by Sarah Title
Keith was going nuts. On the one hand, he loved seeing Mal become part of his family. She had kept those smarts of hers hidden, but she really had a head for business. And she was a cool negotiator, getting Cal to agree to things he would never have imagined—a Web site, for Pete’s sake. She mediated arguments between Katie and Luke, Katie and Chase, Katie and Cal. In fact, Katie seemed to really respect Mal, a right not easily won.
But he was going crazy. Because while Mal was out making her mark on Wild Rose, he was laid up in bed. Oh, sure, she came to see him several times a day, checked his bandage, mopped his forehead. But as the haze of pain wore off and he moved back into his own house, his frustration level rose. She wouldn’t kiss him, not properly. She wouldn’t stay the night—even just to sleep, he promised. He thought he saw the same love in her eyes that he had seen before, but, dammit, she was spending more time with his family than she was with him.
That was going to change.
He bribed Luke into saddling Blue for him. The night was freezing, and a few flakes of snow were starting to fall. Mal had told him she loved how the hills looked with a dusting of snow. This was probably the last snow of the winter, her last chance to enjoy it. All for love, he thought, as he hoisted himself up on Blue. He winced at the pain, but once he was up there, he was fine. Blue could pretty much walk herself, so he gently guided her out of the stable and toward the house.
It was snowing again. Mal was still not quite used to these teaser snows, where flakes would fall for hours, but none of them would stick. Still, she loved watching the snow fall against the backdrop of the dark night sky. She rested her elbows on the windowsill and her head on the glass. She wrapped Keith’s shirt tighter around her. How pathetic, sleeping in her man’s shirt. But that was the closest she could get to him, at least while he was still recovering.
She jumped back at a sudden tap on the window. She flinched at another, then another. When she looked down, there was Keith, bundled in his hat and blankets, riding Blue.
“Are you crazy?” she whispered, throwing the window open. “You’re going to kill yourself!”
“I’m fine! Come down!”
“It’s freezing!”
“Then get your coat! Come down here, Mal.”
“No!”
“I’m staying out here until you do.”
“Keith!”
“How much of this do you think I can stand, in my fragile state?” She hoped he could see her disapproving glare from where he was. But, in the end, she grabbed her coat and her boots and met him outside.
“You’re going to have to hoist yourself up here,” Keith said, reaching out his hand.
“I’m not getting up there! I’ll kill you!”
“What are you going to do, walk next to me?”
She glared again, but put her foot on top of his and pulled herself up.
“You’re getting good at that,” he grunted as her back collided with his chest.
“Sorry!”
“Hush,” he said, wrapping the blanket around her. He kicked Blue and they rode off.
“Where are we going?”
“Just for a ride,” he said, leaning in to kiss her neck.
“In the snow?”
“It’ll stop in a minute.”
She sighed and leaned against him. “Oh! Does that hurt?”
“No. Come closer,” he said, holding her against him.
They rode in silence, his arms around her waist, her head resting on his shoulder. He took her on the path they rode that first time together, then through a clearing where the moon shone so bright it was almost daylight. Blue kept a gentle pace, and soon Keith felt Mal get heavy.
“Hey,” he said, nudging her gently. “Are you falling asleep?”
“No,” she said drowsily. “Where are we going?”
“Just for a ride, I told you.”
“You couldn’t wait for spring?”
“I might not be here in the spring.”
“What?” She turned as much as she could, trying to see his face. “Where are you going?”
“Not far.” He laughed, tucking her hat back into place. “I put in an offer on some land up the road.”
“The one we looked at the other day?”
“Yup.”
“The one with the little cottage that’s falling down?”
“Yes. That will need some work.”
“I love that cottage.”
“I know. I love that land.”
“So you’re moving?”
“That’s the idea. It’s a lot for one person, though.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
He just smiled that crooked smile and kissed her neck and her cheek until she twisted farther and then he kissed her mouth. It had been so long since he’d tasted her. He grunted in pleasure, and cupped her cheek, opening her mouth with his tongue, deepening the kiss.
