Brazing (Forged in Fire #2) (25 page)

“Those sound like marriage vows,” I whispered.

“Maybe they should be.” His voice was just as quiet.

“We got a lot to figure out before any of that!” I was almost appalled at how quickly he wanted to jump into marriage. I wanted to be mad at him too! This was exactly what I wanted to avoid when I didn’t tell him about my illness. I didn’t want him to start making rash plans and throwing his life away.

Only… only with Bridger it suddenly didn’t feel like these were rushed decisions. Instead, it felt like we had been on this path since we were kids. The sickness was an obstacle, but that was it. We didn’t have to be tied down by silly things like chemo or hair loss. We had each other. And we didn’t need much else.

Bridger’s arm tightened around my waist and he trailed kisses over my forehead. “I’m not worried about figuring it out, Tate. I’m more concerned with making you mine and turning this life I lead by myself into a life I share with you. I love you. I’m not sure there’s anything else.”

Okay, well, when he talked like that… “I love you too.”

“Mmm,” he sighed. “Say it again.”

“I love you, Bridger.”

“Now say, I won’t ever keep secrets from you again, Bridger.”

I chuckled but when along with his fun. “I won’t ever keep secrets from you again, Bridger.”

“Good.” He sounded so gruff that I laughed again. “Now say, Bridger, I’ll get better and marry you.”

I picked my head up again and my mouth dropped open. “You’re crazy.”

“Say it.” His eyes were pleading and his hands clutched at me like he was afraid I’d float away any second.

I could see how terrified he was to lose me. I realized then that was my greatest fear too. I had a lot to be afraid of, but losing Bridger beat everything else.

“Bridger, I’ll get better and marry you.”

His face relaxed completely and a smug grin lit his face. He coaxed me back to lie down on his chest and we didn’t talk again.

Honestly, there wasn’t much else to say at the moment. We both had all the important things in our life and even in this dreary, depressing hospital room, we’d found complete peace and happiness.

He loved me. He was going to stay with me.

He wanted to marry me.

And I couldn’t have asked for more.

Except maybe some good test results.

I could still ask for those.

But either way, I knew Bridger would be with me every step of the way and things weren’t nearly as scary as they were before. In fact, nothing was as scary as before. 

Chapter Twenty-Five

Bridger

A week later, Tate was able to go back home—to her dorm.

Which was completely unacceptable.

She’d been finished the semester just barely but had decided, not without me constantly needling her, to take the next semester. She was very weak, but the doctors were optimistic about her going back into remission.

In my mind, there was no other choice other than remission.

There just wasn’t.

She didn’t know it, but our house was already being built. One two-hour phone call to Stockton, in which I poured my heart out, and the building was already underway. And my brother, as giving as anyone I’d ever known, was funding the entire thing.

He’d always told us that the money he made from what Dad started belonged to us all.

And if anyone in this world kept his word, it was Stockton.

“Is there anything else?” I asked her, looking around the room.

“I don’t think so. I just need a minute by myself.”

Since she wasn’t currently a student anymore, we were moving her back to Preacher’s house and I was going back home. It was all against my will. I’d even lined up a house to rent until the cabin was completed, but was she having any of that? No. I walked out of the room with her last bag and a box of books.

She might be a little frail, but Tate Halloway tore me up for even suggesting that she live with me until the cabin could be built.

“Really? How do you think that would go over with my grandfather—the preacher!”

“I’m already staying over here every night anyway.”

“Sooooo not the same thing.”

It wasn’t a long conversation.

I really got in trouble when I started laughing.

“What are you laughing about?”

“I just got a little taste of what our fights are gonna be like when we’re married.”

Then we’d both started laughing.

I waited in the hallway for her for a few minutes while she said goodbye to everything. She was a sentimental sap. I’d discovered that while packing up her teddy bear from when she was a kid. I loved that about her. And it was especially fitting since I was just as sappy as her—but only with her.

We got into the truck, the back and bed filled with our stuff.

The last thing in the world I wanted to do was bring her to Preacher’s house. It was hurting me already thinking about sleeping without her tucked against me right where she belonged.

I’d just have to marry her that much faster.

