It had been a long double surgery, the kind that left his back aching and his heart even more. He pulled his mask off as he headed out of the operating room, stopping when he realized Nat was sitting on the floor directly outside the door, Zeke glued to her like a burr, both of them looking worried.

“Are they okay?” she asked.

“They both did great,” he said. “There might be less permanent damage than I thought.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God,” she said. “You might be able to rehabilitate them?”

“Maybe,” he said. “That’s the hope, but it can be a journey. Right now, we’re going to focus on getting them healed up, strong, and socialized, and in a habitat that will help move them toward that goal.”

He pulled off his scrub cap, craning his neck from side to side, wincing when he heard several loud cracks. “Sorry,” he said. “That was a marathon.”

“You must be exhausted,” she said.

He was. But he also was full of the kind of adrenaline and energy that only something like that—surgery, saving animal’s lives—could provide. His body was both exhausted and sore… and ready to run another marathon if need be. Post-op was always a curious state.

“Fuck,” he looked at the clock in the hall. “We missed our appointment with the judge.”

“Don’t worry about that,” she waved it away.

“No, but Durbin’s gonna deliver the notice to cease water use any day now. If we don’t have a marriage license…”

“Which is why Judge Peters is on her way here right now,” Nat said. “She can marry us in front of the chicken coop, if you want.”

He frowned. “What… how… She just agreed to that?”

“Rhett, people in this community respect you,” Nat said. “When she heard why we missed our appointment, she was happy to go out of her way.”

Even though he knew this intellectually, it made him feel damned good for her to say it. Community was important, and the community of Hood River had a lot of great people in it. It had some shady types, too, but what place didn’t?

“That’s so nice of her,” he said, looking down at his hands, which were always kind of gross and tight from the gloves after a surgery. “Do I have time for a shower? I wouldn’t want to marry you smelling like this.”

She wrinkled her nose, and it was the cutest damn thing he’d seen in a long time. Or, you know, in around the five minutes since she’d done something just as cute. “Good point,” she said. “Go shower. I’ll meet you at the barn in fifteen? We can do the paperwork on the back deck so she doesn’t label us the most unromantic couple ever.”

“Deal,” Rhett said, wondering if she really thought he was unromantic, and then his mind wandered to all the ways he could prove to her just how romantic he could be. Fuck. He may need a longer shower than fifteen minutes.

He speeded through the shower, though. And then spent a good five minutes agonizing over what clothes to wear, since what he’d chosen earlier was covered in dirt and bear excrement.

My life, he thought, rolling his eyes as he yanked on a light gray button-up and tucked it into a pair of black dress pants. He shoved his feet in his black leather boots, leaving the collar of his shirt unbuttoned at the neck and slightly open, because the last time he let her tie his tie, he almost kissed her on a fence, and he didn’t dare repeat that move.

He spent entirely too much time messing with his hair, trying to get it into some sort of order for God knows what reason, when he heard the door downstairs open.

“Nat?” he called.

“It’s me,” she called back. He could hear her heels on the vintage wood floors he’d installed himself. “Judge Peters is here.”

He hurried downstairs, running a final—and futile—hand through his hair. “Judge Peters,” he said, putting on his best charming smile and holding out his hand. “Thank you so much for doing this. I’m so sorry about all the trouble.”

“I’m happy to help,” the judge said. “Though I must say, I’m a little surprised you two aren’t throwing a big wedding. You have such a beautiful venue here.”

Rhett turned bright red, not knowing what to say. God, he sucked at lying. This is why he didn’t do it.

“Oh, you know how it is,” Nat said. “Family squabbles and drama. My daddy would’ve thrown a fit if I didn’t invite all his work colleagues, and so would Rhett’s, and between the two of them, I’d end up with a wedding for five hundred, I swear.” She smiled conspiratorially at the judge, ever the charmer, her ability to smooth over and gloss and make small talk always leaving Rhett in awe. “So we figured we’d take all the stress off and get married and then go ‘Surprise, everyone!’”

“That’s very romantic,” Judge Peters said with a smile. “Now, where would you two like to do this?”

“Out on the deck,” Rhett said.

“Then if you’re ready to get started, so am I,” the judge said.

Rhett’s stomach tightened, his body growing hot as he rose to his feet and took Nat’s hand. His pulse was pounding as they walked out to the deck, turned to each other. and he took her other hand.

“Have you written your own vows?” Judge Peters asked.

Nat shook her head.

“Alight,” she said. “Love is what brings us here today,” she said. “The love between you, Natalie, and you, Rhett. The love that you’ve built and created together takes root today. It will take water and gentle care, but with your equal contributions, with the partnership you form with each other, it will flourish into something strong and beautiful: A marriage of mind, of body, and of spirit. Rhett, do you take this woman to be your wife?”

“I do,” he said, and he’d never meant anything more in his life, looking into her dark eyes shining up at him. It was like it was real. It was like they were real. Like what he felt, what had been burning in his chest for years, had finally been let free.

