and desire.
There was definitely a whole lot of desire.
“You sure about this, punkin?”
Chrissie never took her eyes off Colt, who was standing at the edge of her lawn at the proverbial altar. His eyes sought her out and smiled when he caught her staring. She couldn’t help herself. He made her happy, and she made him happy. “Yes, Daddy. I’m sure about this.” She honestly couldn’t remember a time she’d been surer about anything.
“He’s a good man.”
“He is.” She knew Colt to be an awesome man. She couldn’t imagine a better one for her. He didn’t encourage her to quit her lowly retail job but instead encouraged her side job of engraving. He seemed to like that she had an artistic side and that she liked being domestic in her own home. She valued some traditions, and she wanted to start new ones.
“Did he ever tell you that he used to call and ask me about you?”
She did look away from Colt then and met her father’s steady brown gaze. “Yes. I couldn’t really understand why, but I’m glad he did. How many times did he do it?”
“Oh I don’t know. Enough to let me know he genuinely cared about my little girl. You made some kind of impression on that young man. I hope he treats you right.”
“Is that why you brought the shotgun, Daddy?”
“Is that why you’re wearing a piece in your garter, Daughter?”
Chrissie feigned a little shock but giggled just the same. “How’d you know?”
“You’re walking a little different. I remember when you went around wearing hip holsters for a couple of weeks as a kid. The weight distribution when you walked was off.”
“I should’ve known you’d catch on.”
“I don’t miss anything when it comes to you.”
“Christina.”
Chrissie straightened and closed her eyes. A bit of déjà vu clicked in her head at the sound of her mother’s voice. It was close to this time on her last wedding day that she’d been told to hold her head high and rein in her feelings. She didn’t have to do that this time. Her groom was present and was just a few seconds’ walk from where she stood on her back porch, waiting to be escorted and handed over to him. She had nothing to fear today, nothing to dread.
She turned. “Yes, Mama?”
Her mother’s gaze lingered over Chrissie’s gown before meeting her eyes. She opened her arms, and Chrissie rushed into them for a quick, tight hug. “You need to hitch yourself to that man, young lady. I told you he needed the love of a good woman, and I know you needed the love of a good man. He’s the one, and he’s waiting,” she was told.
“Yes, Mama.”
“And Christina? Tell your father to put that gun down. He’s not going to need it today.”
* * * *
“You really did marry me.”
Chrissie and Colt were seated at a small table, sharing a piece of cookie cake. They hadn’t given people and vendors much time at all to get things ready, and true to his word, he’d given Chrissie a cake made with cookies. The cake part itself was simple vanilla. The filling was made of Corners Cookies cookie filling with bits of cookie mixed in. The whole thing was frosted with vanilla buttercream, and each layer was dotted with cookies.
Colt fed his new bride a bite of cake, which she greedily took off his fork. “Of course I really married you. I was never not going to marry you.”
“I was never not going to marry you either. So we’re even and you’re stuck with me.”
“That’s all I wanted out of this whole thing. To be stuck with you.”
“I, umm… I have a confession to make.”
This time, Chrissie offered him a bite of the cake, and he took it. It was delicious. He couldn’t remember the last time he had enjoyed cake so much. “Oh yeah? What?”
“I used to dream about you.”
Damn, that was sexy information. “Did you now? And what kind of dreams did you have of me?”
“Several of the sexual variety.”
Colt laughed and had to take a swallow of his champagne. She would never fail to surprise him and keep him on his toes. Their first night together she had come prepared to have sex with him. Now on their wedding day she told him that she’d had sexual dreams about him. She wasn’t afraid to be open with him, to reveal things about herself with him. “I’m so very fucking lucky to have you.”
“Why? Because I dreamed