He instantly pulls my body back against his, wrapping his arms around me. “You’remywoman,” he corrects me.
“I’ve always been your woman, Jake. Now, I’m just your wife, too.”
“God, I love you, Sunshine,” he groans.
“I love you,” I respond snuggling down into his arms with a yawn. It’s our wedding night and my husband has worn me out. I had to take some medicine because of my hip, but I can tell that I’m getting stronger. “Lennon said to remind you we’re having pancakes tomorrow at Nanny Barb’s.”
“I’m sorry, baby. This is not a very exciting honeymoon.”
“I beg to differ. Tonight was perfect.”
“I wanted to take you away somewhere.”
“We can, eventually. Right now, I think it’s important we include our son in everything.”
“I do, too.”
“Besides, your mom isn’t doing so well.”
“Still no word from my brother?”
“Not a word. It’s been a month now. Jeff’s phone has been disconnected and he never gave us the address of the ranch he was working at in Tennessee.”
“Shit,” he hisses. “I don’t know what to do.”
“She’s planning on flying up there next week to fill out a missing person’s report. It might be good if you go with her.”
“I will. Maybe we can track him down. I don’t understand it. He seemed better when he left here.”
“I know. I’m not sure what’s going on. This isn’t like Jeff at all. Even when he was ghosting me, he still checked in with Barb.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Jake says, and I give him a smile.
“I know we will sweetheart.”
“I think what we both need right now is to get back to our honeymoon,” he suggests with a glint in his eye.
“Okay, but I think it’s only fair to warn you that you’ve worn me out and you may have to do all the work this time.”
“I can deal with that,” he laughs.
Damn, I’ve a very lucky woman…
Sneak Peek
OF DON’T CRY
Prologue
I rub the back of my neck, blinking to focus. My gaze moves from the road to take in the clock on the dash.One in the morning.I stayed in Texas way too long. I didn’t want to leave bad feelings anywhere. Mom didn’t want me to leave at all, but I knew in my heart it was what I needed. Besides, I began working at a ranch in Tennessee when I left the first time. Truthfully, I was starting to really like it. The work was easy, and the beauty of the mountains soothed me in ways I wouldn’t have thought possible. I’ve always loved Texas. Still, at times it felt like I was living in the shadows of everyone around me. That’s a feeling that wears you down. I can’t continue to see Katie and Lennon every day and know they will never be mine. I’ve always known that their hearts belonged to my brother—I helped to fuck that up. I should have been truthful with Jake from the beginning. I let my need for Katie to finally see me—to love me—cloud my actions. I slowly turned into someone I didn’t recognize. I became a man desperate for a woman’s love. It made me lose sight of everything around me.
No, it’s much better that I start over. I need to let Jake and Katie live their lives. I don’t want Lennon to be conflicted either. It hurts like hell, but I know in my heart that this is the way things are supposed to be.
As for me?
I don’t know what in the fuck I’m going to do. There’s a huge part of me that has given up on life. I spent too much time trying to make a family with a woman who was never meant to be mine. It hit me before the wedding that I couldn’t continue like I was. I needed to make changes.
So, I told Jake the truth. I knew that’s all it would take. My brother is an asshole, but I knew he would want his son. I’m not sure he deserves Lennon, but I slowly became a man who didn’t deserve that boy either. Right now, it doesn’t feel like I deserve anything. I feel tainted. Somehow, I warped love in my head so much that I felt it was okay to betray my brother and lie to the one woman I swore I would always put first.