This was no stranger. Ty knelt in the snow, watching her, snowflakes dusting his hair, his cheeks fiery red from the cold.
She started running.
She didn’t care that snow stung her face, or that the happy tears running down her frozen cheeks blurred her vision, or that her lungs burned like fire. She needed to be in his arms, kissing him.
He was still on his knees when she reached him, and she didn’t stop. She flew at him and tumbled them sideways into six inches of snow.
His arms wrapped tightly around her, and they rolled until she ended up on top of him, smiling down as snow fell around them and crept inside her coat collar.
“You’re here,” she whispered, breathless and deliriously hopeful and happy. Still disbelieving, she framed his cheeks in her gloved palms.
“I’m here,” he said softly, searching her face, making it infinitely clear that he’d missed her as much as she’d missed him.
“You know? About J.R.?”
“And Rabia? Yes. Mike told me.”
His eyes softened. “I could never hate you.”
She did cry, then. “But can you still love me?”
He pulled her head down to his and kissed her. “If you’d be kind enough to get me inside, out of the frozen tundra, I’ll show you how much.”
TY GRABBED HER hand, and they scrambled to their feet. The bell he’d missed so much dinged wildly as he jerked open the door, made sure Bear managed to squeeze inside, then shoved it closed behind them.
“I need your mouth.” He pushed her up against the door and slammed his mouth over hers. “I need to be inside you.”
He felt primitive, feral, as, with a low groan, he broke the kiss and led her up the stairs. They frantically stripped off their clothes, leaving a trail from the doorway to the bedroom. He was hopping on one foot, cursing, and trying to get his boot off, when he looked up and saw her. On her knees. In the middle of the bed. Naked. Arms outstretched.
Screw the boot. He flew to the bed, dragged her against him, and tossed her onto her back.
Then he found the heart of her, the heat of her, and buried himself deep inside.
He’d missed her for too long. Had been certain he would live his life without her… for too long.
No more. He was here now. She was his now. Her sweet, responsive breasts. Her soft, giving body. Her wild, hungry mouth.
Her pure, giving heart.
Finesse could come later. The way she moved against him told him she didn’t want finesse right now. Told him it was the same for her as it was for him.
This union was about lonely nights and hopeless longing and a crippling fear that they’d never be together this way again. This was about desperation and regret, about promises that would never again be broken.
This was about staking claims and coming home to a woman he was never going to leave again.
Epilogue
KABETOGAMA IS ONE OF THE memories that came back first.” J.R. stood in front of the log cabin’s massive picture window, Bear sitting beside him. The Lab had divided his lavish attention between Ty and J.R. since he and Rabia and the baby had arrived two days ago. “Yet every time I see it, it’s like I’ve forgotten how beautiful it is up here.”
A fire crackled softly in the stone fireplace as Jess walked up beside him, sharing the view outside the dream home Ty had bought for her.
“Like a postcard,” she agreed.
The frozen lake spread out like a moonscape to the north, while the snow-heavy forest nestled around them.
Since she and J.R. were sharing a rare moment alone, she took advantage of it to make sure all was well.
“Ty’s not pushing you too hard, is he?” Yesterday, Ty and Brad had insisted that J.R. go snowmobiling with them. This morning, they’d gone ice fishing.
“No. I’m good. Those guys are crazy wild on those machines, though,” he added with a laugh.
“Please don’t take too many chances with the leg,” she cautioned him.
“Yes, Mom.” He grinned at her.
Nine months ago, the VA’s best surgical team had successfully repaired the break. J.R.’s rehab had been remarkably fast—mainly because of his determination—but Jess didn’t want him pushing too hard.
It was clear, though, that he was doing fine. This was his and Rabia’s second visit to the lake since she and Ty had gotten married last spring, and she was thrilled with how much progress he’d made since she’d seen him last. He looked like the old J.R. again, except for the touches of gray in his hair. He appeared healthy and robust and whole. Most of all, he was happy.
Jess credited Rabia and the baby with much of that. And the gradual recovery of his memory. Since that huge void in his life had been filled, he was better able to manage the PTSD. He still had headaches and nightmares but not as often, and he handled them better now.
“We did the right thing,” he said, smiling down at her.
“We did,” she agreed, and hugged him. They’d both be miserable right now, and so would Ty and Rabia, if they’d stayed the course and tried to force their marriage to work.
“So you think you got a big enough tree?”
She laughed. The oven timer dinged then, and she walked across the great room to the open kitchen to take another batch of cookies out of the oven.
“You know Ty. Go big or go home.”
The tallest Christmas tree Ty could find fit in the center of the great room and rose almost to the peak of the eighteen-foot ceiling. He hadn’t stopped there. A huge wreath hung on the wall between the ceiling and the top of the cabin’s front door. Outside, another wreath glistened with Christmas lights. He’d strung more lights on a perfectly shaped white pine in the front yard and draped garland on the porch posts.
“Much more fun than decorating pineapple palm trees,” he’d said with a grin.
They’d decorated the inside tree together with more twinkling lights and both her old, sentimental ornaments and the new ones she’d had to buy to fill up the gigantic tree. Beneath the tree, Jess had placed lovingly wrapped gifts for everyone she cared about. Shelley and Darrin. Mike and Eva—Ty was meeting their plane in the Falls right now.
There were gifts for Brad and for her mom and dad and for Mike and Ty’s parents, who were all arriving tomorrow. She’d bought presents for Kayla, Blake, Lane, and Hailey and her other part-time help, and she’d even found something special for Boots and Marcia.
And while she didn’t want Rabia to feel as though she were forcing Christian traditions on her, Jess had also bought her a gift in the spirit of friendship and goodwill when she’d gone shopping for J.R. But the lion’s share of the ribbons and bows were wrapped around pretty little packages for the beautiful baby girl who napped upstairs while Rabia took advantage of the down time by catching a much-needed nap herself.
Little Farishta—“Angel”—had her mother’s black eyes and gorgeous olive complexion and her daddy’s determination, especially when she wanted attention.
“We got the word last week that the book has been optioned for a movie.”
