The Wedding Gift (12 page)

The second one, Reed, had the tall, lanky build of a race car driver. He was a masculine version of Madeline, blond hair, blue eyes. There were no visible scars or calluses on his hands. This man worked with his mind. He looked as if he was going to enjoy kicking Riley's ass.

The third brother, Noah, looked younger than Riley. He had the loose-jointed devil-may-care stance of a man who enjoyed a good barroom brawl. This one knew how to fight, and he knew how to fight dirty.

They walked closer, as if daring Riley to turn tail and run. He'd left Gulliver sleeping in his motel room. Now he wished he'd have brought him along.

He held his ground, and kept them all in his sight.

He didn't appreciate their interference, and felt his adrenaline kicking in. He reminded himself they were Madeline's brothers. They'd been with her through every upheaval in her life. They believed he'd taken advantage of their baby sister.

Seeing a curtain move at a window in Madeline's house, he decided to cut to the chase. “Who do I ask for her hand?”

The Sullivan men looked at him the way Madeline sometimes did. There was no mistaking the family resemblance.

Apparently Marsh was the spokesperson for the group. “You're willing to marry Madeline?”

“Willing, hell. I'm not sure she'll have me. I was in the middle of proposing when you three barged in.”

“You slept with our sister. What do you expect?”

Obviously they weren't going to let him off the hook completely.

“She was vulnerable,” Noah said.

“Innocent,” Marsh declared.

Talking about it was getting them worked up more.

“I love her,” Riley said.

“Then you should have waited.” This came from Reed.

“Are you three married?” Riley asked.

Three men hemmed and hawed.

“I don't suppose any of you are waiting to get to the altar.” He looked them in the eye one by one.

“All right,” Marsh said, knowing when it was time to move on. “You say you love her and you want to marry her. Tell us this. What the hell took you so long to come here?”

Until three weeks ago, Riley wouldn't have answered. He wouldn't have considered Madeline's older brothers' feelings. It wasn't that he'd been cold or hard—fine, maybe he'd been a little cold and hard, but he wouldn't have believed he owed them an explanation. After all, what he'd shared with Madeline
had been between the two of them. It had been sex, and it had been powerful. And private.

Marsh, Reed and Noah Sullivan weren't asking about sex. Hell, they probably preferred to pretend they didn't know anything about their baby sister's sex life. That was the trouble with pretending. Eventually the truth grabbed pretense by the throat and squeezed until every last thin excuse gasped and surrendered to what was real.

And what was real to Riley was more than the sex he'd had with Madeline. Yeah, he'd been duped. Madeline had lied by omission, and he'd been mad as hell. Dammit, he'd had every right to be mad. At least that was what he'd told himself that first week after she left. Just one more thin excuse that bit the dust once she was gone.

Gone.

That was how it had felt. She'd gone. Just gone. Like a stream of vapor thinning in a ray of sunlight or a dream that became hazy upon awakening. She'd gone. And every place she'd been was a memory. Her laughter in his kitchen. Her tears by the lake. Her image on his sofa, at his table, in his shower and in his bed.

But those weren't the most indelible marks she'd made on him, for she'd left her imprint on every facet of his life. Because of her, he could feel his heart beating. She'd gotten to him, touched him in a way he'd never been touched.

She loved him.

He'd thought about this. A lot. He'd been an arrogant jackass when he'd told her they had five days together. “Five days,” he'd said, cocky as hell. “If you leave now, you'll never know what might have happened during those five days.”

Looking back now, he was surprised she hadn't left then and there. But she hadn't. And he was pretty sure it was because she loved him.

Please, God, let that be the reason.

He didn't know what he'd ever done to deserve a woman like her. Right now, her three older brothers deserved the truth.

Riley looked the eldest Sullivan in the eye first, and then the other two. “The first week after she left I walked around, growling like a grizzly just coming out of hibernation. I tried telling myself my house, my chest, my life wasn't empty without her. These past two weeks, I've been calculating and planning. I figure a woman like Madeline is only going to give me one shot, if I'm lucky.”

They looked at Riley long and hard. Next they looked at each other. “Let's get you back inside so you can make an honest woman out of Madeline,” Marsh said.

