“We don’t have any St. Bernards on our Search and Rescue team, but yes, there was another reason.”
“And what other reason might there be?” She’d let him explain himself, whatever it was that he was trying to say, but she would definitely be looping back around to the question of St. Bernards because she wanted to know why there weren’t any.
“Well, it’s been three days since you came back here with me, and that was about five days or so from the time you went home, and you spent three days here. So that’s just under two weeks, unless my math is horribly off.”
“Sounds about right.”
“And I could be wrong, but just under two weeks is plenty long enough to know that you want to marry someone, isn’t it?” Wes reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a ring. “Amber, I’ve brought you up here to one of my favorite places in the world because you are my favorite person in the world, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”
“Yes. Oh, absolutely, yes.” She held out her trembling hand, and he slid the ring into place. She thought her heart was going to explode, it was so filled with joy at that moment. She was going to be a Weston. She was going to live in this beautiful place and take part in all the magic that happened here. And she was going to be the wife of this amazing man who had a soul that reached out and surrounded her and wrapped her up with love until she almost couldn’t stand how wonderful it was.
“And now there’s just one more thing that can make me completely happy,” she said, reaching out and touching the side of his face.
“Oh? What’s that?”
“You need to teach me how to get down from here.”
Wes laughed, brought her in for another kiss, then showed her how to work the clip thingies and the knot thingies so Noah could lower her back down to the ground, where she just might stay for the rest of her life until she was dead.
“Now,” she said once her feet were on the ground. “About the St. Bernards . . .”
The End
And now for a sneak peek at the next installment in River’s End Ranch—Wild West Wedding by Caroline Lee!
CHAPTER ONE
So. It turned out that there was an actual, real-life town in America named Moscow. Moscow. Dink Redfern propped her hands on her hips and surveyed what she could see of the admittedly pretty big city from the mechanic’s parking lot, and considered. Moscow. As in, the capital of Russia. Surely it had to be named after some other Moscow, right? What possible reason could there be for naming a bustling city after Moscow, Russia?
On the other hand, she had to admit that there wasn’t anything actually wrong with Moscow, Idaho. The people were friendly—even the mechanic who’d delivered the bad news—and the burger she’d eaten while waiting on the diagnostic was pretty delicious. And a rudimentary internet search while she’d waited for lunch had turned up some interesting info about the city, like the fact that it was home to Idaho’s oldest university.
The name had come as a shock, she supposed, but Dink was prepared to forgive Moscow, Idaho, its name. After all, it probably got as cold as Russia up here in the winters, right?
She sighed, and rested her rear end against the trunk of her beat-up blue sedan, Wanda. The car had gotten her through a lot in the last years, and it was a shame that Wanda had pooped out way up here in Idaho. Wanda had moved her to Dallas six years ago, and been with her through three apartment moves. And then, this summer, had moved all of Dink’s stuff out of the loft she’d shared with Magnus and into her best friend’s house…in secret. In the middle of the night. After he’d cheated on her.
Yep, steady old Wanda had been a true friend and helpmate many times, and now Dink had to abandon her to the clutches of a mechanic she’d just met. Her brother Elvis was the best mechanic she knew—and the one who’d talked her through many Wanda-fixes over the phone—so it felt weird to turn her over to a total stranger.
Luckily, the mechanic seemed to understand her attachment to the car, and he did have a nice smile. Dink put a lot of store in nice smiles. And fluffy mustaches, which the man had. Heck, what he had could be considered two fluffy mustaches.
So Wanda was going into his care, fluffy mustaches and all, and he’d promised to call her once he figured out what could be done. If anything could be done. He said he’d know by the end of the week, but of course Dink didn’t have a week to spend in Moscow, Idaho.
She had to get to River’s End Ranch for her sister’s wedding.
And that’s how she ended up leaning up against Wanda’s trunk—which contained all of Dink’s worldly possessions—on a gorgeous autumn afternoon, in Moscow. Waiting for her ride.
