“Mind if I join you?”

Shannon started at the sound of her husband’s voice, but shifted over to one side of the porch swing, so he could slide in next to her. His right arm was resting in a sling, but his injury wasn’t as bad as she’d feared, and she’d changed the bandages frequently.

It was sunset, three days after Pierce’s death, and this was the first time Lucas had sought her out to be alone with her. Granted, for a lot of that time he’d been in bed—on her own orders!—recovering since his wound, but she couldn’t help but feel the two were somehow linked. He’d declared his love for her, only to watch her become the thing he hated most. A killer.

Tonight though, he reached for her right hand where it lay beside him on the swing’s wooden boards. He didn’t look at her, but just watched the sunset and stroked his thumb over her palm, like he had all those weeks ago at the train station. She’d missed his touch so much since Pierce’s death, but didn’t have to guess at the reason he didn’t reach for her in the night.

They sat in silence while the sun sank below the horizon, and when only the pink-tinged sky remained, she screwed up her courage and asked, “What did the sheriff say?”

The lawman had come out to the ranch today to speak with Lucas. He’d been out three days ago to collect Pierce’s body, but both times Lucas had insisted he meet with the man alone. To protect her? Or because he was ashamed of her?

“That Pierce’s funeral wasn’t well-attended, and Baker hasn’t been seen around. Also, after all those complaints I filed against him, the Sheriff and everyone else believe me that Pierce’s death was self-defense.”

“Oh.” Neither of them looked at one another, but she twisted her hand in his grip until she could twine her fingers through his. “I’m glad to hear about Baker, but I wonder where he went.”

“I don’t know. But I’m guessing my—I’m guessing Verrick might know something about that.”

A few moments of silence passed while Shannon worked up the gumption to ask what she’d been wondering for days: “Have you spoken to him yet…about everything?”

Lucas’s silence was answer enough, but she saw him shake his head once. Braver now, she turned slightly on the swing, so she could see him. No matter his opinion of her, she ached for his pain and wanted to heal it as well as she’d sutured and tended to his bullet wound.

“I think you should invite him to dinner.”

“What?” He glanced at her, then away. “Why?”

“Because he cares for you.”

“I didn’t think he could care for anything.”

There was a bitterness in his voice she didn’t recognize, but understood.

“He cares for you. We all saw it after… Well, he was just as worried for you as I was. And I think, if you’d let yourself admit it, you’ll see you want to care for him, as well.”

“Care for Verrick? The west’s most-feared gunslinger?”

Was it her imagination, or was there a touch of longing mixed in with his bitterness?

She smiled gently and waited until she could catch his eye once more. “Care for your father.”

He stared at her, and after a dozen heartbeats, sighed. “You think he’d come to dinner with us?”

Trying to hide her exultant smile, she nodded. Then thought a moment and shrugged. “I don’t know. But you can always ask.”

“Huh.”

She squeezed his fingers, willing him to agree. “I know you have questions—”

“Like if I actually own this ranch.”

“What?” That hadn’t been what she’d meant at all. “What do you mean?”

He shrugged too nonchalantly. “Sunset Valley is Thomas Ryan’s ranch, and he made a deal with Pierce which was overridden when he married my mother and I was born. But if I’m not his actual son, maybe Pierce should’ve been the one to inherit…”

Horrified at the thought of Lucas torturing himself like this, Shannon shifted to face him. “Lucas, you can’t think that. Pierce didn’t deserve this land. Besides…” She swallowed, suddenly hesitant. “Verrick said…”

When she trailed off, he was the one to squeeze her hand. “Said what?”

“Did you know your father studied law at one point?”

“Verrick?”

She shrugged slightly. “I didn’t ask details. But yesterday he was in the kitchen while I was preparing dinner, and when I mentioned Pierce’s claim to the land, he said you were the legal owner.”

Verrick had stood there in the shadows of the kitchen, watching her work for several long minutes, before telling her he’d studied to be a lawyer in his youth. That had been a surprise, but also a relief when he’d continued his explanation.

“He said your mother was Thomas Ryan’s legal heir, and you were her legal heir, so therefore the ranch belongs to you, regardless of your parentage.”

Lucas was staring down at their joined hands. “He said that? The ‘regardless of my parentage’ bit, I mean?”

She nodded, even if Lucas wasn’t watching. “I think he’s unsure how to treat you—how you want him to treat you. I think he wants you to like him, but isn’t sure how to build a relationship with you.”

