Page 106 of An Unfinished Memory

Words I never thought I’d hear him say. I must’ve misunderstood. “You quit? Yourjob?”

“Yes. I quit the department. I quit putting work first. I quit disrespecting what makes you feel safe and what you fear. I quit letting others dominate my time.” Gently, he took my hand. “You’re the most important thing in my life. Period. I’ll spend my life making it up to you if you’ll let me.”

Euphoria was spreading through me, like my body understood what he said before my brain comprehended. He was choosing me. Over everything. I couldn’t believe it. “You’re moving?”

“My place is here. I don’t want a career with no family at the end to show for it. Sure, my siblings were there, but how many more times would they come out to support me if I continued to work the way I had been? But more importantly, you weren’t there. And I finally realized that being your husband is what I really want to do.”

I really missed being his wife.

Tears gathered in my eyes. Concern took over his expression. The tears fell, and he brushed them away. “Hey,” he said softly. “Tell me what’s going through that sharp mind of yours. Were you really considering giving up your life in Crocus Valley?”

I let out a shaky laugh. “I’ll take ‘Desperate Women Do Desperate Things’ for eight hundred. I love you, Wilder Knight, and this long-distance shit is too much of a roller coaster. I want to be where you are.”

“Lucky for you, I love you so much I’m going to be right where you are instead, Doc.” His smile was utterly devastating. It was the same one he’d flashed me after we first met. The same grin that made me wish I could rope me a cowboy like him. “As long as you forgive me for being a little slow on the uptake.”

“What about your career? It wasn’t all Ray—a large part of you wanted to be sheriff.” What if he grew to resent me like I’d resented him before the divorce?

“I wanted something that was my own. That was you. What I do now? I don’t care. I’ll do some paperwork for Cody to lighten his load. He can boss me around if he’s paying me. I’ll still make runs to the ranch and earn myinheritance. I’m going to be useful to my family like I always wanted.” He gripped my arms. “If you don’t want to get married again, I’m not going to pressure you. I messed up once, and?—”

“God, Wilder. Of course I’ll marry you again.” My flimsy resolution didn’t hold up when he quit his dream job before he started to be with me in the Black Hills. I’d definitely marry a guy who moved mountains for me.

His sexy smile was back, devastating and unfurling all the desire I’d built up since I first laid eyes on a confident deputy and let him steal my heart. “You mean that? I don’t have a real job. I don’t even have a ring, but I can polish those hardwood floors of yours really well.”

“I happen to have a ring I like a lot that was given to me by this cocky cowboy I met at a horse show.”

“I love you, Sutton Knight.” He tilted my chin up and captured my lips. I threw my arms around him and drank him in. A low rumble of laughter left his chest. He pulled back and placed a simple kiss on my mouth. “If we keep doing that, I won’t be able to call Aggie back to tell her to give everyone the go-ahead.”

“Excuse me?” Was the shock of the day the reason I wasn’t tracking? Who was everyone, and what were they planning?

“You said you liked our big family grill-outs, so I asked Aggie if she and Tova and Vienne would be willing to do one in the Black Hills. They’re all for it. Kids and everything.” He lifted a shoulder. “Cody’s too pragmatic to drag his family on a trip before you agree to the idea. Aggie and Ansen thought they could do with a vacation anyway. They’re going home to pack. And I think Vienne needed to arrange time off work. If you’re okay with it, you and I head down today, thentomorrow we party.”

He’d never planned a family get-together. Ever. Until now. For me. I was more in love with him than ever. “Cowboy, I’m not sure I can wait until we’re in our campsite to do what I want to you.”

His eyes went dark. “How about we duck into the camper? I won’t need more than a couple of minutes to have you screaming my name.”

“Survey says…yes!”

I was on my third s’more. The picnic table that was part of my campsite was full of different ingredients for all the renditions of s’mores we could come up with. And there were a lot of us here to come up with ideas.

Ansen was following Ro as she toddled around. Aggie was sitting in a camp chair with her feet up on the cooler, her hand over her seven-month-pregnant belly. Grayson and Ivy were walking Oreo around the campground, and Cody was following them with little Charlie strapped into a baby carrier on his front. Tova was sitting between me and Aggie. Vienne and Catherine were making peanut butter cup s’mores.

Wilder hadn’t left my side since we arrived. I would’ve been content to stay in bed all night and day, but Wilder dragged me out for an afternoon hike with Oreo. My ex-husband fiancé refused to let me miss out on the trip I planned.

My mind was continuing to wrap around the sharp left turn my life had taken back to the direction I had been going. I was delighted. Giddy. Ecstatic. Still scared. But the more I saw Wilder relaxed, the more I was confident he’d made the right decision for himself. I’d gottenso used to seeing the weight of expectation on his shoulders that I started assuming it was permanent.

“When’s the wedding?” Catherine asked after crushing her peanut butter cup with a roasted marshmallow and graham cracker.

“Catherine,” Vienne chided. Catherine shot her a “God, Mom. What?”look, and Vienne shook her head. “Sorry.”

“We haven’t talked about that yet,” I answered with a smile.

“It’s not talking they’ve been doing,” Aggie said and snickered. Tova giggled and fist-bumped her.

“Gross,” Catherine said, her mouth full of s’mores.

Grayson and Ivy ran into the campsite with Oreo. “Guess who we found!”

Cody grinned behind them. “A couple of weary travelers drove up.”

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