Worth the Risk (26 page)

“That’s a good girl.” Hannah stood in the morning sun and held out a sugar cube, not making Winnie guess which hand. They didn’t have time. Winnie’s new mother would be here at ten. She wasn’t selling her, but still, in all the ways that mattered, she’d be someone else’s horse.

Winnie lowered her head for a scratch. “I’ll miss you. I’ll come see you as much as I can.” Winnie nodded like she understood, but she didn’t know it was hours away.

When Winnie’s ears pricked at a sound, her heart sank before coming back to lodge in her throat. Was it ten o’clock already? But when she looked behind her, it wasn’t a truck and trailer as expected.

Stephen.

Even after everything the rush of emotion was so strong she had to hold onto the wooden rail as he walked toward her.

He stopped beside her at the fence. “Hey.”

The lump in her throat grew. He looked good. Smelled good, standing so close she could almost feel his body brushing hers. “Hey.”

He gave the horse a pat, and they stood in the quiet like they had so many times before. “How are you?”

“I’m good.”

He nodded slowly, a tense smile on his lips that said he didn’t believe her. And that it bothered him she would lie. She waited for him to speak when what she really wanted to do was bury her face in his neck, lean into his chest as his strong arms came around her, the ones that made everything feel right. She wanted to breathe him in, and never let go.

“I didn’t know about the property,” he said suddenly. “I never agreed to any of it and I’ll prove—”

“I know.” She knew it had been Dave, that he’d forged Stephen’s name. But…“Why didn’t you tell me about the land?”

He scanned the fields in front of them before he spoke. “At first I didn’t think it mattered, then I thought I could fix it. And I was afraid.”

“Afraid of what?”

He looked back, his eyes hot on hers. “I was afraid of losing you.”

A chill ran through her, like her body knew how desperate she was to believe him. And she did. Before she could respond, he drew several folded pieces of paper from his back pocket and handed them to her.

“What is it?” But as she unfolded the papers, she saw. It was a much smaller version of his drawing, his plans for Freedom Farm. Her eyes burned. She didn’t want to be reminded of her lost dream just minutes before Winnie was taken away.

“Look at the other paper.”

She moved to the next page and saw her name at the top, the farm’s address below that. Her eyes came back up to his.

“It’s the deed to the land. To Freedom Farm.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s yours. The land. The barn. The cabin.”

Her mind swirled around what he was saying, not wanting to risk misunderstanding.

“I bought it but it’s in your name. I kept back enough to fix it up, to build it the way we talked about with the playground and the camp.”

“What do you mean, kept back?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

But it did matter. “Tell me.”

“I sold Trace. Someone had already bought the land from the city before I could get to it. Someone who wasn’t willing to bargain, so…Trace will be absorbed by Sinclair Hotels. I’ll step down and—”

“But…why? You love Trace. It’s everything—”

“No.” He caught her face in his hands. “I love
you.
You’re
what I need, Hannah.
You’re
what I think about. Not a building. Not a company. I’m alive again because of
you.
”

Her eyes filled and she wasn’t at all sure she was breathing as she stared up at him.

“I can do something else, something more. You showed me that. I can design. Build spaces that matter. Starting here if you let me.”

His hands skimmed down her arms as he lowered himself to one knee and her breath caught. Then caught again when he pulled a ring out of his pocket. A single twinkling diamond set in platinum.

“Stephen.” Her voice was shaky.
She
was shaky. This man so strong and powerful and on his knees, for her. Because he loved
her.

He took her hand and squeezed. “Hannah, I want to start and end every day with you. I want us to have a family, any kind of family we’re lucky enough to have. And mostly, I just want to love you, every day, for the rest of my life.”

She bit her bottom lip to stop the trembling, but she couldn’t stop the flood of tears.

“It’s all yours no matter what, and I know I have a lot to make up for but—”

“I love you.” She said it quickly and the words kind of stuck in her throat so she said it again. “I love you. I already did. I still do.”

Stephen smiled and she thought she saw tears welling in his brown eyes. It was hard to tell through her own blur. He slipped the ring onto her finger, stood, and covered her mouth with his. It was everything she wanted.
He
was everything she wanted.

