“It should be a man walking you down the aisle,” Rosa said. “Not a washed-up old nanny.”
“You’re not washed up, and I’m more grateful than I can say to have you by my side when I walk down the aisle. You’re the one who taught me what love is,” she added, “which is how I recognized it when I met Angus.”
“Oh.” Rosa dissolved into tears. “Win. You are the daughter of my heart.” She hugged her tightly. “And I will always be there when you need me.”
“I know.” Win hugged her back.
“Now straighten up,” Rosa ordered. “Wipe those tears. Gently. Don’t ruin your makeup!”
The women fussed over her until Riley came to tell them it was time. Then Avery took her place at the top of the stairs. Maria and Win stood behind her. When the music started, they began to walk slowly down.
Win’s heart was in her throat as she entered the ballroom, walking down an aisle between rows of white folding chairs filled with guests. Her family might not be represented, but scores of friends from Base Camp and Chance Creek smiled and waved as she walked. This was her true home. Her true family. With a heart fairly bursting with happiness she searched for her husband-to-be—
And found him waiting for her at the altar.
Her breath caught in her throat. Angus was so handsome, and the love he held for her shone so brightly in his face it nearly blinded her. Or maybe that was the tears pooling in her eyes. She’d never felt so hopeful—so happy—
Maria placed Win’s hand in Angus’s when they reached his side and took her seat as they turned to face the reverend.
“We are gathered here today,” Reverend Halpern intoned. Angus squeezed her hand, his signal that he loved her. That he wanted her forever.
Win squeezed his hand back. This was how they’d go through life. Together. Helping each other.
Holding each other.
Loving each other.
For all time.
And when their vows were spoken and Halpern had pronounced them man and wife, Win tilted her head back, met Angus’s kiss with her own—and knew she’d come home for good.
“Good wedding,” Walker said when he met Avery at the drinks table later in the evening.
“It was a beautiful wedding,” Avery agreed.
“They seem happy.” He nodded at Win and Angus dancing together, gazing at each other like there was no one else in the world.
“They do.”
Soon we’ll be like that, he wanted to tell her, but of course he couldn’t. Old promises stood in his way, and promises weren’t supposed to be broken—
No matter how much you wished they could be.
Walker searched for his grandmother in the crowd. Sue Norton had always been a force to be reckoned with, the rock his life was tied to after his father and mother had cast him adrift. He owed her his respect and he hoped he’d always given that to her. Still, she owed him something, too, after all this time.
“We’ll play by the rules,” she’d told him months ago. “Base Camp’s and our own.” Which meant no matter how he’d urged her, how he’d gone beyond the norms of politeness in his culture and pushed her to discuss those old promises and how they had to change, she’d refused to say a word about it—
She couldn’t refuse to discuss it anymore.
It was no secret he’d drawn the short straw this afternoon. Who else was there to draw it? Sue didn’t need to wait for the show to air to know that he had forty days to get a woman to the altar or Base Camp would be flattened by the bulldozers of the developer who wanted Westfield ranch. Those were the rules. He couldn’t let the others down.
Which was why he was searching for his grandmother. She owed him answers now.
“About the fan,” Avery said, turning toward him. “I appreciate the gesture, but I’m not sure what to make of it. Doesn’t it belong to your family—?” She trailed off to follow his gaze, since he was no longer listening to her.
Walker couldn’t help it, because he’d found Sue. She was entering the ballroom, dressed in a neat navy-blue skirt and blazer with a pale-blue blouse buttoned up to the top. Her straight black hair was done in one long braid down her back, glints of silver running through it like decorative thread.
She wasn’t alone. Beside her walked another, taller woman, with the straight, dark hair of his people, high cheekbones, a full, curved mouth and sharp eyes that missed nothing, just as he remembered them. A woman Walker hadn’t seen in fifteen years.
Elizabeth Blaine.
His promised bride.
And now Avery had caught sight of her, too.
To find out more about Greg, Renata, Boone, Clay, Jericho, Walker and the other inhabitants of Base Camp, look for A SEAL’s Triumph, Volume 10 in the SEALs of Chance Creek series.
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Other books in the SEALs of Chance Creek Series:
A SEAL’s Oath
A SEAL’s Vow
A SEAL’s Pledge
A SEAL’s Consent
A SEAL’s Purpose
A SEAL’s Resolve
A SEAL’s Devotion
A SEAL’s Desire
A SEAL’s Triumph
Read on for an excerpt of A SEAL’s Triumph.
A SEAL’s Triumph
By Cora Seton
Chapter One
One more day, Walker Norton thought as he lounged against a tree by the side of the two-lane highway that ran towards town. One more day until he finally secured his freedom from an obligation that had pressed down upon him since nearly the day he was born. In the gray light before dawn, when the songbirds had just begun to peep and trill, a light breeze played with the early spring flowers in the fields and the last star winked out of the sky, Walker waited and allowed himself to speculate how it would be to stand before Avery Lightfoot and tell her he could finally be hers.
Walker used to think he was
