Make-Believe Wedding (Montana Born Brides Book 9) Page 13

  Heath stared at the screen, trying to understand what he was reading. Andie had said she’d written a bunch of baloney for her entry, but she was describing a real camping trip he’d taken with her and Beau last year. They’d set up camp by the river, as she’d written. They’d fished all day and sat around the fire talking into the night. It had rained, and his tent had leaked—but he’d sought shelter in Beau’s tent, not hers.

  Perplexed, he kept reading.

  Tell us a bit about the groom (hint: we suggest the bride fills out this part!):

  Heath is one of the smartest people I know. He’s worked incredibly hard to build his own business, and every day I see how good he is with people, how he makes them want to work hard for him. He’s a natural leader, decisive, calm. He’s also kind, and thoughtful, and he’s never too busy or too stressed to notice the little things. He makes me feel important, like I count, and he listens to what I have to say. Once, for my birthday, he gave me a tiny apple pendant on a gold chain because I mentioned that I missed the apple tree in my parents’ backyard. He’s not perfect, don’t get me wrong, but he’s a good man with a big heart, and I know he’s going to make a wonderful husband and father.

  Heath shifted uneasily, uncomfortable with Andie’s vision of who he was. She knew his failings better than anyone—how short tempered he could get sometimes when he was frustrated, his annoying perfectionist streak when it came to the small details, his stubborn refusal to admit when he was wrong sometimes. Yet Andie had painted him with a generous brush, highlighting his better characteristics, ignoring or accepting the lesser. As for the apple pendant… He’d given that to her on her eighteenth birthday. More than eight years ago.

  Tell us a bit about the bride (hint:we suggest the groom fills out this part!):

  Andie Bennett has been part of my life for a long time, but it wasn’t until we went camping together that I really saw her. She’d tell you she’s not the most beautiful woman in the world, but she’s beautiful to me. She’s shy sometimes, but I know that’s just because she doesn’t want to push herself forward. She’s super-smart, and any man can tell you that’s a huge turn on. When I’m with her, the world feels right. As though all the pieces fit. I thank the Universe every day that Beau couldn’t make that fishing trip, and maybe one day I’ll tell Andie that I cut a hole in my tent that night so I’d have to share with her.

  Heath sat back in his chair, momentarily blown away by what he’d just read. What he’d just realized.

  Andie hadn’t written a load of baloney, she’d written a wish list. She’d written the world and their relationship the way she wanted them to be. She’d offered up her vision of Heath, and described the way she wanted him to see her—as beautiful and smart and precious.

  She loved him.

  He shook his head as half a dozen things suddenly made sense. Her paralyzed embarrassment when Jane had come to inform them of their semi-final status. The way she’d ripped into Sharon after his ex had belittled Andie’s appeal as a woman in Grey’s Saloon. Andie’s discomfort with holding hands and casual touching before they became lovers. Her comment about him having bad taste in women during the interview with the local newspaper. Her never-ending generosity toward him, his business, his interests…

  You idiot. You enormous, whale-sized idiot.

  He bowed his head, momentarily overwhelmed by his own stupidity. How could he not have seen it? How could he have lived with her by his side, beneath his nose, for half his life, and not understood her heart?

  More importantly, how could he have wasted so much time? Caused her so much pain? Over and over again…

  The many, many times he’d introduced her to one of his girlfriends as “practically his little sister”. The times he’d called her “kid” and refused to notice she was a woman. The times he’d accepted her company, her friendship, her generosity as everyday occurrences, commonplaces, when in fact they’d been gifts, precious gifts, from a woman who deserved so much better.

  An image came to him—Andie’s pale, taut face as she spoke to Beau in front of his house this morning, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. As though she was defending herself against a blow.

  He shot to his feet, reaching for his keys. Three strides took him to the door; he practically vaulted down the steps.

  “Boss. Where are you going?” Big Mack called as Heath raced to his SUV.

  “I need to see Andie.”

  “What about the cops?”

  “You handle it.”

  Heath slammed the car door, cutting off whatever Big Mack had been about to say. He was vaguely aware of the other man stepping aside, his mouth slightly agape, as Heath hot-footed it out of there.

  The mess at the site could wait. Andie couldn’t. She’d been waiting years for him to wake up. He refused to make her wait another second.

  The drive into the old part of town seemed to take forever, and he leaned forward over the steering wheel at every set of red lights, willing them to turn green. He threw the SUV into the first parking spot he saw, racing into Andie’s building. The elevator was too slow for him; he took the stairs two at a time, barreling through the fire door on her floor. His heart pounding in his ears, he knocked on the door. When she didn’t answer immediately, he knocked again. When there was still no answer, he swore and pushed his hair off his forehead. It was seven in the morning. Where in hell could she be?

  Think, idiot. She was upset. Where would she go if she was upset?

