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  “Addie.”

  “What?”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t call you. I misplaced my phone and there was a lot going on and I was hurrying to get back to you. And I didn’t want to bug you.”

  She didn’t say anything for several seconds. Then, grudgingly, “You never minded bugging me before.”

  That made him smile. “Hmm. Good point. I guess I decided to give you a break from me at exactly the wrong time.”

  “Yes. Well, I guess you did.”

  “You sound better.”

  “Better? What are you talking about? I’m perfectly fine.”

  He couldn’t help grinning. “Yep. Almost like your old self, all snap and vinegar.”

  “Gee, thanks,” she said. He just knew she was rolling her eyes. “And where are you now, anyway?”

  “At a convenience store about forty-five minutes from the hospital. I finally heard the phone buzzing under the seat, so I stopped and fished it out. Are you at the hospital?”

  “No. I’m at the hotel. Would you, um, come straight here to the suite? I really need to talk to you.”

  This didn’t sound good. “Addie, what’s going on?”

  “Can you just come here, please? Directly here? I’ll tell you everything, but I need to do it face-to-face.”

  “Okay, now you’ve got me seriously worried.”

  “James, will you just come to the hotel and talk to me, please?”

  “Okay.” Whatever had gone wrong—and he had a feeling it was pretty bad—he needed to be there to help her with it. “Forty-five minutes, tops, and I’m there. I’ll turn on the Bluetooth so if you need me again, I can take it while I’m driving.”

  “The Bluetooth?” she echoed, as though she had no idea what he was talking about.

  “I’m just saying, if you call again, I’ll be here. I’ll answer.”

  “Just come straight to the hotel.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  * * *

  He made it in thirty-five minutes, pushing his speed the whole way. Luck was with him and no state trooper pulled him over.

  At twenty of nine, he was sticking his key card in the slot. Addie must have heard him at the door. She was waiting in the little entry area, barefoot, wearing a Harley-Davidson T-shirt and plaid pajama bottoms, when he came through the door.

  “James.” She had her hands against her soft lips, and her eyes were all misty. As though he was the best thing she’d seen all day.

  “Addie,” he said in a whisper, because it felt so damn good to have her looking at him like that.

  And then she ran to him, as if he were her guy, as though all she wanted was to feel his arms around her. He grabbed on tight, picked her up and swung her around. Damn, she felt good, soft in all the right places, her full breasts against his chest, her hair warm and silky against his cheek, the scent of her so sweet.

  When he set her down, she gazed up at him, all round cheeks, plump lips and red-rimmed golden eyes. He wanted to kiss her more than he wanted to draw his next breath.

  But before he could swoop down and claim that tempting mouth for the very first time, she grabbed his hand from behind her back, whirled around and pulled him into the living area.

  “Did you eat?” she demanded as she pushed him down on the sofa and then sat next to him.

  “I did.” He wanted her closer. So he dropped his briefcase beside the couch, hooked his arm around her waist and tucked her into his side.

  “James!” she groused. But she didn’t pull away. On the contrary, she leaned her head on his shoulder with a sigh.

  Whatever bad thing had happened, it had made her reach out to him. He could feel downright grateful for that. He pulled her even closer and stroked her thick, soft hair. “The important question is, did you eat?”

  “I did. I had lunch with Carm at the hospital. And I had room-service dinner.”

  “Excellent.”

  She gave a long, slow sigh. “You said your day was crazy...?”

  He put a finger under her chin and tipped it up so she would look at him. “Stuff happened, but it’s as sorted out as it’s going to get for tonight. I’ll tell you all about it later.”

  “No. Please. Tell me now.”

  “Addie, what is going on?”

  “I need time to build up to what I have to say, okay? And I’ve been sitting here half the afternoon and into the evening thinking of all the ways I’ve taken advantage of you, all the ways I haven’t appreciated you. Thinking that you didn’t call me back because you were finally fed up with me and that I totally understood why you would feel that way.”

  “You’re beating yourself up for nothing. You know that, right? You’ve got it all wrong and I already told you why I didn’t call you back.”

  “I know. But I think it’s time I started appreciating you more.”

  He suppressed a chuckle. “Okay. If you just have to.”

  “I do, as a matter of fact,” she replied with great dignity. “And part of appreciating you is listening to how your day went. So just tell me what happened in Justice Creek, please.”

  “You really want to hear about it?” Actually, that she did was kind of gratifying.

  “I do. Yes.”

  So he gave in and told her about the fire. “The building’s a total loss,” he added at the end. “Elise and Tracy will be staying at my condo for a while.”

  “Your poor sister. And poor Tracy...”

  “Nobody died and they have insurance. Elise even got her cat out safely. It could have been worse.”

  “Yeah. But to lose your home, all your personal belongings and your business on the same day. That’s gotta hurt.”

  “They’ll be okay. We’ll all pitch in to make sure of that—and now it’s your turn. Tell me whatever it is that’s so hard to say.”

  “I don’t know how to...” She ran out of steam before she even got going. Her big eyes filled with tears again. “Crap.” She pulled free of his arms and dashed the moisture away. “I am not going to cry anymore. I’m not, and that’s final.”

