Taking Charge (35 page)

A cheer went up and people laughed.

“And this by the way…this is Cole,” Robyn said,
looking at him and smiling as his cheeks flushed and people turned
their attention to him.

“I met Cole just over a week ago at the airport and
since then…well, he’s upturned my life,” Robyn informed her
audience.

“Woo hoo!” Henrik hollered in appreciation.

“Not only did he buy me a car, he gave me a place to
stay, and he’s been steering my Panthers to victory ever since. To
be honest, I can’t imagine my life without him,” Robyn said,
turning to look only at Cole.

Mickey let out another howl and this time Sarah let
him carry on.

“So, tonight I want to tell all of you that—Cole and
I are getting married—next week—and you’re all invited!” Robyn
announced loudly.

There were shouts of excitement, and the whole room
erupted into a frenzy of shock, surprise, and delight. Special
Guest began a rendition of Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” as Cole put
his arms around Robyn and kissed her.

“This has got to be a joke,” Brad stated through
gritted teeth.

“I can’t believe it! Getting married next week!” Wade
said with a smile.

“Is anyone listening to me? I’ve never heard anything
so messed up in my life. She’s known him a week!” Brad
exclaimed.

“Hey! Robyn knows what she wants, always has. You
keep your opinion on it to yourself,” Eddie warned, looking sternly
at Brad.

“You knew! How long have you known? You should have
told me,” Brad blasted angrily, his face reddening.

“She told me this afternoon and I reacted the same
way you just did for the same reason. We only just got her back and
you don’t want to lose her. The difference is Brad she was never
yours in the first place,” Eddie reminded him.

“Come on man; be happy for them. Look at them,
they’re so in to each other,” Wes remarked as he watched Robyn and
Cole being congratulated by well-wishers.

“It sucks! The whole thing sucks!” Brad yelled
angrily.

“Hey, what about that announcement then! Sarah didn’t
even know! A Portage wedding next week and another one in the
spring,” Mickey announced as he and Sarah joined the hockey
table.

“Two weddings?” Henrik queried, puzzled.

“Two?” Pam questioned.

“I asked Sarah to marry me and she said yes—oh and
we’re having a baby,” Mickey told them all.

“Are you sure it’s yours?” Brad snapped, drinking
greedily from his glass of beer.

“Bradley that’s a horrible thing to say,” Pam
said.

“Just asking. I mean it was only last week she was
trying it on with me,” Brad informed the table.

“Mickey, it wasn’t anything. It was after we had that
fight at the barbecue and…” Sarah began tears forming in her
eyes.

“Well I think wedding is good—wedding means party,”
Henrik told everyone as he downed the remainder of his drink in one
gulp.

“You Dutch know how to party Henrik don’t ya?” Wes
spoke.

“He’s not Dutch, he’s Swedish,” Wade replied.

“I think you need to go,” Eddie told Brad.

“Yeah? Well I’ll go when I’m good and ready. I want a
few words with the bride before I go anywhere,” Brad snarled as
Robyn and Cole made their way over to the table.

“You knew about this? Aren’t you going to put a stop
to it? I mean I wasn’t happy with her moving in with him so
fast—but marriage!” Pam remarked to her brother.

“She’s twenty-five Pam, what do you want me to do?
Ground her? Give her a slap?”

“Well, no, but…” Pam started.

“Look at her. I’ve never seen her look so happy and
if that’s his doing then we should be welcoming him into the
family, not wondering whether he’s an escapee from Death Row,”
Eddie replied.

“Congratulations, my girl, it’s wonderful news. Will
there be a reception?” Ada asked, enveloping Robyn in a hug, the
gin fumes almost making her cough.

“Yes, Ada, at West Lake, I think. We haven’t really
finalized everything yet,” Robyn said, looking at Cole
anxiously.

“Straight after the ceremony, we have one of those
huge, open party tents and Eddie’s Roadhouse is providing all the
food,” Cole answered.

“You’ve organized it,” Robyn said, smiling at
him.

“I told Nancy it was a surprise party for your
birthday just so I had something booked,” Cole admitted.

