Wishing for the Rancher’s Love (High Country Ranch #5)

Chapter 25

25

“I don’t like surprises, Grady.” Clementine’s stomach fluttered with excitement as Grady led her blindfolded through the fresh snow toward the general store. “You know that.”

Grady stopped her in the middle of the alley, the chill of the morning swirling around her. One of his arms was around her waist. “Liar.” His whisper was sultry and echoed in the hollow of her ear, and in the next instant his mouth pressed in hard.

She couldn’t hold back the gasp or the tremble to her knees.

She slid her hand to his chest and grasped his shirt to keep from buckling. Even after the past week of being married, she couldn’t get used to his kisses and the power they wielded over her. Just a kiss to her ear had the ability to render her senseless.

During the rest of their stay in Georgetown for a few days, they’d done lots and lots of kissing, but Grady had only held her at night the same way he had that night in the mine cavern.

When they’d returned to Breckenridge and told his dad they were married, his dad had gloated. “Just what I predicted,” he’d said before he’d started hoisting boxes of already packed belongings across the alley and up into the spare room above the store.

In fact, while they’d been gone, he’d already started moving some of his own clothing over. He’d been that certain they’d return married. And he’d been right.

He’d already had his dinner with Mrs. Meriwether and determined that she wasn’t the one for him, which was probably a good thing after all that had happened with Elbert. When Mrs. Meriwether had learned about her son’s crimes, she’d closed up her home and traveled to Georgetown to live near Elbert as he awaited a trial.

Meanwhile, Mr. Worth had made contact with Mrs. Raleigh, the widow with three children, and seemed to be enjoying getting to know her. In any case, he wanted Clementine and Grady to have the home and said it belonged to them now.

That first night she’d slipped into the bed in their home, she’d welcomed Grady’s embrace from behind, the same way she had the previous nights.

As he’d settled in with his arms around her, using tender restraint and showing her that he loved her more than he loved himself, she’d known then that she was more than ready to share everything with him, including the marriage bed.

She’d slowly turned over so that she was facing him, then she’d kissed him and let that kiss tell him of her desire for more.

Now, with his kiss against her ear, longing pulsed low in her stomach, and she was tempted to rip off the blindfold, spin Grady around, and march him back inside the house. But they’d already lingered longer than usual that morning, almost to the point that she’d begun to suspect Grady was delaying her.

Then, when they’d stepped out of the house, he’d slipped a neckerchief around her eyes and told her he had a surprise for her.

“Tell me what you’re doing.” She clung to him and lifted her face to his, hoping he’d take her hint and bend down and kiss her.

In the next instant, his lips meshed with hers. With the chill of the snowy morning, his lips were especially warm and delicious against hers, and she was hungry for him again—a hunger that was embarrassingly frequent. Thankfully, his hunger for her was just as intense.

“Come on now, you two!” Mr. Worth’s laughter rang across the distance. He’d happily agreed that Grady had won their contest and had loaned Grady the money to buy the building next door to the store that same day.

Grady had gone over and spoken to the pharmacist right away, and Clementine was more than pleased for Grady, especially after being in Georgetown and realizing how important it was to him to be able to make his own way and find his own success independent of his dad. She was proud of him and knew that he’d one day be a prosperous businessman just like his dad.

“You can kiss later,” his dad called, his voice tinged with laughter.

Grady broke their kiss. “Talk about impatient.”

She smiled at the prospect of the day ahead. If it was like the past couple, she and Grady would be constantly making up excuses to visit each other. Yesterday, she’d counted at least a dozen visits from him, most of them in the back room of the store, where he’d kiss her desperately for as long as possible before sneaking back out and crossing over to the livery.

She’d visited him several times to give him candy samples, hoping to steal kisses from him too. But they didn’t have any privacy there, although on one occasion they’d stepped into a stall and kissed for a minute before his assistant had caught them.

Grady’s hold around her body was gentle as he guided her ahead, but instead of going through the back door of the store as she’d expected, he veered away.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

He chuckled. “You’ll see soon enough.”

“Grady Worth, you’re terrible.”

“Clementine Worth, you’re terrible too.”

She loved the sound of her married name. She halted again, and this time she was the one to swivel around, letting her hands roam until they found his scruffy cheeks and pulled him down for a kiss—a kiss that consumed her and made her forget all about the rest of the world so that she and Grady were the only two who existed.