“That’s why you want me to invite him to dinner?”

“Well, that, and so you can get some answers.”

“Like whatever happened to Baker.”

That hadn’t been what she meant. Shannon opened her mouth to correct him, but then rethought it. “Well, yes. I guess.” She and Lucas hadn’t discussed that day yet, so he didn’t know… “Verrick handed me his revolver, and then ran off, saying that he had to find Baker.”

“I was wondering if that’s what the third shot was—him finding Baker. But Blake tells me there’s been no evidence of another gunfight around the house, and Verrick got back to me awfully quickly…”

Shannon’s eyes widened. “There was a third shot?”

“There were three shots, really close together. One was Pierce, obviously, and one was you. But the third sounded an awful lot like Verrick’s Army revolver.”

Shannon resisted the urge to scoff, but did frown slightly. “Are you sure? You were…distracted.”

“I…” Lucas exhaled and looked away. “I don’t know. It could’ve been him confronting Baker, but we never saw the man. I’d kinda hoped… Well, I guess I wanted Verrick to have been the one to have shot Pierce, for your sake.”

That was unexpected.

“You do? Why? So you don’t have to be married to a—”

Her brain caught up with her mouth and snapped it shut before he could hear her bitterness. After all, this was the first time they’d spoken about it, and it would be silly to ruin it.

But he’d heard anyhow, and she watched his expression turn gentle.

“I don’t think you’re a cold-hearted killer.” Still without meeting her eyes, he brought her palm to his lips, the same heart-melting way he’d done before. “I am in awe of the sacrifice you were willing to make for me.”

In awe of…?

Shannon swallowed. Those were some of the most beautiful words anyone had ever said to her.

“But I know how you feel about…” About your father. About Verrick being a killer.

“I know what I said that afternoon in the kitchen. About not being able to respect a killer. That’s what my mother taught me all those years, after all. But she was the one who told me to send for Verrick when Baker showed up.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “She was the one who’d been lying to me all those years.”

Shannon could feel his hurt and confusion at his mother’s betrayal, but knew there wasn’t anything to be done. His mother was gone, unable to explain or defend herself to her only son, and Shannon couldn’t do a thing for him, except to maybe comfort him with her presence. Her love.

She reached over and wrapped her other hand around their joined hands, trying to show him without words she understood and would support him in any way she could. He glanced down at their hands, and when he finally looked up, she could swear she saw the beginnings of a wry smile on his lips.

“Verrick told me something that day, Shannon.” He held her gaze. “Right after I found out about the baby. He said if you love someone, you’d do anything to protect them. When he told me that I thought…well, I thought maybe I understood. I knew I loved you and the baby, and I wondered if maybe that’s how he’d felt about me, or about my mother, at one time.”

Shannon blinked at her husband, straining to hear him over the blood pounding in her temples. He loved her. To admit it so casually must mean it was true. He loves me.

Lucas didn’t seem aware of her suddenly hopeful heart. “But it wasn’t until later that day I knew what he’d said was true.” He took a deep breath, one which Shannon felt herself copying. “When I stepped out of that stable and saw Pierce holding a loaded rifle and climbing the steps to get to the house, where I knew you were…well… I just…” His grip on her hands tightened. “I knew at that moment I’d do anything to protect you, just like Verrick said.”

Even become a killer.

Lucas nodded, as if able to understand her thought. “I realize now I was being high-and-mighty, judging Verrick like I did. I realize I’d never really been tested, never had someone I loved so deeply threatened like that. I realize I would kill a man to protect someone I loved.”

He loved her. He loved her!

But then Lucas looked away. “I’m just…just so sorry you had to see me like that.”

Shannon blinked, trying to calm her soaring heart long enough to understand what he was saying. “Like what?”

“We were fighting, and when he reached for that gun again, and I knew he could hurt you, I just snapped. I didn’t just become a killer, I became… Well, Verrick said loving someone meant doing anything to protect them, but what I did was horrible. I became a killer with my bare hands.”

Shannon shifted slightly and squeezed his hand once, waiting for him to look her way again. When he did, she smiled. “But you didn’t, remember?”

“I remember.” His chuckle sounded forced, but that was alright, because at least he was trying. “You saved me. I would’ve never asked my wife to pick up a gun, not when I was there to defend her, but you… You did it without asking, and for my sake.”

“And I’d do it again.” She took a deep breath. “Because when you love someone, you’ll do anything to protect them.”

