His roughened finger grazed her chin, lifting it so he could peer into her eyes.
“If you can find it in your heart to forgive me, to love me, marry me all over again. This time for real. And this time because we both love each other.”
He’d given her back her company, her family, her legacy. He’d given her a child. And now he’d given her everything.
“Please,” he pleaded, still holding the box in his outstretched hand.
“I’m pregnant.”
His kiss was deep, soul scorching, passionate, and persuasive. She wrapped her arms around his neck. She had no intention of letting go.
Chapter 23
Mandy glided across the polished dance floor secure in Ty’s arms while the strains of “Bless the Broken Road” streamed from the house speakers of the private room at the Cattleman’s Club. With all eyes on her and Ty, she stole a glance at her handsome husband, looking darn attractive in his black tuxedo. Just as she sported a pair of white embossed leather and gold-studded cowgirl boots under her gown, Ty had insisted on wearing Caiman boots with his tux in true cowboy style.
It was their first dance together as husband and wife, even if they had been technically married for six months already. This, she felt, was the start of their real marriage. One based on love, not convenience or contrivance.
They’d been lucky the Cattleman’s Club could host the reception on such short notice with some persuading from Libby Cochran’s father and his Cheyenne connections. It helped that it was a Tuesday, the same day of the week six months earlier that they had first said wedding vows.
Today the vows had been handwritten, filled with meaning, and recited before a minister. Friends, relatives, and Prescott employees and their families had been invited to celebrate the occasion. Mandy looked down at her Cinderella wedding dress and the diamond-studded platinum wedding band and engagement ring that now graced her finger, and then into the dark, soulful eyes of the man she loved. And who loved her.
How it had happened, how it had all come out right in the end, she couldn’t understand. But that it had filled her with happiness…and contentment.
After a few stanzas where they danced alone, the floor filled, and two little persons on the edge of the crowd caught her eye.
“Look,” Mandy whispered in her husband’s ear. He turned his head in the direction she was staring.
An impish Jake in a dark suit was squiring little Delanie in pink tulle in a rough approximation of dancing. Actually it looked more akin to a slow skip. They’d been ring bearer and flower girl in the ceremony.
“Now that’s the definition of a cute couple,” Mandy said.
“You know if we have a daughter, she’s not going to be able to date until she’s like, thirty.” Ty broke into a smile that was becoming a more frequent feature of his face these days. In fact, he hadn’t stopped smiling since that day at Trace’s house, almost two weeks ago. And that smile got especially broad when he told someone he was going to be a father. And he had told everyone.
“Good luck with that.”
He chuckled. “I’m going to need it if she’s as headstrong as her mother.”
“Or stubborn as her father.”
Mandy spotted Libby, with her ever-expanding waistline and her handsome bronc-riding husband, Chance, slow dancing in a half embrace. Libby smiled in their direction. She was due any day but had insisted she would make the wedding. Naturally, Libby and Cat had been the bridesmaids. Libby wore the only maternity dress she owned—a blue empire-waisted, cocktail-length dress. Cat happened to also have a fitted blue dress available, though Mandy wouldn’t have been surprised if Cat had secretly bought it just for the wedding.
“I like Chance,” Ty said. “He’s a down-to-earth kind of guy. And clearly in love with your girlfriend. We should spend more time with them. We can learn from their experiences with the baby.”
“I’d like that. What did you think of Cat?”
Cat was sitting alone at her table, keeping a watchful eye on her son.
“She’s a strong woman. Raising a son as a single mother and running a ranch operation. I was thinking maybe Trace and she might find common ground, but I think she’s too much for him to handle.”
Mandy shook her head. “I had someone in mind for her too, but I think events are going to keep it from working out.” Over some land dispute, Cat was taking to court the only man she ever talked about these days, and that was a whole other story.
“You never know. Stranger things have happened.” Ty kissed her on the nose.
They certainly had.
Harold and her mother waltzed by. Harold wore his only suit. Her mother had insisted on buying an eggplant-colored mother-of-the-bride dress that she found online, and she had located a seamstress who guaranteed she would hem it in time.