"Why did you run away, CJ?"
"The yelling. It scared me."
Jolie clutched him to her and Cord wrapped his arms around them both. "I'm sorry, CJ. Sorry for everything."
"I didn't mean to be bad."
"Ah, CJ. Don't. You weren't bad. It wasn't your fault, bubba. Sometimes, grown-ups are just...dumb."
Jolie squeezed the little boy's hand, but her smile was for Cord. "Yeah. Sometimes grown-ups are just dumb." She inhaled and blew the breath out hard enough to ruffle her bangs. "Yes."
Cord looked confused. "Yes?"
"Yes. I trust you. To take care of CJ. To take care of me. I trust you with my heart."
"Oh." A big goofy smile spread across his face. "Oh!" He scrambled off the bed and grabbed his coat. He dug in all the pockets, his expression growing more panicked. Searching in one last place, the inside left chest pocket that rode right over his heart, he found what he was looking for.
His big hand held something, but Jolie couldn't tell what. Her heart rate ratcheted up, and she tried to breathe around its pounding. He dropped to one knee beside the bed and she was vaguely aware that CJ clapped his hands and giggled. When Cord opened his hand, a black velvet box sat on his palm. Blood roared in her ears, and she gulped in a breath, reaching for a calm she didn't feel.
"Jolie, I love you. I think I fell in love the moment I first saw you. I've pretty much messed up from the very beginning, but if you'll give me a chance, I promise to love you and our son every day until there are no more days." He opened the box. A diamond-and-emerald ring glinted under the fluorescent hospital lights. "Jolene Renee Davis, will you do me the honor of being my wife? Of being the mother of my children? Of loving me even half as much as I love you?"
CJ poked her in the back. "Say yes, Mommy."
She blinked back tears, her cheeks aching from the smile that stretched them to the max. "Oh, yes, Cordell Thomas Barron. I will marry you." She fell into his arms. "I do love you. I love you with my whole heart."
Epilogue
Cord rolled over and gathered the woman sleeping at his side into his arms so they were spooned together. Jolie stirred and muttered something about sleep. He kissed her bare shoulder and rubbed his cheek against her sleep-tousled hair. Her lips looked plumped and she bore a slight rash from his beard stubble along her jawline. Considering this was their wedding day, he should feel bad about that, but didn't. That was what all the gunk littering the counter in the bathroom attached to the guest bedroom at Chance and Cassie's house was for. He cupped her breast, tracing his thumb over her nipple. It perked right up from his attention, but it was Jolie's grumbling that put a big grin on his face.
"I love you, sunshine."
She sighed, and he leaned over to capture the end of her breath with a gentle kiss. She shifted beneath him and he covered her with his body. If he were a gentleman, he'd go shower and shave before making love to her. But he wasn't. He was a man wildly in love with his woman, and he wanted to brand her as his for all time. Breaking their kiss, he trailed his lips down her chin and throat until he found her other breast. Flicking his tongue over that nipple, it caught up to its partner on the perky meter. She gasped as he scraped his teeth over the sensitive tip and his erection swelled.
Cord suckled her breast while his fingers continued to tease her other nipple. She arched beneath him, rubbing her thigh against him. He groaned and glanced at her. Eyes open, she watched him, her mouth quirked and her eyes narrowed. That was a dare if he'd ever seen one. With slow, sure certainty, he kissed his way across her rib cage. He paused at her belly button to lay a circle of kisses around its perimeter before dipping the tip of his tongue inside it. She giggled, as he knew she would. His Jolie was ticklish despite her protestations to the contrary.
Murmuring around the hitches in her breathing, she rolled her hips, tempting him to dip lower. He rubbed his chin through the soft curls at the juncture of her thighs. She opened farther for him. Well aware of the roughness of his morning stubble, he kissed her most secret of places-places he knew so well. He teased with his tongue and lips. And then he tasted her. Deeply. She was wet and ready for him.
"Please," she sighed.
"Please what, sunshine?"
"Please love me, Cord."
He rose above her and slid his aching erection into her softest depths. "Always, Jolie. I'll always love you."