There’s no going back now. Things will never be the same.

Do I want them to be?

“Natalie, do you take this man to be your husband?”

“I do,” Nat said, her voice soft, but so sure. He hadn’t wondered how it would make him feel to hear her swearing to join her life with his, he hadn’t dared, but now…

God, nothing had ever felt so right. He wondered if she felt the same.

“Do you have rings?” Judge Peters asked.

“Oh,” Nat said. “No—”

“I do,” Rhett interrupted, and her dark, delicate brows drew together as he pulled out a thin gold eternity band from his shirt pocket. He took her hand in his, the weight and warmth of it something precious and sacred as he slipped the ring onto her finger.

“Then with the power invested in me by the State of Oregon, I pronounce you husband and wife. Rhett, you may kiss your wife.”

My wife, the words echoed through him, sending frissons of pleasure, of surety, of agreement inside him. His gaze dropped to Nat’s lips, realizing they hadn’t talked about how they were going to do this, and he wanted to kiss her, of course he did. But if he kissed her…

She would know. Surely she would feel the true depths of his feeling if their lips touched again. And then it would be even harder for both of them.

He brushed a kiss across her cheek instead, unable to give in to his impulses, too damn cowardly to do it. He could feel her cheek move against his lips, like she was frowning, and maybe it had been the wrong move. Maybe, he realized with dread as he pulled away and there was a curious expression in her dark eyes, it had said even more than a real kiss would have.

Damn, if you even had an inkling of how much I want you…

He heard, vaguely, Nat saying something to the judge about him being the old-fashioned type, and he signed the paperwork put in front of him. Then suddenly, he was clutching his marriage certificate—their marriage certificate—and the judge was congratulating them and leaving… and then they were alone in his living room.

He looked across the linen couch at her, thinking my wife, in a sort of awed, dumbstruck sort of loop. He was still kind of reeling that she’d done this for him. That all the worry about River Run was now held at bay by the certificate sitting on the coffee table.

Nat ran a hand through her hair, leaning her head against her palm. “I think I’m gonna turn in early,” she said. “Jess set aside my regular suite for me. Those bathtubs of yours, I swear, they’re specially designed for relaxation somehow.” Her mouth quirked up, her eyes earnest, like she wanted to know that they were okay, that they weren’t going to change.

She didn’t want things to change. He knew that. And it was hard, because that was all he wanted.

“You sure I can’t make you dinner or something?” he asked. “I mean, you just married me ten minutes ago. I don’t want to start this out being a bad husband. What if you divorce me?”

The relief in her eyes was sweet, the smile she gave him so wide. “I have many wifely needs, Oakes. You’d better tend to them, or I am so out of this not-actually-real marriage.”

He had to shift when she said the words wifely needs, his mind going into a dirty direction immediately and his cock hardening at that direction. God, he would tend to them. He’d tend to her until she’d come so many times she couldn’t even lift her head off the pillow.

“I’m fine, though,” she said. “You don’t need to cook for me when I can order room service. You were in surgery for hours. You should rest.”

She got up, and he followed suit as she smoothed down her skirt. The light caught and glinted on the gold ring on her finger, and he watched as she rubbed her finger over it.

“Where did you get this?” she asked.

“It’s one of the family rings,” he said. “My grandfather’s sister Ada. She was married to a man who went missing in action during World War II. She said she would take it off when he came home or she died. My Gramps liked to tell this story not because it’s sad, even though it is, but because he said it showed the Oakes way of loving.”

Her eyes rose from the ring on her finger to his gaze. “And what’s the Oakes way of loving?” she asked.

“We fall in love,” Rhett said, holding her gaze. “And we stay in love. Doesn’t matter if that person has to leave this mortal coil too early, like Ada’s husband or my own mom. We’re steadfast. We fall, and we stay fallen, and we never get back up.”

“That can be a hard way to fall,” Nat said softly.

“I don’t know any of us who would say it wasn’t worth it, though,” Rhett said.

She bit her lip, her eyes sweeping back down to the ring. “I should give you this back to you now. It’s a family heirloom and—“

“Keep it,” he rumbled, his hands closing over hers to stop her from pulling it off. “Just… wear it. Until this is all over. Until we’re sure we’re in the clear.”

Her pink tongue—that distract, sharp tongue of hers—darted out, moistening her full lower lip, and God, he wanted to chase that movement with his own. Taste her everywhere. Kiss each of her fingertips to make her giggle, his lips brushing over the ring—his ring—on her finger last.

“I’ll take good care of it,” she promised.

“I know you will.”

“Then this is goodnight,” she said, and there it was again, that light in her eyes that he couldn’t identify. What did it mean?

“Goodnight, Nat,” he said.

She smiled, and was it his imagination or was there a trace of bittersweetness to the curve of her lips?

“Goodnight, Rhett.”