“Wait, hold on,” she said, breathless.
“I can’t wait,” he said, leaning back down to her.
“Be careful,” she said, placing her hand gently on his chest.
He ignored her and pulled her close for another kiss. Soon they were both panting and she was twisting in the saddle, trying to get closer.
“Are we going to have sex on the horse?” she asked, her eyes sparkling.
Keith laughed, breathless, and rested his forehead on hers. “I don’t think Blue would like that very much.”
Mal turned ahead and rested her head against his shoulder again. She leaned back to brush a kiss on his neck. “Take me home,” she whispered.
So he did.
Mal didn’t want to go to sleep. She wanted to stay awake and remember this night forever. But Keith was so warm, and his arms felt so strong around her. The fire was crackling, and, frankly, she was exhausted. Even though she’d been gentle with Keith, he’d still managed to wear her out. She sighed and burrowed deeper under the blankets.
“You don’t want to move to the bed?” he asked, stroking her back. They were piled on cushions on the floor in front of the couch, which, for all their gentleness, was as far as they could make it. Afterward, Mal had grabbed as many blankets as she could find and wrapped them up, and let Peanut in the house, too, since he was making an unholy ruckus being excluded from the warmth. And attention.
“No. It’s too cozy here. And I can’t move.”
He laughed softly, kissed the top of her head.
“You know, I thought you were going to ask me to marry you tonight,” Mal said, looking at the fire. When he didn’t say anything, she continued, “The way you seemed to make a big deal out of getting me up on the horse and going out in the snow, and then talking about the land and the house.”
He squeezed her shoulder, but kept silent.
“And then I thought, as we were riding, that you were going to pull a ring out from under a rock or something.”
She felt him swallow. Hard.
“And I almost didn’t come down,” Mal continued. “I almost risked you breaking the window again so I could stay up there. Because the idea of you asking me to marry you and me having to say no, it just, I just couldn’t take it.”
She turned to look at him, bending her right knee so it was leaning on his hip. He automatically wrapped his arm around her leg, but continued to stare into the fire.
“And then I thought, why the hell would I say no? Here is a man who respects me, who understands me, who loves me for me, which is what I’ve always wanted and what I never thought I could have, not after—well, I just didn’t think that kind of man existed, the kind of man who would match me like that. But it’s you. You match me, because I love you as much as you love me, and I love everything about you. I love how you’re willing to admit your mistakes, how you fight for hopeless cases, how you’ve opened your heart to me. Your whole family took me in, and for that I’ll be forever grateful. But it’s you I’m most grateful for, it’s you I love the best.”
Without looking at her, Keith
got up and paced in front of the fire, wrapping one of the smaller blankets around his waist.
Mal took a deep breath. “So, OK. So why would I say no? There’s no reason. I had a bad marriage before, but that’s the past, that’s not you. So I was ready to say yes.”
Keith stiffened, but he kept pacing.
Mal cleared her throat. “But then, well, you didn’t ask. But you know what? I’ve spent my entire adult life doing what other people tell me to do, acting like they think I’m supposed to act. And I’m sick of it. Dammit, Keith, I love you, and I want to marry you!”
Keith finally stopped. “What?”
“I want to marry you.” She sat up on her knees, the blankets pooled around her waist, her skin glowing in the firelight. “What I mean is, will you marry me?”
“What?” he said, blinking stupidly.
“Well, if you’re not going to ask me, why shouldn’t I ask you?” She was seriously losing confidence here. “I just thought—”
He left the room.
Mal stared after him for a second, blinking the hurt from her eyes. She turned back toward the fire, and pulled the blankets tight around her shoulders. That went well, she thought.
She was just starting to get up the energy to pull on her clothes when Keith came back.
“Wha—” she said, as he dropped down in front of her with a small box in his hand.