Another laugh wafted through the chilly morning, this one belonging to her brother Maverick. “You weren’t kidding when you said all they do is kiss.”

“Can’t keep them apart.” Mr. Worth chortled. “With all those years of pent-up feelings, my guess is they’ll be doing lots more kissing for quite a while.”

Embarrassed heat rushed through Clementine. But more than that, she was surprised that Maverick was in town so early in the morning on a weekday.

Clementine broke away from Grady and pulled off her blindfold to find herself at the rear entrance of the pharmacy. Mr. Worth, Maverick, and Hazel stood just inside the back of the shop. Her handsome brother with his dark hair and blue eyes had his arm around Hazel, who was just as pretty as always with her glowing face and rounded stomach, her pregnancy beginning to show.

The three were smiling as Clementine stepped through the door. She gave Maverick and Hazel hugs, not having seen them yet since she’d returned from Georgetown as a married woman.

“It’s about time,” Maverick said as he released her and stepped back, offering her one of his crooked grins.

“That’s what I said.” Mr. Worth stood beside Grady, the two of them watching her expectantly. Too expectantly.

Grady gave a pointed look at the tall table in the center of the room. There, in the middle of the table, were the boxes of candy she’d made yesterday and had ready to either deliver or display.

Then Grady nodded at the shelves on the opposite wall. They were filled with all her candy-making supplies: bowls, knives, molds, pans, and more.

Her heartbeat came to a rapid halt. “What’s all of this doing here?”

She glanced around to find cutting boards, oven mitts, a utensil holder filled with wooden spoons, and even pretty towels hanging from hooks near the sink. Most of it looked brand new, never used, and it was all arranged so beautifully.

“I don’t understand,” she started.

Grady laced his fingers through hers and then began to tug her excitedly to the door that led to the front room. As he stepped inside, he covered her eyes with his hands.

“What are you doing, Grady?” Her voice trembled as understanding of his surprise began to sink in.

“I’m making your dream come true,” he whispered as he dropped his hand away and let her take in the freshly painted interior, including all the wall shelves—a mixture of white, pink, and red. Not only were the shelves and walls and even the window trim painted, but the glass displays were polished to a shine and filled with her candy. More jars and containers lined the top of the counters, and they were also brimming with colorful varieties of candy—some that she’d made and others that had been purchased.

Maverick, Hazel, and Mr. Worth had followed them into the store and were all three beaming as they watched her.

She could only gape, too overwhelmed to speak.

“My dad and Mrs. Raleigh were here yesterday organizing the place,” Grady explained quickly. “And Hazel and Maverick came in early and set up the kitchen.”

“Really?” She wanted to rush over to them and hug them all, but Grady was still showing her everything, and she was trying to take it in.

“One night after closing, we hired a crew of workers to paint,” he was saying. “If you don’t like the colors, we can have them come back and change them—”

She turned and silenced him with a quick and happy kiss. “I love it.” It truly was everything she’d ever dreamed of in a confectionery of her own. In fact, it was more than she’d dreamed of.

Except that in fulfilling her dream, he’d sacrificed his.

“But, Grady.” She grabbed his coat. “You bought this place for your hardware store. What will you do now?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t have my heart set on having a hardware store. It was just a means to expand. And I’ll still have plenty of opportunities to do that.”

“But the cost of the building. I can’t—”

“We’re in this together. Partners.”

She nodded, relieved he hadn’t tried to give it to her. He clearly knew that she wouldn’t have accepted such a gift, but she could accept that they were business partners.

Her gaze swept over the beautiful interior of her new shop and the name Clementine’s Confectionery painted in pretty pink letters on the window.

She couldn’t hold back her squeal of delight as she launched herself against Grady.

He caught her, his grin making a rare appearance—although she’d seen more and more of them lately, so many that she hoped they would no longer be so rare.

He wrapped his arms around her, and she did the same to him. “Thank you, Grady. But you know you didn’t have to do this.”

“I know.” He pressed a kiss against her head. “But there’s nothing I want to do more than spend the rest of my life making each of your dreams come true. Whatever those might be.”

She closed her eyes, contentment pulsing through her. She didn’t deserve this man or his love. And she didn’t deserve all that he was doing for her.

But she’d wished for him and his love anyway. And sometimes wishes happened to come true.