That’s why Dad put the lights on Mom’s tree.”
“Come on,” Molly said, tugging on her hand. “Let’s go outside. Let’s go see Mom’s tree.”
“Why do you call it Mom’s tree?” Harley asked, as they pulled her though the hall, past the stairs, and out the front door where the massive cedar tree lit with endless strands of colored light.
“Because Mom planted the tree for Dad,” Mack said, drawing Harley down the front steps, into the thick powdered snow. “It was her wedding present to him. She planted it near the house so he’d always remember how much she loved him.”
They moved around the side of the enormous glowing tree and there was Brock, waiting for her.
“Amy said the tree would always be here, protecting me, and the house, and our family with love,” Brock said, moving toward her, taking her hands in his. “And she has. She’s done her part. But she knows we need more. We need you.”
Brock dug out of his pocket a ring case, and snapped it open, revealing a sparkling diamond ring. An engagement ring. “I’m not giving up, Harley. Won’t give up. I’m a fighter, and I’m fighting for you, and I’ll fight for you as long as I have to.”
Harley stared at Brock and then at the ring, understanding, but not understanding. “When did you buy the ring?”
“Yesterday with the kids in Marietta.”
The twins nodded. “We helped pick it out,” Mack said, shyly. “We wanted you to have a really big diamond, too.”
“Girls like big diamonds,” Molly said.
“You’re serious?” Harley whispered, looking at Brock. “You mean this?”
“Oh, I absolutely mean this, Harley. I’ve been up all night trying to show you somehow that we need you here, that we want you here. Just have faith. We do.”
Have faith.
But she did. It’s all that had gotten her through. And now she was here, and was it her faith that had brought her here?
“I do, too,” she answered huskily.
“Good.” He leaned forward kissed her. And then he got down on one knee in the snow and took her hand, holding it firmly in his. “Harley Diekerhoff, will you marry me?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Yes?” he asked, making sure.
For a moment there was just silence. It was a perfect silence,
accompanied by a sense of peace. A perfect peace.
“Yes,” she answered, as he rose and swept her up in his arms. “Yes,” she repeated, laughing through happy tears. “Yes, yes, yes.”
“I love you,” he whispered against her mouth, kissing her.
“I love you, too.”
He kept kissing her and the twins cheered. And then there was even more cheering, loud raucous cheering and whistling and Harley realized that all the boys from the bunk house were here, too, watching.
But it was good.
All was right in the world.
Faith had brought her here.
Miracles were possible.
And love would keep them together.
THE END
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An excerpt from
Take Me, Cowboy
Jane Porter
Copyright © 2013
“I can’t do it, Jenny. I can’t go through with this.”
The warm dry autumn wind whipped Jenny Wright’s wedding veil up above her shoulders, fine lace grazing her cheek. Having lived the past ten years in Chicago, Jenny had forgotten the wind that whistled from Yellowstone, down through Paradise Valley, turning the ranching valley into a wind tunnel.
The wind snapped and crackled now, the gusts as much a part of Marietta as the iconic peak of Copper Mountain jutting behind the small, sleepy Montana town. Marietta had surged to life in the late 1800s before nearly dying, when the copper boom proved to be nothing more than a hiccup and all the investors and prospectors packed up and moved away.
It’d been a hundred and twenty some years since then but it was still hard to make a living in Marietta.
It’s why she’d left town as soon as she’d graduated from high school. It’s why she’d been determined to never move back.
She’d only come home for her wedding. Only come home to make her family proud.
Jenny gently plucked the delicate veil from her small diamond and pearl earring before it tore. “I didn’t catch that, honey,” she said, smashing the sudden rush of adrenaline flooding her veins.
No need to panic, she told herself. It was so windy today, and others might not like the gusts, but the wind had blown all the clouds north, leaving the sky above Marietta a perfect brilliant blue, and the wind had made it hard to hear.
Because for a moment there, it sounded as if Charles said he wouldn’t marry her. But that didn’t make sense. He and his family were here. The guests were here. The minister was here, all in the church waiting.
Waiting.
Her stomach rose and fell. She swallowed hard, fighting a sudden rush of nausea.
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