Page 148 of Unwilling Wolf

“It has been so boring around here without you,” she said.

Eliza had never seen tears in her friend’s eyes before now, but she understood. She wanted to cry, too. She grabbed her hand and dragged her into the back of the wagon, and they sat just as they had the night of the dance, legs swinging off the back, only this time they were happy and chattery.

As they came into view of the cabin in the big clearing, Eliza twisted around in the wagon to look at it, with the sunset so pretty behind it.

People were flooding out of the hands’ cabin by the barn, and she waved at Burke, and Wells, and Cookie.

They were dressed in their nicest suits.

Garret pulled up in front of the main cabin and stopped the mules, then hopped out as Eliza and Lenny went to greet everyone.

“You all look so handsome!” she exclaimed, hugging them up. “Oh, I missed all of you so much!”

“Someone else wants to say hello,” Garret murmured from beside her, his hand gentle on her lower back.

She turned, and froze at the sight of the two men who strode out of the big cabin.

The first, she recognized from the day she and Garret had been wed—the preacher from town, with his too-bright eyes that made sense to her now.

The second, she had, at times, thought she would never see again.

He looked different. Stronger. His beard was longer, and his posture straighter. He didn’t walk with a limp anymore, and his eyes were glowing blue, but she would recognize him anywhere.

“Roy?”

She walked, then jogged, and then flung herself into his open arms. He hugged her up so tight, and she fell into him completely, sobbing against the only father she had ever known. “I was so scared I would never see you again.”

“It’s okay, Lizzy,” he said, using the nickname he’d always had for her. “I’m back. I’m here. Garret brought me your letters, and they brought me back. I remember.”

She couldn’t. She couldn’t! How could her heart hold all of this?

“Have you figured it out yet?” Roy asked in a growly voice she was going to have to get used to.

“Figure what out?” she asked, confused.

“It’s your weddin’ day, darlin’. It’s your real weddin’ day.”

Eliza eased back and looked around, from Lenny, with her beautiful smiling face and full eyes, to Burke and Cookie and Wells, all grinning. To the preacher, who was standing with the cabin and that beautiful sunset behind him.

To Garret—her once-unwilling husband.

He was standing there by the wagon with his hands clasped in front of him, head canted, bright-blue eyes full of adoration and looking right back at her.

A more handsome man had never existed.

In shock, she looked down at the new lace dress he had insisted she wear home, and it all started making sense. He had planned all of this. He had planned this homecoming for her.

“I figured we should do it right this time, in front of our Pack,” Garret murmured.

“Our Pack,” she whispered thickly.

“Well, what do you say?” Burke asked. “We made a big old meal for afterward. Lenny even made a cake. And Garret made us get some good moonshine to make some good memories tonight.”

She let off an emotional laugh, completely overwhelmed. They had planning a wedding? They’d put effort into getting the preacher here, and making food, and dressing up?

For her and Garret?

Tears raced down her cheeks. “On two conditions,” she announced.

---