She cut herself off, sighing heavily. “Anyway, I thought you might want to try it on. If not, that’s perfectly fine. I won’t be offended. But if you do like it, there’s a woman in town?—”
I didn’t think as I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around Clara in a tight hug. I wasn’t sure what came over me, but I had the desperate urge to cry. And I really hated crying.
“Oh, honey,” she murmured, squeezing me back.
“I’m sorry, I just…” I couldn’t even speak. “Stupid hormones,” I laughed.
It wasn’t the hormones, though. It was her. Here I was, a complete stranger to her, and she was treating me like her daughter. I hadn’t had that in a very long time, and it had never really bothered me. I was used to being a daddy’s girl and being smothered by brotherly love.
I just hadn’t realized how much I was missing out on until this moment. To have his mother offer me her wedding dress was just too much to take at the moment. God, I was turning into a sap. I needed to dig down and find the woman who tossed people through windows again.
“Michael said your mother died when you were very young.”
I nodded, swiping the tears from my eyes. “Yes. She caught a cold and then…it all just happened so fast.”
“That must have been very hard on you, growing up with all those boys.”
“It wasn’t too bad. They took care of me and taught me to defend myself,” I smiled, remembering the first time they took me shooting.
“Well, I can certainly see why Michael fell for you. I always knew it would take a strong woman to tame him.”
“I’m not sure I’ve tamed him,” I laughed.
“Maybe not tamed, but you’ve definitely gotten him to settle down, and that’s something. There was a time I never thought he would come home to us.”
“That was never because he didn’t want to be here.”
“Oh, no,” she waved me off. “Before those ridiculous charges. No, when he left home, I thought for sure he would never come back to us. He and his father are like oil and water. There was never anything they could agree on. And the last time he came home, the way the town gossiped about him, I knew he wouldn’t stay. I thought I lost him for good.”
Her eyes shimmered with tears as she got lost in memories. She had no idea how badly Parker had wanted to come home.
“You know, when we were dreaming of what we would do if we could get out of the mess we were in, he talked a lot about coming back here.”
“He did?” she asked hopefully.
“Yeah, he didn’t have to talk me into coming here. I was sold the minute he described this ranch and his family. It sounded like the perfect place to raise kids.”
“And now you’re starting a family of your own,” she smiled, gripping my hand. “My first grandchild. Well, enough of these tears. Like I said, I won’t make you try it on?—”
“I would love to,” I said immediately, taking the dress from her.
She helped me struggle into the dress. It was a good fit, but needed to be taken in around the boobs. I wasn’t nearly as large as she was. All the satin and silk was absolutely beautiful, and the lace arms were so delicate, I feared I would tear them. But when it was on, I knew this was the dress I wanted to wear.
“You look beautiful,” she whispered, looking at my reflection in the mirror.
“Thank you.”
“Well, we’ll take this into town first thing tomorrow to Elaine. She’ll have it taken in and fixed up in no time. You’ll be a beautiful bride.”
I smiled as I looked at myself in the mirror. I hadn’t been sure about rushing into marriage before. When Parker said we would get married right away, a part of me wanted to wait. Maybe it was because, after all we’d been through, I just wanted some time to be a normal couple. Or maybe I just wanted to be one hundred percent sure in my decision.
But looking at this wedding dress, I no longer felt the need to wait. I did want to marry Parker, and the sooner the better.
Everything was going to be perfect.
14
MICHAEL