She watched his eyes widen as he understood what she was saying. And then the most beautiful smile spread across his face, tugging at his lips, until his teeth shone bright in the dim light.

“Truly, Shannon? You love me?”

“I’ve been terrified for weeks, because I didn’t think there was any way you could love me as much as I love you.”

He untangled his hand from hers and wrapped his good arm around her shoulders. Pulling her against him, he kissed the top of her head. “How could I not love you, wife? You’re kind and sweet, and make my life wonderful. I love talking with you, and sharing my life with you. And I sure as hell love kissing you.”

His lips found her temple, and she smiled.

But her smile faded when she remembered her old fear. “You might not mind being married to a killer—”

He cut her off with a kiss right above her ear. “The fact you were willing to do it for me still leaves me in awe.”

She swallowed down the thrill his words gave her, and focused on her other sin. “But being married to a liar is just as bad.”

His lips stilled and he straightened. “A liar?”

Shannon kept her eyes glued on the horizon where the pinks were slowly turning to purples.

“I...” She exhaled, then inhaled, as if armoring herself against her own confession. “It’s been eating me up inside, the way I lied to you in my letters. Since before I even got here. But then you were so sweet to me, and I thought maybe…” She sighed. “But then you started hiding things, and I knew you were hurt by my lies after all. And meanwhile, I was falling in love—”

“What are you talking about? What was I hiding?”

She shrugged. “You weren’t telling me everything about Pierce and Baker. Even when I pressed you.”

“Oh.” In that one syllable, she felt the tension ease out of his shoulder. “Yeah.” His arm moved, snuggling her up against him as he shifted his legs out in front of the swing. “I was hiding stuff, but I shouldn’t have. I was trying to keep you from worrying.”

“Keep me from worrying?” She tried to wiggle around in his grip, but no luck. “Knowing you weren’t telling me something—such as a gunslinger being hired to kill you!—made me worry more.”

Lucas didn’t seem bothered by her ire though. Instead, he chuckled. “Yeah, I see that now. I’m real sorry, honey.” He smiled that lazy grin of his, and Shannon felt her stomach flip again. “Any woman who is willing to kill a man to protect me, well, she’s not the kind of woman I need to worry about worrying. From now on, I’ll tell you everything.”

“Really?” Her brows went up. “Everything? Even though I lied to you? That must’ve hurt, for me to show up and you to realize…”

How flawed I am. She couldn’t say it.

“Realize what, exactly? You didn’t lie about how good a cook you are. You didn’t lie about your sister—I don’t mind having her around, by the way—or about being a pretty good housekeeper. I mean, you can’t make soap, but we can keep buying that in town. And you didn’t lie about wanting kids”—his fingers trailed down her side, and she shivered—“which has been a definite bonus for me. So what is it you think you lied about?”

Oh God, he was going to make her say it.

“I lied about…” Shannon swallowed and focused on her hands twined in her lap. “I lied about how I look.”

“No you didn’t.” His denial was immediate. “I memorized your letters, Shannon. Blonde hair, blue eyes. That’s all you said.” He gave the swing a little push. “Now, if you’d said that you were pretty, I would’ve called you a liar.”

Her breath caught on a little sob his casual words surprised out of her.

“See, honey, you’re not just pretty. You’re beautiful. You’re graceful. You’re the kind of woman I love waking up next to every day.”

His words confused her enough to peek up at him to see his smile. “You think I’m beautiful?”

“Tell me about this lie of yours, Shannon.”

“My face. It’s not beautiful,” she confessed. Luckily, he was sitting on her right, so she could turn away. Turn so he couldn’t see the birthmark on her left cheek.

“Not—?” Lucas pulled his arm from around her shoulders, and losing that connection almost broke her.

She could feel his gaze on her, hear the confusion in his question. But she couldn’t bring herself to point out her flaw.

“Shannon, I don’t…” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me!”

Oh God. He was going to make her say it. She swallowed, and prayed that her voice didn’t sound as pitiful as she suspected.

“I’m not beautiful, and that’s okay. It’s the reason I didn’t marry in Texas. I wanted so badly to get married and have a baby, someone who would love me no matter what I looked like.” In her hurry to get her confession out, the words began to trip over one another. “I thought being a mail-order bride would solve that problem; I could marry a man without him seeing me first. But if I’d been honest—honest to you, fair to you I mean—I would’ve written the truth. I wouldn’t have lied—”

“Shannon.” His commanding voice cut her off, and he covered her hands—still twisted together on her lap—with his good one. “What are you talking about?”

