“I do.”
Sam Reed, who was retired now from his position as sheriff, in his spare time, officiated weddings. He turned to Briar and winked.
“Do you, Briar Thompson, take Chase McCree, to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold from this day forward, for better of for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish for as long as you both shall live?”
“I do.”
The rest of Sam’s words were lost on me as I looked into Briar’s eyes. I was remembering how furious her parents were. Her grandmother elated. Aunt Millie was ecstatic to have Briar around to do girly stuff with. Uncle Jerry was happy as long as I was home. And I was happy to be home, with Briar. She was part of me. My family, and I would never be without her again.
Briar’s parents said it wouldn’t work, even though Grandma cheered us on, that we set ourselves up for failure. We endured lecture after lecture on those holiday visits.
But they were wrong.
After a few years Briar’s parents didn’t argue the point of her coming home at all, because she already was home.
I smiled at her, holding her hands firmly in mine, thinking she looked like an angel in her gauzy white dress. The bracelet with a horseshoe charm I’d given her our first Christmas together glittered in the late afternoon sun. I wore the watch she’d given me on my eighteenth birthday.
I was so proud of her. She’d be graduating soon. The ranch would have a resident vet. She pestered me sometimes about running for sheriff, and I would. I had plenty of time. Seems she’d told everyone I wanted to, and the neighboring ranches were all for it.
“I love you,” I mouthed.
She smiled. “I love you too.”
We stood under a gazebo built special for the occasion on a hill behind the house. The Callahan’s, the O’Brian’s, and the Smith’s…everyone we knew, and some people we’d never met, sat outside in matching rocking chairs in the crisp spring air. My mom and Todd were in the front row with my little sister.
At first when my mom came to visit, shortly after Briar had moved to the ranch with me, things hadn’t gone smoothly. My mom wasn’t sure it would work. She kept trying to warn Briar, telling her about the dangers of being a rancher’s wife. But Briar won her over eventually, and now the two were thick as thieves.
Briar’s folks came to the wedding. Her father even walked her down the aisle. We kept things civil, but they knew I didn’t care for them. Her father never got that big promotion, but I never regretted making the donation in his name. It was for research, and that’s what mattered most.
To top it off, ol’ Stinker was even led down the aisle by my nephews as the ring bearer. A few eyebrows rose, but Briar and I just smiled.
“By the power vested in me by the state of Montana, it gives me great pleasure, to pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Briar smiled up at me and whispered, “Damn them all, Cowboy. Damn them all.”
I tugged her close for our fist kiss. “Yes, Ma’am.”
Years later Briar and I sit on the porch every night after dinner with the dogs, and then a few years after that with our kids. We watch the sun sink into the horizon behind the white-capped mountains, telling stories and reminiscing about the day I picked her up in a Florida park, drunk and crabby, and how that night, she stole my heart forever.
Thank you for reading Chasing McCree by J.C. Isabella. You can read her other books, The Unofficial Zack Warren Fan Club, or The Council: A Witch’s Memory, on Kindle. For more information about J.C. and her books, you can visit her website at, www.jcisabella.com
Upcoming releases for Summer 2012!
The Council, book 2, A Werewolf’s Moon
&
The Unofficial Story of Kyle B. Johnston
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