“I didn’t want to interrupt your pretty speech,” Keith said, taking the ring out and holding it up to her. “And I’m glad I didn’t. It kind of had the ending I was looking for.”
Mal looked at the ring he was holding, blinking back tears. It was beautiful, white gold with a small amber stone surrounded by tiny diamonds.
“I know it’s not the usual, but, I don’t know, I thought it matched your eyes.”
“Yes,” she said.
“I haven’t even asked yet,” Keith said, laughing.
“I already asked. So it’s your turn to answer.”
“Yes,” Keith said, slipping the ring on her finger. “Yes, I will marry you.” And this time when he pulled her onto his lap she didn’t complain. She just kissed him.
Peanut lifted his head. His human pillow was jostling him too much for him to get any rest. There they were again, all over each other. Like animals. He stood up, stretched his one front leg and two hind, curled up in front of the fire, and went to sleep.
Epilogue
It was a late-summer wedding. They wanted to wait for the mud from the wet winter to dry up, and that gave them more time to put a fresh coat of paint on the barn and fix up the yard. It wasn’t a huge wedding, although you wouldn’t have known from the amount of food Libby made. Mal tried to help her as much as possible, but every time Libby looked at her, she broke out in happy tears, so Mal decided it would be better if she just left her to fend for herself.
“Who’s going to walk you down the aisle?” Luke asked.
She had thought about asking him to do it, since he had, however inadvertently, brought her and Keith together. But he was standing up as Keith’s best man, and she didn’t want to upset the delicate truce between the brothers.
Katie thought she should walk herself down the aisle. “You’re your own woman. No man should give you away.”
They were getting married at the house, the ceremony officiated by Billie, who got her certification on the Internet. It wasn’t the most traditional way to start a life together, but that seemed to be par for the course for them. Besides, Billie loved them both and she was thrilled to get the chance to wear something other than scrubs.
Jack was with Mal in the upstairs bathroom, “trying to do something with this hair.” It had grown to about her chin since he’d cut it last, and it was a frizzy mess in the humidity. “Just make it look like me,” she told him. Jack was smoothing it out, finagling it to fall naturally around her face, assuring her that he had been over in the bunkhouse and that Keith’s hair was combed and he had shaved.
They were so informal as a couple that they’d decided to get married in a casual ceremony—sundresses for the women, no ties for the men. Mal was wearing a calf-length sheath that Libby had helped her make. Well, she’d pinned the pieces together; Libby did everything else. It was cut against the bias, with seams that ran at a diagonal around her body and a low scoop neck. It was sleeveless, so she wore an antique lace wrap that had been Libby’s mother’s.
“Something borrowed, sweetheart.”
Jack approved, which was good. He said it “hugged her curves, but not in a slutty way.”
Luke came into the kitchen once when they were doing a fitting, dropping a sledgehammer on his foot.
“He likes it,” Katie had said.
In the bunkhouse, Keith was getting ready by himself, which suited him fine. Jack had checked to make sure he was going to tuck in his shirt, then made a joke about plucking his eyebrows. At least Keith thought it was a joke.
He hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. Libby had insisted that Mal spend the night in the house, not in the bunkhouse with Keith. “At least give an old woman the pretense of innocence,” she said. It was more than a pretense, though, since when Keith tried to sneak in the back door to secret his bride-to-be away, he found it locked and the key was not in its usual place under the rock.
So he made his way over to the side of the house, picking up a pocketful of pebbles along the way. He started to throw them at Mal’s window, only stopping when he saw the reading light come on. Her hand shot out of the open window. “OK! OK, I see you! Don’t throw anything, please.”
She poked her head out and his heart stopped. She was beautiful in the faint glow of the reading lamp and the moon from above. She was wearing an old T-shirt—one of his, from a football camp he went to in high school—and her hair was sticking out in strange waves from sleep.
“Hey, beautiful,” he whispered. “Want to go for a walk?”
