Cutter Mountain Rendezvous (33 page)
Read Cutter Mountain Rendezvous Online
Authors: Barbara Weitz
Five ten. No Kate.
Five fifteen. Still no Kate.
Why did he suggest she not show up if she didn’t have an answer? About to open his cell phone, he recognized the purr of Kate’s Lexus whirring its way up the steep incline of Cutter Mountain.
When the car crested the mountain, he about lost control of his emotions; she had scared the hell out of him. He moved to the center of the road and waved his dad’s battered cowboy hat over his head.
****
“Well howdy, cowboy,” Kate whispered the same words from the first time she laid eyes on him. Her heart was in her throat relieved he was there. He looked good. Boots, new jeans, and crisp white shirt open at the neck. She half expected to see Bessie, but the truck Colton bought while in Knoxville sat off to the side of the road.
She rolled to a stop and lowered her window as he sauntered near to lean his forearms on the ledge. Colton tipped the hat back on his head. “You came.”
“Of course, I came.”
“You’re late.”
“I was afraid you wouldn’t be here.”
“I was afraid you wouldn’t show. Pull over behind me.”
Kate was grateful for his helping hand when she slipped from behind the wheel of her car on rubbery legs. She smoothed the flirty skirt that fluttered around the tops of her boots in the same vibrant hues as the fall leaves. The pale-yellow top was a new addition to her wardrobe.
“You look great,” he said.
“You look pretty great yourself.” He smelled as fresh as mountain air. She gulped back her emotions and tried not to second guess what was going to happen as he led her to the view over the valley.
“I would have worn a suit but I wanted to do this.” Lowering himself on one knee in the gravel, he gripped her hands. “Kathryn Crockett. Would you honor me by being my wife?”
She fell to her knees barely aware of the gravel biting into her skin. “Yes. Loving you is everything, Colton. It is.”
“So do I get to kiss you now?”
“You get to kiss me anytime, anywhere, but could we stand up, please? My knees are killing me.”
He smiled and helped her up. Bracketing her waist with his hands, he lifted her onto the wall and kissed her hard. He pulled back. “Don’t move a muscle.” He dug into his pocket and pulled out a ring. The center diamond was a huge square cut with baguettes on either side. The diamonds dazzled with brilliance in the sun.
He slid it onto her finger. “You said my presentation stunk so I’m trying to impress you here.”
“I’m impressed. You’re presentation is more than perfect.”
“I even got your dad’s blessing.”
Her eyes glittered with tears as she cupped his face with shaky hands. “Thank you.” His clean-shaven face glowed as she placed her lips against his.
The distant sound of a truck made them part. Chains rattled as Bobby’s Orange Crush Tow truck crested the mountain with his mother, Claire, inside. They were followed by her parents with Lindsay, Marian Gray, Judge Lowell, and Mason. Kate put her hands over her mouth in disbelief. “You’ve thought of everything.”
“You almost blew a private proposal by being late,” he told her with a raised eyebrow.
****
Mason popped the cork on a champagne bottle and poured bubbly splashes into plastic glasses. He even put a couple of drops into a glass for Lindsay, who beamed with importance.
Mason lifted his glass. “To Kate and Colton. May God bless you and keep you in his care with a long and happy life. One as beautiful as this place where you met.”
“Hear, hear.” Colton looped arms with Kate to drink their champagne. He placed a kiss on her lips that made her blush in front of the spectators. “You can bet my mother wrote that,” he whispered in her ear.
“All the more special.”
Cameras flashed to record the event that would start a new photo album, after which the group drove into town for an engagement dinner at Beulah’s. They passed the turn off for Route X, where Kate’s inn once stood. “I guess this means I’ll be moving to Chicago.”
“My house is up for sale. The Bullets didn’t renew my contract, Kate. I’m a free agent. We can settle in Nashville, but I’d like you to reconsider building a second home on the site of the inn. It would be a great family gathering place where our kids could run their legs off.”
His quick glance made her heart swell with desire to feel new life growing inside a swollen belly. Life Colton would give them. She envisioned a collage of their future. Rocking chairs lining a new front porch. Lemonade served on a hot evening. Tinkerbelle. “You’re going to want a horse, aren’t you?”
“Does that mean we’ll rebuild?”
“I think so.”
“You sure you’re ready to take up life with a broken down ballplayer? One who doesn’t know what his next career move might be or where it will land him?”
“Absolutely. As long as we land there together.”
He cut the engine of the truck in Beulah’s parking lot and gathered Kate into his arms. Soft kisses were shared before Mason, parking Kate’s Lexus, banged on the window. “Get a room.” His brother laughed as he headed for Beulah’s.
“That boy needs his own wife,” she warned Colton.
“Good luck. I think Mason is a confirmed bachelor. You up to one more attempt at my being romantic?”
“I’m not sure you can top the proposal.”
He reached under the seat and pulled out a small fireproof box. “Look inside.”
“Oh, Colton.” She rested her hand on top the box and took a deep breath. Inside she found small scraps of paper with charred edges: the note from when he gave her the guitar; the half-torn five thousand dollar check paid for her
services
; the tactless note with bold green writing from the morning he left before dawn. “I’d forgotten I gave these to Bobby. Why’d you save them?”
“I’m not sure. They survived the fire and that seemed important. They represent how we began.
“I’m blown away.”
“Good. Put it in a song. We’ll need the money if I don’t land on my feet. Let’s eat.”
Kate laughed and wove her fingers into Colton’s. Peace settled deep in her soul. She and Colton would have a very long and happy life together.
She had lost so much in her short life and gained threefold. “I love you, Colton.”
“I love you more.”
He squeezed her hand as they entered Beulah’s to a standing ovation.
A word about the author...
Barbara Weitz lives in a quiet suburb of Chicago with her husband and a German shepherd, who stands in for her three grown sons in the mischief department.
A career executive secretary most of her life, she’s also held a variety of mundane and unusual employment opportunities. This, coupled with a passion for animals, music, and poetry, has helped shape the fictional characters she writes about.
Barbara can be reached at
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