The other two nodded.

They had it all wrong. Riley was hoping she would make an honest man out of him.

The Sullivans followed Riley inside. Madeline got up out of an overstuffed chair as if she'd been there all along.

“We've reached a little understanding with Junior, here,” the only one of the bunch younger than Riley stated.

“It'll all work out,” Marsh assured her.

“Just hear him out,” Reed insisted.

“Give him a chance.”

“You can thank us later.”

Riley lost track of who said what.

They each took a turn hugging their sister. Each of them shot Riley a meaningful look over her head.

Not one of them fooled Madeline.

“Where were we?” Riley said after they left.

She looked at him, her eyes wide and blue and intelligent. Hands on her hips, she said, “I asked you to give me one good reason why I should marry you, Riley Merrick.”

M
adeline was the bravest woman Riley had ever known, but this haughtiness was a front. This bold, daring young woman was afraid of Riley's answer. He'd hurt her when he'd reduced everything they'd had to sex.

She'd made him see himself so clearly. She'd brought a sense of order to his house and had brought out of hiding a sense of commitment to his dog.

She was smart.

She was brave.

She was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

She wanted one good reason? Why should she marry him?

Riley knew that once he got started, he could list a hundred reasons he loved her.

He went to the window. He didn't know why, but the outdoors seemed to be beckoning. He'd been outdoors when he'd met her. He'd been outdoors when he'd first kissed her. It seemed to him that something this momentous needed to be said outdoors, too.

Checking the front pocket of his jeans, he said, “Would you come outside with me, Madeline?”

She didn't acquiesce immediately. When she did, she did so without saying a word.

She moved blithely ahead of him—a tree, too, but a willow, able to sway and bend without breaking. She led the way through her house, down four steps, stopping on an old flagstone patio. There she faced him bravely.

She'd lived and loved and lost. He'd known it, but he hadn't felt the depth of her loss until he'd stood at Aaron's grave today.

It had humbled him, moved him, changed him.

Until today, Riley would have rejected the notion that the shaft of sunlight that suddenly found its way through a narrow passageway in the clouds wasn't a random occurrence. Now he knew that none of this was random.

He took her hand, relieved that she let him. Of course, just then a lawn mower was started next door.

“Is there some place we can go where we won't be interrupted?” he asked.

She looked at him. And then she looked around. She pointed to a slight gap in the underbrush beyond her lawn. “That path leads to the river.”

Of course, he thought, saying nothing as they followed the path. When they emerged, they were standing in a little glen secluded on three sides, open to the river and the sky.

Suddenly nerves shot to his throat. He had to clear it in order to begin. “You asked why you should marry me?”

Her eyes were as pale as the sky, her lashes dark against her skin. She started tapping her foot impatiently. It was all he could do to keep from swinging her off her feet.

“Everybody in this town believes you're an angel. Nobody knows you like I do.”

Her foot stilled and her chin came up slightly. He had her attention.

“It's no coincidence that Aaron gave me his heart and then filled it with you.”

“Then this is about Aaron?” she asked.

“Hell no.”

Her eyebrows rose a fraction.

“His heart lives on in me and his memory lives on in you and everyone else in this town, but even if I reject his heart tomorrow and by some new miracle receive another, I would still love you, I would still want you, I would still want to write your name across the sky.”

Now her throat quivered and her eyes watered.

“You're a beautiful vibrant angel of a woman with a streak of bad-girl coursing through your veins. Yes, I was your first lover, but that isn't the reason I want you to marry me, either. Marry me, Madeline, because you're the first, the only woman I've ever loved. Marry me, and I promise I will spend the rest of my life doing everything in my power to make you glad you did.”

Tears ran down her face now. On a sniffle, she said, “Darn you, Riley Merrick.”

“Is that a yes?” he asked, wiping her cheek with his thumb.

“How can I say no to that?”

They'd kissed so many times, but they didn't kiss now. Riley did the only thing he could do. His arms went around her waist and he swung her around, spinning them both, the breeze gentle, the sun warm, the river too intent upon its journey to pay the lovers on its bank any attention.

