“Sure am sorry that I went about this the wrong way at first. You know, beating my chest and not exactly being... I don’t know. Romantic.”

That was it. The word she’d been searching for earlier. For the way he held her even when she was clothed. For the way it felt to lean her head on his shoulder. To be near him. To sleep next to him every night, his strong arm around her waist, his breath on her neck.

“We’ve never been romantic,” she whispered. “Friendly. Sexual. But not romantic.”

He cleared his throat. “Well, a wise man pointed out to me that if you didn’t get any romance from me, you were never going to have it, or you were going to have to find it with someone else. So I figured... I figured I better make some.”

It was an amazing thing. It truly was. Because she would have romance. And she would have friendship. And care. And that was all very wonderful. But somehow, she felt like a piece was missing. Standing there with that gorgeous ring on her finger, and the momentary delight and sense of completion she had felt only minutes earlier dimmed.

What was wrong with her? She couldn’t seem to find what she was looking for. She couldn’t seem to put her finger on it.

“Thank you,” she said, smiling. She rested her hand on his chest, looked at the ring that glittered there on her finger.

This moment felt big and it felt good. It felt right. And for a brief segment of time she was happy to rest in that. Happy to simply be.

Because whatever would happen after this, she didn’t know. And the giant well of everything that this had opened up inside her was...terrifying. Terrifying in ways she couldn’t quite define.

But it was official now. And it was real.

Tomorrow she was going to become Ryder’s wife.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

THE DAY OF the wedding dawned clear and bright. It was already warm, the sun brutal, baking the ground as early as 10 a.m.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, though, and Ryder supposed he had to go ahead and take that as a good omen.

He kept replaying the previous night over and over in his mind.

It had been something different for them.

He had proposed, and she had accepted. He held her hand and walked her back to the camper and had kissed her good-night. And he had left her there.

Purposing that they would be a little bit more traditional than they had been up until that point, and going ahead and staying away from each other in the hours leading up to the wedding.

He didn’t know whether or not she found that romantic. As far as he was concerned, it was about the best he could do. To show her that it meant something. To show her that it wasn’t just a throwaway thing.

It mattered to him.

That they were going to make vows. Vows that were essentially already part of who they were. Already a part of their friendship. But it was going to become official today, in front of their friends and God and everybody. And that mattered.