  Normally, he’d think of Beau, but that was obviously out of the question today. He ran through half a dozen options before admitting he had no clue. Frustrated beyond measure, he descended to ground level and exited the building. He was heading back to his car when the security grille to the building’s underground garage rose with a mechanical whine and Beau’s SUV drove out. Andie sat behind the wheel, her eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, a cap pulled low over her face.

  “Andie.”

  The car started forward and he ran toward it, pounding on the rear fender seconds before she accelerated into the street. The SUV lurched to a stop and he walked to the driver’s window. There was the smallest of hesitations before Andie slid it down.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, clearly surprised.

  She was wearing a McGregor Construction polo and her work pants, and it hit him that she was heading for the work site.

  Of course she was. Andie would never let him down by bailing on work simply because she was upset.

  “Can we talk?” he said.

  “If this is about what happened this morning, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taken off like that, but Beau just pissed me off so much I had to get out of there.” She said it lightly, with just the right undercurrent of annoyance in her tone.

  If he hadn’t read the entry form, he might have bought it—she was that good at hiding her feelings from him. And why not? She’d had plenty of years to fine-tune her technique.

  Without saying a word, he reached out and pulled her sunglasses from her face.

  “Hey,” she protested, but it was too late. Her eyes were a tell-tale red, the skin around them slightly puffy.

  She’d been crying.

  The realization was like a punch in the gut.

  He opened the car door. “Get out of the car.”

  “Heath.”

  He reached in and unclipped her seatbelt, then physically hauled her out of the car and into his arms. Her body was tense, resisting, for the first few seconds, then she relaxed into his embrace.

  “I’m fine,” she said quietly. “I was just upset with Beau.”

  How many of these little white lies had she told over the years to shield her feelings from him? It killed him to think about her hiding herself from him like that.

  He tightened his arms around her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. She was so damned special, this woman who had quietly loved him without asking for anything for herself for far too long.

  “I read your ent
ry in the wedding giveaway, Andie” he said.

  She tensed. “What?”

  “I asked Jane for a copy and she emailed it to me overnight.”

  She pulled free from his embrace, her face creased with confusion. “Why did you do that? I told you it was a load of baloney.”

  He held her eye. “I wish you’d said something. I wish I’d pulled my head out of my own ass long enough to realize. I’m so sorry, Andie…”

  Her eyes widened, the blood draining from her face. Then she took a step back, shaking her head.

  “Don’t apologize to me, Heath. And don’t you dare feel sorry for me.”

  “I don’t. Of course I don’t. Andie—Jesus, I’m doing this all wrong. I should have said it last week, or the week before, but I didn’t want to rush you. Which shows how dumb I am. I love you, Andie.”

  Andie stared at him, then she shook her head again, backing away from him this time. “No, no, no. Don’t do this. Don’t you even think about doing this, Heath.”

  This was her worst nightmare: Heath finding out that she loved him and being freaking noble about it. He was that kind of man. He paid his taxes. He honored his debts. He stood by his friends. He’d ridden to her rescue not once but twice after she’d sucked them both into the vortex of the wedding giveaway. Of course he was going to do the right thing now that he knew how she felt. Of course.

  Heath caught her arms, halting her retreat. “I love you, do you hear me? I love you.”

  “This is why I never said anything to you. This is exactly why. I knew you’d feel guilty, or honor bound or some dumbass thing like that. I knew you’d try to do the right thing. I knew it.”

  Her eyes burned with unshed tears but she was determined to hold her ground. After an hour’s fierce thought in the privacy of her apartment this morning, she’d come to the conclusion that she had no choice but to continue with her relationship with Heath, even if that meant playing it out to the bitter, painful end that her brother had predicted.

  She loved Heath and craved being with him too much to walk away from him.

  But that didn’t mean she was prepared to accept his pity or his guilt. She might have nursed her feelings for thirteen years, but she still had her pride and her dignity.

  “You think I’d lie about the way I feel about you, Andie? About how important you are to me?” Heath’s face was tight with the intensity of his emotions. “That night I kissed you and we never even made it to bed, I was terrified I’d messed up one of the best things in my life, but that was the smartest thing I ever did, Andie, because it was the beginning of us.”

  She stared at him, wanting to believe, but it was too perfect. Too convenient. Too close to her dream. The plain-Jane girl only got the guy she’d loved from afar in the movies. In real life, she missed out and made do.

  Heath’s grip tightened on her arms. “I might be slow, baby. I might be the most unobservant, undeserving man on the face of the earth because I didn’t work it out sooner, but once I had you in my arms I knew I didn’t want to let you go. I knew that it was right, and that everything would be wrong without you from that moment on. I knew that I didn’t want to imagine a future without you in it.”

  He cradled her jaw in his hand and looked into her eyes. “I see you, Andie. I finally see you, and I adore you. I’m nuts about you. I want you to move into the house with me and make it a home. I want us to get married. I want us to do the whole family thing. I want it all, Andie, because you’re the only person it will ever make sense with.”

