No Other Will Do (Ladies of Harper's Station #1)(105)

Her hand fell away from her mouth, revealing a bottom lip that trembled. “Oh, Malachi. I love you, too. With all my heart.”

Joy, bittersweet and sharp, stabbed through him at her words. If only there was a way . . .

She reached out and caressed his jaw, her touch sending shivers over his skin. “You’re the best man I’ve ever known, Malachi. I owe you more than I can ever repay.”

Mal slowly wagged his head, careful not to shake off her touch. “You don’t owe me a thing, Em. You saved my life. Gave me a family. Made me believe I was worth more than the gutter trash everyone always compared me to. Fighting off a no-good outlaw doesn’t even make a dent in that debt.”

She shook her head at him and dug her teeth into her bottom lip. Then she twisted away from him and crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you promise?” she blurted.

At this moment, he’d promise her anything if it was in his power to grant. “Promise what?”

“To come. If I need you.”

He sagged with relief. That he could promise. All day long. “Yes. I promise.” He cupped her upper arms. “All you have to do is send word, and I’ll be here. I swear it.”

“You better.”

He grinned and bent close to touch his lips to her forehead. Man, but he loved it when she got all bossy on him.

He started to back away, sure that if he didn’t leave now, he’d never find the strength to do so. But Emma reached out and clasped his arm.

“Malachi?”

He swallowed and turned to face her. “Yeah?”

“I need you.”

His heart thumped an awkward beat. What was she saying?

She said it again. Louder this time. Imperious. “I. Need. You.”

“Em, I don’t understand. . . .”

She closed the distance between them with one long step, released his arm, and grabbed him around the waist, holding him as if she planned to make him her prisoner. Then she tipped her head back and glared up at him. “You promised you would come if I needed you. Well, I need you. Today. Tomorrow. The next day. I’m going to need you forever.”

“But what about your ladies? You can’t just abandon your work.” Though in that moment he wanted her to. Wanted her to choose him over her ministry, God forgive him. But that wasn’t right. It was selfish. Greedy. Mal reached for her arms and tried to pry them away from his midsection. “You belong in Harper’s Station, Em. I belong in a railroad camp. There’s no way for us to be together.”

“What if there was a way?” She threw the words at him like a hunter taking down a buck, and heaven help him if he didn’t feel the blow straight through his chest. “Would you stay, then?”

Letting go of her arms, he traced a path up to her face and lightly stroked the edge of her cheek. He couldn’t quite meet her gaze, so he watched his fingers move back and forth along the soft skin.

“Yes, angel.” The words hitched in his throat. “I’d stay. I’d marry you and spend the rest of my days loving you. We’d have children and raise them to follow their dreams and passions, making sure they knew their parents believed in them and saw them as people of value and worth. We’d grow old together, and sit on the porch in matching rocking chairs and watch the sun go down while we reminisce about how an ornery outlaw brought us together.”

Moisture trickled into the path of his fingers. She was weeping. Biting back a groan, he dragged her into a hug and tucked her head into the crook of his shoulder. For once, he was the one instigating, a fact that should surprise him but oddly didn’t. His barriers had crumbled. No more holding back, no more protecting the hidden places inside him.

She loved him. If she could bear up under the uncertainty of the future, so could he.

He ran a hand over her hair as her brow nestled against the side of his jaw. “Maybe someday, when things change . . . But for now, your place is here. And as much as I believe in your work and in this place, I don’t belong in it. There’s no permanent place for a man in a women’s colony.”

She pulled back from him and gazed into his face with tear-filled eyes at odds with the smile curving her lips. “Don’t you see, Malachi? Your belief in this work is exactly why you do belong.”

Emma took another step backward, so much energy vibrating through her, she couldn’t stand still. “This place was never created to keep men out. It was created to give women power over their own destiny. Omitting men just seemed to be the easiest way to accomplish that feat. But our ladies voted, Mal.” She clasped his hand and beamed up at him. “They voted to accept you as a permanent resident of Harper’s Station. Unanimously, I might add. You’ve earned their trust, their loyalty. You’re family now.”

Mal reeled, not quite able to absorb what she was saying.

Emma winked and squeezed his hand. “Even Helen voted to let you stay.”

Hope surged to such fierce heights inside him, he balked. Afraid to believe he could finally regain what he’d lost a decade ago—a home.

“But what would I do?” Mal tugged his hand from her grasp and rubbed the back of his neck. “I can’t exactly stitch a quilt or put up vegetables. A man has to work, Em. I can’t stay if there is no way for me to provide for you, for a family.”

Her smile never dimmed. “That’s what we met about today,” she said. “We fully expect the town to start growing again. Grace will be sending telegrams out to those who left us at the start of all the trouble, letting them know it is safe to return. And others will come, too. Especially if we can promise them protection.