Wide Open Spaces (Harlequin Super Romance)

by Fox, Roz Denny

  “Sure you did.” Colt tuned her out, focusing his attention completely on Summer.

  She slid one arm beneath his jacket, soaking up the heat she’d missed. “I have a rental car to return to the airport. Otherwise my night is yours, Coltrane Quinn.”

  “Summer Quinn,” he mused aloud, as he scooped her in his arms and carried her out to the street, brushing snow from her hair as he tucked her in the driver’s seat of her rental car. “It has a nice ring,” he said, pausing to dig out the keys to his pickup. “A very nice ring.”

  LATER, AS THEY LAY CUDDLED together in bed, in the last vacant room available at the Starlight Motel, Colt kissed Summer’s bare shoulder and idly brushed callused fingertips over her exposed back. They’d both been impatient to see if the loving was as good as each had remembered—which it definitely was.

  “You’ve got something on your mind,” she murmured.

  “You,” he said, rolling up on his side to run his knee along the inside of her thigh.

  She practically purred, rising up to stroke the coarse hair matting his broad chest while straining to meet his lips again. “Let’s make the most of tonight. You know how little time ranchers get off. This could be all the honeymoon we get.”

  The thought of spending every night between now and eternity like this started Colt’s blood pumping. “Does that bother you, Summer?” he asked. “Putting the honeymoon ahead of the wedding?”

  “Do I look bothered?” She lifted her head slightly and slid her free leg over his hips.

  “Very. Hot and bothered,” he groaned. “Remind me later,” he breathed in a hoarse voice. “I’ll make it up to you. I promise. In fact, we can skydive off the top of the gorge at our wedding next month. Whatever you’d like…”

  “Next month is Christmas. The trail to the gorge is impassable until spring. Let’s wait and get married then.”

  “Anything you want, Summer. Anything…” he breathed, running his hot, wet tongue around the inner edge of her ear.

  EPILOGUE

  SPRING ARRIVED ON the Forked Lightning Ranch with a speed similar to that of the previous year’s early winter. One day the ground lay covered in crusted snow; the next, daffodils and crocuses poked their faces toward a warming sun.

  Within a week’s time, Summer ushered in two dozen bawling Belted Galloway babies. Cute, plump, sturdy calves, with thick, curly black coats. She cooed and preened over each one. “Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?” she demanded of Colt.

  In an adjacent corral, he worked a new Morgan horse he’d bought on his latest buying trip to Colorado. Uncoiling his rope, Colt set a foot on the lower rail and leaned his arms on the top slat. “You don’t really want me to answer that, do you, Summer?” he drawled. “You know I’m partial to colts and fillies.”

  Summer made her way to where he stood, rose up on tiptoes and surprised him with a kiss. “You’re a softie for all animals, Coltrane. Who fussed the most over the wild things we added to the menagerie over the winter? Virgil told me how you babied that injured lynx. And you hand-feed the trumpeter swan every morning and afternoon. Oh, and let’s not forget our pitiful stray mustang. Not even I gave him a snowball’s chance in hell of surviving.”

  “Really?” he said archly. “Then why did we place him in Rory’s care?”

  “It was your suggestion! You said you thought Rory needed to start taking part in the ranch again. Since he fell off Blaze, he’s been skittish. We figured if he nursed the injured mustang, maybe he’d gain back the confidence he lost.”

  “I’d say it worked. Zebra—and what kind of name is that for a horse, I’d like to know—follows the kid around like another dog.”

  Summer tweaked Colt’s nose. “Audrey came up with that name. You’ve got to admit those are zebra-striped markings on his knees. I’m afraid you’re a hundred percent right about the dog part.” Her smile spread to a grin. “Poor Lancelot sulked for a month. Until he discovered Zebra couldn’t enter the house.”

  They shared a moment of comfortable laughter. Summer sobered first. “Hey, speaking of Audrey, you wouldn’t happen to know about an offer she received in the mail yesterday?”

  “Offer? For what?” Colt frowned faintly, removed his hat and raked a hand through his sweat-damp hair.