“Can I speak to you?” Brad said, stepping in front of
Ada and addressing Robyn, a furious look on his face.

“Are you going to offer your congratulations?” she
asked.

“You are kidding me. This whole marriage thing is the
most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard about,” Brad raged.

“No one cares what you think about it,” Cole
said.

“You’re totally out of your mind. If you feel
insecure because Jason’s dragging everything back up again, I can
help you. I can get a restraining order so he can’t come near you,
I can get my dad to…” Brad started.

“A restraining order? I don’t want a restraining
order. I don’t want anything like that,” Robyn said, her mind being
forced back to the past again.

“Brad, I think you’d better go,” Cole warned.

“If it’s security you need, I can give you that.”

“I don’t want security and I don’t want you. How many
times do I have to say this, Brad? I don’t want you; I never have
wanted you, not like that,” Robyn stated loud and clear.

“We were together once,” Brad told her.

“We were high school kids. I’m not getting into this,
not again. I’ve got people to serve and washing up to do and—just
go if you’ve got nothing good to say,” Robyn said, heading back
toward the kitchen.

“If you really feel anything for her you’ll leave her
alone, you’re upsetting her,” Cole told him.

“What’s upsetting her are people dragging up the
past. Eddie said she gave her statement again yesterday,” Brad
said, watching Robyn as she took some plates from Nancy and helped
serve them.

“She’s fine and it’ll all be over soon. They’re
obtaining new DNA evidence, so we’ll know one way or another
whether it was Jason who attacked her—no matter what his witness
says,” Cole informed him.

“What new evidence?” Brad questioned.

“Concrete evidence. Listen, unless you want a bruise
on the other side of your jaw, you need to leave,” Cole ordered
him.

“It was awesome, wasn’t it? The whole night was
awesome!” Robyn shrieked happily as Cole drove Leonora back toward
home.

It was almost three in the morning. The roadhouse had
been a complete mess and had taken two hours to get half straight
again. Pam, Bob, and the twins had stayed on to help, but there was
still more cleaning up required before they opened for lunch the
following day.

“It was totally awesome,” Cole agreed.

“And the band was just as amazing as I
remembered.”

“Well, I have news for you. I booked them for our
wedding,” Cole told her.

“No! That’s the best news!” Robyn screamed and then
laughed out loud.

She was so happy. Everything in her life was finally
coming together. Her dad was getting better, the Panthers were
holding their own in the league, the roadhouse launch had gone
better than anyone could have imagined, and she had Cole.
Wonderful, gorgeous Cole.

“Stop the car,” Robyn ordered him.

“What?”

“Stop the car. Pull in there, right by the lake,”
Robyn instructed him.

He followed her directions, stopped the car, and
turned off the engine.

“So, here we are, just like you asked. What now?”
Cole asked, looking at her.

Robyn just looked at him, drinking him in.

“You’re trembling,” Cole said, holding onto her
fingers.

“I’m scared,” Robyn admitted with a swallow.

“What of?”

“How I feel about you and how fast it’s
happened.”

“Me too,” Cole said, looking into her eyes.

Robyn edged closer to him until their faces almost
met. Her heart was racing as she gazed at him and realized the
intensity of what she felt for him.

“I want you to kiss me. Then I want you to take my
clothes off and I don’t want you to stop,” Robyn said with
conviction. She was ready.

“You mean? Like now? Here? In Leonora?” Cole asked,
looking out of the windscreen at the blackness hanging over the
rippling lake.

“I’ve never done it in a Mustang before,” Robyn
admitted with a swallow.

“Me neither…but…just wait there,” Cole said,
releasing his seatbelt and opening the door.

“Where are you going?” Robyn asked him.

“Just wait there,” Cole repeated, shutting the door
behind him.

She shivered as the cold air from outside blew into
the car. She rubbed her hands together and caught sight of her
engagement ring. Tonight she’d told the whole town she was getting
married. With Ada knowing, it would be all over the state by the
morning and might even make CNN. That thought didn’t even concern
her like it might have done. She’d hollered the announcement out in
Eddie’s Roadhouse because she’d wanted the world to hear.

Her door opened and Cole appeared.

