Hawk's Way Grooms (33 page)

“Duty calls,” Colt said as he buttoned the last button on Cherry's dress. “Hey there, Jewel,” he said as he took the mirror from his eldest sister and held it up for her. “How's it going?”

“There's a lump in my hair,” she said. “Right…” She reached up, trying to locate it backward in the mirror.

“There?” he said, poking at a cowlick at the back of her head.

“That's it. Stubborn little cuss.” She took the mirror from his hand and threw it onto the table in front of her. “Why do I bother? Plain brown eyes, plain brown hair, plain old face. You'd think I'd get used to it.”

Colt tipped her chin up and surveyed her face, which still bore remnants of the faint, crisscrossing scars she'd acquired in the car accident that had originally left her orphaned. “You look pretty good to me,” he announced.

She brushed his hand away and wrinkled her nose. “You have to say that. You're my brother.”

The organ began to play and Jewel looked at her wristwatch. “Oh, Lord. Five minutes. Is everybody ready?”

Colt looked around. The chaos had ceased. Before him stood his four sisters looking remarkably lovely in pale rose full-length gowns. Every dress was cut in a different style that had been especially designed by Rolleen to make the most of each sister's assets.

“You all look…wonderful,” Colt said, his voice catching in his throat.

“You look pretty wonderful yourself,” Jewel said, crossing to link her arm with his. “Come on, Colt. It's time we made our appearance in church.”

They walked out to stand in front of the altar and wait for Jenny to appear. Her brothers had already taken their places on the opposite side of the altar. Colt found his parents sitting in the front pew, waiting for the appropriate moment to give away the bride, and smiled at them. His mother dabbed at her eyes with his father's hanky and smiled back.

Their choice of attendants might have been unusual, but Jenny had selected Lohengrin's “Wedding March” as the processional. At the sound of the familiar opening chords, the congregation stood, and Colt searched the back of the church, waiting for his first look at the bride.

Jenny walked down the aisle alone, as she had lived most of her life. Colt felt his throat constrict as he caught sight of her. She looked ethereal. He could see her face through her veil, and her joyous smile made his heart swell with love.

His parents met her and said the words that gave her into his care. He reached out and took her hand, then turned with her to face the preacher.

“Dearly Beloved,” the minister began. “We are gathered here…”

The vows were familiar, but they seemed to have a great deal more meaning, Colt discovered, when you were the one taking them.

“Do you, Jennifer Elizabeth Wright, take this man to be your lawful wedded husband, to have and to hold…to love and to cherish…all the days of your life?”

“I do,” Jenny said.

Then it was his turn.

“Do you, Colt David Whitelaw, take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife, to love and to honor…in sickness and in health…as long as you both shall live?”

Colt's throat was so swollen with emotion, he couldn't speak. He nodded, but the minister was waiting for the words. He felt Jenny squeeze his hand. “I do,” he rasped.

Putting the simple gold band on Jenny's third finger somehow linked them together. When she placed a gold band on his finger in return, it felt as though the two of them had been made into one.

Then the minister was saying, “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

Colt's hands were trembling as he lifted the veil and looked into his wife's shining eyes. He lowered his head slowly, touched her lips gently, then gathered Jenny in his arms and gave her a kiss that expressed all the tumultuous emotions he felt inside.

The congregation began to applaud.

Colt lifted his head, grinned sheepishly, then slipped Jenny's arm through his and, to the swell of organ music, marched with his bride back down the aisle.

 

T
HE NEWLYWEDS WERE SPENDING
one night at the Double D before they left for their honeymoon at the Grand Canyon the following morning, so Randy was supposed to spend the night in Colt's room at Hawk's Pride to give his sister and her new husband some privacy.

It had been difficult for Randy to keep his mind on the wedding ceremony, when he knew he had a test of moral courage coming up in a matter of hours. Once the wedding reception was in full swing, he planned to sneak into Colt's bedroom with Faith—and see what she'd been hiding beneath her prosthesis.

He hadn't seen Faith before the ceremony began, and in all the excitement afterward, they'd ended up going to Hawk's Pride in separate cars. He searched for her in the courtyard and spied her near the punch bowl. He hurried in her direction, but stopped ten feet away and gawked.

She wasn't wearing the prosthetic device.

She had on a pair of white cotton gloves that ended at the wrist, exposing her arms. The left glove had something inside it to fill out the fingers, but apparently the gloved hand wasn't functional, because Faith didn't use it when she helped herself to a cup of punch. Her left arm, including the wrist, which was usually covered by the prosthetic device, looked perfectly normal.

It was the rest of her hand—or rather lack of it—he needed to see.

But suddenly he was in no hurry to see it. He stayed by Faith's side all afternoon. He laughed with her as Jenny cut the wedding cake and stuffed a big piece into Colt's laughing mouth. He shared a shy glance with her as Colt retrieved the garter from Jenny's leg, and he cheered with her as Colt's brother Rabb caught it. He stood by her side as Hope leaped high and grabbed Jenny's bridal bouquet.

He even took her with him when he helped decorate Colt's Mustang convertible. The guys ended up spraying as much shaving cream on each other as on the car, and made water balloons and threw them, too, before finally tying a bunch of old cowboy boots to the back bumper and declaring they were done.

Shadows were growing on the lawn before Randy finally acknowledged that putting off this reckoning wasn't going to make it any easier. He took Faith's right hand in his and said, “Will you come with me?”

“Where are we going?”

“Colt's room.”

He saw the flash of fear in her dark eyes before she gripped his hand and said, “All right.”

