Falling for the Rebound Bride

by Karen Templeton

  Or had been, anyway.

  Because for the first time, when he’d gotten back from his assignment late yesterday afternoon, instead of he and the condo greeting each other with bored indifference, Colin had felt a definite pang of annoyance. Like when you suddenly realized the girlfriend you’d stayed with out of habit more than anything wasn’t who you really wanted to be with anymore. That, suddenly, you wanted more. Needed more. Even if you didn’t know what, exactly, that more was.

  Only—he glanced across the reasonably green, reasonably kept courtyard toward the bank of balconies that looked exactly like his, save for slight variations in grills and doodads—who was he kidding? He knew exactly what he wanted. Who he wanted.

  And he’d known it long before he’d gotten on that plane a few weeks ago.

  Before he’d gotten naked with a woman who’d stripped him bare long before that night.

  Before his mother sent him that text, a few days after he left—

  His phone buzzed, startling him. Colin picked it up off the also-crappy glass table by the chair, frowning at Levi’s number. He doubted whether any of his brothers had the slightest clue why he’d left. Although if he’d bothered to tell them why he’d really returned to his hometown to begin with, they might have.

  “Figured I should let you know your newest niece is here,” his younger brother said, the obvious grin in his voice making Colin smile even over the fresh stab to his heart.

  “She is? That’s terrific.”

  “A relief, is what it is. Kid took her sweet time making her appearance. The due date was nearly two weeks ago. Then after all that she came flying out like a greased pig. Although don’t tell Val I said that.” He laughed. “Mom barely had a chance to catch her. A little blondie. Like her mama.”

  Trying to ignore the tug, Colin said, “What’s her name?”

  He heard Levi clear his throat. “Hope,” he said quietly. “Val’s suggestion. Like I was gonna say no, right?”

  His own throat tightening, Colin glanced back out into the green space between the buildings, right when a young family walked by with a toddler streaking toward the complex’s little playground, and an infant in a stroller, black eyes wide in a gleaming brown face. Newish residents, he guessed, since he’d never seen them before. The dad apparently said something to get a rise out of his wife...and succeeded, judging from her squawk, followed by a gentle smack on his muscled arm, their blended laughter. They caught Colin looking at them. He grinned and waved; they waved back, and a thousand thoughts seemed to take flight inside Colin’s head, a swarm of locusts intent on devouring everything in their path.

  Like all those good intentions that seemed to make less sense with every passing day.

  Aka the masks for his fears.

  “I’d like to... I want to come see her,” he said into the phone, clearly startling his brother. “If it’s not too soon. I don’t want to mess things up if you’re still trying to get settled—”

  “No! I mean, not at all, anytime’s good. That’d be great.” Levi paused. “But I figured you’d be busy, you know. With your work and stuff. Like always.”

  “Like I was when Zach’s boys were born, you mean.”

  A moment of silence preceded, “I wasn’t here, either, being in the service—”

  “You had an excuse, Lev. Me? Not so much. And I know Zach never understood, not really.” He pushed out a dry laugh. “Hell, I didn’t fully understand myself, so why would anybody else? Anyway...not sure when I’ll get there—”

  “No hurry, bro.” His brother chuckled. “Kid’s not going anywhere. Although, even setting aside whatever it is you do...that’s not the only reason I’m surprised you’re coming home.”

  Yeah, Colin wondered how long it’d take Levi to get around to that.

  “Not that I’m about to get into the middle of that mess,” his brother continued. “Or whatever you want to call it. But let me say this, and then I’m done, I swear—I can tell you from experience that sometimes the one thing that seems to make the least sense is exactly what you need to do. You got that?” At Colin’s snort, his brother added, “So you want me to give Emily a heads-up, or no?”

  “I’m only coming to see the kid, I...” He shoved out a breath. Like anybody would believe that. “Do whatever you think best, okay?”

  Then, on another breath, Colin disconnected the call. Hell, at this point he was way past worrying about anything making sense. Right now—especially when faced with the prospect of seeing the woman he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about from the minute he walked away from her in the airport—all he wanted was to know, and do, whatever was right. For both of them.

  He only hoped to hell he figured that out before he balled things up even worse. Although he wasn’t counting on it. Not at all. Because it was still too soon, for Emily. Wasn’t it? Really, had anything changed? It wasn’t as if they were somehow different people now than when he’d left...

  Except without trying, what was the point of living?

  Something he had the definite feeling nobody would agree with more than the woman who’d made him realize that more had been right under his nose all along. Because everything he wanted, and could be, was right in that dinky little New Mexico town.

  Because making a difference had nothing to do with where you were, but what you did.

  And who you did it for.

  Still watching the little family, Colin tapped his phone against his chin, then brought up his mother’s text again. One of her favorite Bible verses, he remembered.

  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

  A promise, he realized. For everyone.

  Even him.

  Colin could practically hear God’s sigh of relief, that finally he’d caught on.