“My face.” Why didn’t he understand? “I should’ve been honest about—”

“Your face? What about your face?”

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, then turned to face him completely. “My birthmark,” she whispered.

For a million heartbeats, neither of them moved. Shannon held her breath, waiting for him to speak, waiting for the faintest sound to tell her what he was thinking. When it didn’t come, and she’d aged a full year—or so it seemed—she risked a peek through her lashes.

He was smiling. At her.

Surprised, Shannon opened both of her eyes, and his smile grew. His good hand came up and touched her cheek to trace the ugly birthmark, but she forced herself not to flinch.

“How could you possibly think this makes you not beautiful?” It wasn’t his words so much as his incredulous tone which told her he was telling the truth. “Your beauty isn’t just your skin, honey. It’s the way your eyes sparkle when you see me in the morning, and the way you smile—you’ve got this dimple right here—when you think I’m being silly.”

He cupped her cheek and drew her face towards his. “It’s the way you laugh with me, and the way your eyebrows do this little dippy thing“—he paused to kiss the spot between her eyes—“when you’re irritated. You’re beautiful because of all of those things put together.”

Then he kissed her, and Shannon felt that same heat—the same spark she’d felt when he’d touched her the very first time—spread through her body. She’d missed him these last few days and reveled in the realization he hadn’t been avoiding her at all. Unabashedly, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

And when they both emerged for air, a lifetime later, she was smiling.

“Yeah, honey,” Lucas drawled, “like that.”

And then he kissed her birthmark.

Shannon shuddered at the feel of his lips against her skin, kissing the part of her she’d been so ashamed of for so long. The part that, despite all of her fears, he really didn’t seem to mind.

“You don’t mind people will stare at your wife?”

“Mmmm.” He was kissing her earlobe now. “They’d be fools not to stare.”

“I mean in pity.” She was trying to focus, but his lips made it difficult. “My whole life, people have stared at me in pity. That’s why I’m sorry I didn’t tell you…”

Lucas straightened, but not so far her arms would fall away from his shoulders. “If a person can’t see past one little birthmark to see the beauty of your smile or eyes or heart, then they are fools. You are beautiful, Shannon Montgomery Ryan, and if it takes the rest of our lives to prove it to you, well…” He smiled that smile she loved so much. “Then I’ll look forward to the challenge.”

And just like that, everything was right and good in her world.

Shannon couldn’t help the noise she made—something between a whimper and a squeal—when she tightened her hold on him and pressed herself against his chest. “That’s the most wonderful thing anyone has ever said to me, husband!”

“Oh yeah?” Lucas shifted, so his good arm was around her once more. “How about this? I love you, wife. I’m going to love you for all of our days.”

She kissed his jaw. “And I love you, Lucas. I’ve never known a man like you, so caring and optimistic. Thank you for showing me the blessings in life.

“Blessings? Like what?”

She smiled. “Like the baby we created together. You’re going to be the most wonderful father.”

When he stiffened, Shannon immediately knew why, and she unlaced one hand to press her palm against his cheek. “You really are, Lucas. You’re going to be a wonderful father, no matter what role Verrick plays in our lives. Your mother’s teachings will ensure you won’t turn out like Thomas Ryan, and your own sense of honor has done the rest. You’re going to be a wonderful Daddy.”

If she hadn’t been looking directly into those beautiful golden-brown eyes, she would’ve missed the tears gathered in them.

“You really think so?”

She kissed him lightly. “I know so. You already love this baby more than anything else, so how could I be wrong?”

He stood up so suddenly she squealed in surprise when she was yanked up too. “You’re wrong, Mrs. Ryan.” Smiling down at her in the dusk, he looked far too handsome for his own good. “I love you more than anything else, and I mean to start proving it to you right now.”

Knowing what he had in mind, Shannon beamed. “I might take some convincing, husband, but I look forward to your efforts.” She was careful not to jostle his arm when she pressed against him. “I love you, Lucas.”

“And I love you, wife.”

And as he lowered his lips to hers for another gentle, warm kiss, Shannon knew the truth. They each had their own troubles—she’d never be conventionally beautiful, and he would have to learn to forgive his mother—but they also had each other. And truly, in this world, that’s all that mattered.

Loving one another.