A Windswept Promise
Page 28
“Hello, angel.” He welcomed her with the drawl she enjoyed hearing, but she was taken aback by what he called her.
“I’m no angel.”
“You’re about the closest thing I’ve seen to one. I haven’t treated you like so.”
She didn’t take the chair, but stood at the head of the bed. “No one could blame you after the foolish things I’ve done.”
“We’ve both done wrong to each other. I was wrong for turning my back on you when you ran out of the church.”
She looked at the bandages wrapping his chest and arm. “You had a right to. I cared more about what other people thought than I cared about you.”
“You changed your mind later than I would have liked, but you still didn’t go through with the wedding. I’m sorry I let my hurt turn into a grudge. I hope you can forgive me.”
Sophie let her fingers roam through his sandy hair that tousled and bent into a cowlick at the crown. How could she ever prefer controlled, lacquered locks to this? “I forgive you, Dusty. Did you receive my letters?”
“Each one. I’m sorry I didn’t write back. I hope you forgive me that, as well.”
“I had another letter to give you that day I went into the bank. Do you still want it?”
“Not unless you wrote sayin’ you want to marry me before Christmas.”
Sophie’s stomach fluttered. “You mean that?”
He pushed himself up on the bed with his uninjured arm. The action still made him wince. “I can’t offer what you’re used to, Sophie, but I can give you everything I do have. A house with room to grow, land to call your own, and more love than you know what to do with.”
Joy and warmth spread through her. God had answered her prayers and given her a second chance. “I don’t deserve how good you are to me.”
“You deserve more, and one day I plan to give you that. So, Miss Sophie, you think you can live on a ranch surrounded by Herefords, shorthorns, and surly cowhands?”
She laughed. “I can, if you can live in a house filled with stacks of Godey’s Ladies Books and serials of The Adventures of Lady Whitecastle.”
He grinned. “We’ll have our own adventures.”
“Is that a promise, Dustin Sterling? Because if it is, there’s only one way to seal it.”
Sophie leaned in for a kiss.