kait Nolan
Contemporary Romance
The Misfit Inn Series
When You Got A Good Thing (Kennedy and Xander)
Wishful Series
Once Upon A Coffee (Avery and Dillon): Available for FREE!
To Get Me To You (Cam and Norah): Available for FREE!
Be Careful, It’s My Heart (Brody and Tyler)
&
nbsp; Know Me Well (Liam and Riley)
Once Upon A Setup (A Meet Cute Romance with Piper and Myles!)
Just For This Moment (Myles and Piper)
Wish I Might (Reed and Cecily)
Turn My World Around (Tucker and Corinne)
Dance Me A Dream (Jace and Tara)
See You Again (Trey and Sandy)
Wishing For a Hero Series (A Wishful Spinoff Series)
If I Didn’t Care (Judd and Autumn)
Meet Cute Romance
Once Upon A Snow Day
Once Upon A New Year’s Eve
Once Upon An Heirloom
Once Upon A Coffee: Available for FREE!
Once Upon A Setup
Meet Cute Romance: Volume 1 (Meet Cutes 1-5)
Once Upon A Campfire
Paranormal Romance
Mirus Series:
Genesis (an omnibus including, Forsaken By Shadow (Mirus 1.1), Devil’s Eye (Mirus 1.2), and Blindsight )
Riven
Whisper of Shadow(Also available in the Magical Mayhem anthology)
YA:
Red
Whisper of Shadow