Page 83 of A Soft Kiss in Summer
She glanced over at him.He was still leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest.He looked so strong and capable.There was no way he’d let someone take advantage of them like that.
He glanced down at her.Their eyes met and something in his gaze warmed her clean to her toes.She didn’t hear much of the conversation after that, but when the sheriff finally told them all to go home, that they were free to head back to Silver Falls, she followed him outside to the sidewalk, their entire future before them.
Bonnie gave her a wink before heading back to the doctor's office where Archie still lay recuperating.The townsfolk were all headed home now that the sun was going down and seeing the lights in the windows of the hotel made her pulse leap.
“Come on,” Josiah said, grabbing her hand.
She interlaced her fingers with his, happiness making her smile so big her face hurt, but it fell away when he turned them in the opposite direction of the hotel.“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see soon enough.”
She followed beside him quietly, her hand held tight in his own.When he stopped in front of a house beside the church, she looked at him questionably as he knocked on the front door.
A man who didn’t look much older than Josiah answered.He smiled at them both before asking, “Can I help you?”
“I hope so,” Josiah answered.“Are you Caleb Morris?”
The man looked at them both before straitening.“I am.”
“Good.”Josiah glanced at her before giving her hand another squeeze.“Because we’d like to get married.Right now.”
The smile that curved her lips at his words, she knew, would never come off.
ChapterTwenty-Five
She’d never been one to hum, but did so as she smiled and worked, humming a happy tune that couldn’t be helped.Being so stinking happy made every day a pure joy to experience.Although she was covered in dust and sweating, she loved every minute of it.
Since getting back to Silver Falls, she and Josiah had been cleaning and restoring the small cabin the town had provided for the town marshal.It wasn’t in too bad a shape, thankfully, and with Clay and Tanner’s help, it was nearly complete.
They’d even spent their first night there, camped out in what would be their bedroom on a pile of blankets spread across the floor.Lanterns had lit the space and after eating a simple meal of sandwiches and fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, he’d stripped her bare and loved her until long into the night.
The smile that graced her lips when he’d asked the preacher in Elkin to marry them was still there, and she wasn’t sure it would ever disappear.
They’d reluctantly left Bonnie and Archie in the care of the doctor in Elkin and after making sure the advertisement for a new doctor was set to be printed in the local papers there, they’d come home alone.
Married.
Legally.
And so darn happy about it, everyone who saw them had commented on it.
Hearing the snuffle of a horse outside, followed by the low murmur of a voice, she folded up the blankets as she heard the front door opened and turned her head to say, “I’m in here.”
Footsteps echoed through the empty front room, hit boots hitting the floor loud in the stillness.She tossed the folded blanket onto the pile with the others as the footsteps neared the bedroom door and she could barely contain her joy.They’d sleep in a real bed tonight, the first of many, in their new home.
She turned as he stepped into the room, then stilled.The smile fell from her face in an instant.
Josiah pulled the wagon to a stop, tying the horse's reins to the brake lever and jumped to the ground.The numerous chests and boxes he’d hauled from town would take a dozen trips to unload, but he wanted that bed put back together before the sun fell, so he’d work himself ragged to see them all unloaded and carried into the house.
A lone horse grazed near the porch.Tanner’s or Clay’s, if he had to guess.The two had helped out so much over the past week, he wasn’t sure how he’d ever repay them.
He barely glanced at it as he reached for the closest box to him before hefting it from the back of the wagon and starting for the house.
The door was open, so was the back one, and a cool breeze blew through the house.He set the box down just inside the door and went back for another.After the third, he stopped and looked around the empty space.“Violet?You in here?”
He hadn’t expected her to help carry in the boxes, but surely she would have been out there telling him where to sit them.
He started for the bedroom and heard her gasp before he reached the doorway.Taking one step inside the room, he froze.
