Sleigh Bells in Valentine Valley (28 page)
Read Sleigh Bells in Valentine Valley Online
Authors: Emma Cane
Tony's eyebrows lowered. “But I don't understandâwhy wouldn't you go back if your problems are cleared up?”
“Because this sabbatical is the best thing to ever happen to me. Without it, I wouldn't have moved back with my parents, I wouldn't be here with you. I wouldn't have rediscovered the joy of falling back in love with you. My life and my priorities have completely changed. Never have I missed home so much as being here these last few weeks. Being with Ethan and our family, and with youâmy God, with you most of all. I don't ever want to go back to working fifteen hours every day, living my life for the brief time with our son. Sure my company will take me backâbut I don't want to be with people who don't trust my judgment. IâI didn't tell you, but Cal Carpenter offered me a partnership, said he'd been holding it open just for me.” She said it almost shyly, waiting for his answer.
His growing smile was like the spring sun rising after a long winter. He leaned forward and kissed her so sweetly, so tenderly. “I don't want to waste another minute,” he said. “I want to be with you.”
“But how do we tell people? They'll all be shocked.”
He pulled her forward, sat in the chair in her place, and pulled her back to his lap. “Well, I bet lots of people won't be surprised at all, not if they knew us then. My dad and the widows already know, and so does Ethan.”
“My parents,” she began.
“We'll go to the hospital first thing in the morning and tell them. They'll be happy.”
She curled up against him, head on his shoulder as she looked up at him, and just sighed with happiness.
“Will and Lyndsay already know,” he said.
Kate laughed. “It's starting to look like everybody closest to us knows. Oh, probably not my brothers.”
“They'll be fine. But meâI won't be fine, not until we're together. Let's get married again.”
“What? Don't you think we should take some time to make sure?”
“Kate, I've never found another woman who makes me feel a tenth of the way you make me feel.”
“Oh, Tony,” she said, wondering if she was going to run out of tears at some point. She never wanted to leave his arms.
“If you want to wait, I can wait until spring or summer, or whenever. But say you'll marry me again.”
She laughed. “I'll marry you.”
Just as they were about to kiss, the door opened.
“Dadâ? Oh.”
Kate would have jumped up, but Tony held onto her. Ethan stared at them, but his expression didn't look so much upset as exasperated.
He rolled his eyes. “You're missing The Dead Can Sing.”
Kate and Tony glanced at each other and started to laugh.
She stood up, still holding Tony's hand. “Uh, E.â”
“Yeah, I'm not blind. You two better not screw it up this time.”
“We won't,” Kate said, looking up at Tony, hoping he could see the love and determination in her eyes. “I'm moving back to Valentine. You cool with that?” But she wasn't really looking at her son.
“Oh. Yeah, that's cool.” He sounded brighter. “Come on, let's go. They're going to close with my favorite song, I know it.”
And they followed him out, holding hands.
When the band was finished, fireworks started, and Kate gaped up at the night sky from the center of the roaring crowd. “I didn't order this!”
“I did,” Tony said, holding her from behind. “I was hoping it would be a celebration of your accomplishments. Who knew it would mark a new beginning at the same time.”
She turned around and kissed him.
“Kate! Tony!” Lyndsay's voice was an astonished scream.
“Time to tell the relatives,” Kate said. “You ready?”
He took her hand. “More than ready.”
T
hey got married again under the same trellis in the Rose Garden that summer, and this time, Kate wasn't scared or worried or overwhelmed. She was marrying the man she'd loved since she was ten years old, and she was confident that he felt the same feeling of rightness, of belonging.
They had the blessings of their son, who gave them a bird feeder he'd made as a wedding present, saying with the exasperation of a teenager, “Mom, don't you get it? You can't have a bird feeder at a condo, but you can at a house. Our house.”
She got it.
She was determined to do everything right this time, to talk over every detail. Tony was already a little sick of talking all the time, but he'd come around.
But the number one thing she wanted to do in the normal old way of newly married couples?
Get pregnant on the honeymoon.
EMMA CANE
grew up reading, and soon discovered that she liked to write passionate stories of teenagers in space. Her love of “passionate stories” has never gone away, although today she concentrates on the heartwarming characters of Valentine, Colorado, a small town of her own creation nestled in the Rocky Mountains.
Now that her three children are grown, Emma loves spending time crocheting and singing (although not necessarily at the same time), and hiking and snowshoeing alongside her husband, Jim, and two rambunctious dogs, Apollo and Uma.
Emma also writes
USA Today
bestselling novels under the name Gayle Callen.
www.emmacane.com
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Novellas from Avon Impulse
T
HE
C
HRISTMAS
C
ABIN
(from the
All I Want for Christmas Is a Cowboy
anthology)
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SLEIGH BELLS IN VALENTINE VALLEY
. Copyright © 2014 by Gayle Kloecker Callen. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition NOVEMBER 2014 ISBN: 9780062323415
Print Edition ISBN 978-0-06-232340-8
FIRST EDITION
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