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Help. Help him. He needs help. Do something!

The thoughts bombarded her. Over and over, she listened as Colt struggled to answer the questions.

Lord, what can I do? How can I help him?

A silent peace released the tension from her neck to her feet as the idea dawned.

“I’ll be helping,” Remi said. “Between the two of us, the kids will always have someone to look after them. I’ll be dropping Ben off at school and picking him up in the evenings.”

“That’s good to know.” Janet made more notes with the clicking of her fingernails on the keys. “And your job?”

“I work at the ranch too, but I’ll be off during the winter months.”

“Oh, well, I guess that settles the childcare concerns, at least for now.”

Remi reached for Colt’s hand and threaded her fingers with his. “Actually, Colt and I will be getting married soon.”

Colt coughed and tried to release her hand to cover his mouth, but she held firm. With no time to chat about her decision, she hoped Colt would play along.

“We’ve been talking about tying the knot for a while, and this seems like as good a time as any. Right, sweetie?”

Colt stared at her, completely paralyzed by her revelation. She pulled her smile tighter and gave him a slight nod.

Catch on, Walker. We don’t have all day.

“Um, yeah…sweetie.”

Her shoulders relaxed as she accepted her new role. She could do this for him. She could help. They’d be better together, right?

Her head and heart were in agreement. She knew exactly what the Lord was telling her to do–stop fighting it and show Colt they could be a good team.

Granted, he might not want this. He might still want that family he’d been dreaming about. She couldn’t give him that, could she? He was her best friend, and she cared about him, but would he even be able to care about her when he found out about all the awful things she’d done in her life?

Twenty-six years had given her time to dabble in all of the drugs, drink through all of the liquor, and commit all of the crimes. Granted, her criminal record was clean. She’d somehow avoided the authorities each time she’d bent the rules. She’d robbed, lied, cheated, and scammed, but God was the only witness.

No, maybe she was being stupid. What had seemed like a perfect idea moments ago felt like she’d just slapped Colt with a life sentence.

“Congratulations,” Janet said, though her excitement seemed oddly dim. “We can go ahead and get started on your background check as well then.”

Oh no. While she didn’t have a rap sheet, she did have medical records documenting her overdose. That one last time the drugs had almost taken everything from her. And while she had tons of regrets, she could see the bright side of that dark moment. She’d met Kendra, who had led her to her new life at Wolf Creek Ranch and gave her a fresh start–one she never took for granted.

It had been years since she’d even thought about drugs or alcohol, but would those mistakes come back to rear their ugly heads now?

Remi kept a firm hold on Colt’s hand and tried to ignore his stare that tickled her neck. “Right. What do you need from me?”

Chapter12

Colt

Colt clenched and stretched his hands as he walked out of Janet’s office. Remi fell into step beside him like she hadn’t just thrown a hand grenade into his already jumbled day.

Getting married? Was that some kind of cry for help? There was no way on God’s green earth that Remi Taylor had willingly said she was going to marry him.

When they were a safe distance from Janet’s office, Colt rounded on Remi and whisper-screamed, “Have you lost your mind?”

Remi had the nerve to roll her eyes. “Don’t panic. You said I’d make a good wife.”

“How can you be joking right now?” Colt’s sense of humor was thoroughly sealed in a concrete box at the moment, and he couldn’t reason out Remi’s plan in all this.