Because of this, she was eyeballing each car that turned down the busy street in front of her, wondering which contained the man sent to pick her up. Ellie hadn’t said anything more than “Jace is Will’s best friend, and he’s coming up today. His text says he’ll pick you up.”
Will was Ellie’s fiancé, and Dink heartily approved of him. Oh, she’d never met him, but could practically hear Ellie glowing through the phone whenever they chatted. Although a relationship between the two of them had seemed unlikely when they’d first met, Will had found an utterly romantic way past all that, and now they were planning a wedding.
Or rather, Dink was planning a wedding. Being in-between housing, and with a job that she could do anywhere, she’d volunteered to do most of the planning from Dallas. And now she was heading on-site to finalize everything before the celebration next week… and Will’s Best Man was going to help.
She straightened when a small silver SUV pulled into the mechanic’s lot. Was that him, now? She’d been waiting for an hour, and had been fooled twice already. But this time when the SUV parked—only a few spaces over—the driver didn’t get out and head directly into the cramped office. Instead he unfolded himself from the front seat and peered curiously around the parking lot.
When his gaze fell on her, Dink forgot how to breathe. Which was a problem, because she definitely needed some oxygen around this guy. He was tall—she’d always liked tall men—and darker skinned, with close-cropped black hair and a wide mouth that was currently set in a neutral line.
From the tips of his loafers to the top-button-undone dress shirt he wore, he looked like a banker on his lunch break. Totally out of place in a mechanic’s lot. Maybe his SUV needed work? Maybe he was just—
Oh, heaven help me, he’s coming this way.
He was walking towards her, those long legs eating up ground faster than she could blink—not that she wanted to—and that expressive mouth already pulling into a politely questioning look.
He was walking towards her, and she still hadn’t taken a full breath, and now he looked like he was about to say something, and oh gosh he stopped right in front of her. Was this him? Was he the man she’d been waiting for?
“Wow.” Dink couldn’t help it, it just sort of slipped out.
She stood there, beside Wanda, with her head tilted back and her mouth slightly agape as she stared up into a pair of gorgeous light brown eyes, and made a fool of herself. Wow, indeed.
“Excuse me?”
Oh shoot. Dink backpedaled as fast as she could. “Wow. I mean, like, wow, isn’t this a gorgeous day?” She waved both hands beside her, as if trying to take in all of Idaho, while still not able to look away from his beautiful eyes. “Just beautiful, huh? I’ve never been to Idaho, and I guess I should be grateful I broke down long enough to enjoy the scenery. So, like. Wow. You know?”
The stranger lifted one brow—he managed to do it elegantly, and Dink didn’t think she’d ever met a man she’d call elegant—and made a show of looking to his left and his right. She didn’t have to follow his gaze to know what he saw; a dirty lot full of broken-down cars, parked in front of a brick building on a busy city street. Not exactly paradise. But she smiled as convincingly as she could when she said, “I guess you gotta find beauty in unexpected places.”
The man met her
eyes again, and stared down at her for a long minute. Dink felt her heart speeding up, and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Was he going to call her out on her idiotic greeting, or play along, or what? She’d just opened her mouth to say something else—probably something equally stupid—when he changed the subject entirely.
“Are you Dink Redfern?”
Oh wow. He was the man she’d been waiting for. Only her family called her “Dink”…everyone else used “Dinky,” since she was so short.
“Are you Jace?”
The tall man grimaced slightly. “Jason. Jason Cunningham. Ellie texted and said you need a ride. She didn’t mention the teal, though.”
Teal? Oh, yeah. Dink’s right hand rose self-consciously to fluff her short hair-do. Normally her color matched her sister’s, but last month she’d dyed a thick teal ombre around the ends of her otherwise-blonde cropped hair, just for fun. Most men called it “blue” though. How interesting that Jace saw it as teal, which was her favorite color.
“Yeah, I haven’t sent her any photos in a while. I guess I just needed a change, you know?”
