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“Soon,” he said.

“I heard you before,” she managed to say without sounding too cranky. “Patience. I get it.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” he said, with his eyes crinkled up at the corners.

And she was sure she heard him laugh again as he walked away.

Because she could feel it inside her all the rest of the night.

Chapter Four

The wedding on Friday at Mountain Mama’s wasn’t on Finn’s radar at all until Dallas laughed at Finn’s confusion about why he should go that morning in the General Store, where Finn and Raleigh liked to go in the mornings to spend time with whatever members of their newly introduced family were around.

“You’re going,” Dallas told him, with great confidence. “We’re all going.”

“Dr. Ramona is my landlord,” Finn said, not understanding Dallas’s confidence at all. “A good landlord, and I’ve met Knox a few times too, but that’s as far as that goes. Besides, I wasn’t invited.”

“It’s not that kind of wedding.” Dallas was working his shift in the historic family store while Cat worked in the clinic and Tennessee handled breakfast in the diner next door. He grinned from behind the store’s counter. “This isn’t a fancy invite to a banquet kind of thing. This is a whole town wedding. Some folks around here like to have those.”

“What do you mean by the whole town?” Raleigh asked, looking as lazy as always, which Finn sometimes thought only a few people knew was an act. “That sounds unmanageable.”

“Knox is a Carey,” Dallas said. His grin widened. “Given the Lisle family’s historic dislike of the Carey family, based entirely on their behavior since the 1800s, I would normally say that Knox is just doing it for attention.”

“Didn’t the Lisle family steal this place from the Careys in a card game?” Finn asked. Mildly enough, having been lectured on this topic extensively in the months since he’d come here. Extensively, often, and with ever-increasing levels of outrage.

“Sure sounds like the Lisle family to me,” Raleigh pointed out, his lazy tone not quite hiding the fact that he was deliberately poking at Dallas. Or anyway, Finn could tell that was exactly what he was doing. “Not exactly renowned for honesty or honor or any of that shit.”

Dallas ignored them, aside from a roll of his eyes. “But given that we’re in-laws now thanks to Cat, it doesn’t hurt me too much to say that probably Knox is doing it this way because everyone in this town figured he’d get the hell out of here as soon as possible. I’m guessing he wants to make sure they all know he’s staying put now. A big, come-one, come-all wedding is a surefire way to do that.”

“Amazing,” Raleigh drawled. He was now draped over the shelf, as if it was holding him up and without it he might slide into a puddle on the floor. Sometimes Finn was truly astonished that no one else seemed to notice his brother was, in fact, made entirely of muscle. And could certainly hold himself up if he liked. “Y’all actually send messages through wedding ceremonies. This is a town that keeps on giving.”

And that was how Finn found himself in the middle of a happy wedding party on a pretty June afternoon.

His mother couldn’t stop talking about everything that was in bloom, and how beautiful it was in this little valley, and Finn had to say he agreed. There were wildflowers all over the hills now, bright patches of yellow. It was hard to believe it had snowed some the weekend before, and here it was blooming in all directions, as if it had been summer all along.

Soon, according to the locals, the lupines would come in and then it would be truly spectacular here beneath some of Montana’s best big skies. Not that anyone in Cowboy Point was biased. And anyway, there was no denying that this was a pretty place, no matter the season.

Though Finn found he had to redefine what pretty was when he turned around and saw Kitty Bennett in a dress with her hair down, moving between the tables out on the patio of Mountain Mama.

It was like the whole world stood still.

And suddenly, he couldn’t remember a single reason why he was making her wait on his answer.

He’d been telling himself that what he was waiting for was for Kitty to come to her senses. For her to realize the magnitude of what she was asking, and take it back.

At which point he figured he’d probably ask if he could take her out to dinner instead. Because he’d gotten used to having Kitty on his mind around the clock now. He didn’t see that changing. No matter what happened with her wedding plans.

Ramona and Knox’s wedding ceremony started, with music from the local musicians and flower children walking down the aisle that had been made to lead out onto the patio from inside. Finn had never spent a whole lot of time thinking too much about weddings. Especially when he knew that he was descended from a man who’d put so little stock in his.

But there was something about this place that got to him. Maybe it was the happiness in the air, like it was catching. The whole Carey family was here, with a couple someone said were Ramona’s parents from back east, and they were all grinning wide, crying, or both.

Or maybe it was the auburn-haired woman he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of as she moved through the crowd to handle the little last minute details and even smiled, making everything feel like magic.

Because it was possible, Finn thought, that Kitty herself was magic.

He’d accepted that some while ago, long before the woman had propositioned him on the street one fine morning.

When he realized he was watching Kitty instead of the bride as she walked toward the altar made of flowers, he ordered himself to get it together. The Montana weather had pulled itself together for this wedding. It was a bright afternoon, and Dallas had been right, Finn recognized more folks than he didn’t. He couldn’t necessarily put a name to every face, but he saw familiar faces everywhere he turned.