Lark grinned, the happiness radiating off of her. “And Keaton and I already discussed it—if it’s a girl, we’re going to name her Taylor.”
“Taylor Holt? I love it.” It was a perfect name—the two families finally reunited.
“You do?” Lark beamed. “I’m not that far along, so we aren’t going to tell everyone yet, but I wanted you to know.”
“Oh, Lark,” Skye said, her eyes starting to fill with tears. She managed to get to her feet without hitting the hot iron and wrapped her sister in a big hug. “I want our children to grow up together.”
“I know. I want things to be better than it was for us, you know?” She leaned back and fanned her eyes. “Sorry. I’m already getting more emotional.”
“Don’t apologize. Have you and Keaton talked about getting married any more?”
Lark grinned as she went back to curling Skye’s hair. She kept up a steady patter—she and Keaton wanted to get married this summer, before Lark started to show. Then maybe they’d take a honeymoon cruise to Alaska. “Or something, as long as we’re together,” Lark said as she blushed.
Finally, the torture with the curling iron was done. After Lark had misted her hair with spray, saying, “Even Mom would be proud of that,” she then insisted that Skye let her put on a little blush and some mascara. “You’ll feel better with a little makeup on,” Lark added, with that sneaky smile that Skye hadn’t trusted for decades.
Skye sighed. Clearly something was up. But she didn’t know what.
Finally, Lark’s phone buzzed. She looked at the message, pronounced Skye “beautiful” and not-so-casually said, “We should go.”
“There’s a party downstairs, isn’t there?” Skye said.
“Of course not,” Lark said way too fast.
“Is there any way out of this? I’m not feeling social right now. I just want Jake.”
“Trust me,” Lark replied with that smile again.
Lark and Gloria got Grace all bundled up in her baby carrier so wind couldn’t get to her. Then everyone was in the car. Skye decided to sit in the back so she could keep an eye on her daughter.
She didn’t want to go out to the ranch house. She didn’t want people to try to cheer her up.
She just wanted Jake. She wanted things to go back to the way they were.
Well, not really. She wanted the closeness they used to have, back when they’d first run off, but she wanted to spend time with her sister and Gloria and maybe, one day, her own parents. She wanted Grace to grow up with her cousins, to know her aunt and uncle and grandparents. She wanted the community where near strangers would throw her a baby shower and be happy for her recovery.
She wanted it all. And she wanted Jake to want that, too.
The drive out to the Holt homestead was not quiet. Gloria could keep up quite a conversation all by herself, but Lark was right there with her. Skye figured they weren’t leaving a silent moment, lest she start asking questions again.
So she sat in the backseat and watched Grace sleep underneath her blankets and half listened as Gloria talked about the lovely retirement community they were looking at in Gulf Shores.
Finally, they pulled up at the ranch house. Skye looked around, but she didn’t see any signs of a party. No cars parked everywhere, no people milling about. Good. She didn’t want to celebrate anything, anyway.
Lark unfastened Grace’s carrier and Gloria said, “I’ll help you get her inside. Skye, why don’t you just sit tight for a moment?”
She looked at them. “No, that’s not suspicious at all.”
But the two women just laughed and headed inside.
Skye managed to get out of the car. She stood there, holding on to the door for support, and looked around. Oh, she’d missed these wide-open spaces. Even though the wind was blowing and the grass was brown and dry, this feeling of freedom was something she just couldn’t get in Houston.
Houston. All of her things were still there. Heck, as far as she knew, her wedding ring was still on the ground outside their apartment. She would have to find a way to go there and...
Stay? Pack up and come back here?
Would Jake be there for any of that? Or would she be on her own?
She heard the front door shut and turned, expecting to see Lark coming back for her. Except it wasn’t Lark.
It was Jake.
“Where have you been?” was the first thing out of her mouth. She immediately winced at how bitchy it sounded.
“Working,” he said as he came around the car.
“Oh. Of course.” She turned her face back to the land. She didn’t want to stay in Houston. This was where Grace belonged. And since Jake obviously wasn’t going to be a part of the future...
She didn’t get too far along that path because suddenly, Jake was in front of her and he was folding her into his arms and holding her against his chest and she let him, damn it. She let him because she didn’t know if she’d ever get to hold him like this again.
“Skye,” he said.
She was not going to cry at the goodbye. “Yes?” She was going to try not to cry, anyway.
“I didn’t take the job.”
“You what?” She jolted back and stared up at him.
“I didn’t take it. I told you I wasn’t going to,” he added with a small smile. “I realized that you were right. The job—the company—will never love me back. It’ll keep taking and taking until I don’t have anything left to give and all it’ll ever give me back is money. And money can’t love me. Not like you do, Skye.”
“Oh, Jake,” she said as tears began to slip free. “I’ve never stopped loving you. Not even when you drive me nuts.”