“So, I’m supposed to leave for Holland right after Valentine’s Day. And my birthday is on Valentine’s Day.”

She giggled and scooted over to the middle seat, refastening her seatbelt afterwards. “That makes a lot of sense. That’s why you’re so gooshy.”

I chose to ignore that dig.

“And you’re coming with me, right?”

This is the one topic we’d avoided and I was tired of avoiding it. Truth be told, if she wasn’t willing to come with me, then I would pass on the job. Tate was my number one priority and nothing short of death could separate me from her again. Not even Vikings.

She took my hand as a procrastination tactic and it worked. I swore that every time she touched me I lost myself in her more and more. How I had ever avoided her was beyond me.

“I don’t know, Bridger. Can’t we just wait until my follow-up doctor’s appointment before we plan anything? I just don’t want you to base any more of your life on me.”

“All of my life from now on is going to be parallel with you. Get over it. I love you and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

All she did was sigh, exasperated with me already.

“You mind if we stop by the land before I have to take you home?”

“You just want to make-out in the woods. You’re not fooling me.”

“Nope. We’ve got plenty of time to make-out in those woods. Besides, I’m hoping for more than just making out after we are married. Why do you think I asked them to make the bathroom tub look like a baptismal?”

Tate slapped me as hard as she could on the thigh.

“Ow!”

“You DID not. Please tell me you didn’t.”

“Of course I didn’t. The plans are in the glove box if you want to see.”

As soon as she opened the glove box, I realized my mistake.

“What’s this?” She inspected the wooden box with care. I’d had the box made for her with her initials carved into the cedar. It was her Christmas gift, but since I didn’t know where she’d be for Christmas yet, I carried it with me everywhere I went.

“It’s a box.”

“Smartass. These are my initials.”

“Really? I had no idea.”

She turned it around and around in her hand and then moved to put it back. “You’re not going to open it?”

“Well, you didn’t say anything. I’m assuming either nothing is in it or you don’t want me to see it yet.”

I mulled it over while I exited the highway toward home. “You can open it when we get to the property.”

She squirmed next to me. “Are you sure?”

“Yes ma’am.”

We got to Constance an hour later. We had to pass up the original Wright home before getting to mine. I could’ve easily had a road leading from the old driveway to my land, but it seemed more private to have my own gravel driveway put in. Like it was ours.

“Bridger?” She gasped as we pulled in. The cabin foundation was built and the studs were already put in for the walls. The layout of the whole place could be envisioned easily. It was built in true log cabin style with the bark left intact. Most of it was built right from the trees removed from the land. I’d tried to get a wish list from her for the layout and the amenities, but she said she was just blessed to have a house at all. Looking over at her, she wore an expression of worry.

“What about the bottles?”

I loved how worried she looked about where they were like she was mourning them. “I guess they became part of the foundation.”

She pouted and I nearly blabbered my secret. We had decided no more secrets, but this was one for the books. She would thank me for this secret later.

“You wanna go in?”

“Yeah. It’s so beautiful.”

We walked up the driveway to the stairs and that’s when I reached over and scooped her up.

“We are not married yet, Bridger.”

“Ah, Darlin,’ I’m counting on yet. My whole life is betting everything it has on yet. That being said, there is no one else I will ever carry over this threshold. So give it up.”

She was still thin and weighed practically nothing. I took her on the tour, explaining what everything would look like when it was done. I picked her up again as we crossed through the door to the bedroom.

“Can’t be too careful.”

“You are a mess.”

There was something special I wanted her to see in the bedroom. There was a huge walk-in closet and a monstrous bathroom.

“Wait, that’s the closet?” She pointed across the room.

“Yep.”

“And that’s the bathroom?”

She was growing more and more confused by the second. It was all I could do not to laugh.

“Yep.”

“What’s that?”

A small room was built off the side of the master bedroom and while she could use it for whatever she wanted, I’d planned it for one purpose.

“I thought maybe you could use it as a sewing room—for all your wild outfits. I want you to go back to school when you’re ready. And I want to support you in whatever you do.”

“What if I don’t want to use it as a sewing room?”

I shrugged. She could use that room to play chess in for all I cared. I just wanted her to have a space of her own that she could pursue whatever she wanted. She deserved that.