  * * *

  Carefully rocking the prettiest little baby girl in the whole world, Emily barely heard the doorbell ring over toddler Risa’s clattering her mama’s pie tins against the kitchen’s tiled floor. Of course, then Levi and Val’s hound dog, Radar, started baying his head off, so it’s not as if she could’ve missed that “somebody’s at the door, woman, fer God’s sake!”

  So much for poor Val trying to get a nap, Emily thought as she shoved aside the dog to open the door, a task made far more difficult by the toddler’s clinging to her legs.

  “Hey,” Colin said, and every bit of spit in Emily’s mouth evaporated and every one of the pep talks she’d given herself since she last saw him, about how this was for the best and she was strong and happy and good on her own, blahblahblahbityblah, flew right out the window. Then he frowned at what must have been her gobsmacked expression. “I’m guessing Levi didn’t tell you I was coming.”

  At least she thought that’s what he said. Hard to tell over the pounding in her ears and Risa’s shrieks of joy as she launched herself at her uncle’s knees and Radar’s roo-rooing. Because the dog was high on life, basically.

  “Who’s that?” Val said behind her, in jeans and a floppy, sloppy shirt but otherwise giving no indication whatsoever she’d popped out a kid two days ago. “Colin!” The blonde zoomed across the room to throw her arms around her brother-in-law, her long ponytail swinging against her back as she laughed. “Oh, my god! I certainly didn’t expect you to show up!”

  “Surprise,” Colin said quietly, his gaze hooking Emily’s as he said, “I heard there’s a new Talbot in town.”

  Val pivoted, took one look at Emily’s still-gobsmacked expression, pivoted back to Colin and said, “Who you can see later. First things first.” Then she pried her new daughter out of Emily’s arms, called the dog and her little girl and steered the whole lot out back.

  A moment before Colin stepped inside, cupped Emily’s face in his hands and kissed her as though his life depended on it. Or hers, maybe.

  “Wher
e’s Spud?” he asked when they came up for air, and Emily sputtered a laugh.

  “At the cabin,” she said. “Where we live now. He’s gotten so big, you won’t even recognize him—”

  “We need to hash out a few things,” Colin said, his hands still cradling her face, all warm and firm and goose bumps–inducing...his mouth still right there, much too close for rational thought. Somehow, she squeaked out a little “Okay” before he laughed—oh, Lord, did she love that laugh!—and took her hand to lead her to his brother’s living room, where he shoved aside a layer of little girl toys from the scarred sofa and pulled her down onto his lap. And Emily had no idea what was going on, and frankly she didn’t care, because she’d never been as happy as she was right at that moment. Since, you know, she doubted he was going to say “So here’s the thing...” and get up and leave.

  And if none of that made any sense from a practical standpoint...

  Screw it.

  Colin tucked her against his chest, his cheek on the top of her head, and said, “Okay, so here’s the thing... What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing,” she said, swallowing her laughter and snuggling closer. “So what’s the thing?”

  He was quiet for a moment, stroking her back, chuckling when Val’s little gray tiger cat jumped up beside him and promptly settled in, purring. He stroked the blissful beast for another couple of seconds, then said, “I have no idea how—or even if—this could work between us. Or even if it should. But this pansy-ass pussyfooting deal is for the birds.”

  Frowning, Emily sat up to look into those pretty, tortured green eyes. “Oh, yeah?”

  Matching her frown, Colin sighed, then linked their hands on her lap. “I told myself I’d left to give you space. That the timing sucked, I didn’t want to crowd you...you name it, I trotted it out.”

  “Not to mention,” she carefully ventured, “I want to stay here and you don’t.”

  One side of his mouth pushed up. “Except...” He lifted her hand, brought it to his mouth, then tucked it against his chest. “I do. Want to stay. At least, to make Whispering Pines my home base.” A sad smile curved his lips. “My home. Again. See, the plan had been to shove my pride aside enough to finally admit that I’ve wanted to come home for a while. That when all was said and done, this was the only place I ever felt as though I belonged. Only...” His eyes moist, he lifted a hand to brush her hair away from her face. “Only then you happened.”

  “And I totally messed up your plan?”

  That got a soft laugh. “Sort of. But not the way I’d convinced myself you had. I really was thinking of you, I swear. That you were on the rebound, that you didn’t need complications. Which means that’s something we still have to work out. If you want. But...”

  He paused, his gaze fixed for several moments on the space in front of him before he pushed out a breath. “But even before I left, I had to admit that your issues were a convenient excuse.”

  “For?”

  His eyes locked in hers. “For me avoiding mine.”

  Emily went very still, half honored that Colin was about to really open up to her, half petrified of what that might mean. Except she once again reminded herself...he was here. And that the way he’d kissed her...

  Breathe, she told herself. Just...breathe.

  “I was so sure it’d be safe here,” he said. “That I’d be safe, from anything even remotely like temptation. That this...that it’d be not only a safe haven for when I need a break from my work, but—” He pressed their entwined hands to his chest. “But that my heart would be safe here, too,” he said quietly, and Emily’s cracked. “That I could enjoy my brothers’ families without having to...”

  He swallowed.

  “Be afraid for your own,” Emily said gently.

