Harlequin American Romance November 2014 Box Set: The SEAL's Holiday Babies\The Texan's Christmas\Cowboy for Hire\The Cowboy's Christmas Gift (49 page)

Brett threaded his arm around his brother's shoulders. “Women operate under a whole different set of guidelines than we do, Finn. You should know that by now.” Brett suddenly pushed his brother toward the front door. “Now stop being such a stubborn jerk and go tell her you want her to stay. That you
need
her to stay.”

“It's not going to work,” Finn insisted.

Brett pretended to consider that outcome. “Then you'll have the satisfaction of proving me wrong for the first time in your life.”

Finn opened his mouth to argue that rather unenlightened assessment, then decided he didn't want to stay here, going round and round about a subject he felt neither one of them could successfully resolve.

Instead, he shoved the bottle he'd pulled from the shelf earlier back on the bar and stormed out of the saloon.

“Make me proud!” Brett called after him.

* * *

H
E
DIDN
'
T
KNOCK
this time. Instead, Finn burst into the trailer, swinging the door open so hard that it hit the opposite side, making a resounding noise.

In the middle of packing, Connie jumped and swung around. “Finn, you scared the hell out of me,” she cried, her hand covering her heart, which was pounding hard for more than one reason. Hope began to infuse itself through her—hope that maybe, just maybe “happily ever after” wasn't completely off the table. A hint of a smile broke through even as she held her breath.

And prayed that he would say something she needed to hear.

“Well, then we're even,” he replied. “Because the thought of you leaving Forever is scaring the hell out of me.”

She let the shirt she'd been folding drop from her hand as she regarded him. Just what was he up to? “You certainly didn't act like it did.” It was an accusation more than an observation.

“No, I didn't,” he agreed. The temper he'd been grappling with since he'd left her trailer was only beginning to come under control. “And you used the right word—act. I was
acting
like it didn't bother me because I knew that was what you'd wanted since you got here, to show your father that you could handle a project on your own, to show him that you were damn good for the company and deserved to be treated with respect instead of being treated like a lackey.

“And I knew that once you were finished building the hotel, you'd leave. I figured I was okay with that. But just now I had to
act
as if I was—because I wasn't. I wasn't
okay
with that. I wasn't
okay
with you leaving.”

“You weren't?”

“No, I wasn't. And I'm not,” he told her, changing his tenses to make her understand that his feelings were still ongoing. “Look, I know I don't have the right to ask you to stay, and I don't have anything that's close to measuring up to what you have waiting for you back in Houston. I don't even—”

Connie cut him off. “Ask me to stay,” she said softly.

Finn was desperately searching for the right words to convince her to stay. When she interrupted, his train of thought came to a screeching halt. He
couldn't
have heard her right.

“What?”

“Ask me to stay,” Connie repeated. “Say the word.”

He stared at her in disbelief for a long moment, stunned into silence.

“Stay,”
he whispered quietly, certain that she was seeing how far she could get him to go. He honestly didn't know his limits right now.

And then he thought he was dreaming when he saw the smile that blossomed on her lips. It almost blinded him with its brilliance.

Connie stood on her tiptoes as she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Okay,” she replied, the word all but ringing with immeasurable joy.

“You're serious?” he asked.

Her eyes never left his. “I am if you are,” she answered.

He hadn't known that a person could be this excited and happy while struggling with shock, all at the very same time.

“I love you,” he told her. “You know that, right?”

He could have sworn that her eyes were laughing. “I do now.”

“Don't you have anything you want to say to me?” he prodded. He'd laid himself on the line here, opened up his heart to her—and she hadn't told him how she felt about him. He held his breath, hoping that it wasn't all going to blow up on him.

“Kiss me, stupid,” Connie responded, doing her best not to laugh.

He tried again. “Don't you have anything to say to me besides that?”

The smile slid over her lips by degrees, widening a little more every second. “Oh, yeah, right.” And then she said in the most serious voice she could summon, “I love you, too.”

“
Now
I'm going to kiss you stupid,” he vowed. “As well as senseless.”

She was ready and willing to have him try. All in all, it sounded like a lovely way to go.

“You have your work cut out for you,” Connie warned him.

Finn's arms tightened around her a little more, bringing their bodies even closer together. “I sure hope so,” he told her.

And he was prepared to love every second of it.

Epilogue

“And you're sure you're up to this?” Brett asked Liam for what seemed like the umpteenth time since yesterday morning when the wedding was given the green light by all concerned.

Standing beside him, Finn and Liam exchanged looks. In their joint recollection, they couldn't remember
ever
seeing their older brother look anywhere so nervous and unsettled. But then, Brett had never been in this sort of a situation before, either.

Brett and Alisha's wedding ceremony was only moments away from unfolding. Because of the extensive guest list—everyone wanted to attend—the couple was getting married in an outdoor ceremony performed at the ranch Brett had inherited.

Everything, including Liam's band, which was providing the music, had been set up outside. A canopy was put up to protect the food just in case the weather decided to reverse itself and go from the predicted sunny to rainy at the last moment.

Right now, the sun was shining, but Brett scarcely noticed. His attention was otherwise occupied by the thousand and one details that apparently went into planning a wedding. Brett was concerning himself needlessly inasmuch as his brothers, especially Finn, had for the most part taken over making all the arrangements.

