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“I will,” she vowed, her arms circling his neck, her tears flowing against his chest until he tilted her face to his and kissed her with all the emotions roiling deep in his chest.
“This is forever,” he pointed out.
“It better be!”
* * *
A month later Ivan Aldridge gave his daughter to Colton McLean. The charges against him had been dropped, and despite a nagging feeling that he was losing something dear, Ivan realized stoically that Colton loved Cassie. He’d treat her right.
As a bride, Cassie was radiant. Kneeling in a hundred-year-old church, her ivory-colored gown spilling over ancient boards, she vowed her love for Colton.
Ivan’s old eyes misted.
“You may kiss the bride,” the preacher declared, and standing, Colton took her into his arms, lifted her veil and slanted eager lips over hers. Cassie melted against him. Finally they were together, and nothing, nothing could tear them apart.
Organ music began to throb through the little church, and one small voice, that of Katy McLean, Denver’s four-week-old daughter, rang through the chapel as wedding bells chimed loudly, pealing across the valley and sounding beneath the wide Montana sky.
Mr. and Mrs. Colton McLean walked together along the flower-strewn runner, and as the door opened, they started a life together as bright as the morning sun.
“You’ve done it this time,” Colton said.
“Oh?”
“Now you’ll never get away from me.”
She giggled, holding her skirt up off the dusty porch. “Is that a promise or a threat?”
“Both,” he murmured, taking her into his arms again. Colton felt her heart begin to pound as loudly as his own. Finally, he knew, he’d come home.
