RaeEllen appeared at Jace’s side. She glared down at Kenny. “Shame on you, Kenny Donovan.”
Kenny groaned and started to rise. Jace gave him a look and he sank back to the floor.
RaeEllen turned to Jace. “You have to go after her.”
Jace wrapped his arm around Joss’s mom. “You okay, RaeEllen?”
Her hazel eyes were dark with concern. “Oh, Jason. I swear to you, I had nothing to do with this. I didn’t say a word to Kenny—or Kimberly—about where or when you and Jocelyn were getting married.”
Jace patted RaeEllen’s shoulder. “I know you didn’t. Joss told him, weeks ago, on the phone. She was just trying to get it through his fat head that she really was moving on with her life.”
RaeEllen pressed her hand to her heart. “Oh, I just feel terrible about all this....”
“Not your fault,” he reassured her. “You and Joss have worked things out. She knows you’re on her side.”
Jackson, his wife beside him by then, asked, “What do we do now?”
It was a good question. “Hey, everyone,” Jace called out loud enough to carry to the back of the ballroom. “Looks like the wedding isn’t happening. But there’s a party waiting for all of you at the Rib Shack. I want you to head on over there and have yourselves a great time.”
People exchanged anxious glances.
Then Clay Traub said, “Great idea, Jace. Come on, everyone, let’s head for the Rib Shack.”
The guests began filing out.
Jace sent a lowering glance down at Kenny. “You’re not invited. In fact, you can get the hell out—of the clubhouse, of the resort, of the town of Thunder Canyon. Get out and don’t come back. Do it now.”
Kenny didn’t argue. He dragged himself upright and staggered out.
Jace’s brothers, his sister, their spouses and Ma and Pete stuck around to straighten up the ballroom. Kimberly and Melba stayed to help, too, as did RaeEllen. It didn’t take all that long. Twenty minutes after they started picking up the chairs, they all left together, on their way to the Rib Shack.
All except Jace. He wasn’t going to his own nonreception. Not without his runaway bride.
He found her where he knew she would be—in the Lounge, with a margarita in front of her. She’d taken off her veil and let her hair down. She’d also ordered him a whisky on the rocks.
He almost grinned. “You have a lot of faith in me.”
“Yeah,” she replied softly, her eyes getting misty again. “I do.” She patted the stool beside her. “Have a seat.”
He eased her big, fat skirt out of the way and took the stool she offered him.
She picked up her drink and he lifted his. They tapped their glasses together and drank.
When she set hers down, she said, “Got something to say to me?”
“I do.” He thought about the golden light, the magic that had happened back there in the ballroom. But then he decided that maybe it wasn’t magic after all.
Maybe it was only the most natural, down-to-earth thing in the world. A man seeing what mattered, seeing it fully for the very first time.
A man recognizing the right woman. His woman.
And knowing absolutely, without even the faintest shadow of a doubt that she was the only one for him. That he knew what love was after all.
Because he loved her.
“I like you, Joss.”
She almost rolled her eyes, but not quite. “There’d better be more.”
“There is.”
“I’m listening.”
“I like you. I want you. You...light up my life. You’re the only woman in the world for me. I want the life we planned, want to be your partner in the Hitching Post. I want our eight acres and the house that needs work and the horses and the dog we haven’t found yet. I want your children to be my children. I want to sleep with you in my arms every night and wake up in the morning with you beside me.”
Now her adorable mouth was trembling. “Oh, Jace...”
“There’s more.”
“Tell me. Please.”
“What I don’t want is to lie to you—or myself—anymore. I not only like you. I love you. I’m in love with you. It’s real and it’s forever as far as I’m concerned.”
“Oh, Jace...” Her eyes, unabashedly tear-wet now, gleamed like dark jewels.
He dared to reach out to touch her cheek, her shining hair. And he whispered, prayerfully, “Damn if I don’t finally get what all the shouting’s about when it comes to love and marriage and a lifetime together. It’s you, Joss. You’ve shown me that. You’ve shown me love. I want to marry you. More than anything. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. And I have to tell you...”
“Yes? What? Anything, you know that.”
“What I don’t want is to marry you in that dress you bought to marry Kenny Donovan in—no matter how drop-dead gorgeous you look in the damn thing.”
She laughed then, that low, rich, husky laugh that belonged only to her. “Okay.” She offered her hand. “Yes, I’ll marry you. And I promise I won’t wear this dress when I do it.”
He skipped the handshake and reached for her, gently sliding his fingers around the back of her neck, under the splendid, rich fall of her cinnamon-shot hair. And he kissed her. “I love you, Joss.”
“And I love you. So much. I’m so glad...that you can finally say it.”
He cradled the side of her face, oblivious to the bartender who watched them, wearing a dazed sort of smile, from down at the other end of the bar. “I’m sorry,” Jace whispered. “So sorry I was such an idiot. So sorry I hurt you....”
“It’s okay now.”
“I’ll say it again. I love you. I’ll say it a hundred times a day.”
She laughed then. “Oh, I’m so glad. I was a little worried.”
“I know you were.”
“But I’m not anymore. You have put my fears to rest, Jason Traub. You have given me everything—more that I ever dreamed of. And you know what? I love you with all my heart and it means so much to me to be able to tell you so at last without freaking you out. To know that you love me, too.” She raised her glass again. “To love.”
He touched his glass to hers. “And forever.”
“To the Hitching Post. And the house and the horses and the dog.”
“And the rowdy kids.”
“And to us, Jace.”
“Yes, Joss. To us, most of all.”
Not much later, they joined the party that was supposed to have been their reception. They danced every dance, enjoyed the great food Shane Roark had prepared for them, fed each other big, delicious chunks of Lizzie’s fabulous cake.
It was a beautiful evening. One of the best.
And after all the guests went home, they took the elevator upstairs to the Honeymoon Suite, theirs for that special nonwedding night, courtesy of Thunder Canyon Resort.
They made love. It was amazing.
Better than ever. So good that when they were finished, they made love again. And again after that.
The next morning at a little before seven, Joss woke alone in the big pillow-top bed.
She sat up. “Jace?”
And then she saw him—in the chair by the bed, dressed in a beautiful lightweight suit, holding a handful of wildflowers. He held them out to her. “Marry me, Jocelyn Marie. Marry me today.”
She didn’t hesitate. She got up, put on a pretty summer dress, took the flowers from him and off they went, stopping only to collect his parents from their suite and her mother from the apartment over the Mountain Bluebell Bakery.
At the Community Church, the nice minister was willing to be persuaded to perform the wedding ceremony that hadn’t happened the day before. And there in the pretty white chapel on that sunny Sunday morning well before the regular service, Joss and Jace said their vows.
And when the pastor announced, “You may kiss the bride,” Jason Traub knew that he’d finally found what he’d been looking for. He took his bride in his arms and he kissed her.
And when he lifted his head, he whispered, “I love you, Joss Traub. Forever.”
“Forever,” she echoed.
It was a great moment. The best in his life so far.
For a while there he really had been the last single maverick, wondering where he’d missed out, envious of his brothers and his sister, who had found what they were looking for, had all gotten married and settled down.
He’d felt left out of something important, and left behind as well. That was all changed now by the woman in his arms. He was part of something bigger now.
The last single maverick was single no more.