Save Her (Texas Hearts Series Book 1), page 13
The punches did not stop until Devon raced up behind him and bear hugged him from behind, trying to drag him off the other man. Since everyone was momentarily distracted, it took a moment to realize that Donald had crawled his way to his pistol while Devon tried to calm the struggling and blindly angry Sean.
Finally, one of the men shouted, "Donald, please do not move! We will shoot you!"
Donald began to laugh hysterically. "Let them!" he shouted gleefully as he leveled the gun to where the two men had just been struggling, and aimed it straight at Sean. "He goes with me."
Only five people heard the whispered, "I've got a clear shot."
Only four people saw the quick nod giving the sniper permission.
Back in the police car, Claire still listened on and, unable to see the nod, waited in anxiety for someone to speak, but her heart dropped at the next sound.
As Donald steadied his gun on Sean, perfecting his shot, he never even heard the silenced gunfire as one bullet went through and through. A perfect shot through the heart. He never even had a chance to feel pain.
No sooner did the body hit the ground, than Sean was up and running. He never stopped as he bounded over the now dead Donald. He didn't think of the consequences as he pressed the barn door wide open, and never acknowledged the shouts from all around him.
The heavy black rubber that had blocked the doorway and made it impossible for Katherine to determine where she was almost knocked Sean down as he struggled to get in.
He managed to catch sight of her tied to the chair and slumped over before the mat fell back into place, plunging the interior of the barn into darkness once again.
Sean ran straight to her, begging her to be alive, his eyes burning as his heart clenched in his chest.
"Oh God, Katy, wake up! Please? You cannot do this, Peach, come on. Come on, you stubborn girl. We did not come this far for you to die on me. Katherine, you have to answer me, dammit!"
Sean was shocked to find himself squeezing her arms while not so gently shaking her. Releasing her, he sank to his knees and in the darkness missed her the flutter of her eyelids.
"Peach, I promise you that if you don't wake up, I'll go home and shoot myself. Yeah, right between the eyes, and it will be your entire fault. No, dammit, I will not. Do you know what I will do? I will go back and marry Courtney. We’ll have three kids, and I will name them all Katherine. Every single one of them, boy or girl. Oh God, Katherine." During his tirade, he didn’t hear her speak, but as he fell silent, burying his head in her lap, he heard what could only be called a croak.
Immediately, his head jerked back up. "Peach?"
In response, she groaned.
"Hold on, baby. Help is coming. You just have to hold on, OK?"
Once again, she groaned.
"Oh, Peach, never again, OK? Never again are you getting out of my sight. I love you so damn much."
In the darkness, unaware or uncaring of the dirt and grime covering her, he rained kisses all over her face, each punctuated by a vow of love and a promise to never let her go.
He was determined that she would know exactly what she meant to him every day for the rest of their lives.
Chapter 20:
Two days after entering the hospital with several broken bones and bruises covering every square inch of her body, she was moved from ICU to a regular room, allowing her to receive visitors. Sean seemed determined to fill her in on everything about his friendship with Courtney and the men in Courtney’s life. Telling her about how Sean and Courtney met and became friends because they were both in love with people they couldn’t have and were traveling the rodeo circuit, because for someone who acted so pretentious, she actually loved to barrel race and had grown up on a ranch.
He told her about how he met and became friends with Devon, Clint, and Cole because they were working protection for Courtney when something Cole had been involved in in D.C. had leaked back to Texas and was risking the woman he loved, even as he was married to another woman, whom he had since divorced. Sean called the whole thing a business deal gone wrong but she hadn’t dwelled on the meaning since she was in information overload.
Later, with Sean refusing to leave her side Cole had broken the one visitor rule and joined the two of them and he managed to shed a little light on the subject when he said that he had been forced into the sham of a marriage as part of his duties for a job and would have been divorced quickly had he not ended up thinking he had impregnating the woman he was married to while he was in love with his fiancée.
The reality of the situation was horrible but Cole had felt stuck and broke things off with Courtney and since Sean wasn’t in a relationship the two of them stuck together and got closer, in a strictly platonic way, leading to Cole thinking that the two of them were in a relationship for a long time. It wasn’t until Sean’s dad’s funeral that Cole realized that Sean was not in love with Courtney but Cole was stuck in a marriage, until he learned that the child was not his after all and he was able to start divorce proceedings. Because his ex-wife could be a bitch she had drug the whole thing out and he had only returned home days before Katherine’s abduction, which was caused by Courtney’s panicked runner and put Katherine in a situation where she had almost died.
It helped to understand the dynamics of the situation and because she had her own experience with heartbreak she could understand why, at least in a sense, Courtney had done the things that she had, and it made it a little easier to accept that the other woman would probably be a part of their lives.
Sean finally left the hospital to go home and change and shower, she was shocked to see her next visitor.
Courtney walked through the door timidly. As soon as she stepped in, she could only stand there, her mouth hanging open.
"A little much, isn't it?" Katherine asked with dry humor.