After several minutes, Stephen eased back and smoothed his palms over her wet cheeks. He combed his fingers into her hair at either side of her face and held there a second, just looking at her. Then he frowned as he brushed his thumbs over the dark circles under her eyes.

Her hands slid from his neck and down his chest and she smiled a real smile for the first time in days. “I sleep better when you’re there.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Yes.” She touched her lips to his. “Yes.”

He kissed her again and she felt it all the way to her heart. He loved her. She saw it in his eyes, knew it in his kiss. It was real and she wasn’t wrong.

Arms still wrapped tightly around her, he turned his head at the sound of a trailer bumping over the hill.

“Who’s that?”

She looked over at her horse, chuffing at the grass along the bottom of the fence. “They’re coming for Winnie.”

He turned back to face her, one side of his mouth pulling up in that boyish smile she loved so much. “Not anymore.”

Some time later, Stephen lay wrapped around Hannah. A sheet was twisted around their tangled legs. The pillows had been knocked to the floor. He kissed his way across her chest, loving her slowly, taking his time. They had a lot of time.

When he reached her lips he kissed her long and slow, loving the way she always responded even after he’d exhausted her. Her fingers ran slowly through his hair. Now. Now he would tell her. The fear of it wasn’t as great as it had been, but still, he didn’t want a lie between them. Or an omission.

He rested on one forearm so he could see her face, linking the fingers of his other hand with hers. He looked at her a long minute before he spoke and she looked back at him, waiting. “I should have told you before, but…” But honestly, he’d said all he could before nearly coming apart at her feet.

“So, tell me now.”

“That day you came to my office, there was something I thought Dave had told you. Something I didn’t want you to know.”

Her expression never changed, her fingers continued their soft, slow motion.

“The men who killed Tracy…I said I wanted them dead but it was more than that. I wanted to kill them.”

He didn’t let himself look away. If there was fear in her eyes, he wanted to see it, and then he’d fight it.

“I didn’t just want to kill them, I wanted to torture them. I wanted to make them suffer, watch them suffer. Everything that was done to you…” He shook his head. “I went too far, I know I did, and…I couldn’t find my way back.”

“Stephen.” She said his name gently and her fingers tightened around his. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

The love in her voice nearly undid him and he dropped his gaze to the side of the bed. “I didn’t think you would ever want that. Could ever accept that.”

“But I understand more than anyone. I can accept that more than anyone.”

His eyes found hers again, liquid gold. God, he loved her. “I couldn’t let myself
feel
anything without being afraid I’d come apart. Wouldn’t risk it even for my family. Until you. I wanted to be someone else with you. I
am
someone else with you.”

“Maybe we’re someone else together.”

He let go of the burning breath he’d been holding, and with it everything else. “I love you so damn much.” He touched his lips to hers.

He rolled to his back, bringing her with him and held her tight. “So you’re really going to marry me?”

“Yes. What’s that smile?”

“What? Why shouldn’t I smile?”

“No, that’s an I’m-about-to-be-really-bad smile.”

“Just thinking about how much fun it’s going to be telling your brothers.”

They wrestled and laughed as she tried to punish him, which only made him hard and want to be inside her. “I love you,” he said again, knowing he’d never get tired of seeing her.

They rolled until he was above her and he began the beautiful task of showing her just how much.

T
EN MONTHS LATER…

Streamers of every color blew in the wind. Groupings of pink and purple balloons jerked wildly. Shrieks of joy and general pandemonium erupted to a new level when another one popped against a wooden beam of the playground structure. Gracie’s sixth-birthday party was in full swing.

Hannah didn’t have parties here, but her niece was the exception. Allie and Lola followed Gracie down one of four slides. They rode together and had become best friends.

Standing at the railing, looking at it all brought tears to her eyes. Just a year ago she’d watched Stephen’s family with longing, and now they were her family.

Her husband—still getting used to that—slid his arms around her from behind. She covered his hands with her own, the ones that protectively covered her flat stomach. There was a baby growing in there, the news so recent, the idea so fresh, they were both still absorbing it. She hadn’t thought it could happen, could still hardly believe it.