He made slow, sweet love to her, their connection so deep he felt as if he was part of her-just as it should be. When he could stand it no longer, he shifted and angled her hips a little higher. Jolie's sharp inhalation told him he'd found the spot. Increasing the tempo, he drove them higher and higher until she clenched him and shuddered. His mouth crushed hers as his body followed her lead, and he swallowed his name on her lips.
Sometime later, Jolie cupped his cheeks and studied him. "Sweetheart?"
Cord crushed her to his chest. "I love you so damn much, Jolie. You're my life. You and CJ."
"You realize this is all kind of wrong, right? Making love on our wedding day, before the ceremony?" Her eyes twinkled and her mouth quirked in a mischievous smile.
"I'm going to start every day making love to the woman who branded my heart."
They had about thirty seconds' warning before a tiny whirlwind hit the door and blew through it. Cord managed to roll over and tuck Jolie into his side before CJ lunged onto the bed and started bouncing. "Mommy! Daddy! We're gettin' married today."
Laughing, he grabbed his son and pulled him down, careful to keep the blankets pulled over Jolie. Cord really needed to remember to lock their bedroom door. "We most definitely are, bubba. Go get Aunt Cassie to fix you breakfast. Mom and I will be down in a little bit."
"Okay!" Their son bestowed sloppy little-boy kisses on their cheeks, jumped off the bed and remembered to shut the door behind him.
* * *
Three hours later, the Crazy M ranch was filled with guests. Chance and Cassie had moved into the new house they'd built on her family property. Part luxurious log house and part historic Oklahoma giraffe rock, their home was a place of warmth and love-and the perfect place for Cord to marry Jolie. A large swath of early-spring grass carpeted an area between the house and a new barn. White chairs formed rows with a broad aisle down the middle-space wide enough for two horses to walk side by side.
Cord waited in the barn with his brothers. As they had for Chance the previous summer, they'd gathered in a show of solidarity. Chase had even turned off his cell phone. Cash was there as well, though he held himself apart from the rest. Cord would push Cash about his issues, but not today. Today was all about Jolie. And CJ. About becoming family. Horses snorted and pawed in their stalls, bridles jingling. CJ bounced between his uncles. The horses had been his idea. And the Western theme. Instead of tuxes, they wore knife-edge pressed jeans. Cord's shirt was white, the others' Oklahoma blue, and they all wore bolo ties cinched with turquoise-his groomsmen gift to each of them.
When the time arrived, Cord helped CJ mount his horse. The gray filly had been his Christmas gift to his son. He mounted his chestnut quarter horse and his brothers followed suit. They rode out of the barn, single file. Kaden waited at the back of the crowd to hold CJ's horse until it was time for the boy to ride down the aisle. First, the men would ride to the flower-entwined bentwood arbor where the minister waited. The bridesmaids, also mounted, would follow, then CJ, right before J. Rand escorted Jolie down the aisle. In a rare show of humor, Kaden promised he wouldn't let the bride bolt.
A local country band played a popular love song as his brothers led the way. When Cord arrived, he dismounted and turned to watch the procession. There were three bridesmaids-friends of Jolie. Cassie, the matron of honor. CJ. And then he saw Jolie. Soft sunshine painted the day with pastel colors and cast a glow only surpassed by the bride. He'd waited so long for this moment, hoped for it with every fiber of his being, and there she was.
She reined her mare to a stop. Cord vaguely heard the minister ask about who gave this woman. Then he was moving to her, lifting her down from the horse, holding her cradled in his arms before placing her on her feet. Words. Music. More words. And then he had a ring in his hand, a ring he slid on her finger as he said, "With this ring, I give you my heart. On this day, I give my promise to walk with you, hand in hand, wherever life takes us. I offer you my heart, my soul. You and me. Together. Forever."
Jolie said the words back, slipping a ring on his finger. Her eyes looked like emeralds sprinkled with diamonds, just like the engagement ring he'd given her kneeling there in CJ's hospital room back in December. He felt back in control now, and all was right in his world as the minister pronounced them husband and wife and said he could kiss his bride. He did, whispering across her lips, "You are my sunshine."