Redemption

Epilogue

Epilogue

Colt stood at the front of the church and tugged at his collar, feeling as if the arrowhead bolo tie he was wearing was bound and determined to choke him to death. Why was he so nervous? People got married everyday.

Just not to Jessie Steele.

Doc put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “You’re shaking like a leaf, “he whispered.

Colt turned just enough to talk to him. “You would be too, if you were in my situation.”

“You’re getting married. It’s the least you could do to smile,” Doc told him.

Colt plastered on the widest smile he could produce. “I’m nervous as a cat, Dawson. I’m beginning to think we should have eloped.”

Dawson looked around. “Keep your voice down. Anyone overhears you and Myra’ll be running around like a head with her chicken cut off. Er… a chicken… never mind I think your bride’s nearly here.”

The piano began playing the bridal processional and Colt stiffened. This was it. This was the moment he had been waiting for.

The doors opened and there she was. Colt couldn’t breathe. The world faded around him except for Jessie and he fought for the air enough to fill his lungs.

His hand clamped over his mouth. I can’t cry, or then she’ll cry. I can’t cry. I can’t cry. Yeah, I’m gonna cry.

Moisture built up in his eyes as she took those first few steps on her father’s arm, her smile stretching across her face. He blinked several times and composed himself.

Words couldn’t describe how she looked at that moment. Colt hadn’t traveled a lot, but he could say that Jessie had to be the most beautiful woman on earth. What in the world did he do to deserve her? He had to have mugged some rich Southern plantation owner for her. There was no way that this woman would logically fall in love with him. That cream-colored dress looked stunning on her. The front part of her hair was pulled up and the other half lay in curls around her shoulders. What stunned him the most was the smile she wore. It would be the death of him.

And those devastating eyes. How they had the power to make him kiss the very ground she walked on at that moment.

Doc squeezed his shoulder again before putting his hand down. Colt was struck to the spot. He forgot what he was doing this this little church, who the people around him were, and for a moment, he even forgot how to breathe.

By the time she reached the front of the porch, he was silently gasping for air. He was pretty sure that he had broken out in a sweat, but he didn’t even care at the moment.

It was time to make Jessie Steele his.

The vows came and went, and all Colt remembered was that he said them right. He should have probably paid attention to what he was vowing to do, but he couldn’t think straight. It wasn’t until the preacher said those final words that he snapped back into reality. Yet he was still just as nervous.

“I now present to you Mr. and Mrs. Kidd. Colt, you can go on and kiss your bride now,” the preacher said.

Whoops and hollers echoed throughout the room as Colt bent his head to give his wife the first kiss he had ever given anyone. She claimed that she had never kissed anyone either, not even Adam, but man, was she good at it.

Cheers filled the air as they pulled apart and Jessie smiled up at him for the first time as his wife. How he loved her with all of his heart.

*****