She smiled, then darted from the window. A few minutes later he caught her up in his arms as she raced out of the house.
They walked toward the orchard for a while, holding hands. “Hey, what are you doing tomorrow?” Mal asked.
“Oh, I don’t know, I thought I’d go squirrel hunting.” She knocked him with her hip, and he feigned injury and went down to the ground, dragging her with him.
“Hey! Don’t get me all dirty!”
“What, you’re not going to shower before the wedding?”
“Of course I am, but what is Miss Libby going to say when I wake up with dirt smudges on my face?”
“She’s going to say that you look like a woman in love,” he said, kissing her.
They both stopped at the sound of a breaking twig beyond them. Mal stiffened, and Keith strained his neck to look toward the noise, pushing her up and behind him. He squinted into the darkness. “Is that my father running around the yard naked?” He took a breath to holler at him, crazy old man, but Mal grabbed his arm. She pointed into the darkness, to the place Cal had just come from. Miss Libby, wrapped in a quilt, was skulking back to the house.
Keith turned to Mal, his face serious. “Please, if you love me at all, you will pretend we did not just see that.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him sweetly. “See what?”
Mal could barely look at Libby today, which was good because the older woman’s crying was going to set her off, too. Jack declared her fabulous and escorted her down to the foyer. She was going to exit from the house, then walk up a makeshift aisle to where Keith would be waiting for her. Keith. Her Keith.
“Hey, you clean up pretty good,” Katie said, tucking a curl behind her ear.
“No! Stop touching your hair, Katie! That piece is supposed to be in front!” Jack was having an apoplexy.
“Thanks, you look pretty good yourself,” laughed Mal. Not many blondes could pull off a yellow dress, but Katie looked smashing in the strapless sundress they had picked out together.
“Ready?”
“Where’s my guy?”
Mal asked.
Jack sighed. “You’re really doing this, aren’t you?”
Mal smiled. “Yes, I’m really doing it. Besides, you wouldn’t want all of your hard work to go to waste.”
“I have got to get out of this town. A stylist of my talent reduced to being a lowly dog groomer for the day. I have drool on my shoes, you know. You’re lucky I love you,” he said, pecking Mal on the cheek. “And you, too, gorgeous,” he said, kissing Katie, who huffed disbelievingly in response. Jack took his seat next to Trevor and the music started, as traditional as a bluegrass wedding band could sound. Luke and Chase were standing up with Keith, and Mal could swear she saw Chase wink at Katie.
Then the wedding march started and she took her first step down the aisle. Peanut, good, obedient dog that he was, walked proudly next to her on his three legs. He was brushed and groomed and his long fur was shining, and he actually looked handsome, which was a surprise to everyone but Mal. She knew there was a prince in there. True, he had eaten off the bow tie they tried to get him to wear, but it was a casual wedding, so nobody really cared.
When they reached the end of the aisle, Mal couldn’t take her eyes off Keith. Jack was right, he had brushed his hair, but the wind had blown it out of place. He looked tousled and rugged. Perfect.
Peanut stopped directly in front of Mal, looking Keith straight in the eye. A few people in the audience laughed nervously—it didn’t look like Peanut was going to let the ceremony go on. Then Peanut looked back at Mal, then up at Keith. He seemed to nod before trotting off to roll around in the dirt behind the wedding party.
Mal laughed, watching him. Then she felt Keith take her hand, warm and sure. “Ready?” he asked her.
She nodded. Billie raised her hands over their heads. “Dearly beloved . . .”
Can’t wait to get back to Hollow Bend?
Here’s a taste of Kentucky Christmas, available this November.
Andrew Bateman hated snow.
He was batting a thousand on this trip, really. He hated snow, he hated driving, and he hated selling people stuff they probably didn’t need. He especially hated sales. But if his cousin hadn’t given him this job, he’d be living with his mother. Once a man passes thirty, he doesn’t like the idea of moving back in with his mother.