When she pulled up, she realized her porch was lit up with … candles. Yes, those were candles, what appeared to be hundreds and hundreds of candles on her railing. As she emerged from the truck, she found Colt standing on her front deck, his arms at his sides, his whole body tense.
To her left, she saw Tony and Hawk sitting in a couple of lawn chairs beside the ranch's fire truck, but she barely glanced their way. Her eyes were drawn to one place - to the man now coming down the front steps.
They met halfway and she stood before him. But she didn't know what to say. Just leave?
"I've missed you, Brielle." His softly spoken words were nearly her undoing. But somehow she did manage to find her voice.
"What are you doing, Colt?"
///
"I can't go another day without seeing you, Brielle. When I close my eyes, I'm holding you."
"Colt, please just give it up."
"I can't. Though I know it's only a dream, it feels so real. I picture myself running my fingers through your long red hair, I feel the tremor in your body when we touch. Feelings like I've never felt before rush through me, and then I find myself with my lips brushing against yours. I imagine that hitch in your breathing, that small indication that you're as moved as I am each and every time we touch. Then I open my eyes and you aren't there. Everything disappears and I'm left with only emptiness. I want to close my eyes again, live in that perfect moment of having you in my arms."
"Colt … "
She was close to tears, and she didn't know what to say. He was offering his soul with so much passion, so much love. It had to be real. There was no way it couldn't be.
"Did you know that every time I come near you, I'm afraid of the way you affect me? And afraid of the way I need you. Or I was afraid. I thought I was happy before I met you, Brielle. I wasn't. And when I look into your eyes, I feel like I've found what my life has always been missing. And I didn't know there was something missing until recently, but now that I've had you by my side, I can never go back to the existence I walked through before you, to the way I was. You make me feel like I'm flying. You are worth holding onto forever, and I won't throw this away. I promise that if you give me another chance, I will never again treat you with disrespect, and I will never tell another untruth. I will hold you, care for you, and love you."
Brielle didn't try to stop the tears anymore. This man did love her - her! - spoiled little Brielle Storm who'd needed her father's intervention to help her find herself. Somehow, Colt had managed to see past her facade. And he actually liked the woman hiding inside. When he dropped to his knees in front of her and pulled out a black velvet jeweler's box, her knees shook.
"Brielle, please end my misery. Please be my wife - help make me a better man."
His eyes shone bright in the light from the candles behind them and the full moon filling the starry sky, and Brielle couldn't stand up a second longer. Sinking to her knees in front of him, she placed her hands on his face and brushed her lips against his.
"I don't want to live another day without you either, Colt," she whispered, and she wrapped her arms around his neck.
"I love you, Brielle." He ran his hands up and down her back, pushing the last of her worries away.
"I love you, too, Colt. Yes, I'll marry you. My heart won't let me do anything else."
He sat back, and she felt bereft until he lifted her hand, pulled out a flawless square-cut diamond, and slipped the ring on her finger - a perfect fit.
"You are my everything," he told her, and he sealed their promise to each other with a kiss.
Tony and Hawk had to turn away from the stirring scene, and from each other. The two gruff men were too touched by the beautiful moment they'd just witnessed.
After Colt carried Brielle through the front door, the two men outside put out all the candles, and then the only light shining down on the old ranch house was from the stars, which seemed to be twinkling a little more brightly on one of the last nights of summer.
Epilogue
It looks as if we'll be getting at least two weddings this year," Richard said as he enjoyed a nice scotch with his brothers.
"Yes. I truly admire Colt," Joseph said. "Always have."
"Well, of course you do, because he's a good man. I'm just grateful I found that land. My only complaint is I missed most of the romance."
"You were pretty lucky in that match," George said with a laugh.
"I knew Brielle would end up on the ranch, and the first time I met Colt, he was an ornery cuss, but I liked and respected him. I had hoped sparks would fly, but hadn't held out much hope for it," Richard said. "I knew when I told the kids what I wanted from them that they would all be mad, but I also knew that Brielle would take the longest to accept her challenge, and there was just no way any of the boys would want anything to do with ranching. It seems each of the businesses I purchased has landed in the right hands, at least so far."