The Loner (37 page)

“How does Sam feel about you?” Summer asked.

“He said he loves me. But he thinks this baby—” she slid her hands lovingly around her belly—”should have his father’s name.”

“He’d still be a Creed if you married Sam,” Summer pointed out.

Emma laughed through her tears. “I suppose that’s true.”

Summer took both of Emma’s hands in hers. “I can’t know what’s right for you, Emma. All I can tell you is that my father married my mother when he loved someone else and ended up pining for that lost love forever after. You should marry for love. Everything else will sort itself out.”

Emma gripped her hands and might have said something else, except at that moment, a tremendous swell of organ music filled the church.

Summer let go of Emma’s hands and backed up hurriedly to look down the aisle. Flossie Hart must have come in through a back door, because she was sitting at the organ, a flowered hat on her head, performing some Bach piece at a tempo that suggested she was in a hurry to get the music played to make up for being late.

Billy was waving at Summer to start down the aisle. She turned back to Emma and whispered, “Time to go,” and began moving at a hurried step-together, step-together, step-together that matched the accelerated music. She was halfway down the aisle when she realized Emma hadn’t said whether she was going to go through with the wedding. Or not.

When she reached the front of the church, Summer turned and waited to see whether Emma would appear. The first measures of the “Wedding March” filled the church with joyous sound, and everyone except Dora stood up and turned to face the bride, who was coming down the aisle alone. Billy had offered to walk with Emma, but she’d told him she’d rather do it by herself.

Emma was the least radiant bride Summer had ever seen. Her mouth never curved in a smile. Her gaze was somber, her tread measured. Flossie had slowed the tempo to accommodate Emma’s ungainly size. But finally, Emma reached the front of the church and the music stopped.

Summer looked at the groom and his best man and wasn’t sure which of the two looked more miserable. Someone should stop this fiasco. Someone should say something.

But it wasn’t her place to speak. It wasn’t her life. She wasn’t the one marrying the wrong man.

I’ve already married the right one
, Summer realized as she looked in Billy’s direction. He was the man she wanted to spend her life with, and she was as bad as Emma, not getting what she wanted because she was too fainthearted to speak up. She knew Billy must care for her. She just had to get him to admit it. Surely that shouldn’t be too difficult. Especially if she was willing to take the risk of being honest with him.

“Dearly beloved,” the preacher intoned.

Summer missed a lot of what Pastor Rob said next, because she was too busy making eye contact with Billy. Who was looking right back at her. Most of the time.
That is, whenever he wasn’t pulling his suit buttons out of Will’s mouth or tugging Will’s hands out of his hair, or rescuing his mother’s hanky from Will’s clutching baby fingers.

“If there is anyone here who knows any reason why these two people should not be joined in holy matrimony, let him speak now, or forever hold his peace.”

Summer wasn’t sure who spoke first. It might have been Emma. Or Luke. Or Sam. Or Ren. Or Billy. Or herself.

Billy had dropped Will in his mother’s lap as everyone came out of their seats and congregated at the front of the church shoving aside the standing vases of gerbera daisies Blackjack had provided on either side of the pulpit. All talking at once. All stating reasons why the marriage they’d come to witness—or participate in—should be called to a dead halt.

“Hold it! Hold it!” the preacher said. “One at a time. Young lady, since you’re the bride, I believe you should speak first.”

Emma turned to Luke and said, “I’m sorry, Luke. I can’t marry you. I’m not in love with you.”

“Good,” Luke said. “Because I’m not in love with you, either.”

“Why, you—”

Emma plopped into Sam’s lap, effectively ending any chance he had of attacking his brother. “It isn’t Luke’s fault that I’m in love with you, Sam. It isn’t his fault that there’s no other man I’d rather spend my life with or raise my child with than you.”

Sam looked up at Luke, who said, “You ought to
marry the girl, Sam. She loves you. I know you’ll be a good father. And your kid will have a great life with the two of you as parents.”

The tears Summer saw in Sam’s eyes before Emma bent to kiss him on the mouth made her nose sting. She swallowed over the knot growing in her throat as she turned to share the moment with Billy. Who had tears in his own eyes.

Summer didn’t stop to think, she just walked into Billy’s arms.

“I love you, Summer,” he said as he closed his arms around her. “I want to spend my life with you. I don’t care that you’re rich and I’m not. I’ll figure out some way—”

“You’re rich too, young man,” a voice said over Summer’s shoulder. “There’s a couple of million in an account with your name on it at my bank.”

Summer felt Billy grab her arms and push her away from him as he stared over her shoulder at Blackjack. Billy’s gaze shifted back to her, his dark eyes narrowed, as angry as she’d ever seen him.

“What the hell is going on here, Summer?”

“I don’t know,” Summer protested. “Believe me, Billy. I have no earthly idea what Daddy is talking about.”

“It’s simple,” Blackjack said, staring into Billy’s wrathful eyes. “I’ve acknowledged you legally as my son.”

Billy hadn’t wanted to come to Emma’s wedding because all the crying she’d done the past week had convinced
him she was making a big mistake. But he’d never told her what to do in the past, and he didn’t think he should start now.

The other reason he hadn’t wanted to attend her wedding was because he hadn’t wanted to see Summer in such a suggestive setting. When the preacher started talking about loving and honoring and cherishing, he’d been looking right at Summer and thinking how he wanted to do all those things for her and with her the rest of his life. And that he was an idiot for worrying about something as unimportant as which one of them had more money.