He laughed at this and kissed her cheeks where the tears had left a trail. “I didn’t tell you about the interview because I hadn’t decided if I wanted the job or not and I didn’t want to upset you. I guess...I was trying to have things both ways and it didn’t work. I’m sorry for that. I’ve decided to take a step back from doing the jobs myself. I’m going to start hiring guys to be on-site so I can stay here with you. It’s a little like promoting myself to management,” he added with a grin.
“You’re going to stay? With me?” She gasped, unsure if she was dreaming or if this was really real.
“You’re the one I want, the one person on this earth I need more than anything else.” He stroked her cheeks with his thumbs. “I can’t walk away from you, Skye. I never could.”
“I shouldn’t have gotten upset,” she admitted. “It’s just that everything feels so new in my head—like a year ago is happening at the same time as right now and I’m not sure I’m doing the best job of keeping the past separate from the future. I know you have to work.”
“Don’t apologize, Skye,” he told her as he held her against his chest.
“But I threw away your ring and filed for divorce and I can’t remember if I wanted a divorce or if I just wanted to force you to choose. I didn’t try hard enough, Jake. And I want to try harder.”
“Babe,” he said and then he kissed her, hot and hard, and it was everything she wanted from him.
When the kiss ended, he said, “I have something else to apologize for.” But he didn’t sound sad about it.
“What?” she asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.
“Come inside,” he said in a gentle voice. “I have something I want to show you.”
She didn’t want to. She wanted to stay out here with him where they could get everything settled—the right way, this time. But he’d asked. And she was showing him that she put their relationship first. “All right.”
Smiling, Jake escorted her inside. The moment she stepped into the hall, she heard the low hum that went with a bunch of people trying to all whisper at the same time. “Jake?” she asked.
�
��It turns out,” he said, “that I wanted to do something to show you that our relationship was more important to me than anything else, too.”
They turned the corner and walked down into the living room. Easily thirty people were standing around, drinks in hand.
Gloria and David Holt were up front, standing next to Lark and Keaton. Grace was in David’s arms, and he looked as happy as Skye had ever seen him. And next to them...
“Dad? Mom?” Skye gasped. Her parents were there, looking only moderately uncomfortable.
“There’s my girl,” Tyrone Taylor said.
“If I could have your attention,” Jake said. Then he got down on one knee and there was a ring in his hand. “Will you marry me all over again, Skye? This is the only diamond they could find after the tornado. We can’t go back where we were before, but we can make our love new again.”
Skye stared down at the diamond—familiar, yet not. She was so stunned that she couldn’t even answer. She looked around, feeling overwhelmed.
Her father stepped forward. “I’d like to walk you down the aisle, Skye. That is, if you still want me to. The Taylors and Holts,” he said, managing not to sneer in the direction of Gloria and David, “well, we have more in common than I’d given us credit for. We can find a way to coexist. For the sake of the grandchildren.”
Vera Taylor sniffed, but for once in her life, she said nothing.
“That’s true enough,” David said, not looking at Tyrone.
“And we hope you two decide to stay here in Royal,” Gloria added before anyone could start sniping.
“Yes,” Lark said. Keaton stood behind her, his arms around her waist. “Stay.”
Jake turned to her. His hand reached for hers and he smiled hopefully at her. “It’s what you wanted, right?”
“Oh, Jake,” Skye said. She wanted to say more—how much she loved him, how much she’d dreamed of this moment—but she didn’t have any words left.
So she did the only thing she could to show him how she felt.
She kissed him. Hard.
And as everyone cheered at this yes, Jake kissed her back. “I lost you once. It won’t ever happen again, I promise you that,” he said in a low voice meant only for her ears. “Let me prove it to you every single day for the rest of our lives.”
Skye held him to her, unafraid of what her parents or his parents might say. She could hear people talking—sounds of approval flowed around her. But there was no one but Jake. There never had been and there never would be. “I love you, Jake Holt.”
He slid the ring onto her finger. It felt different from the other ring—heavier—but she was different now, too. And different could be better.
“I love you too, my blue-eyed Skye.”
Then they went to greet their family.
Together.
* * * * *
TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB: AFTER THE STORM
Don’t miss a single story!
STRANDED WITH THE RANCHER
by Janice Maynard
SHELTERED BY THE MILLIONAIRE
by Catherine Mann
PREGNANT BY THE TEXAN
by Sara Orwig
BECAUSE OF THE BABY...
by Cat Schield
HIS LOST AND FOUND FAMILY
by Sarah M. Anderson
MORE THAN A CONVENIENT BRIDE
by Michelle Celmer
FOR HIS BROTHER’S WIFE
by Kathie DeNosky
Keep reading for an excerpt from THIRTY DAYS TO WIN HIS WIFE by Andrea Laurence.
