There was nothing more wonderful than a summer day in the Gallatin Canyon of Montana. Unless of course it was a warm summer night on the Fourth of July with everyone on the Cardwell Ranch gathered to celebrate.
Brick found Mo down by the creek. She’d spent most of the morning in the kitchen with his mother and aunts, preparing the picnic feast they’d had earlier. He’d loved watching Mo with the other people he loved. His mother had taken to her, and his father seemed pleased that Brick hadn’t let her get away. It made his heart swell to see how easily she had fit into the Cardwell-Savage clan. The two of them had moved into a larger apartment in Big Sky. Though anxious, Brick had known to give Mo time.
So much had happened, maybe not even the worst of it on that rooftop in Billings. Mo had lost so much. But if the woman was anything, she was resilient. He’d never met anyone stronger or more determined. In the weeks since, everything had come out about Tricia’s and Joey’s murders. Jeffrey and JP Palmer were still behind bars, both denied bail because they were flight risks. Jeffrey had money stashed all over the world. Passports with new identities had been found for both of them, although JP swore he had no idea what his father had been doing.
Thomas’s body had been cremated, his ashes dumped in the Yellowstone River. Brick had stood beside Mo as they watched the last of him wash away. Once the slug from the campground tree was compared to the bullets in Thomas’s gun, they’d known who’d taken the potshots at them outside of Red Lodge. Nor had it taken much to find out that Thomas had hired a private investigator to track Mo. He had known that Mo wouldn’t stop until she got justice.
Once the dust had settled, Brick had gotten his mental health clearance and gone back to work as a deputy marshal. With his father retiring, there was going to be an opening for marshal. Hud had suggested Mo might be interested. Brick had encouraged her to apply for the position.
“You really wouldn’t mind me being your boss?” Mo had asked, sounding surprised.
“Of course not. You have the experience. I think you would make a good marshal. I’d be honored to work with you. Or for you,” he added with a grin. “Just so long as when we walked through our apartment door, you remember who is really boss.” He’d laughed just in case she hadn’t realized he was joking, and she’d stepped to him and kissed him.
“Are you all right?” he asked now as he joined her. Moonlight played in the water’s ripples, the sky overhead a canopy of stars.
Mo nodded and turned to smile at him. “I was just making a wish on that star.” She pointed at a bright one sitting just over the top of Lone Peak Mountain.
“I know that star. I’ve made a few wishes on it myself.” He met her gaze. “Your sister?”
“I wish none of that had happened, but I can’t change any of it. That wasn’t what I wished for.”
“No?” he asked, eyeing her more closely. “What did you wish for?”
“If I tell, it won’t come true.”
He looked at the star and made a wish before he turned to her. “I’m glad I found you down here. There’s something I need to tell you.”
She turned her face up to him and waited as if not sure what to expect.
“I love you.”
Mo laughed. “I gathered that.”
“I don’t just love you. I’ve never told a woman that I love her because, as I once told you, if I did, it would be only if I then asked her to marry me.”
She smiled. “You were serious about that?”
He pulled her to him. “I’ve never been more serious about anything. I want to marry you. I want you to be my wife.”
MO LOOKED AT this handsome cowboy and felt her heart swell. Tricia used to tease her, saying she was too picky when it came to men, and no wonder she hadn’t gotten married. It was true.
But she’d never thought she’d ever meet a man like Brick Savage. She doubted the Lord had made more than one. She laughed in delight as she looked at him, wondering how she could have gotten so lucky.
“I love you, Brick Savage, and I would be honored to be your wife.”
He grinned and kissed her as the fireworks show at the ranch began with a boom that exploded over their heads. Twinkling lights showered down to expire before hitting the ground around them. The summer breeze stirred nearby pines as the creek next to them was bathed in moonlight.
For so long, she’d been looking back. But as Brick pulled her close, she looked to the future. She’d already fallen for his family and this amazing ranch life here in the canyon. Cardwell Ranch felt like home.
The other night, she’d found Brick sitting on the porch after dinner with his parents. He’d been playing a song on a harmonica and she hadn’t wanted for him to stop. But he must have heard her approach, because he’d finished the song and turned to her.
“I didn’t know you played,” she’d said, realizing she had so much to learn about this man and how much she was looking forward to it.
“I didn’t play for a long time,” he’d said. “For a while, I wondered if I ever would again. But then you came along. You filled my heart with music again.”
She’d smiled and whispered, “If that’s a line to get me into your bed—”
He’d grabbed her and pulled her onto his lap. “If that’s all it takes...”
She’d known long before that moment, sitting out there on his family’s porch swing, that she was in love with this man.
“Come on,” she said now. “Let’s go celebrate with your family.”
As they headed arm in arm back to the festivities, more fireworks exploded over their heads. Mo felt as if he were leading her out of the darkness. Ahead was a bright future that she couldn’t wait to share with the man she loved.
Keep reading for an excerpt from Running Out of Time by Cindi Myers.