  His mouth found hers and he kissed her, cradling her face in both his hands. His kiss was both tender and demanding, and she realized that he was trembling with the force of his feelings, all six foot one of him. Something broke loose inside of her then and she opened her mouth beneath his, her hands fisting in the fabric of his t-shirt as she drew him tightly to her.

  Because only a fool would make do when the man she loved was offering her the future she wanted. And Andie had never been a fool.

  She kissed him as though it was the last kiss they’d ever share, as if time was about to end, as if she only had this one precious, perfect moment to share with him. And he kissed her back, his arms hard as steel around her, and it sank into her bones that this was real, that he meant what he was saying, that he wanted her.

  He loved her.

  He really loved her. After all these years, he was finally hers.

  “Tell me you believe me,” he said as he kissed his way across the slope of her cheek to her ear. “Tell me you want the same things I do.”

  “You know I do.” Her hands were aching, she was grasping his t-shirt so fiercely.

  “Then marry me, Andie. Let’s turn this fake engagement into a real one, because I don’t want to waste another second of my life without you.”

  For a moment it was all too much. His love, his proposal, the future he was offering her. She’d bounced from huge doubt to this in the space of a couple of hours. She was overwhelmed. Overloaded.

  He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing nervously as he waited for her answer, and she saw the uncertainty in him, the hope, and it hit her that this was just as big a moment for him as it was for her. Suddenly he was simply Heath, the man she’d known almost her entire life, and the comfort and serenity and certainty she’d felt this morning as she watched the sunrise in his arms washed over her.

  The doubts her brother had fanned into flames blew away like dust, along with thirteen years of never being the one. She loved this man, and he loved her. Whatever else they had to work out between them they could muddle through along the way.

  Her mouth curved into a smile as she looked into his eyes. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Heath McGregor.”

  Because what else could she possibly say?

  He wrapped his arms around her, pressing his cheek to hers. “Thank God. I love you, Andie.”

  “I love you, too, Heath. So much.”

  Thirteen years she’d waited to say those words, and they flew from her lips so easily, so naturally.

  His arms tightened around her. “You have no idea how good it is to hear you say that.”

  “You have no idea how good it is to say it.”

  “Say it again.”

  “I love you.”

  He pressed a kiss to the angle of her jaw. “Again.”

  “I love you.”

  He kissed her ear lobe. “More.”

  “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

  He punctuated each declaration with a fresh kiss, finding her temple, the tip of her nose, the slope of her shoulder. She laughed, tilting her head obligingly as he found new places to anoint, and the floating-away-with-happiness feeling gripped her again.

  “Do you ever have the feeling that a moment is too good to be true? Like you’re watching it in a movie, or maybe it’s a dream?” she asked him impulsively.

  He took his time answering, his gaze scanning her face with loving intensity. “Only when I’m with you.”

  She closed her eyes, savoring his words, savoring the buoyant, warm expansive feeling behind her breastbone.

  This is the first moment of the best of my life, she thought.

  Opening her eyes, she looked at the man she was going to marry, the man she’d loved for half her life, and she kissed him.

  Maybe some moments were too good to be true, but that didn’t mean they weren’t real.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Andie hefted the picnic hamper, listing a little to one side with the weight of the thing.

  “We packed way too much food,” she said.

  Heath reached out and pulled the hamper from her hand. “We’ll see.”

  She grabbed the waterproof picnic blanket and her car keys. “That wasn’t a challenge.”

  “I know, but I’m a man of big appetites.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

  “Now, that feels like a challenge.”

  “Feel free to take me up on it anytime.”

  She laughed, a
nd he used his body to back her against the counter before lowering his head to kiss her. She let the blanket fall to the floor, reaching up to grip his big shoulders, giving herself over to the moment.

  It had been twelve days since he’d declared himself on the sidewalk in front of her apartment building, and every day he showed her in new ways how much she meant to him. True to his word, he’d insisted she move into the Riverbend house, and now her few pieces of furniture dotted the otherwise empty rooms, dwarfed by the scale of the home he’d built. As Lily had dryly pointed out, they weren’t going to win any interior decorating awards, but Andie didn’t give a flying fig.

  She was living with the man she loved, waking up in his arms every morning. As far as she was concerned, they could be living in a shack in the middle of a swamp and she’d still be giddy with happiness.

  “What time does this picnic shindig start, anyway?” Heath asked as he lifted his head, his dark eyes glinting with intent.

  “Half an hour ago.”

  “Plenty of time.”

  He lowered his head again, but she laughed and held him off. “We’re the guests of honor, remember?”

  He sighed and rested his forehead against hers. “Okay. But only because I owe the Chamber of Commerce for coming up with the wedding giveaway scheme in the first place.”

  “How do you figure that?”

  He dropped one last kiss onto her lips. “Because otherwise it might have taken me longer to see what was right under my nose.”

  “I would have gotten sick of waiting at some point and just pounced on you,” she said confidently.

  In truth, she owed the anonymous woman who had handed her the entry form at the ball an enormous debt of gratitude.