Redwood Bend

Katie, please, pick me. Marry me. Because you’re my life.”
She ran a hand along his cheek. Tears came to her eyes. “I thought you were more hit and run.”
“Yeah, what do I know,” he said with a laugh. “You amaze me every day, Katie. I want you in my life forever, through everything. I swear, I’ll make you happy or die trying.”
“No dying,” she said, shaking her head. “Been there, done that.”
“Marry me,” he said. “Let me take care of you and the boys and whoever you have in there. Love me. Choose me. Let me be your one.”
“Dylan, you are The One. You sure you want me? I don’t travel light.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” he said, pulling her mouth down to his for a kiss. “I’ve been wanting you since I found you in that wet T-shirt on the side of the road. You make my mouth water and my brain freeze—you are almost too much for my heart. I love you so much. I want you and your twins and your brother and Charlie’s medals. I want all of you. I want everything that’s part of you—your past, your present and your future. And I want you to be mine. ”
She smiled despite the tear that rolled down her cheek. “I love you right back. Love you too much to even say how much, it’s that big. It’s bigger than you can imagine. And once I say yes, you’re totally stuck. I’ll tell everyone I know, including Conner, and there is absolutely no way out.”
He grinned at her. “I don’t want out, baby. I want in. ”

Epilogue

I t took three weeks for Dylan’s back to heal enough for him to fly with Katie and the boys to Montana and by then it was already well into August. They were picked up at the airport by Sue Ann Langston, or Mrs. Lang as Dylan liked to refer to her. She called him “D.” Sometimes she called him Big D because her two-year-old son was Little D. “Sorry to have appropriated the name, Katie,” she said. “I didn’t think Big D would ever get around to it!”
Katie found Sue Ann to be a complete delight—happy, friendly and very, very talkative in her excitement at meeting Katie and the boys. She told Katie everything she could think of about Payne on the ride from the Butte airport, including, “The weather has been awesome, the kids have been swimming at the lake whenever they can talk me into taking them and Lang is already working on a couple of charter bids out of L.A., trying to figure out what type of equipment is most cost-effective to put there.”
“Already?” Dylan asked.
“And nothing from your friend Jay, yet. Two of the industry people from your list jumped right on the opportunity. Dylan, this might just work out.”
Katie thought she was prepared for the beauty of the landscape since Dylan had described it so thoroughly and given her many comparisons to Virgin River. But she was stunned by the magnificence that was Montana and overwhelmed by the majesty of the mountain peaks and rich, green valleys. The drive to the valley that was Payne over the mountains gave views that caused her to gasp every time they came around another curve.
“And you look at this every day?” she asked Dylan.
“When I’m in town. Flying in here is awesome,” he said. “Sue Ann, pull over at the next lookout.”
A few minutes later Sue Ann brought the car to a stop at a wide space on a mountain road that overlooked a broad expanse of valley dotted with ranches. A stone wall bordered the lookout to keep people like crazy five-year-old boys from diving down the side of the mountain. Dylan jumped out and held the door for Katie, then the boys.
She stood at the wall and looked down. “My God,” she whispered reverently. “It looks like a postcard.”
He came up behind her, slipping his arms around her waist. Sue Ann joined them.
“See that small house at the far end of the valley?” Dylan asked her, pointing. “Just a small house, a barn, a couple of storage sheds you can barely see, a corral…that’s my place. And way down there on the other side of the pasture, way past the house, you can see the runway, hangars and a few planes.”
“All that is yours?”
“Kind of,” he said. “It’s mine and Adele’s. I borrowed from her to build the airport though I paid her back for that. She still owns the house and land, and put my name on the deed along with hers. You know her, she won’t take rent. I tried to buy it from her and she said if I argue any more, she’ll take her name off the deed altogether. She wants me to be here because I built the business