“It’ll clash with the bridesmaids dresses, I know that.”
Of all the things he could’ve said, of all the polite chit-chatty nonsense he might’ve come up with, he had go with that? Dink bristled. “How would you know?” She was the one who’d chosen the wedding colors, and coordinated the dresses with Ellie.
But he just shrugged, seemingly oblivious to her irritation. “Will said they were going with a fall theme. Teal seems fairly disharmonious.”
It took a moment for Dink to figure out what he meant, and then she scowled.
“Ellie won’t mind, Jace.” She was going to keep using the nickname her sister and Will used, if he was going to be all snooty about it. “She knows I’m fairly disharmonious already.”
He had the audacity to nod solemnly, like he was agreeing with her. Agreeing with her! “I can tell.”
He could tell? He could tell? Dink clenched her hands into fists, and resisted the urge to stomp her feet like a little girl. How dare he stand there in his banker-ly clothes and his fancy loafers and his stoic expression and call her disharmonious. What did that even mean? That she didn’t go along with the crowd? Well, for Pete’s sake, she knew that. She liked being different! But where did he get off, saying that like it was a bad thing?
Whereas a few minutes ago, her brain was all “Wow, what a hottie,” now she felt like kicking him in his shin. Sure, he might be good-looking as all get-out, but that was no excuse for bad manners. Dink resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him.
And the worst part was that he didn’t even notice. He didn’t appear to see a single thing wrong with meeting a woman and telling her that she stood out—he’d practically called her odd!—and then moving on. “Your car’s dead?”
That proved it. He was a jerk.
Dink did her best to swallow her irritation. Not only did she have to spend the afternoon with him in his SUV, but she was stuck working with him for the next week and a half. So she smiled as sweetly as she could manage, and ground out, “Maybe. Wanda’s a tough old horse, though. The mechanic says he might be able to fix her.”
“You named your car?” That brow rose again, only now he managed to look condescending rather than elegant.
“You don’t?” Dink snapped defensively in reply.
“That would be…”
“Disharmonious?”
A smile flickered across Jace’s wide mouth in response to the way she’d finished his sentence, there and gone before he’d even flashed any teeth. But it surprised Dink enough to step back, bumping up against the car once more.
“I was going to say silly.”
“Of course you were.”
Dink glared, and Jace looked like he was fighting a smile again, and that’s when Hagrid decided to stick his nose out from his carrying bag on Wanda’s trunk.
“What is that?” Jace took two hurried steps backwards when a little black nose and beady eyes pushed out of what he’d assumed was an ugly purse sitting on the trunk of her equally ugly car. The thing made little snuffling noises he’d never heard before.
But Dink—what kind of name was Dink, anyhow?—just turned and scooped it up. When she tipped it out of its bag and into her other hand, Jace watched it roll around itself, spikes bristling protectively, and realized that it was a hedgehog.
“This is Hagrid. He’s probably just hungry.” And that’s when she handed it—him?—to Jace.
He had no choice but the juggle the little ball of spikes as the thing huffed up at him, and try not to impale himself. The hedgehog had curled up on its back in Jace’s palms, nothing but its nose visible to differentiate it from a pinecone. He lifted it a bit higher, trying to understand why in the world anyone would want to keep one in her purse.
Dink—Ellie’s odd, flamboyant little sister—had meanwhile lifted the trunk of her sedan. It was packed with suitcases and boxes, and two gray plastic tubs. While he kept one eye on the creature in his hands, he watched her peel back the top of one of the large tubs, and reach in with both hands to rummage around.
When the movement moved her rear end into a position he couldn’t possibly ignore, Jace very firmly fixed his attention on her rodent. She was his best friend’s fiancée’s little sister. That made her almost like family. Annoying, illogical family, perhaps, but not someone whose blue-and-green leggings he should be admiring.