  He wanted to grab her close again, to demand that she tell him right now what had her so upset. But he did neither. He just waited, let her find her own way to it.

  And finally, she said, “I thought that if I showed PawPaw the documents that proved I really did have intrauterine insemination with Brandon’s sperm, he might finally see the light and admit that Brandon’s the baby’s dad. So when I was at the ranch, I got the paperwork they gave me at the sperm bank and the bill from the doctor I used. Then when I got back to the hospital, I took them in to PawPaw.”

  “Did it work?”

  She threw up both hands. “Are you kidding? He’s made up his mind and no mere facts are going to change it for him.”

  “I have to say I’m not really surprised.”

  She hummed low in her throat. “Yeah, well. It was a shot. And the way he blew me off wasn’t the worst of it. James, he looks so horrible. I worry he’s not going to make it. They’re all worried—the nurses, the doctors, Carm and Dev. Every day, he gets weaker. He simply refuses to get well. And today, he told me... He whispered to me...”

  James took her hand. She didn’t attempt to pull away when he twined his fingers with her smaller ones. “Go on.”

  And at last, she got down to it. “He said, and I quote, ‘Marry James. I’ll get well.’” With a soft cry, she yanked her fingers free of his grip and raked them back through her tumbled hair. “I mean, I know it might be too late anyway. He looks really bad. It scares me that even if he tries, it’s not going to do any good. But I...”

  He couldn’t stand to watch her suffer as she danced around the real question. “Addie.”

  “Lord in heaven.” She sagged against him and he wrapped his arms
around her again. “You know what I’m leading up to here, right?” She whispered the question.

  He felt the warmth of her breath against his shoulder and he gathered her just a little bit closer. “I do. And Levi is one tough old bird. I’m thinking if he says he’ll get well, there’s a better than fifty-fifty chance he can make that happen.”

  “Still, he could die anyway.”

  “I don’t think he will. But if I’m wrong, he would die believing that he’d done everything he could to see you cared for and protected.”

  “We both know that’s just deluded.”

  “Yeah, well. Deluded or not, if we got married, he would still die happy.”

  “It feels so wrong to ask this of you.”

  “Hey.” He waited until she tipped her head up and looked at him. “You haven’t even asked yet and I’m already saying yes. Let’s get married, Addie. Let’s do it right away.”

  “I just keep thinking about what you said that night you told me about your ex-wife. You never planned to get married again.”

  “I also said that I was slowly realizing that never is a long, long time.”

  “Still...” She shook her head. “I hate doing this to you.”

  “You’re not doing anything to me. Once, I planned never to get married again. But plans change and I’m going to get married now. To you. If you’ll have me.”

  Her soft mouth trembled. “Yes, I will. Definitely. And thank you.” She said it prayerfully.

  “You’re welcome.” Trying to lighten the heavy mood, he teased, “Wait a minute. Was I too easy? Do you think I should probably be playing at least a little hard to get?”

  “Oh, you...” She fake-punched him in the side and then cuddled back in close once more. “Just until he’s better. And then we can, you know, get an annulment.”

  “However you want it.” He rubbed his chin across the crown of her head.

  She pulled away. He let her go reluctantly and she retreated to her side of the couch. “I’ve been thinking about it all afternoon,” she said, “about how it would go if you agreed. If he does start recovering, the marriage will have to last for a couple of months—six weeks at the least. He needs time to get well enough that he can’t just give up again and start fading away as soon as he finds out we called it off.”

  “Two months. It’s a deal.”

  “We would have to live together and share a room for that time. I mean, he has to believe that it’s the real thing, that we’re really trying to make it work. When they let him out of the hospital, I would want you to move in with me at Red Hill. He’ll want to be there. And I’ll want to be with him.”

  “I get that. Living at Red Hill for two months is fine with me.”

  She made a sound midway between a chuckle and a sob. “I kind of think we’re crazy to do this.”

  He didn’t. “It’s not the least crazy to be doing whatever you have to do to keep an old man you love alive.”

  She watched him so solemnly. “That’s fine for me. He raised Carm and me on his own and he seemed to love doing it. I have a thousand precious, golden memories, all made because of him. Him rocking me, singing ‘Down in the Valley’ off-key to comfort me, when I was really small and had the flu. Him pushing me on the tire swing out behind the house. Teaching me to ride. Teaching me to drive...

  “He gave us a happy childhood, James. I owe him everything. I can’t stand for him to die when it’s really not his time. I’m so angry at him now. I need him to live for years and years more so I can have time to forgive him for every wrong choice he’s made since he conked you on the head a week ago.”

  “As I said, you love him. And I understand why you love him. Makes complete sense to me.”

  She chewed nervously on that soft lower lip of hers. “But you, on the other hand...”

  “Hey, come on. I actually like Levi. And if this will allow him to focus on getting well, I’m happy to do it.” She still gazed at him with doubting eyes. He chided, “Look at yourself. Trying to talk me out of what I’ve already agreed to do.”

  She thought about that, tipping her head to the side, her thick, wavy hair tumbling down her arm, shining in the lamplight. “That wouldn’t be so smart, would it?”