"Umm, well, only if you aren't opening a specialty flower shop. Where on earth did he find so many peach-colored roses?"
"I have no idea. It was like this when they wheeled me in here. Of course, I haven't been able to shake him until now."
"Yeah, he was saying good-bye to the guys when I came up here."
"They are quiet a bunch, but they seem pretty intimidating. I see you have your hands full."
"Not as much as you'd think. Clint is pretty self-sufficient and tends to be a loner, Cole spends most of his time in D.C., so he is barely ever around, and Devon thinks I’m just helpless and only need a little pocket money to be content."
"Typical male behavior..."
"Yeah."
Both women were taken aback at the easy camaraderie between them after each had each disliked the other so intensely for so long.
"What about..."
"You know, we..."
Both spoke at once, and they erupted into laughter.
"Go ahead," Katherine invited.
"Okay, look, I just wanted to tell you myself that I am sorry. I know I caused all this, but there has never been anything between Ev and me. He is like a brother to me. I grabbed on to him with both hands because of that. No emotion, no sex, and he can’t break my heart, you know?"
"You didn't cause any of this, Courtney. I was gullible and unsure of myself. I knew deep down that Sean loved me, but he had also hurt me before, so I was terrified to trust him again."
"Yeah, I know that feeling well. How much is safe to feel after they've left your heart in tatters before?"
"Cole?"
"How'd you... Ev, right?"
"Well, partially. He was very sparing with the details and the rest I sort of pieced together myself after Cole came to see me. He still loves you, too, you know?"
"We're just too different. I don't know, maybe. Ugh, I hate him!"
"Really?" Katherine asked laughingly.
"I avoided the man successfully for years, didn’t have to be around him or his plastic Barbie bitch of a wife more than a handful of times, and now I won’t be able to escape him. I swear he'd follow me to the bathroom if my brother weren't there."
"Well, I'd get used to it. You've been hiding behind Sean for years, but Cole won’t buy that now, especially since he is finally free to do what he wants with his life."
"You know, I like you. I guess we're going to have to be friends now."
"Looks like it."
"Ev is going to be back soon, and he's not ready to forgive me yet. The last thing I need is for him to find me here."
"Courtney? If you love him, give it a shot; if you really love him, it’s worth the fight."
Courtney walked over to the bed, bending to kiss her cheeks.
"You know, I may just do that. Get well soon. I don't know how many more roses should be killed on the altar of love this week."
After Courtney walked out the door, Katherine caught herself thinking she could actually come to like the other woman.
Since this was the first time Sean had left her side, it was the first time she had been left alone, so it was the first time anyone had gotten to see her. As soon as the door started to swing closed behind Courtney, Sheriff walked in and peeked around the corner.
"So it’s true, he's finally left? Boy, they were not kidding about the flowers either. What was the boy thinking? I heard he actually asked if they would paint the room peach and then got huffy when they wouldn't let him change the curtains and sheets. Thelma says we have to keep him; is there any way I can change your mind?"
"Nope, sorry, Sheriff, I’m keeping him as long as he'll stay this time around."
Sheriff laughed softly and then, hearing a knock at the door, he bent over to kiss Katy's brow. "Be happy, darlin'. We love you."
Katherine stared at him in confusion as Sean walked in carrying the largest bouquet of peach roses she had ever seen.
"Good Lord, boy, did you have to bring even more of those things?"
Sparing a smile for Sheriff, he handed the flowers to Katherine as he leaned in to kiss her.
"Hey, beautiful, how are you feeling?"
"Better." She reached up with her right hand wrapped in a bandage and touched his cheek. "You look tired. Have you slept at all?"
"About five hours altogether since you left the house."
"Sean! Go home and get some rest."
"No, I'll go home when you do."
"At least sit down, then. I can’t believe you have been awake all this time."
"I will. I want to tell you something first." He kneeled down on one knee as he spoke. "When I was in my senior year of high school, my mom sat me down one night when Dad was working late, and gave me something she wanted me to give you when the time was right."
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out an old antique-looking ring box.
"My grandmother gave this to her to pass on to me when I found the woman I was going to spend the rest of my life with. You see, my mother was a wise woman and knew even when we were so young that eventually this would happen."
He took the ring from the box and picked up her left hand.
"What do you say, Peach? Want to give me a lifetime? Maybe throw in a couple of kids for good measure?"
Tears filled her eyes as she nodded. "Yeah. Yes, of course!" Looking up at him, she frantically gestured for him to come to her.
Standing up, he bent at the waist and put a hand on each cheek. "I really love you, Peach. I don't ever want to spend a day without you."
"You won’t. I love you, my Cowboy."
When their lips met, Sheriff quickly swiped at the salty liquid leaking from his eyes and left the room to the kids he had always felt were his own. As he walked the hallway of the hospital, he heard his wife of forty-five years let out a shout of laughter from a patient’s room. Riding on the moment of sheer happiness, he walked inside and grabbed his wife from behind, whirling her around to kiss her. "I love you, wife."