But, as the oldest, Brett found he had trouble relinquishing control and just sitting back. He had just too much riding on all this.

“It's the ‘Wedding March,'” Liam reminded his older brother. “I think I can handle the ‘Wedding March,'” he said.

But Brett had to make sure. Liam was impulsive at times. “You're not going to suddenly decide to jazz it up or put in a beat, right?”

“What the ‘Wedding March' needs is to have you calm down, big brother,” Liam told him. “Just concentrate on remembering your vows and getting through the ceremony. I'll handle the music, okay?” he asked, flashing a sympathetic smile.

Brett blew out a breath, doing his best to get this unexpected case of nerves under control. “Okay.”

“All you have to do is keep it together until the minister pronounces you husband and wife. After that, you're home free,” Finn counseled.

“No, Finn. You've got that wrong. He's getting married. He's never going to be free again,” Liam deadpanned affectionately.

That was enough to make Brett rally. “You two should be so lucky,” he told them.

“Not me. I've got a lot of wild oats to sow yet,” Liam informed his brother happily. Glancing at his watch, he announced, “Time to begin. Last chance to do something stupid and run,” he said to Brett.

“Not a chance,” Brett replied. Squaring his shoulders, he went to stand at his designated spot at the front of the newly constructed altar.

As his best man, Finn stood beside him—and thoughtfully watched the proceedings unfold.

* * *

“T
HIS
HAS
TO
be the most beautiful ceremony I've ever attended,” Connie told Finn as they were dancing at the reception. “And I've been to more than my share,” she confided.

At times it seemed like three quarters of her graduating class had all gotten married in recent years. Because of that, she found that it gave her less and less in common with people who used to be her friends. Their priorities slowly changed while hers had remained the same.

Until now.

“It's incredible,” she went on to say, “considering that it seemed as if the whole town pitched in.” In her book, that should have yielded a hodge-podge. Except that it didn't.

“They pretty much did—which is maybe
why
it turned out so well,” Finn speculated. He knew the world she came from involved wedding planners, something that was completely foreign to his way of thinking. “Wedding planners don't have a personal stake in things turning out well, just a professional one. It keeps them removed.”

“Bartender, master builder, wedding organizer. I guess there's just no end to your talents,” Connie teased even though she was only half kidding. “A regular Renaissance man, that's you,” she told the man who filled her days and her dreams, as well.

“I don't know about that Renaissance part, but I am a regular man,” Finn replied.

Not so regular,
Connie thought happily. As far as she was concerned, the word for Finn was extraordinary. Each day she felt as if she loved him a little more. Now that she had made the bold move of detaching herself from her father's company—with the stipulation that she be allowed to finish the hotel she'd started—she had half expected Finn to back away from her. After all, she wasn't that rich woman she'd been just a short while ago, just a woman who was still determined to make her mark on the world—but for a whole different reason.

But instead of backing away, Finn had been incredibly supportive, telling her she was doing the right thing, especially when she told him that she wanted to form her own construction company and take on projects that would help improve the community where she chose to do her work.

The first place she intended to start was on the reservation. The buildings there were in desperate need of repair or rebuilding from scratch. She had enough in her trust fund, left to her by her maternal grandfather, to help her with her goals for a very long time to come.

“How do you feel about marrying a regular guy?” he asked her out of the blue, just after twirling her around as the music went from a slow dance to one with a pulsating beat.

It took her a moment to regain her balance. “Depends on who the regular guy is,” she said guardedly. She hung on to her imagination, refusing to allow it to run away with her.

“Me, Connie. Me.”

She stopped dancing and stared at Finn, completely stunned. Had she really heard him correctly? “You're asking me to marry you?”

“That's the general gist of this conversation, yes,” he acknowledged. “Move your feet, Connie,” he coaxed gently. “You're attracting attention.”

She did as he asked, hardly aware of moving at all. “Really?”

“Well, you probably always attract attention, looking the way you do, but—”

“No, I'm not asking if I'm attracting attention,” she said impatiently. “I'm asking if you're really asking me to marry you. Are you?”

His mouth suddenly felt dry and just like that, he completely understood why Brett had been so nervous earlier. One way or another, this was going to be life-altering for him. If Connie said no, he'd be crushed and if she said yes—well, she
had
to say yes, he told himself. He couldn't live with any other decision.

“With every fiber of my being,” he answered her. Then, to further prove he was serious, Finn made it formal. “Constance Carmichael, will you do me the extreme honor of becoming my wife?”

“I don't know about the extreme honor part, but yes, I'll marry you,” she told him as her eyes welled up with tears.

As for Finn, his eyes lit up. The next moment, he sealed their agreement with one of the longest kisses that the good citizens of Forever had ever witnessed.

One of Liam's band members, Sam, nudged him in the ribs and when he looked at Sam, the latter pointed toward the lip-locked couple.

Liam glanced over and then smiled. “Next,” he murmured under his breath, because it was clearly indicated that Finn was next when it came to being altar-bound.

Liam knew he would be the last Murphy brother left standing alone.

The thought made him smile even more broadly.

* * * * *

Don't miss Marie Ferrarella's next romance,
COWBOY CHRISTMAS DUET,
available December 2014 from
Harlequin American Romance!

Keep reading for an excerpt from THE COWBOY'S CHRISTMAS GIFT by Donna Alward

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