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Prologue
“Do you want to get out of here?”
Amelia Kennedy turned and looked up into the cool blue eyes of her best friend, Tyler Dixon. Of course he would be the one to save her. “Yes, please.” She got up from the banquet table and accepted his hand, happily following him out of the ballroom, through the casino and out to the glittering lights of the Las Vegas Strip.
Just breathing in the cool desert air made her feel better. Why had she thought her high school reunion would be fun? It was just a room filled with people she never liked, gloating about how great their lives were. Even though she couldn’t care less about what Tammy Richardson—cheerleader and all-around stuck-up brat—had done with her life, hearing Tammy brag had somehow made Amelia feel less enthusiastic about her own achievements.
It was ridiculous, really. She co-owned her own company and was very successful, but the lack of a ring on her hand and toddler photos on her phone made her the odd girl out tonight. This entire trip was a waste of her precious vacation time.
Well, not the whole thing. It was worth it to see Tyler. They had been best friends since the ninth grade, but recently they had both gotten so busy they were lucky to see each other once a year. The reunion was a good excuse.
They stumbled down the sidewalk hand in hand with no destination in mind. It didn’t matter where they ended up. Every step they put between them and the reunion improved Amelia’s mood. That, or—if her softening knees were any indication—the tequila was finally kicking in. A low rumble caught their attention, and they stopped outside the Mirage to watch the periodic eruption of the volcano out front.
They leaned against the railing, Amelia resting her head on Tyler’s shoulder and sighing with contentment. She really missed spending time with him. There was just something about being with Tyler that made the world seem better. There was a comfort and ease in his arms that she’d never found in another man. Although they’d never dated, Tyler had set the bar high for her future relationships. Maybe too high, considering she was still single.
“Feel better?” he asked.
“Yes, thank you. I just couldn’t look at any more pictures of weddings and babies.”
Tyler wrapped his arm around her, chasing away the January desert chill. “That’s what happens at reunions, you know.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t expect it to make me feel like such a...”
“Successful, talented businesswoman in control of her own destiny?”
Amelia sighed. “I was thinking more along the lines of a relationship failure on the fast track to a house with too many cats.”
“Quit it,” he said in a stern voice. He turned toward her and tipped her chin up so she had to look him in the eye. “You are amazing. You’re beautiful, talented, successful... Any man would be lucky to have you in his life. You just haven’t found one worthy of you yet.”
That was a nice thought, but it didn’t change the fact that she’d been on a fruitless quest for Mr. Right since she’d come of age. “Thanks, Ty,” she said anyway, as she wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in the lapel of his suit.
He held her tight, resting his chin on the top of her head. It was a simple hug. One they’d shared a hundred times before. But tonight, somehow, it was different. She was suddenly very aware of the movement of his hard muscles beneath his shirt. His cologne tickled her nose, so familiar and yet so enticing in the moment. It made her want to bury her face in his neck and inhale the warm scent of his skin. Run her palms across the rough stubble
of his jaw...
A wave of heat licked at Amelia’s cheeks, and she realized it had nothing to do with the flames shooting across the water beside them. There was a warmth curling in her belly, a need building inside her. It was a familiar arousal, but one she’d never associated with Tyler. He was her best friend. Nothing more.
But in that moment, she wanted more. She wanted him to show her how beautiful and talented he thought she was with his hands and his mouth instead of his words. It was a dangerous thought, but she couldn’t shake it.
“Do you remember graduation night?”
“Of course,” she said, pulling away to put an end to the physical contact stirring the blood in her veins. She couldn’t forget that night. They had suffered through family parties, and then they’d snuck off together to camp in the desert. Amelia had driven them out to the edge of town, where they could finally see the stars. “We drank wine coolers and stayed up all night watching for shooting stars.”
“Do you remember the pact we made?”
Amelia thought back to that night, the details blurred by a combination of time and fuzzy navels. She remembered them pinky swearing something. “What was it about? I don’t remember.”
“We agreed that if we weren’t married by our ten-year reunion, we would marry each other.”
“Oh, yeah,” she said, the moment flooding back into her mind. In their eighteen-year-old brains, twenty-eight was nearly ancient. If they weren’t married by then, all hope was obviously lost. They’d sworn they would save each other from a lonely middle-aged existence. “Twenty-eight sure doesn’t feel the way I expected it to. I still feel young, and yet sometimes I feel like the oldest, most boring person I know. All I do is work. I never have adventures like we used to have together.”
Tyler studied her face, his light brown eyebrows drawing together in thought. “Do you feel up for an adventure tonight? I guarantee it will cheer you up.”
That was exactly what she needed—the kind of night that would make for a great story. “I am definitely up for an adventure. What did you have in mind?”
His Lost and Found Family Page 17