Madeline relished the feel of the strong arms
around her, the sound of water rushing around the bend and the sight of the world spinning. Whoa. “Riley, you'd better put me down. This twirling is making me queasy.”

He put her down, but he didn't release her. They stayed that way, her eyes closed, her cheek on his chest, her ear pressed to his beating heart. “Even if you rejected Aaron's heart tomorrow and received another,” she said quietly. “I would love you the same. No matter whose heart beats in your chest, my heart is yours.”

She felt the change in him. His arms tightened around her and his breathing deepened. Her dizziness had passed, and desire was unfurling in her toes, among other fun places.

She breathed in his scent, reveling in the possessiveness in the touch of his hands on her back, his breath warm against her ear. There was something she had to tell him, and she had to do it soon, because any second now this living breathing passion they shared was going to wipe out every thought except one. “I'm pretty sure I'm pregnant.”

It took a full five seconds for her words to register. She could feel his reluctance even then.

Raising her eyes innocently to his dark, hooded ones, she said, “The home pregnancy kit said I wasn't. But a woman knows.”

She watched it sink in. As one second followed another, his expression changed in the subtlest of ways. First there was confusion, then a query, then a light, and finally a grin.

“That time in the shower,” he said. “Do you know that was my favorite time?”

Any second now he was going to start strutting.

He lifted his face to the sky and let loose a resounding, “Yes!”

An instant later his expression changed. “Are you all right? Do you need to lie down?”

“No,” she said. A light came into her eyes, too. “Well, maybe lying down is a good idea.”

Riley knew what was on Madeline's mind by the tone of her voice and the hint of a dimple in her right cheek. He didn't know what he'd ever done to deserve her, to deserve any of this, to be the recipient of Aaron's heart and of her love or her passion.

Who was he to deny her?

They walked together past the briars and underbrush, then went inside hand-in-hand. She showed him the way up the stairs to her bedroom. After that, they took turns leading, giving and receiving.

Somehow their clothes came off. They smiled and moved and kissed, eager and warm, willing and hungry after their three weeks apart. Their arms and legs tangled, drawing toward one another, her heart
beating against his. They melded together like they always did, passion raining down and fireworks shooting through the sky.

Sometime later, when they were both breathing evenly and Madeline was thinking marvelous thoughts, Riley got out of bed and reached for his jeans. Curious, she sat up, the sheet falling to her waist.

After retrieving something, he kicked the jeans aside then climbed in next to her again. He opened his hand, and in it was a ruby necklace, the biggest, brightest ruby Madeline had ever seen.

Her mouth was open, and her latest peculiarity, tears, ran down her cheeks. “Oh, Riley.”

“I didn't buy a diamond ring yet, in case you wanted to help choose it. But even if you would have said no to my marriage proposal, I would have given you this.”

He held the necklace up, letting the lamplight catch it. He put it on her, his fingers slightly clumsy as he tried to work the intricate clasp. She waited patiently while his fingertips tickled the back of her neck, the cool ruby warming against her skin.

When Riley was finished, he faced her. She looked back at him, blue eyes beaming, her neck long and graceful, the pale skin on her chest taking on a red hue from the glowing ruby. Her breasts were creamy white and fuller than they'd been three weeks
ago, her ribs showing slightly below them, her waist narrow above the flair of her hips that disappeared beneath the sheet.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

He couldn't believe she could still be bashful after making love as they had. “I'm putting you to memory,” he said. “How soon will you marry me?”

She smiled, a devilish light coming into her eyes. “Hmm,” she said in a sultry voice, “It so happens I already have a dress.”

She leaned forward and kissed him. He eased backward, bringing her with him, the mattress shifting at his back, Madeline working her magic everywhere she touched, and Riley working his magic, too.

“Does that mean you'll marry me soon?”

“I would love that, Riley. Yes, soon.”

They had much to discuss, such as where they would live and work, for she'd just taken a new job. But those were small obstacles and could wait.

The rest of the wedding plans would have to wait, too.

Right now this was what mattered most. This woman. And this man. Together, and deeply in love.

Outside their window the earth sighed. The clouds parted and a joyous May moon floated into view.