Page 70 of The Dawn

I said, “You look beautiful. Lochie is going to lose his mind.”

She giggled, “That’s not hard, he’s desperate.”

Emma joked, “What’s it been, a whole week while he waited to make an honest woman of you? The poor guy.”

Hayley laughed. “Have you just been beating his hands off you all night?”

“I made him sleep in the hall.”

We all laughed. I said, “Man, Magnus and Fraoch would have loved to see that.”

“Don’t tell them, please. He’s barely holding it together.”

Emma said, “Youaregood at this.”

“Making him miserable?”

Emma said, “No, making him grow up and do the right thing. He needs you, desperately. I think you’re going to be good for him.”

Hayley said, “I agree, he’s lucky he found you.”

I nodded. “Definitely.”

“Awesome, thank you.”

Ash looked really beautiful, we put the final touches on her dress making sure she looked perfect.

I said, “You ready?”

“Well, I’ve been kidnapped, injured, I was in a battle, learned about time travel, have almost died like fifteen times, so many times. I thought I just met a hot guy in a bar and so far it’s been one long near-death experience. So I don’t know if I’m ready, but I do love him and I really believe he loves me too, and what do we really ever know about our future? We have today, we hope for tomorrow.”

I said, “Time is a wheel, hold on, we’re rolling.”

She smiled. “You guys keep saying that — time is a wheel.”

“It is, we learned the hard way.”

She sighed. “Okay then, yeah, I’m ready.”

We swept from the room to meet the men outside of the chapel.

CHAPTER 26 - ASH

THE COURTYARD, STIRLING CASTLE - JUNE 18, 1291

As my foot hit the courtyard after coming down the steps I saw Lochie, he was so handsome, clean and wearing a pale blue tunic that matched mine and we hadn’t even planned it. He also wore a long deep blue cloak that accentuated his gray eyes. His ginger hair was brushed back, the curls laying on his collar, his jawline had a close-cropped beard emphasizing the angles of his face. He was standing with his nieces and nephews. Archie and Ben were talking excitedly. Isla and Zoe were looking up at him adoringly. He was holding Jack in his arms and laughing at something Ben had said, but then he turned and his eyes fell on me. Even from across the courtyard I could see him take a deep breath. Then he smiled.

I smiled back.

He put his hand over his heart.

That was really really really... he was so big and hot, and he loved me so much, he had rescued me, he was my hero, about to be my husband. I had a million things to be afraid of, but it was all gone, looking at him as he stood in the courtyard of a castle in the bright morning dawn of a day in medieval Scotland. He was all mine. And the way he looked at me, it was as if I, Ash, a waitress who worked at the Palace Saloon, were the prize. If Icould ask for one thing in this life, it was that Lochinvar would look at me like that to the end of my days.

He passed Jack to Magnus, and said something to his nieces and nephews, then strode toward me and met me halfway.

He said, his voice low and rumbling, “Ye are beautiful Ash, I am the most grateful man that ye are tae be mine.”

I smiled.

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