Colters' Lady (Colters' Legacy #2)(85)

Maybe it was her subconscious at work, because she hadn’t set out to walk to the graveyard where Rose was buried. She hadn’t even known that she was going in that direction. But when she looked up, she saw the iron gates that guarded the children’s cemetery.

She stopped several feet in front of the opening and simply stared at a place she hadn’t seen since the awful day when they’d put her in the ground.

She closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath. Courage. Once she would have said she had none, but lately, she’d found it with increasing frequency. Life was about finding courage to live each day and to face obstacles head-on.

She walked slowly and nearly on tiptoe down the winding pathway. She searched her memory for where exactly Rose had been buried. So much of that time was a blur. She closed her eyes again and this time went back in time to the day. Rose had been buried in the shelter of a huge cottonwood tree, the branches sprawling over many graves as if gathering the little angels in its arms.

She looked up and saw the tree a short distance away. She swallowed and walked at a more determined pace until she searched out the headstone with Rose’s name.

“Rose Weston. Beloved daughter. You were mine, and now you’re His. May He take you on the wings of angels back home where you belong.”

She’d written the inscription herself and until now hadn’t allowed herself to even think it much less recite it aloud.

She raised her face to the sun. “I love you, baby,” she whispered. “I don’t regret a single moment I had with you. You’ll always be my angel girl.”

Peace descended and the area went quiet. Warmth enveloped her and wrapped her in its steady embrace. The sun’s rays streamed through the big tree branches that shielded the graves from the weather.

She looked down again and then knelt to touch the cool marble.

“Goodbye,” she whispered. “I never said it before. I couldn’t. But goodbye, my sweet baby girl.”

She rose and turned swiftly away, walking at a brisk pace from the graveyard. She wiped at her eyes with the back of her sleeve and began to scour the street for a cab. Holly and Callie would worry. She’d been gone longer than she’d anticipated.

She only had to walk two blocks before she hailed a cab. She leaned against the seat, eyes closed as they made the journey back to the hotel.

She was exhausted. Mentally and physically wiped. But she was lighter than she’d ever been. She couldn’t wait to get back home to her men. She had a marriage proposal to accept.

Chapter Thirty-Six

“Where the f**k is she?” Dillon asked as he paced back and forth in the living room. “I don’t buy that garbage about her and Mom and Callie being on a goddamn shopping trip and having a lark of a time in Denver.”

Michael nodded silently.

Even the cat seemed to miss Lily. She paced back and forth between the living room and the front door as if expecting Lily to burst through at any moment. Michael reached down and idly scratched her ears when she issued a plaintive meow.

“You were a goddamn cop up there, Seth. Can’t you call some of your buddies and have them check in on the women?” Dillon asked.

Seth laughed. “Uh no. They’d kill us. Mom wouldn’t speak to us for a year, and Callie would just kick our ass.”

“Aren’t you in the least worried?” Michael demanded.

Seth sighed. “Of course I am. But she asked for time. She asked for our trust. We have to be willing to give her both. She’ll come back to us.”

“I’m not worried about her coming back to us,” Dillon growled. “I’m worried about what she’s off doing alone because she thinks she needs to do it. Alone.”

The sound of the front door opening penetrated the air. The men swung around, and there was Lily standing in the doorway, her gaze locked on them.

There was subtle wariness in her expression, but at the same time there was a stillness and quietness to her spirit that had been absent before.

Seth sucked in his breath. It was going to be okay. Relief crushed him. As much as he’d said to his brothers about having to give her space, he’d been as worried as they had been.

“Lily,” Michael breathed a mere second before he strode across the room and swept her into his arms.

She reacted with just as much emotion and wrapped herself around Michael, holding tight to him. She closed her eyes and buried her face into his chest as Michael stroked his hand over her hair.

Dillon only gave Michael a moment before he tugged Lily from Michael’s arms and into his own. He cradled Lily protectively in his beefy embrace, his expression tender.

“Where have you been, sweetness?”

Lily stirred and then turned her blue eyes on Seth. He itched to hold her, but he waited as she carefully extricated herself from Dillon’s hold and then came to him in a rush.

He closed his eyes and inhaled the sweet scent he identified as uniquely Lily.

“Welcome home,” he murmured.

She raised her head and smiled so brilliantly at him that he was dumbstruck.

“It’s good to be home,” she whispered.

“Where did you go?” Dillon repeated. “Are you all right?”

She turned to face the others, remaining cradled in Seth’s arms. “I went to see Charles.”

Seth stiffened while Dillon swore and Michael’s face grew stormy.