Page 10

Nate

One Year Later…

“If you don’t stop looking at your wife like that, I’m going to have to hose you down.”

I dragged my eyes away from Ellie long enough to glare at Tom, the owner of the guide service. He was grinning at me like the smug bastard he was. He took full credit for me finding Ellie. He was also thinking of retiring and letting me buy him out.

“It’s my wedding day,” I pointed out. “I’m allowed to look at my wife however I want.”

“Wife.” Tom shook his head. “Never thought I’d see the day. Nate Colson, domesticated.”

“I’m not domesticated.”

“You’re wearing a tie.”

“It’s a wedding. People wear ties to weddings.”

“You’re wearing a tie willingly. And you smiled during the ceremony. In front of people.”

I had smiled. Couldn’t help it. The moment Ellie had appeared at the end of the aisle in that simple white dress that made her look like an angel, I’d forgotten there was anyone else in the world.

“She looks beautiful,” Tom continued, following my gaze back to where my wife, damn I still couldn’t get over that, was laughing with her maid of honor. “Happy.”

“She is.” I couldn’t keep the satisfaction out of my voice. “We both are.”

“Good. You deserve it.” Tom knew my story. The injury, the recovery. He’d offered me the guide job to get me out of my cabin.

“Thanks,” I said simply.

“Don’t thank me. Thank the woman who was brave enough to hook you.

” He laughed at his pun. I’d been hearing variations of it the entire day.

But I didn’t mind. Not when I watched Ellie escape her conversation and make her way toward me, weaving between tables full of wedding guests.

The late afternoon sun caught in her hair, and that white dress moved around her like water.

“Gentlemen,” she said when she reached us, sliding her arms around my waist like it was the most natural thing in the world. “Having fun?”

“Your husband was just telling me how domesticated he is.”

Ellie snorted. “Domesticated? This man still leaves his wet towels on the bathroom floor and thinks cereal counts as dinner.”

“See?” Tom, a man married for over thirty years, spread his hands. “Domesticated.”

“I prefer selectively civilized.” I pulled Ellie closer.

“Is that what we’re calling it?” She looked up at me with those brown eyes that still made my chest tight. “What about this morning when you growled at the mailman for taking too long?”

“He was looking at you.”

“He was delivering our mail, Nate. It’s literally his job.”

“He was taking his time about it.”

Tom laughed. “Definitely domesticated. Next thing you know, you’ll be coaching Little League.”

“Don’t push it,” I warned, but I was thinking about the conversation Ellie and I had had last week about maybe, someday, expanding our family. The thought of little girls with her eyes or little boys with her stubborn streak didn’t scare me as much as it should have.

Tom congratulated us one more time, kissed Ellie, and moved away, leaving us alone.

“I should go check on the cake,” Ellie said, but she didn’t move away from me.

“The cake’s fine.”

“And the photographer wants a few more shots of us—”

“The photographer can wait.”

“Nate,” she laughed. “We have guests.”

“We have a tent full of people who are perfectly capable of entertaining themselves. Besides, I have something more important to discuss with my wife.”

“Oh really? And what’s that?”

I leaned down to whisper in her ear while running my hands down her back. “About how much longer we have to stay at this thing before I can get you out of this dress.”

Her cheeks went pink, but her eyes sparked with mischief. “It’s our wedding reception, mountain man. We can’t just disappear.”

“Watch me.”

“Nate Colson, we are not sneaking away from our own wedding.”

“We’re not sneaking. We’re... conducting a private inspection of the bridal suite.” We’d just barely made it under the wire to stay at the lodge which was closing for the winter for renovations.

“A private inspection?”

“Very thorough. Very hands-on.”

She was trying not to smile, but I could see her resolve weakening. “How thorough?”

“The kind that takes hours.”

“Hours?”

“I’m very detail-oriented.”

She slapped me on my shoulder, right where her lure had snagged me. “You’re terrible.”

“And you love me anyway.”

“I do.” She went up on her toes to kiss me, soft and sweet and full of promises. “I really, really do.”

“Good,” I said against her lips. “Because you’re stuck with me now. Legally and everything.”

“Poor me.”

“Poor you.” I grinned down at her. “Ready to be Mrs. Colson forever?”

“I’ve been ready since the day I hooked you.”

“Best day of my life,” I said, meaning every word.

“Mine too. Come on, Mrs. Colson. Let me show you what married life is going to be like.”

I swept her up in my arms, ignoring her protests and the laughter from our guests.

“This is so embarrassing,” Ellie said but she was laughing as I carried her toward the lodge.

“This is so worth it,” I corrected.

And as I kicked open the door to our bridal suite and showed my wife exactly how much I loved her, I couldn’t help but think that sometimes the best things in life really did come with a hook attached.

Sometimes they came with a woman brave enough to change everything.

Sometimes they came with forever.