“Ah-ha!” Eventually, she emerged triumphantly, brandishing a small container. Grateful for the diversion, Jace leaned forward just as she peeled the top back to reveal what looked like a puddle of dried oatmeal and a mass of squiggling…something.
“What in the—?” He backed up once more, repulsed…and she followed him.
“Oh, just hold still, or you’ll scare him.”
Jace watched, baffled, as she reached into the wriggling mass and pulled out a bug of some sort. She dangled the thing over the hedgehog in Jace’s hands. “Who wants a nice, juicy mealworm? Special delivery for Hagrid!”
To Jace’s surprise, the animal slowly uncurled, revealing a white furred stomach, two not-entirely unfriendly eyes, and what he had to admit was a cute set of paws. The thing gobbled up two of the mealworms while lying on its back in Jace’s hands, and then flipped itself over while he watched, amazed.
“He likes you now.”
Glancing up at Dink, Jace raised a brow. “You’re the one who fed him.”
“Yeah, but you were holding him. Have you held a hedgie before?”
“No.” He examined the rodent now trying to crawl up the forearm of his tailored shirt. “I’ve never even seen one up close. He’s cuter than I expected.”
That’s when he made the mistake of glancing at her, and saw her face bloom into a smile. When she smiled, he didn’t see the blue hair, or the second set of earrings in her lobes that made her look like an irresponsible teenager. He saw the woman.
Hastily, he shoved the hedgehog out to her, all but dumping the animal in her arms. He didn’t need to see Ellie’s little sister as a woman—a beautiful woman. Dink Redfern clearly was wild and irreverent and irresponsible and everything that he wasn’t.
And he needed to remember that.
When she took Hagrid, Jace hurried to step around her and lift two of the suitcases out of the trunk with a grunt. They were heavy. He stood them on the ground and began to roll them towards his SUV. “What do you have in here?” he called over his shoulder at her.
“Everything.”
When he turned back, she was still standing there, stroking her pet and looking a little lost. Everything. He was reminded of the way he’d felt two weeks ago, when his boss had called him into the big corner office to tell him the long-dreaded news. Everything. Everything he’d worked so hard for, crashing and burning around him. Everything in his world stored in an apartment he couldn’t afford more than a few months out, unless he managed to land another job soon.
Everything.
Sighing, Jace made short work of unloading the rest of her everything from the trunk and backseat of her messy sedan. She helped, but their small talk was stilted and polite and avoided any real topics. Then she gathered up her personal bags—including the one that Hagrid apparently traveled in—and climbed into the passenger seat of his SUV, and they headed north.
The topic of hedgehogs and rodents lasted them for the first thirty minutes or so, while Hagrid snuffled around her lap and the floor mats. Jace tried to not think about what messes the thing could be leaving down there, but it eventually fell back asleep. He asked another question then, and found out all about “hedgies’” extensive sleeping habits and her determination-from-a-young-age to own one. Jace didn’t say much, because he didn’t have much to say.
“Do you have pets?”
“No.” He’d never had a pet in his life.
“Why not?” She seemed genuinely curious. Was she trying to get to know him?
“Because pets are…” How to say it without offending her? “Frivolous. They take you away from what really matters.”
“Frivolous?” Well, judging by her tone, he’d failed in the not-offending-her-department. “Pets—things to love—are what really matters. What do you think matters?”
Jace kept his hands locked on the steering wheel in the responsible ten-and-two position, and shrugged. “Careers. Success. Responsibility.” He let his eyes flick away from the road for one second, to rake her garish leggings and off-the-shoulder sweater. “Adult stuff.”
He heard her try to respond, but only a sort of choking noise came out. He considered offering her a bottled water, but then decided against it. With all of her everything piled in his previously pristine rear seat, Jace didn’t know if he’d be able to reach his seat-back organizer.
Finally, though, she took a deep breath. “You think that having companions and things to love is the opposite of ‘responsibility’ and ‘adult stuff’?”
Rugged Rockclimber (River's End Ranch Book 8) Page 11