The house was built in a square, and it should've been easy to find Colt's room, since he'd been there once before, but he went down the wrong hallway, and they ended up going down three more hallways, full of wandering wedding guests, before he found the one he wanted.

He knocked on the door, in case anyone was in the room, then looked both ways to make sure no one was watching, and stepped inside. Once he and Faith were both inside, he closed the door and locked it. When he turned back around, Faith was sitting at the foot of the bed staring back at him. He crossed and sat down beside her…on her left side.

“I've never seen you wear gloves before,” Randy said, unsure how to begin.

“I've had this special glove for quite some time. My doctor designed it especially for me. I just never had a reason to wear it.” She held out her hands for him to see. “I look pretty normal,” she conceded. “But it's more aesthetically pleasing than functional. In an emergency I can use the heel of my hand.” She waggled her left hand to show the flexibility allowed by the bit of palm she had. “But I miss the versatility I get with a hook.”

She was chattering, Randy realized, because she was frightened. And he was listening, because he was afraid to speak. They made a fine pair, he thought wryly.

“Take off the glove,” he said. “Or would you rather I do it?”

“I'll do it,” she said quickly.

He had situated himself on her left side purposely, to make sure there'd be no hiding anything—neither her hand, nor his reaction. He steeled himself for what he would see, tensing his muscles, gritting his teeth to hold back any sound of disgust or dismay that might come out.

She kept her eyes lowered. The glove was attached around her wrist with a Velcro strap, and there was a tearing sound as she pulled it free. She laid the glove on the bed beside her and dropped her left hand into her lap.

Randy kept his own eyes lowered as he examined what she'd revealed. The skin was pale, because it never saw the sun. There was a bit of a wrist and five tiny nubbins that had never grown into fingers. He reached over and slid his hand under hers, feeling her tremble as he did so.

“It's okay, Faith. Your hand just stopped growing. That's all.”

She laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. A tear dropped off her lash and onto his palm where he cradled her hand. He leaned over and licked up the tear. And kissed her hand.

He felt her right hand on his head, and then her kiss on his hair.

“I love you, Randy,” she said.

He sat up, then lifted her left hand and drew it toward his cheek. “I love you, too, Faith.”

He knew the courage it had taken for her to trust him. He willed her to believe in him and felt his heart thump hard in his chest when she lifted her left hand and caressed his cheek. He covered her hand with his own, then leaned over to kiss her lips.

A hard knock on the door broke them apart.

“Who is it?” Randy called, jumping to his feet.

“Who do you think?” Hope said. “Have you got my sister in there?”

“I'm here,” Faith answered, crossing to open the door for her sister. “What's wrong?” she asked.

Randy watched as Hope looked down at her sister's uncovered hand, then up at his face. A smile curved her lips. “Why, nothing's wrong,” she said with a grin. “Nothing at all.”

At that moment Sam came walking past the door, noticed Randy and Faith and said, “Jenny and Colt are getting ready to leave the reception. You might want to come and see them off.”

“Just let me get my glove,” Faith said, turning back to the bed. “And I'll be ready to go.”

“I'll see you two out back,” Hope said, heading for the courtyard.

Randy and Faith weren't far behind her.

Randy had stuck at least a dozen pieces of net filled with birdseed into his coat pockets, so he'd have plenty of birdseed to shower on Jenny and Colt.

“Untie those ribbons,” Faith instructed. “And pour the birdseed into your hand, so it'll be ready to throw.”

“Oh.”

“Will you untie mine, too?”

“Sure,” Randy said, realizing that she was essentially one-handed without her hook. “I'm gonna invent something, Faith.”

“What?”

“A hand—like in the
Terminator
movies—that you can really use.”

“Oh, Randy. I hope you do.”

Randy heard cries of “Here they come! Get ready!”

He turned to find his sister, Colt's arm wrapped tightly around her waist, her eyes bright, her smile wide, making her way through the crowd.

 

T
HE RECEPTION WAS HALF OVER
before Jenny realized the significance of the wedding gift her brothers had given her. She searched frantically for Colt and found him drinking champagne and laughing with his brothers. She dragged him away to the arbor, chasing away at least a dozen shrieking children to have even a modicum of privacy.

“My brothers gave me a wedding gift,” she said. “A honeymoon trip to the Grand Canyon.”

“I know all about it,” he said, alternately tickling his sister's, Cherry's five-year-old twin boys, Chip and Charlie. “We leave tomorrow morning, 7:00 a.m. flight out of Amarillo.”

“The doctor's office doesn't open till eight.”

“So what?” Colt said, hefting Rolleen's ten-year-old son Kenny up over his shoulder and letting him drop until he was dangling by his heels. Kenny howled with glee.

“Don't you see? We won't have the test results before we leave,” Jenny said.

“We're going to have a honeymoon whether you have cancer or not,” Colt replied. “The news will wait till we get back.” He leaned over and kissed her on the nose, struggling to stay upright with Chip and Charlie each entwined around one of his legs like vines around an oak. “Anything else bothering you?” he asked.

She lifted a brow and said, “Well, if we're going to get up so early in the morning, isn't about time we took our leave?”

Colt's eyes went wide, and then he smiled. “Mrs. Whitelaw, that's the best suggestion I've heard all day,” he said, prying the twins off his legs.

“Thank you. I love getting compliments from my husband.”

Colt's gaze locked hers. “Husband. That has a nice sound.” He slipped his arm around her waist and headed for the car. “Let's go, wife.”