  He shook his head slowly. “Let it be, Addie. We’re doing it. We’ll get the license first thing tomorrow, and then we’ll go tell Levi that if he wants us married, we damn well expect him to stop all this idiocy and live.” He didn’t like the tortured expression on her face. “You still look worried.”

  “He’s just so...weak, you know?”

  “Damn it, Addie. Are you saying you don’t think he’ll last until tomorrow?”

  She shuddered. “No. No, of course not. I called Carm an hour ago. She said there was no change.”

  He made the decision for her then. “Put some clothes on. We’ll go and tell him right now.”

  “It’s late...”

  “In this case, Addie, I’m sure the nurses will let us in to see him.”

  Chapter Six

  Twenty minutes later, Addie stood by Levi’s bed in CSICU, with James at her side. The night staff had accepted their promise to keep things quiet and a nurse had pulled the privacy curtain shut around them—for their sake and for the sake of the other patients in the unit. The machines that kept track of her grandfather’s slow slide toward a too-early end whooshed and beeped very softly around them and the green light from the heart monitor cast a cold glow across the bed.

  Levi seemed to be sleeping.

  But he opened his eyes when she bent close to kiss his forehead and smooth his dry white hair. “PawPaw,” she whispered. As his eyes widened, she stood to her height and reached for James’s hand.

  His fingers closed around hers, warm and strong. So steady.

  Levi blinked several times in rapid succession. The sounds from the heart monitor sped up—but thankfully not enough to trigger an alarm.

  James spoke then. “We came to tell you that Addie and I are getting married.”

  Addie said, “Tomorrow, we’ll get the license.”

  Her grandfather shut his eyes. A slow sigh escaped him. “Good.”

  Addie wanted to grab on to him and hold him so he could never, ever slip away from her. She also wanted to shake him and shout at him for being such a stubborn and totally misguided old fool. But she did none of those things. She said, “As soon as you’re moved to a regular room, we’ll arrange for a pastor and get married right there.”

  “In my room?” A raspy, thin whisper.

  “Yes. As soon as you’re well enough to leave ICU.”

  He let out a dry, crackling sound. It took her a moment to realize it was a chuckle. “Namin’ your terms, are you, Addie Anne?”

  The truth was, if he didn’t improve, they’d ask the nurses if they could get married right here in CSICU. It was all a big bluff. She and James had already agreed that her grandfather was going to get what he wanted. Even if it turned out to be nothing more than the answer to a dying man’s last wish—or, in Levi’s case, his last demand.

  She said, “I am making you a promise, PawPaw. James and I are getting married. In your hospital room, as soon as you’re out of CSICU.”

  * * *

  Carm and Dev jumped to their feet when Addie and James came through the double doors.

  Carm asked, “Well?”

  “It’s done,” said Addie. “We told him. And I swear, he almost seems better already.”

  “Oh, I hope so.” Carm grabbed her and hugged her. Then she took her by the shoulders and held her a little away. “I think we all need to go to the hotel and try to get some rest. I’ll ask one of the nurses to call if there’s any change.”

  Nobody argued. They were all beat. It was only a block to the hotel, and all three of their vehicles were
in the hotel lot, so they walked. Outside, it was snowing. A springtime snow, light and wet, the kind that would be gone without a trace come morning. They wrapped their winter jackets tighter around them and hustled along at a brisk pace.

  In the suite, Carm and Dev said good-night and went straight to their room.

  James started to offer, “I can take the—”

  “Don’t even go there,” she said wearily. “We’re getting married, remember?”

  “I just didn’t want you to think I was taking advantage of you.” He said it lightly, but she knew that he meant it.

  She led the way to the bedroom and waited in the open doorway, shaking her head at him. “You’re such a gentleman, James.”

  He crossed the room and dropped to the end of the bed. “A gentleman, huh? That sounds really boring.”

  “It’s not.” She shut the door and sagged back against it. “Not in the least.”

  He arched a thick eyebrow. “Which side do you want?”

  Easy. “The one closer to the bathroom?”

  “You got it.” He crossed one foot over his knee and tugged off a boot. “Put on your pajamas. Let’s get some sleep.”

  “Yes, dear.” She dragged herself upright, grabbed the Harley T-shirt and flannel jammie bottoms off the bedside chair and headed for the bathroom to change.

  When she came back out, he took his turn, emerging in a pair of track pants and a dark blue T-shirt, brushing past her on the way to his side of the bed, trailing the minty scent of toothpaste.

  They slid in under the covers and reached out simultaneously to turn off their bedside lamps.

  “Good night, Addie.”

  “Night, James.” She turned over on her side, closed her eyes and dropped off to sleep in an instant.

  * * *

  James woke to daylight, spooning Addie. And sporting wood. She smelled so good and felt so soft...

  He could so easily get ideas.

  Okay. He had ideas. Always had when it came to her. From that first day he met her, almost a year ago now, when he’d stood on the exact spot where he planned to build his dream house and she appeared in the distance on a gray mare. He’d watched her ride closer, liking what he saw. When she’d reached him, he’d introduced himself and asked her if she’d like a tour of his new house.