Excerpt
He placed a hand on her shoulder. “You all right?”
She nodded, not looking at him, even though she didn’t think she’d ever be all right again. Her father was dead. A profound sense of forlornness gripped her soul. She bowed her head. She didn’t think it possible to miss him, but she did. More than she ever thought she would. The anguish carved a hole in her chest where her heart should have been.
She fingered the edge of the quilt. “I remember my mother sewing this when I was a little girl,” she whispered.
His hand squeezed. “It’s okay to cry, you know.”
She scoffed. “No, it isn’t.” With a determined toss of her head, she turned her gaze to the wind-swept prairie and stepped away from his comforting hand. She wouldn’t be pitied. Not by Logan, and not by herself. She cleared her throat, jamming her hat low on her head. “We have things to discuss.”
“What things?”
She looked at him and took a breath. “As long as the reverend is here, we should get married.”
Surprise twisted his features as his gray eyes widened. Shame speared her dignity. Her father had claimed Logan would marry her, if for no reason than to get the ranch. Had her father been wrong?
“Pa did talk to you, didn’t he?” She forced her voice not to shake.
Logan coughed hard and studied the frozen ground. “He did.”
“About marrying me?”
Another cough. “Yep.”
“And?”
That brought his head up. “And?”
“Did you agree?”
He chewed on the inside of his cheek for a long heartbeat, the sure sign he was thinking on something serious. His eyes, darker than snow-laden clouds, never wavered from hers. The need to turn tail and run from this humiliation burned through Matt. As it was, she hardened her resolve and continued to stare at him.
At last, his head made a slow move up and down. “I did.”
She fought the relief which flooded her veins. “Why didn’t you just say so then?”
He tucked his chin back at her surely tone. “Thought maybe you’d want to wait a bit. Out of respect for your father.”
She shook her head. “He wanted us to marry. Besides, it doesn’t make sense to have the reverend come all the way out here twice. Might as well get it done.
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