“So you think you’ll be riding again soon?” She glanced at him.
“Yeah. I hope so.”
They’d covered this territory already, but since she brought it up again Garret figured this was it. He braced himself for the divorce discussion. She might even have the papers on her now. He eyed her purse, trying to decide if it was big enough to hold divorce papers. And if it was, he’d just cowboy up and sign them. What else could he do? Nothing.
“I was thinking… Maybe we better stay married for a little while. You know, in case you get hurt again.”
Garret’s eyes opened wide. He’d felt ill waiting for her to ask for a divorce. That fear disappeared, though the hangover remained. That he could handle. He could deal with anything at all with Silver by his side. “Really? That’d be okay with you?”
“Sure. Why wouldn’t it be?” she asked.
“We’ve hardly talked lately.” He shrugged, acting far more casual than he felt. “I thought maybe you’d met someone.” And that thought had caused him far more grief than being out for the beginning of the season had.
“Me? No. There’s no one. I haven’t heard from you a whole lot lately either.” She glanced down at the ugly hotel carpet.
He knew her enough to know when she was uncertain. She wasn’t sure what he wanted either. Had he suffered for weeks thinking she wanted a divorce and she hadn’t? It seemed as if simple lack of communication had caused this mess. Time to put things out in the open and end his torture.
He took one step forward. “That’s because I thought you were tired of me and ready to get the divorce.”
She took a step closer as well and met his gaze. “Why in the world did you think that?”
“At Luke’s wedding you said we shouldn’t tell anyone about the marriage because we were just getting divorced soon anyway.” Garret watched her react. She looked surprised.
“And you agreed with me.” Her tone rose higher.
“What was I supposed to do? I was grateful you married me at all. Your insurance paid for my surgery. I couldn’t complain when you said you wanted to get divorced.”
“I didn’t want to.” She sighed and shook her head. “It’s fine. We’ll stay married for now and you can keep the health coverage.”
Could she really believe, after all they’d been to each other, that he only wanted her for her health benefits?
“Silver.” He reached out and ran a hand down her arm. Time to confess his true feelings. “I want to stay married, but it’s not for your insurance.”
There’d been enough lies and half-truths with everyone else. Between the two of them, it was time to be completely open.
“No?”
“No.” Garret shook his head.
“Why then?” Her voice softened as her gaze held his.
He drew in a breath. “You’re gonna make me say it?”
She nodded. “Yes, I think I am.”
“It’s because…I’m pretty sure I love you.” He held his breath and waited.
She cocked one brow. “You’re
pretty sure
?”
“No, I’m sure. I love you.” Garret laughed and shook his head. He should have known she wouldn’t make this easy on him.
“That’s good, because I’m pretty sure I love you too.” Silver smiled and leaned in until they were chest to chest. “But we’re going to have to tell Aaron now. I’m tired of sneaking around to get time alone with you.”
So was Garret. “I agree. Hell, I’ll go downstairs to the front desk right now and get us our own room for the weekend.”
She groaned as her hands crept lower to cup his ass through the towel. “That would be amazing.”
He started to react to her closeness, but he couldn’t let all the blood go to his dick because there was more to straighten out right now. “There’s one more thing. I want to tell everyone everything. Your parents. My dad. Our friends. I want to start this thing between us fresh with no lies.”
“No lies at all?” She put on a frown before she broke into a grin. “Oh, okay. If that’s what you want.”
“It is.” Garret dipped his head.
Male voices down the hall told him they didn’t have much longer to be alone.
Silver glanced at him. “Okay, so first we confess the truth, then we get that room and make up for lost time?”
“That sounds very good to me.” Garret glanced at the door. “But I want you to know something. This isn’t just about sex, just like it’s not about insurance. We may have started this relationship backward, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to do it right now. I want to go on dates with you. I want to kiss you in public. Hell, even on camera if there happen to be any around. I want to be a real couple like Luke and Annie or Chase and Leesa. See how it feels.”
She smiled. “I’d like that.”
“You certain? They’ll be in here in a second. Better decide now. You sure you want to be stuck with me for the foreseeable future?”
“Yup. You?”
“No question in my mind.” He smiled and couldn’t resist. Even though they didn’t have time for it, he bent lower and claimed her mouth with his.
They were still kissing, wrapped in each other’s arms when the door opened.
“Susan? What the hell? And Garret, why the fuck are you naked with my sister?”
Garret pulled back to see a pissed-off Aaron leading the pack. Behind him Chase grinned and Skeeter’s eyes opened wide, before he frowned. “Wait. Who’s Susan?”
He had to laugh at that. There sure was a lot to explain. “You guys better all sit. It’s a long story.” Garret glanced down at Silver. “You ready for this?”
“For anything.” She smiled.
“Me too.”
Epilogue
“You sure about what you’re doing?” Chase leaned in close to Garret and kept his voice low since they were in the middle of the rider meeting, Garret’s first since his operation. The twisting in his gut reminded him of the nerves he was battling. And Chase’s question didn’t help the situation any.
Garret frowned. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be? Tandy says I’m back to one-hundred percent. Are you worried because I didn’t get on any practice bulls?”
Chase laughed. “I’m not talking about riding. I’m talking about…you know. The other thing.”
He traced the outline of his mother’s engagement ring through the denim of his jeans pocket. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
He and Silver had spent as much time as humanly possible with each other since revealing the truth to their closest friends and family. All that time together had proven to him they were perfect together. Yes, they were married already, but he wanted to do it the right way. She deserved the whole thing. The proposal. The diamond. The ceremony and celebration with everyone they loved.
Six months after their first marriage, Garret was ready to give all that to her, starting with the ring his father had proposed to his mother with. He imagined his mother would approve.
“How you going to do it? In the arena so the crowd can see it on the Jumbotron?”
