A Dark & Stormy Knight: A McKnight Romance (McKnight Romances) (37 page)

“If I’ll have you?” There he went again.
Repeating her words like some half-witted echo. “Are you sure?”

Her eyes locked on the candle. Why was
she looking as though she expected him to turn her down?

“I’ve never been more sure,” she
answered, her voice soft. “Riding is important to you, so I’ll support you. I’ll
be in the stands if you want me there. Or I’ll wait for you here. I’ll—”

“Georgia, shut up.”

“What?”

He rose to lean across the table and
caught her face in his hands. “I love you.” His voice came out sounding rusty
from twelve years of suppressed emotion. From not being free to say those
words. “I love you. Riding bulls is an eight-second high a couple of times a
week. But you . . . You were everything else. Seven days a week,
twenty-four hours a day. I never valued that handful of seconds more than you.”
His reward was the glow in her eyes. “I’m done riding. I got what I needed from
it years ago. What I need now”—his voice choked—”is you. Until the day I die.”

Georgia picked up Sol’s aluminum coffee
pot. She glanced around, making sure he was nowhere in sight, held it over the
trash, and let it fall. There. She’d never have to drink coffee brewed in that
horrid thing again.

Her own drip coffee maker, along with
everything she’d moved from Dallas last week, including Eden’s cat, was already
sitting in a box in their new home. The house on the old Gunderson place, the
one Sol had shown her the day they’d skinny dipped at the swimming hole, needed
some remodeling, but like most ranchers, Sol was more than capable of making it
a house she and Eden would be happy in. It wasn’t as though she wanted the Taj
Mahal after all.

Georgia pulled the half-empty can of
Maxwell House from the cupboard and considered letting it accompany the coffee
pot to the local landfill, but like Sol, she’d been raise with the
waste-not-want-not philosophy. She’d convert him to her brand of coffee when
this was gone.

A thump came from the bedroom where Sol
was breaking down his bed. A few minutes later, he appeared in the doorway. “Well,
that’s done,” he said as he crossed the living room to meet her in the kitchen.
“The bedroom’s ready to go.”

She greeted her husband with a kiss,
which he enthusiastically returned. They both leaned back, arms looped around
each other’s waists, grinning like fools.

“Are we ready to move to our new home,
Mrs. McKnight?”

“We are, Mr. McKnight.”

Their wedding had been small with family
and close friends in attendance. Eden had stood as Georgia’s maid of honor.
Zach had been Sol’s best man. It had been perfect, though they’d had to rush a
bit so Ephram could attend before he left for basic training.

Georgia’s mother had even behaved herself,
though Georgia expected that was the result of serious talks with both her
father and Bethany. Georgia had invited Tommy, who’d brought Lydia as his date,
and of course, Daniel and Deanne. She’d finally met Tracy, who sported the ring
Daniel had taunted Sol with. Tracy had also thanked Georgia for giving Deanne
the motherly support Tracy hadn’t been able to while she’d fought her
addiction.

Giving up her job in Dallas had been
hard, but the grade school in Tyler had an unexpected opening for a fifth-grade
teacher. Georgia nailed the interview, and the job was hers. She’d been working
like crazy on her new lesson plans, but she was looking forward to the
challenge.

All in all, life was pretty perfect. That
wouldn’t last, of course. She and Sol were both too bullheaded to float
joyously through life for long, as he proved when he scanned his boxed-up
kitchen.

His face crinkled as though he’d seen the
inexplicable. “What’s my coffee pot doing in the trash?”

She should have buried it under the other
refuse. “I have a newer one—”

He held on to her with one arm and
reached for the pot with the other. “But this is still good.” His mouth pursed.
“Maybe Zach and Maddie could us it.”

“No.” She put her hand over his to keep
him from salvaging it. “No, Sol. This makes the world’s worst coffee. I’m not
letting you create problems in Maddie and Zach’s marriage.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“Yes, it is. You could tar roads with
this coffee. Trust me. This is a deal breaker. If you love me, you’ll let it go
to its final resting place.”

Sol grinned. “Well, I do love you. If
this is the sacrifice I have to make to prove it . . .” His grin
faded and he eyed her speculatively. “I’ll give up the coffee pot on one
condition.”

“What’s that?” Was he really going to
bargain with her on this minor point? Couldn’t he give it to her because he
loved her?

“I’ll give up the coffee pot if you give
up that tin can you drive and let me get you something better. Something safer.
A Humvee maybe.”

“A Humvee?” She laughed. Dear Lord, if
that wasn’t overkill, she didn’t know what was. “I’ll give up the Kia, but no
Humvee.”

His grin came back. “Good enough.” His
hand opened and the coffee pot fell back into the trash.

Had the Humvee merely been a point to
negotiate from? Not that it mattered. She’d already decided to agree the next
time he brought up her car.

A pickup with a horse trailer behind it
pulled up outside and parked beside her car. Sol gave her a quick kiss before
opening the door for Gideon and Zach. Eden was with her uncles, and Georgia put her to work carrying smaller boxes while the men hauled furniture out to the
trailer.

Their daughter was excited to be moving
into a new home and having her parents together for the first time in her life.
She was riding horses again and helping Daisy train them, but so far, she
showed no interest in competing. Georgia was satisfied with that, but if Eden changed her mind, Georgia had promised herself she’d be okay with that, too.

After Eden and the boys left with the
last load, Georgia swept the kitchen. Even though this had been Sol’s home, she
felt a proprietary need to leave it spotless for Gideon, who would be moving in
next. She left the broom for him as well.

Sol caught her in his arms and kissed her
when she was done. Still holding her, he looked around. “I didn’t think I’d be
sorry to leave this place, but I am a little. This was our home when we were
married before, and it’s got some nice memories tucked in the corners.”

“I know.” She laid her head on his
shoulder. “But we have a new home now, and it’s big enough for you, me, and
Eden. And anyone else who comes along.”

Sol pulled back to look at her. His gray
eyes shone like silver. “Anyone else?”

“You wouldn’t mind, would you?”

A grin spread across his face. “I think
that would be great.” His grin disappeared to be replaced with mock severity. “You
do know you never get to walk away again.”

“I tried that once. It didn’t work so I
guess I’m here for life.”

He shook his head, the grin returning. “You
are a goose.” He said it as though it was a delightful revelation.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Well, I always knew I was a goose,” he
said with a smug smile, “but I wasn’t so sure about you.”

“And this is a good thing?”

“Yeah, Georgie, it’s a very good thing.
Geese mate for life, you know.”

And he kissed her.

If
you enjoyed this, you might also like
All’s Fair
the prequel to Sol & Georgia’s story.

Other
books in the McKnight romance saga include:

A Knight in Cowboy Boots

Knight of Hearts

Short
stores by Suzie Quint:

Snow White & the Eighth Dwarf

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