  Summer named a well-known company that sold hoof polish, vitamin supplements and other horse-care products. “The company president expressed interest in a sample he claimed they received of a liniment Audrey devised for our use.”

  “Well, hot damn!” Colt threw his hat in the air and slapped a palm on the fence rail before he caught the hat as it fell. “I forgot. I’d shipped off a sample to Mossberger. So much has happened since then. I really hoped if someone else found the cream as effective as I did, Audrey’s recipe might provide her and Virgil with extra cash in their rocking-chair years. When I mailed the sample, Audrey and Virgil’s future looked kind of shaky.”

  “Never. I’d have provided for them even if I’d been forced to sell to Ed Adams.”

  “But you didn’t have to sell the ranch. So now they can live out their years right here in the home they love.”

  “Thanks to you, Coltrane.” Summer’s gold-flecked eyes took on a silvery sheen.

  Colt stared at her, nervously turning his hat around and around. “Yesterday I stopped by the feed store. The locals hanging out there gave me a hard time again. Jesse Cook in particular wants to know when he’ll be invited to our wedding. I’m…uh…sort of curious myself, Summer. You wanted to wait until spring. I know you needed time to square things with Frank, and time for Rory to accept the idea of me being his stepdad, but—”

  “So much happened so fast, Colt.” Summer dug a furrow in the ground with the toe of one boot.

  “Yeah, but it’s spring now. Just today, Tracey pointed out a flock of migratory birds headed north. And flowers have popped up outside my cottage.”

  “I know. The ranch is beautiful in spring. Do you have a point you’re trying to make?” Her head came up.

  “I’m getting to it. I’m tired of sneaking around to make love. Isn’t it time we shared the same bed every night? All night. Until we’re too old to climb in and out by ourselves.”

  “The unvarnished truth, Coltrane? I’ve been waiting for you to bring up the subject of marriage again.” Summer shifted her eyes downward. “The night I showed up in Boise to apologize, we said a lot of things to each other. And all the while we steamed up the windows in that motel, we made vague wedding plans. But you never actually came out and said you loved me.”

  “I didn’t say I—” Colt released a pent-up breath. “Of course I love you! What did you think everything I’ve been doing here is about?” He flung out a hand, encompassing the surrounding land he’d tilled and seeded. “I love you so much I walked away instead of accepting the interim manager’s job on the Forked Lightning, the way Marley and Gabe wanted me to.”

  “So shoot me if I need the words, Quinn, if I need reassuring. The whole of my marriage was a disaster. I want more next time around. I want it all, dammit!”

  Clutching the top of a fence post, Colt vaulted across to land heavily on Summer’s side. “Summer, I love you so much it hurts me. But after Monica’s treachery, I haven’t been too…confident in some areas of my life, either.” He ran his hands slowly up and down Summer’s arms. In his eyes lurked the truth he’d spoken.

  “Monica. I keep remembering how beautiful she was. I’ve wondered if you regretted leaving her back in Boise…”

  Colt hugged her so tight, he felt the slight trembling of her limbs. “Honest to God, I haven’t given her a second thought. Tracey’ll tell you that she did send me a letter. It was waiting in Boise the day I collected him from the airport. I tore it up and threw it away without opening it. I really didn’t know she intended to show up, and I didn’t care. I was over her then. Once I met you, Summer, I realized my marriage had been a mistake. You’re ten thousand times the woman Monica is or ever was. I saw it the very first da
y I met you, when I stopped at the vet’s with the eagle. My ex would never have shown a tenth the compassion for man or beast that you showed for an injured bird.”

  Summer squeezed Colt’s waist briefly. Then she leaned back so she could look him in the eye. “The eagle’s wing is completely healed, you know?”

  “I’ve seen you flying her on a tether. It’s time, isn’t it, to turn her back into the wild?”

  “Yes. Her babies are strong enough to hunt on their own, too.”

  “I’m glad, and sad,” Colt mused, laying his cheek against Summer’s softer one.

  She gathered her courage, then blurted, “Coltrane, we could make releasing the eagles our wedding present to each other.”

  “Have I ever said how much I love the way you say my name?”