As the female patient in the bed let out a whoop, Thelma looked up at her husband of so long and still had stars in her eyes. "I love you more, handsome."
With a quick pat to her bottom, Sheriff left the room, whistling.
Epilogue - Six Months Later:
Katherine’s heart was hammering in her chest as the first strains of Pachelbel’s Cannon started. She held on to the arm of Sheriff desperately, and she was so grateful that her veil offered some camouflage disguising her tear-filled eyes. She drew in a deep sigh and sent up loving thoughts to both her parents and Sean’s before she nodded at Sheriff and they took the first steps down the flower-laden aisle of the church.
When she glanced ahead, a smile parted her lips as she looked up to see Sean with his best man, Devon, standing behind him, Clint behind him, and Cole bringing up the rear. On the other side of Sean was the minister of their church, holding his bible and smiling down toward Katherine as she made her way carefully down the aisle.
Sean stepped toward them and walked partway down the aisle to meet Sheriff to take hold of his Peach. The wedding attendees all chuckled at his expense, but he didn’t give that first thought to anyone except the woman he had fallen in love with as a boy and spent every single moment since loving her with every fiber of his being. Just being there and watching her walk down the aisle toward him, wearing a beautiful white wedding gown, after believing that he had lost her forever for a whole decade, the whole world could laugh and it wouldn’t touch him so long as he had the satisfaction of holding her in his arms every night for the rest of their lives.
Sheriff playfully swung Katy away from Sean, causing another burst of laughter from the guests, but only just briefly before he used the arm not holding Katy to pull Sean into his embrace, squeezing him tightly before releasing him and taking Katherine’s hand from his arm and placing it into Sean’s.
Sean squeezed her hand and then pulled her arm through his, pulling her flush to his side. He pressed a kiss to the top of her veil-covered head, and then together they walked the rest of the way to the minister so they could finally fulfill their destiny and say “I do.”
WHEN THE COUPLE APPROACHED the dance floor for their first dance as husband and wife, they asked that the couples of their wedding party and Sheriff and Thelma join them on the ballroom floor for a dance in celebration of their nuptials and remembrance of their parents, whom they would not be able to share the traditional wedding dances with.
Cole Swindell crooned his hit “You Should Be Here” as the couples, Katy and Sean, Thelma and Sheriff, Courtney and Cole, Claire and Devon, and a laughing Jo Ellen and an actually smiling Clint took to the dance floor. The D.J. invited all of the couples to the dance floor, and Katy laughed out loud when she looked over to see Jo Ellen’s husband swinging their son around in a modified two-step, both laughing at the silliness of the moment.
The year had been brutal.
Katherine had lost her parents on an evening when they were out celebrating their anniversary, the love that had bound their lives together and given her life. It still hurt, and she suspected it would for ages to come, but she also knew in her heart of hearts that if her parents had to leave, they would have wanted her life to turn out exactly the way it was. They would have wanted her one true love to come back to her and make sure she got her happily ever after.
She looked around as Sean led her seamlessly around the dance floor, their bodies moving in sync. She had had growing suspicions about Devon and Claire and their growing closeness, and looking at the couple as Dev held her close, her cheek resting against his heart and his lips brushing across her scalp, appearing to be in their own little world, she knew her suspicions were correct. Cole was holding Courtney to him as if his life depended on it, and she looked on the verge of tears. The turmoil between those two had reached epic proportions, and Katy was worried that their friends wouldn’t be able to come back from their past.
Glancing at Jo Ellen and Clint lightened her heart. As damaged and closed off as Clint was, it was such a relief to see a rare smile on his face.
Dancing in the arms of her husband, the man she had always known was it for her, Katy knew that no matter what came at them, they could handle it together. She may have lost her parents, but she had also gained a new and extended family through her husband and the cousin she had grown to love like a sister.
Her eyes were moist again when the song ended and the D.J. requested all of the single ladies to line up on one side and all of the single gentlemen to line up on the other. Sean kissed her and kneeled down to one knee as he made a show of lifting the skirt of her wedding gown to reach the garter around her thigh.
He met her eyes and held them as he wrapped his fingers around the garter and dragged it down her leg; he broke eye contact only to press his lips to the inside of her knee before he slipped the garter over her high-heeled pump and stood. Courtney rushed up to them and handed her her bouquet with a laugh. Sean nudged Courtney away from his wife and pulled her back into his arms. Laughing, he dropped kisses to her lips.
“OK, OK, we have to do this so we can get out of here and I can take you home and get you out of this dress and play with that sexy underwear I saw you stuffing into your overnight bag last night...”
She felt her face flame as she let out a shocked laugh before wrapping her arms around his neck and saying, “I really, really adore you, Mr. Everett.”
He growled and nipped at her lips before speaking against her lips, “And I adore you, Mrs. Everett. Let’s throw this stuff at our friends and get out of here.”