When Will looked up at him and grinned, and then put his shoe in his mouth to chew on it, Billy realized he wanted a lot more children, and he wanted to make them with Summer.

When his mother caught his hand and held it tight and looked at him with tears in her eyes, he was reminded that he didn’t have all the time in the world to fool around. Folks never knew how long they had on this earth and a wise man made the most of it—by spending his life with someone he loved.

Billy suddenly knew that even if it made him an interfering brother, he couldn’t let Emma marry Luke. So when the preacher asked who objected, he’d jumped up and yelled.

But he hadn’t been the only one. It seemed no one in the church wanted the bride and groom to go through with the ceremony, including the bride and groom. Billy had been proud of Emma for speaking up, and moved when he saw how tenderly Sam Creed held her in his arms. He’d felt such joy for his sister welling up inside
him that he’d searched out the one he loved to share it with.

Billy had convinced himself that he could handle being a poor man married to a rich woman. He wouldn’t ever be completely comfortable with the notion, but he figured it was a small price to pay to spend his life with the woman he loved.

But he hadn’t wanted or needed Blackjack’s charity. The offer of it had been an ugly slap in the face.

And then Blackjack had said the words that Billy had never been able to admit he wanted to hear. The words that any child who grows up knowing he doesn’t belong, who knows he’s connected somewhere else than where he’s landed, longs to hear.

“I’ve acknowledged you legally as my son.”

Billy clamped his teeth together to keep his chin from wobbling.

“I’ve arranged for you to have the same trust fund your brothers each received when they turned twenty-five,” Blackjack continued. “It’s only a couple of million, but it’ll give you the freedom to do whatever you want with your life. You can tell me and the rest of the world to go to hell. Give it away, throw it away, leave it there to rot. What you do with it is up to you.”

Billy opened his mouth to speak and closed it again, because his throat was swollen closed.

“You got anything to say?” Blackjack said with a wry smile.

“I never wanted money from you,” Billy managed at last.

Blackjack put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Don’t you think I know that, son? That’s why I gave it to you.
Because you never asked. You’re a good man, Billy Coburn. You deserve a share of what’s mine. There’s good Blackthorne blood running through your veins.”

Blackjack turned to Summer and said, “And it seems I owe you a wedding present, young lady.”

“Daddy, there’s no need—”

“So I’m giving you Bitter Creek to care for and nurture and pass on to the next generation of Blackthornes.” He glanced at Ren and added, “And Creeds.” And finally at Billy and said, “And Coburns.”

Billy saw the stunned joy in Summer’s eyes as she absorbed the enormity of her father’s gift.

“Daddy, I—”

“You deserve it, honey,” Blackjack said. “I know you can handle the job, because you’ve been doing it the past two years. I plan to stay busy running the rest of the businesses I’ve invested in. I’ll be at my desk if you need any advice. But I have confidence you can run the ranch on your own.”

Summer turned to look at Billy. She seemed a little dazed and disbelieving. She turned back to her father and said, “Daddy, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to thank you.”

“Give me a hug,” he said. “And we’ll call it even.”

Summer laughed and threw herself into her father’s open arms. In a matter of moments she pulled free and turned back to Billy. “Bitter Creek is ours to run, Billy.”

Billy grinned, glad that what he felt inside was simply joy for her. “Yours to run. But I’ll be glad to help.”

She put her palms on his chest and looked up into his eyes and said, “Do you mind, Billy? Is it all right?”

Was it all right for her to realize her dream? Was she
so afraid he’d ask her to give it up? Billy knew suddenly what he wanted from life. What he’d always wanted.

“I just want to make a home at the C-Bar with you and Will and whatever kids we have. And I want to spend my life loving you.”

Summer lifted up on tiptoe and kissed him on the mouth. “I’m glad, Billy,” she said, tears brimming in her eyes. “So very glad.”

Blackjack slid his arm around Ren’s waist and said, “Are we going to have a wedding here today or not?”

Sam spoke up and said, “I’ve got a license I picked up when… Earlier,” he finished hastily. “All I need is someone to say the words for me and Emma.”

They all gathered around Sam and Emma as the preacher started again with, “Dearly beloved—”

“You can skip all that,” Blackjack said. “Get on to the important parts.”

Billy crossed to Summer and stood behind her. As Sam repeated his vows, Billy repeated softly to her, “I promise to love you and honor you, cherish you and respect you. I want to have children with you. And I want to grow old with you, knowing that we’re two parts of one eternal, infinite, and undying whole.”

Summer reached for Billy’s hand, and as Emma said her vows, she whispered, “I promise to love you and honor you, cherish you and respect you. I want to have children with you. And I want to grow very,
very
old with you, knowing that we’re two parts of one eternal, infinite, and undying whole.”

“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the preacher said. “You may kiss the bride.”

Billy turned Summer into his arms and felt her hands
slide around his nape and into his hair. “I love you,” he said.

“I love you, too, Billy.”

Billy kissed his wife. And felt someone tugging on his trousers.

“Kiss me, too, Daddy, Mer,” Will said.

Billy leaned down and scooped him up. “You got it, son.”

Will smiled happily as Summer and Billy each pressed a smacking kiss to his cheeks.