  “No. I love the name. And the man. What would you think about a private ceremony out near the eagle’s nest? Just you, me, Virgil, Audrey and Rory. In a way, we’re all connected through the eagles. It seems right that we should all be there together when we return them to the gorge.”

  “It’s a great idea, Summer. But what about Tracey and our other friends? Most of Callanton is waiting for our wedding. So are Marley, Gabe, Marc and Reggie Mossberger.”

  “We could throw a reception here at the Forked Lightning afterward, and invite them all. Hire a local band. The Green Willow caters most of the town hoedowns. My grandparents used to have huge barbecues to kick off each new season, and we can do that, too. Maybe even make it a tradition again.”

  “I only have one question about our wedding, sweetheart. How soon?”

  “Is two weekends from now okay?”

  “Tomorrow would be better. But it’ll take the guys who work for SOS time to book flights and all. Two weekends from now it is. When Rory gets home from school today, we’ll call a family meeting and inform everyone.”

  Summer broke the kiss Colt had initiated to seal their decision, pulling back with a troubled expression. “Trace is going to feel left out if he doesn’t get to help release the eagles. I’ve noticed he’s been using his free time to teach the eaglets to hunt.”

  “I’d like to include him. Tracey’s the brother I never had. I’d like him to be my best man.”

  Summer snuggled a cheek to his chest and sighed. “We’ll have the perfect wedding.”

  “And a perfect life growing old on this ranch together.”

  “Not so fast about the growing old part.” Summer extracted herself from his arms and studied him anxiously. “Coltrane…something we’ve never discussed. Would, you, uh, want to add to our family? I mean, as in having a baby?”

  “Sure,” Colt said without hesitation. “But Rory’s growing up and I wasn’t sure you’d want to deal with diapers and night feedings again. If you’re willing, so am I. In fact, I’m crazy about the idea.”

  “It’s a good thing you said sure so fast, Coltrane Quinn. Another thing that arrived in yesterday’s mail was a pregnancy kit I’d ordered. I tried it out last night. It’s…ah…positive,” she said, holding her breath.

  A heartbeat passed while Colt took in the news. “I…but, we, uh, we’ve been so careful.”

  “Yeah, well, one of the methods let us down.”

  This time Colt pitched his hat so high in the air he didn’t look to see where it came down. His deafening whoop scattered the calves Summer had just fed. The noise brought Virgil and Tracey running from the barn, and Audrey stepped out of the house. They all watched Colt pick Summer up and swing her around until both were dizzy with joy.

  Colt and Summer didn’t wait for Rory to get home to announce their wedding plans to the others. The other news, their private news about the baby, Summer and Colt kept to themselves for the time being. Not because they were ashamed or felt they had anything to hide. It was Colt’s suggestion. “Sweetheart, I’m not sorry we put the cart before the horse, but damn, I want you to enjoy every step of our wedding.”

  AND SUMMER DID. Beginning with the poignant moment she dressed in an outfit Audrey had made. Summer rode sidesaddle into the gorge to keep from messing up her off-white broomstick skirt and matching lace blouse. Colt wore spanking-new denim jeans, topped by a tuxedo shirt and Spanish bolero jacket.

  Colt and Trace took Rory to town to pick out his very first Western tuxedo. “I look just like my new dad,” Rory declared to any one who’d listen. He reveled in the all-important job of carrying the rings, too.

  Only the wind rustled softly as the couple spoke the solemn vows they’d written together. Following the brief ceremony, Colt and Summer tossed the eagle aloft. Then, one by one, her young. All six members in the private wedding party, plus the minister, wiped tears from their eyes.

  Colt hoisted Rory up so he could watch the magnificent birds loop and soar free, skimming a horizon where blue sky merged with the wide open spaces Summer and Colt had just sworn to protect forever.

  “The land and this family are now bound tightly together, son,” Colt said, shifting to include Summer in his embrace.

  Rory gave a happy squeal, and Summer bestowed a loving smile on her two men. “Let’s go home and celebrate,” she said softly.

  “Home,” Colt echoed, realizing it’d always felt like that in his heart.

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-4363-7

  WIDE OPEN SPACES

  Copyright © 2002 by Rosaline Fox.

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