Garret shook his head. “No. That was Luke and Annie’s thing. I have something different in mind. Something that’s special and hers alone.”
“I remember when you were making fun of me for having a girlfriend, and now you’re about to get married. Well, married again. For real. Though it was real before…” Chase shook his head. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I do.” Garret raised one brow and glanced at Chase. “When are you going to take the plunge? You’ve been with Leesa a while.”
“Believe me, I’m trying. She says she won’t marry me until she’s paid off her debts.”
“How big are they?”
“Not that big.” Chase let out a snort. “Hell, I won more than enough to pay them off by taking third in Billings last month, but she won’t let me give her anything.”
Their conversation was cut short when the riders around them started to stand and Garret realized that one more meeting had ended and he hadn’t really heard all that much of it. Maybe he should start sitting up front where he’d have to pay attention, instead of in the back with his friends where they could talk the whole time.
He stood, stretching as he did, appreciating he could do so without any pain in his shoulder. Life was good.
“You two coming to eat with Skeeter and me?” Aaron walked up to them.
“Nope.” Garret shook his head. “I got something to do.”
“Something more important than food?” Skeeter raised a brow. “Aaron said Silver doesn’t get here until tonight, so I know it’s not her.”
“You’ll see.” Garret shrugged and exchanged looks with Aaron. He’d asked both Aaron and Silver’s father for their approval to officially propose to Silver before he’d left her to travel to this event early. She had to work today but she’d be meeting him here tonight.
A few more hours, then he’d put his plan in motion. Garret swallowed and felt the tightness in his throat. He was much more worried about proposing tonight than riding tomorrow. With any luck, he’d be successful in both.
“Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise. Keep your eyes closed.” Garret pulled Silver’s hand toward the entrance.
“I hate surprises.” She may have sounded whiny, but Garret caught the small smile.
“You’ll like this one. Promise.” He paused outside the shop. “Okay. Open them.”
Silver glanced up at the sign and then at him. “A tattoo parlor? Are we getting matching tattoos?”
“Maybe. That’s up to you.” Garret reached into his pocket and dropped to one knee. “Silver, the past six months of my life have been unforgettable—”
“Oh my God.” Silver covered her mouth with the one hand Garret wasn’t holding on to.
“—and I want the rest of my life to be too, with you. Will you do me the honor of marrying me, again, but for forever this time?”
She nodded as the tears filled her eyes.
He slipped the diamond ring over her finger. “It may have to be sized. It was my mother’s.”
“Garret, your mother’s?” A tear spilled down one cheek. She knew what that meant to him. He’d brought her to the cemetery when she’d come to Ohio to meet his father.
“My father wanted us to have it. I think my mother would have too.”
She drew in a huge shaky breath. “I love it.”
He was pretty near bawling himself. Time to change the subject. “So I came up with an idea, just in case you said yes.”
“As if I wouldn’t have.” She rolled her eyes even as she swiped away the wetness from her cheeks.
“Well, I didn’t want to assume anything. But I came here this afternoon and I had the tattoo artist design something for us.”
“I was wondering what we were doing here.” She smiled.
“Come inside and see.” Garret pulled open the door.
The tattooist glanced up from his customer and nodded. “They’re over on the counter by the register.”
“Thanks.” Garret couldn’t help the huge grin when he saw them. Two stencils, one bigger, one smaller, sized to fit each of their ring fingers. He turned to Silver. “I only plan on getting married to one girl in my life, even if I am going to marry her twice. So I had him design this one for me. A wedding-band tattoo.”
Silver’s name, spelled out in script entwined with vines decorated the stencil that would wrap around Garret’s ring finger.
“Oh my God. It’s beautiful.”
He smiled when he saw her eyes tear up again looking at it. “And I had him design the matching one, just in case. You don’t have to, but if you want to, you have the design now.”
“Of course I want to.” She touched the letters of his name with just a fingertip.
“I figured between my mother’s ring and your grandmother’s wedding band, they should cover the tattoo so no one at work will see, but we’ll know it’s there.”
“I don’t care who sees it. I’ll be proud to wear your name.”
“I’m glad.” Now Garret was really in danger of losing it. He took in a deep breath and let it out fast. “Phew. All right. So we’re doing this. I have an appointment for right after the final round on Sunday.”
“Then I want an appointment for then too.”
He pulled her close and kissed her. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” She smiled and then glanced around them. “I wonder if he’s got any jewelry for sale here. I was thinking about getting a different-shaped hood ring, just to mix things up a bit.”
“Uh, yeah. That sounds good.” Garret swallowed hard and tried to control his rising erection. This woman was his wife, and had agreed to be his forever, yet she still could surprise him and make him want to jump her with a single sentence.
He was one lucky man.
About the Author
As an award-winning author of contemporary erotic romance in genres including military, cowboy, ménage and paranormal, Cat Johnson uses her computer so much she wore the letters off the keyboard within a year. She is known for her creative marketing and research practices. Consequently, Cat owns an entire collection of camouflage and western attire for book signings and a fair number of her consultants wear combat or cowboy boots for a living. In her real life, she’s been a marketing manager, professional harpist, bartender, tour guide, radio show host, Junior League president, sponsor of a bull-riding rodeo cowboy, wife and avid animal lover.
To learn more about Cat, please visit
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Look for these titles by Cat Johnson
Now Available:
Red, Hot & Blue
Trey
Jack
Jimmy
Jared
Cole
Bobby
A Few Good Men
Rough Stock
Studs in Spurs
Unridden
Bucked
Ride
Hooked
Flanked
Coming Soon:
Red, Hot & Blue
Model Soldier
A Prince Among Men
His last eight seconds could lead to the longest, most satisfying ride of his life.
Hooked
© 2011 Cat Johnson