AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thanks, Gus,” he said.
It wasn’t for the talk. He was thanking him for saving his life. They had a hard time talking about it. He had a hard time with his own guilt. There were different kinds of hell. There was a hell of remembering his father’s fists connecting with his face. But that was just pain. Pain was only a feeling, and it passed. Hell, if there was too much pain, your body wouldn’t let you feel it. So it went away. Went away, because your body protected you from it. From the reality.
That was fine. But, then there was the memory of Gus. Of Gus and the shed and Lachlan running away because he’d been too scared.
The memories of the long months that it had taken for Gus to recover. Of being terrified his big brother was going to die. And when he hadn’t died...there was the suffering. That lived with him. Rightly so. It ought to. It ought to live with him because it was the fate he’d been spared. On the back of his brother. Thefaceof his brother.
He hoped that he could carry it so that Gus carried a little less. He knew that was a foolish thing to hope. But...he did all the same.
“You better go inside so you can get married,” Gus said.
“I guess so.”
The barn was done up amazing. And for one second he just stood there. Unable to believe that this was his life. That this was happening.
He was going to have a wife and a child someday. He was getting married underneath the canopy of Christmas lights, and friends had made cakes to celebrate.
The lonely kid he’d been could never have imagined this.
Could never have imagined that this moment could exist for him.
Emotion swelled and expanded in his chest, so big he nearly couldn’t breathe around it. It almost hurt. Because it wasn’t something he ever thought... It wasn’t anything he’d ever dreamed about. Because how the hell... How could you ever imagine your way out of the kind of hell you’ve lived through? You couldn’t. You couldn’t imagine love when you’d never been given it.
Except he thought of his brothers. The love he’d experienced had been from them every time. Gus had nearly sacrificed himself to save Lachlan. What was that if not love at the highest level?
He was humbled by it then.Overwhelmedwith it.
Overwhelmed with the realization that his life had led to this moment.Thismoment.
Women were supposed to get emotional about weddings. Not men.
He cleared his throat and watched as people filtered into the barn and sat down, like there was nothing they wanted more than to watch Lachlan McCloud marry Charity Wyatt. Even if that wasn’t true, it was what it felt like.
He gritted his teeth against the swell of emotion that kept on coming. He remembered looking at Charity and thinking that her grief was like that. Waves and waves. Ebb and flow. That was what he experienced now. Swells that kept coming. That kept increasing. Growing and building like a tide.
He took his position at the front and waited.
A few of the guys who worked on the ranch had banded together to play music, and while they normally did fiddles, the sweet country renditions of love songs they played now filled the barn and tangled with the Christmas lights to make magic.
He hoped she thought it was magic.
He really did.
He wanted to be enough for her.
That was a feeling he hadn’t expected. Hadn’t seen coming. He thought a lot about what he was going to get out of marriage. But not a whole lot about what he was supposed to give back. He wanted to be enough for her. More than anything, he wanted that.
The double doors to the barn opened and suddenly, there she was. Floating toward him like an angel wrapped in lace. The gown clung to her curves, her breasts rising up over the swell of the white silk, shocking him. Because he had never seen Charity display that much of her body in public, and he both wanted to beat his chest with pride over how incredible she looked, and run up to her and cover her with his jacket so that nobody else could enjoy it.
She was breathtaking. There had never been a more beautiful woman, her blond hair loose and curling over her shoulders.
She was a vision. A vision of a future he’d never known could be his. A vision of the future he wanted now more than just about anything on earth.
Charity. His Charity.
His.
His woman.