Marrying Stephen four months ago had been the most beautiful moment of her life. Until two days ago. When she’d told him they were having a baby and his eyes had filled with tears. Now that was the most beautiful moment. Standing here with him close enough to feel his breath on her cheek, watching the kids climb over the structure they’d recently finished, was another one. Her life was a series of better and better moments.

He buried his nose in her hair and kissed her neck. “You’re not going to tell them, are you?”

“No.” They’d decided not to say anything about her being pregnant, not for a while. Stephen liked knowing they had a secret and he didn’t want to share it. That was fine with her.

With the other adults they managed the kids, watching them enjoy Stephen’s new creation. This party was the christening of the special-needs playground. Some of the most ingenious features had come from J.T. Though only via drawings, as he still refused to come home. No matter how hard Stephen and his other brothers tried, it didn’t seem to make a difference. It made her wonder if there was something other than his amputation that was keeping him away.

Hours later adults and babies covered Hannah’s small wooded porch, spilling off to more chairs at the bottom of the steps. Stephen, his dad, and his brothers had cleared a section of woods right in front of the cabin for a wooden swing set. They knew what they were doing and the park-worthy structure had gone up in two days. Stephen said the kids in his family would need an outlet when they came over and he was right. He was also working on plans for a bigger house a hundred yards up the rise.

“Can we go in the woods?” Jack asked alongside his cousin Alex.

Matt adjusted his three-month-old baby girl, Caroline, on his shoulder. “Stay where I can see you.”

“Okay.” Jack and three more of the older kids turned to run.

“That means if you can’t see us, we can’t see you,” Matt added.

“Got it!”

The black Lab puppy Stephen had given Hannah shortly after their engagement ran after the boys. Not to be outdone, her brothers had delivered Bailey, a German shepherd, shortly after. Nick still claimed they’d technically been first since Bailey had been in training for several months. Lexie had also given her a dog, Bingo, a rescued Australian shepherd mix, who lay exhausted at her feet. Zach was determined she would have a barn cat. She didn’t mind.

Lily wiggled out of Sarah’s arms and she put her down. Arms shot out to keep the newly walking girl from toppling into the edge of a chair, on top of a dog, or down the steps. So busy, she thought with a smile. She couldn’t wait.

The infant in Matt’s arms wailed and Abby moved to trade with him. “She’s hungry.”

“Well, I can do a lot, but I can’t do that,” Matt said.

Stephen held out his hands to Abby to assist with the switch. “Come here, big boy.” But instead of passing Cole to his brother, he took the baby against his chest. They’d both done a fair amount of baby holding since the twins were born.

He relaxed back against the railing, long legs stretched out in front of him. She knew every inch of that body. Intimately. The man was spectacular on his own, but holding a baby? He was devastating.

Stephen’s big hand rubbed circles around the baby’s back. “We’ll be catching up to you soon, brother.”

The comment might have passed without anyone making much of it, but she’d been so lost in sexy thoughts, she didn’t think. Her mouth dropped and her eyes bugged. “Stephen!”

He shrugged, smiled. “Oops.”

The shock passed and she rolled her eyes, shook her head. “You just couldn’t stand it, could you?”

He pulled her close with his free arm. “Nope.”

She let him plant a quick kiss on her lips, then turned. Luke had left months ago for who knows where and Zach hours ago for his shift. Her eyes went immediately to Nick’s and she smiled sweetly at her brother. “Surprise.”

The McKinneys erupted in congratulations, hugs, and kisses. Especially Stephen’s mother, who’d quickly filled in for her own.

Nick slowly unfolded himself from his chair at the base of the stairs and made his way up. “So I guess I have to shake your hand and say congratulations again, McKinney.”

“I guess you do, Walker.” Stephen took Nick’s offered hand. Both men smiled, though the look that passed between them was serious.

A look also passed between Mia and Nick from where her friend stood on the other end of the porch. Just a flash and then it was gone.

Stephen’s mom took Cole, and with his arms free he hugged her back against his chest. The men toasted him with a beer, even Nick, and the ladies got the due date details. There were more hugs and questions until Gracie flipped out of her swing and Matt bounded down the steps to console her. A dog barked, the boys ran from the woods claiming they’d seen Bigfoot, which made the girls on the swing set scream. General chaos ensued.

Another perfect moment.