  Tears shimmered in his eyes when he let their gazes meet. “It’s not that I don’t want a family or children, Em. It’s that, after everything I’ve seen, the idea of losing them...”

  “I know,” she whispered. “I do.”

  “But I’m far, far more afraid of losing the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” He let go of her hand to cup her jaw, his fingers forked through her hair. “Which would be you.”

  Emily kept her gaze hooked in his for several seconds before she pushed up from his lap, earning a pissed chirrup? from the cat.

  “Em...?”

  “So what happened to logic?” she said, not facing him, and Colin laughed.

  “Don’t know,” he said. “Don’t care. And if it’s still too soon, I’ll understand. But...” He got to his feet and closed the gap between them to wrap her up from behind and whisper in her hair, “How could I not love the woman who made me face everything I’ve ignored for years? Who’s made me figure out who I am? What I truly want?”

  Emily shut her eyes, by now sure they could hear her heart thundering as far north as Wyoming. Then she turned in his arms, all that hope in his eyes knocking clean out of her what little breath she had left. “Same here,” she somehow got out. “But I haven’t changed my mind about wanting children, Colin. If you still don’t—”

  “You know what I finally realized? That there’s probably not a single parent alive who doesn’t worry about something happening to their kids. At least sometimes.” His gaze softened. “That’s not the same as not wanting them. Even if I’d told myself that for so long I almost—almost—believed it. And to have them with you... I get almost dizzy just thinking about it,” he said, and she laughed, only to suck in a deep breath.

  “And your work? Your calling? You know no way in hell would I ever interfere with that, right?”

  A good two, three seconds passed before Colin said, “I do. But I promise you, even if I can’t always be around, I’d always be here for you. Be in your camp. Because you’re my treasure,” he said, and she absolutely melted.

  “Crap,” Emily muttered, then snagged a tissue out of the box on the end table to loudly blow her nose. “You’re my treasure, too, you big g-goofball...” Then, apparently no longer capable of coherent speech, she made some strange, strangled little sound, and Colin pulled her close again, his heartbeat steady against her ear...and then their mouths met, and... Oh, my, yes.

  Yes.

  Then, after what seemed like an eternity of some very satisfying spit swapping, they simply stood wrapped in each other’s arms, listening to Val and the kids outside, an overloud dove cooing outside the living room window. Until at last Colin said, “From the moment I saw you standing on the porch with the damned dog, I was a goner. By the time we left Zach’s after getting Spud fixed up...it—you—felt right. I mean, crazy, earth-shatteringly right. And that pull, that rightness...”

  “I know,” she whispered. “Me, too.”

  “But—”

  “I know,” she repeated, snuggling closer.

  Chuckling, he kissed her head. “Forgive me?”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  He paused, then whispered, “Marry me?”

  Her head jerked back so hard her neck snapped. “Are you serious?”

  “Hey. If the universe went to this much trouble to throw the two of us together...”

  Had to admit, the man had a point. Because actually, the timing couldn’t have been any more perfect—

  “But only if you want to,” he said.

  And Val yelled, “Oh, for heaven’s sake!” from the kitchen, making them both jump. “Put the poor man out of his misery! Not to mention me!”

  Laughing, Emily linked her hands around Colin’s neck. “Oh, I want to, all right,” she said, and he blew out a very relieved breath. Then she grinned. “Although my poor mother will have kittens.”

  Colin’s smile melted her heart. “And we’ll find homes for them all,” he said, after which Emily discovered exactly how hard it was to kiss somebody when you could
n’t stop smiling.

  Epilogue

  “You nervous, son?”

  Colin smiled over at his father, feeling such warmth toward the older man it nearly took his breath. He looked away, into the cloudless fall sky stretching above the Vista’s front acreage, where a couple dozen folding chairs had been set up for the simple ceremony to follow. Just family and a few friends. Emily’s parents, in from DC. They’d separated, although to hear Emily tell it this was not only not a bad thing, but long overdue. Sounded to him like his almost mother-in-law had finally grown a pair, frankly. In no small part due to her daughter’s example. His smile broadening, he met Sam’s gaze again.

  “Not at all.”

  Dressed almost exactly like Colin in a Western-style shirt, tucked into “good” jeans, and a silver bolo tie, Dad clapped Colin’s shoulder, muttered, “Oh, what the hell?” then pulled him into a brief, hard hug. They’d probably talked more in the past few months than in the whole eighteen years prior to Colin’s leaving for college. Funny, the way adulthood had of smoothing out the edges. Especially when those edges had been far more on one side than Colin might’ve wanted to admit. His father was a good man. Hardheaded, maybe, but good. But the most important thing was that he adored Emily. Both his parents did. As did she, them. Hell, even her snooty mother had warmed up to Billie. Although this was not a surprise, knowing his mother.

  What had been a surprise—or maybe not, come to think of it—was how easily Colin had settled back into life in Whispering Pines, with his family, the community. How between assignments he’d found a renewed sense of purpose in working alongside Mallory in her therapy facility, helping both kids and adults with various challenges find theirs. Seeing those smiles...