“Okay, come on out,” he said, taking hold of her
hand.

“You’re kidding right? You do know how cold it is out
there? And I’m wearing a t-shirt,” Robyn reminded.

“Come on, the more you think about it the colder
it’ll feel,” Cole said, pulling her out of her seat and waving a
torch around with his other hand.

She stepped out of the car, swinging the door shut
behind her and followed him off over the side of the road and down
onto the sand that edged the lake.

“I’m getting algae on my shoes,” Robyn called to him
as he paced ahead.

“Take them off!” Cole yelled back.

“Where are we going?” Robyn shouted in response.

“Keep up. I’ve got the torch remember!”

The night was black and Cole’s image was disappearing
in front of her. She pulled off her tennis shoes and hurried across
the sand to catch up to him.

She rounded a small dune and then stopped as she
discovered him in front of her, sitting on a blanket on the
ground.

An emergency flare and a warning triangle were
glowing a few yards away from the blanket, bathing the area with
light. She put her hand to her mouth in surprise and smiled at the
scene.

“No candles in the trunk, maybe we need to get some,
you know, for moments like this,” Cole spoke as she moved closer to
him.

“Moments like…?” Robyn asked as she sat down on the
blanket and looked at him.

“Like this,” Cole said.

He kissed her lips, softly at first and then harder,
with more intent. She rose up on her knees and pulled at his
t-shirt. With his help, she brought it over his head.

“Robyn, I want you to be sure. We don’t have to do
this…hey you’re shaking,” Cole said, taking her hand in his
again.

“I want to do it. More than anything,” Robyn said,
pulling at the buttons on his jeans.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Cole whispered, lightly
kissing her neck.

“You won’t,” she replied, taking his hand. She eased
her jeans down over her hips, taking her underwear with them.

He’d been right. If you didn’t think about the cold
you didn’t feel it. All she could feel was her heart beating hard
in her chest as she looked at Cole looking at her.

“You are so beautiful,” he whispered, helping her
take off her t-shirt.

He took a deep breath as he watched her unclasp her
bra and discard it on the sand.

“What’s wrong?” Robyn asked, suddenly feeling
vulnerable.

“Nothing,” Cole said with a swallow.

“Tell me.”

“Being with you, it means so much…you mean so much,”
Cole said, his hand tracing the line of her left breast.

His fingers, his touch was setting light to something
deep inside her that had been hidden away for so long, never daring
to surface.

He put his mouth on hers and kissed her so slowly she
thought she was going to die from arousal. The inside of his mouth
tasted so sweet, his tongue was so smooth, his lips were so softly
swelled she almost couldn’t bear for them to leave hers. But they
did leave and he moved his mouth to her neck, her chest, her
breasts. She arched her back in pleasure, coming alive in the
moment, forgetting everything else.

She held his shoulders and pulled him closer to her,
wanting to feel the hardness of him. He hesitated, looking at her
with his dark sincere eyes. She knew he didn’t want to do anything
she wasn’t ready for.

She touched him, drawing him into her, slowly,
tentatively. Then desperately, needful.

He closed his eyes and gathered her into his arms,
slowly rocking her toward him. She held onto him, matching his
rhythm, almost burning with the sensuality. It felt like nothing
she had ever experienced before.

He slowed, opened his eyes, and looked at her. The
passion, the depth of his feelings for her were all there, set in
his expression. She wanted to share everything with him, forever.
He leaned her back until she was laid on the blanket, her hair in
the sand and then he moved further into her. With every motion, she
felt freer. She gripped his back, wanting to feel him inside her
more and more, never wanting him to stop. And then suddenly,
without any warning, she was freefalling. It was like her whole
body had been dusted with popping candy, inside and out. She
couldn’t stop it; it was like being wrapped up in the warmest
blanket waiting to be thrown off the top of a waterfall. And that’s
when the first wave hit her. She shook. It was almost too much. She
screamed his name and she held him tighter, her nails digging into
his back.

“Cole!”

“I know, Robyn…I know,” Cole replied, holding on to
her as she trembled and waited for the next wave.

“I can’t stop it,” Robyn said as she drifted between
sweet agony and ecstasy.