She deserved her own island, but a country boy could only do so much.

"It would make a good nursery.”

She blushed and covered her face with her hands. I didn’t waste any time grabbing her up by the waist. But when Tate wrapped her legs around my waist, I knew that bringing her to Preacher’s house later just became ten times harder. When our mouths met, the insurgence of pure bliss washed over me and took me away. I could feel her smile as we kissed and that’s all I needed in the world.

Tate’s happiness was all I needed—always.

“Ahem. You know there’s no walls, right?”

I pulled back from Tate’s mouth and she buried her face in my neck in embarrassment. “My parents needed a TV. There are way too many siblings around here.”

Her whole body shook in laughter and it did nothing to quell my want for her. The sound of her happiness just made me want walls even more.

“Go away. This is our house, walls or not.”

“Hey! You build a house this close to family, you better get used to people just walking in.”

“Not if I lock you out.”

“You’d have to get doors first.”

Willa Wright was a pain in my ass.

“Give them a break, Willa. You’ll be there one day too and then all the brothers are going to give you hell.”

That made me let Tate go and turn on both of them.

“The hell she will. She won’t be there until she’s thirty.”

Cami rolled her eyes and threw her arms in the air.

“Word to the wise, Willa, find someone tough if they have to deal with these three galoots.”

We were all laughing when Tate’s phone buzzed. “Those people have ESP. I swear it. Grams just texted me not to stay out too late at the Wright’s.”

“She’s psychic. But don’t tell her that. She’ll throw Scriptures at you and make you read Exodus. Apparently psychic abilities are frowned upon in our church. Believe me.”

Poor Cami.

“Stock said he wants to talk to you anyway. That’s why he sent us. Get the girl home and then get yourself home.”

“Yeah.”

I waited until they walked away. Tate attempted to get away, but I stopped her and recaptured the position we were in again, pressing her against the door frame.

“Say it. Say you love me right here in our house.”

“You’re just trying to make me blush again.”

I grabbed her by the hips and tugged her in tighter. “No, if I was trying to make you blush I’d say more about christening this room—and wedding nights—and honeymoons—and nurseries.”

Her blush turned a bright crimson.

Nailed it.

“Fine. Bridger Wright, I do declare, in this very home, that I love you now and for the rest of my life.”

I shook my head. “Nope. Not good enough. Your granny is gonna be upset if you’re late. Make it right this time.”

She grabbed my face and pulled me so that our lips were touching, barely.

“Bridger Wright I will love you from now until the end of time. Better?”

“Much.”

“Now can I have whatever is in the box in your back pocket?”

Nothing slipped past her—nothing.

“Yes ma’am.”

I took the box from my back pocket and gave it to her, opening it so she could see it. I felt like an idiot giving her such a piddly gift. Even standing in this cabin that was costing Stockton a fortune, I felt like wasn’t enough.

“Tell me what each one is for.”

She fingered the charms and I realized they probably had more meaning to me than they did to her.

I pointed to the first one. “This is for the swimsuit I begged my mom to buy for you when you didn’t have one like all the other girls.” She gasped. I knew she didn’t know that, but there were no more secrets, other than one, that I wanted to keep from her. “This is supposed to be overalls for those cute ones you used to wear all the time. This one is a wild curl just like yours. The bottles and pieces of paper are for all the loves notes I wrote you. The church is the first place you kissed me. I thought the baptismal would be too telling. The hearts and the rings—those are pretty self-explanatory.”

She didn’t say anything and I nearly grabbed it back from her and started to apologize.

“Bridger.” She whispered. “Put it on me, please.”

“You like it?”

She smiled up at me with gray eyes that I could stare at for eternity. My heart pumped a rhythm in my ears waiting for her response. It felt like my whole life’s weight was on that one answer.

“I love it. But not as much as I love you.”

Epilogue

Tate

“Mrs. Wright,” my new husband murmured against my temple. “I’ll never get tired of saying that.”

I closed my eyes and let him hold me while we danced. Had life ever been this perfect? This blissful? I couldn’t even speak because of the fullness of my heart. It manifested itself into fierce emotion that was desperate to pour out of me.