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Kitty was jealous. Because the rest of this was so strange that Kitty didn’t know what to do with it.

And then Finn was there, taking her hand, and tugging her away from the tiny crowd, and immediately she could breathe a little better.

He led her into the Marietta courthouse, separating them from the group, and that was better too. Because when it was just the two of them, he certainly affected her in weird ways too, but she could also focus on the plan that had made all of this happen in the first place.

“Are you so sure about this course of action?” Finn asked her, his blue eyes serious. And even more beautiful than usual.

“I’m always sure,” she replied.

“I know this to be true about you,” he said, with a laugh. “All right then. Let’s do it.”

And then, holding on to him, Kitty could admit that it was a bit more jolly to have family around. It wouldn’t have been her choice, but her sisters had insisted on the dress, and the hair, and all the rest of it. Helena and Cat had come with flowers, so that Kitty could have a bouquet.

Then Jenny and Peyton insisted on taking pictures, and the whole thing suddenly felt a little more serious than it had when she thought it up.

After the ceremony, Kitty would have been happy to drive right back home, open up the restaurant, and get to work. But she was completely overruled. By everyone else.

They went to a restaurant in Marietta, where she and Finn were pressed together in one of the two large booths the group took over, and Kitty found that her stomach felt… unsettled. And the only thing she could really concentrate on was the way Finn’s thigh pressed against hers. That and she seemed unduly focused on the way he used his hands.

Her throat felt tight, and every time she caught that bright blue gaze of his, she felt her cheeks get hot.

“You okay?” he asked her at one point, in an aside that no one else could hear, because that was how close they were sitting. And also he was her husband.

“Fine. Why wouldn’t I be fine?”

“Just checking in, Kitty,” he said, with what would have been a smile, but it didn’t quite make it to his mouth.

When Kitty looked away, she saw her sisters and his sisters watching them. And then all exchanging significant glances in a way she didn’t like at all.

She told herself it was a relief when the meal was finally over and everyone piled into their various vehicles, leaving her to drive back up to Cowboy Point with Finn. Her brand-new husband. Who was moving into her house. Her room.

He had given her a ring during their brief, succinct exchange of vows. She hadn’t thought about rings at all, but it turned out he’d gotten one for himself, too. And they matched.

There was something about that that seemed to join that spiraling sensation inside of her. She found herself playing with the ring on her finger, even though it was nothing gaudy or attention seeking. It was just a gold band. As she sat in the passenger seat of his truck, he glanced over and saw her messing with it.

“I figured the simpler, the better,” he said. “Since you always have your hands in dough.”

“Yes,” Kitty said. “I do. I didn’t think about rings. This one is perfect.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

And the look Finn slid her then hit different. It took her breath away. At first she told herself it shouldn’t have that effect, that she was overreacting, but even if that was true it didn’t stop what she was feeling.

There was something so… patient, and knowing, about the way he was looking at her. It made her feel hunted, somehow. Her heart seemed fluttery inside her ribs. Her whole body seemed to be misfiring. She felt a little bit weak, a little bit shivery, and it was like electric shocks kept zinging through her without warning.

She had the strangest notion that he understood exactly what was happening to her and was aware of each one of those bizarre sensations, but just wasn’t telling her what they were.

Maybe he was waiting for her to ask, but something in her refused to let her do that. Like it would be giving him too much information. Like she would be telling on herself.

She had to force herself to take a deep breath, then let it out, and she had to focus a whole lot on how she was breathing to try to get herself to calm down.

But it didn’t really work.

It was a gorgeous day. Beautiful, summery, and truly, the best Montana had offered. The drive out of Marietta was steep and winding, but this time of year, that just meant that there were stunning views in all directions.

When they crested the hill, just shy of Copper Mountain’s peak, Cowboy Point waited there, laid out before them like the pretty little postcard that it had looked like to Kitty when she’d first taken this drive seven years ago.

Today she was driving back into town with a husband. Something she would have said would never have happened. She’d never had the slightest interest in marriage.