Before I can process or react myself, firm yet soft hands gently press on my shoulders to slowly turn me around.
Jude’s finger lifts my chin, a warm tingle I don’t expect spreading out over my body from where he touches me. I lose myself in his soulful brown eyes before his gaze roams over my face, as if he’s taking me in.
Then he says the last thing I ever thought I’d hear.
“Marion Wilson, with your father’s blessin’, and in front of your family and some of mine, will you do me the honor of marryin’ me and becomin’ my wife today?”
“What?” I squeak, my body stuck in place as his words race through my head on repeat.
“Will. you. marry. me?” he repeats.
“What?” I’m a little louder this time.
Jude dips his head and leans in to touch mine so that he’s all I can see, his eyes boring into mine with such intensity and beauty that my mind goes blank of everything but him before he says the words that seal my fate.
“Give the man his dyin’ wish, Em. I promise I will never let you regret tyin’ yourself to me. Whatever happens, you’ll always be safe with me.”
What the?—
Chapter 2
Jude
“Dad promised to take care of everythin’ and will meet us at Wilson Ranch at four,” Birdie announces as she walks out onto the porch of our ranch house where me, my brothers, and sisters-in-law are all gathered.
Birdie’s dad, Pete, is the mayor of Timber Falls. He also got himself ordained on the internet so that he could marry Birdie and Will a little while ago, which means he can carry out the ceremony today.
After what went down at Wilson Ranch, Blair checked Sully over one last time before she announced we would be back in a few hours. With a final glance at the woman who was now my bride-to-be, Sutton dragged me back to the truck and drove us back to our side of the mountain.
During the drive, I stared out the window in the back while willing the hamster wheel in my brain to slow down a bit. Sutton and Blair talked amongst themselves in the front but I didn’t miss the way Sutt kept checking on me in the rearview mirror. They both tried talking to me on our way down the mountain but gave up when I didn’t know what to tell them. How can I explain to them what happened when I don’t even know myself?
“Will you do me the honor of marryin’ me?”
Yes, that really just happened. I blame Gramps. And my gut instinct. And the Call.Damn mountain spirit…
I can’t explain it. In that moment, I justknewwhat I had to do. It was like there was something deep inside telling me that Em needed me. Themountainneeded me…us.
As soon as Sully looked me in the eye and said, “You know what I want, Jude,” there was zero doubt in my mind. It was like my mouth ran on autopilot but my heart and soul knew this was meant to be.
It was a foregone conclusion. An inevitability.
“My girl brought this family together and it’s her that will unite the mountain again.”
I sit on the porch swing with my head in my hands as I try to wrap my head around what’saboutto happen. Moments later, the seat shifts as someone joins me.
“You don’t have to do it,” Will says, being the big brother he thinks I need him to be.
I straighten and turn to look at him. “It’s her, Will. Iknowshe’s my One. I’m just…”
The corner of his mouth twitches up. “Reelin’ that you’ve promised a dyin’ man you’ll marry his daughter? And a Wilson at that?”
“Pretty much,” I sigh.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not second-guessing my decision. It’s just the longer I sit here, the more it’s hitting me that Em and I knownothingabout each other. Likezero…”
Something jogs at my memory and I look over to where Birdie and Case’s wife, Isla, are standing together. “You two went to school with Em, right?”
Birdie nods. “She was a year behind us, I think. Nice girl. Smart.”