Maddie spoke up then, snuggling against Boone as he pulled her close. “I never knew Jenny, but I feel like I did. I think I know what she’d say.” She looked around the room at each of them. “I think she’d say that love was the legacy she wanted to leave, however short or long her life was.”
She would tell you to let it go.
Mitch felt his throat tighten, saw a sheen in Boone’s eyes. “Love was everything to her. She handed it out like it was water, free and easy to find. Like a spring that would replenish itself, the more she gave away.” He held onto Perrie tightly. “But it takes some of us longer than others to believe that.”
His brother nodded, then looked down at Maddie, love arcing between the two of them, so bright it filled the room.
Mitch looked at Perrie. “I don’t know where we’ll wind up, but I know I’d like for us to start here. What would you think about getting married in Morning Star?”
Tears trembled on her lashes as she smiled. “I think it would be perfect. Here, with the people Jenny loved so very much.”
“Except one,” Maddie reminded.
“But we’ll find her,” Boone insisted.
Around the room, heads nodded solemnly and silent promises were exchanged.
Maddie said it for all of them. “And then we’ll bring her home to Morning Star.”
Home, Mitch thought. Wherever Perrie was would be his home now. Morning Star was just a place.
But it was a special place, finally free of ghosts, a place where he could always return. Here, where he’d first learned about love, he now felt the blessing of forgiveness, the return of bright memory instead of dark, angry pain.
It was fitting that here he would bind to him the woman who had given him love when he’d thought himself forever alone. In this place where he’d once lost all hope of love, he would begin again. He would speak vows that he would never break: to love, honor and cherish, to guard this woman and her children with his life.
Finally, Mitch felt free, felt the darkness, so long his companion, slip away. “I love you, Perrie,” he whispered into her honey-gold hair.
“I love you, Mitch.” Her arms stole around his waist, clasping him tightly. “Welcome home.”
He was home at last. Home in the arms of love.
~THE END~
TEXAS BAD BOY
Texas Heroes: The Gallaghers of Morning Star
Book Three
Jean Brashear
Everyone thinks Lacey DeMille is the next thing to royalty, a society girl with beauty, brains and money—but sexy Texas bad boy Devlin Marlowe knows better. Twenty years after being exiled in disgrace for daring to want her, the boy from the wrong side of the tracks has sweet revenge in his grasp…for only he knows that her whole life is built on a lie.
And revenge may be more costly than either of them can imagine.
Prologue
Houston, Texas
Nineteen years ago
Moonlight drifted over her skin like the kiss of a lover. Devlin’s hands weren’t quite steady as they traced Lacey’s tender curves. With a reverence he hadn’t expected to feel, he brushed his lips against hers.
When Lacey gasped softly and tightened slender fingers in his hair, every last vestige of Dev’s desire for revenge flew away. Who her father was and how much Dev hated him didn’t matter anymore. All that mattered was that after this night, they would be forever changed. Forever bound.
“Dev?” Her voice trembled as his hands had.
“Shh, it’s all right. You’re so beautiful, Lacey.” At eighteen, his experience was not vast, but it was far greater than hers. He smiled, rewarded by the answering curve of hers, that lush, full mouth that drove him crazy.
“You’re the one who’s beautiful.” She trailed her fingers across his chest, and Dev thought he might die of pleasure.
“I’m a guy. I can’t be beautiful,” he protested.
She laughed faintly. “Shows what you know. If you could see yourself the way I see you…”
He wanted to ask what she saw, this girl who had everything, whose father kept Devlin’s family in thrall like a feudal king oppressed his serfs. But he didn’t really want to know—not tonight, when she was heaven in his arms. All that mattered tonight was that she wanted him—enough to make him her first. Her last, if he had anything to say about it.
“Dev?”
He paused, looking solemnly into her wide, innocent silvery eyes. “Are you sure about this?”
He could see the pulse beating in her throat, feel the tremor of her nerves. His heart sank, but this was too important—she was too important—to rush.
Then she smiled, and the fear vanished. “I’m only afraid because I don’t know what to do. I want it to be you, Dev. Only you.”