A Virgin Mail Order Bride Collapsed On A Mountain Man’s Doorstep And Changed Three Brothers Forever
Cole’s thumb brushed gently across her cheek.
“Beautiful?”
Bee looked away.
“I know what men see.”
“No,” Cole said. “You know what cruel men taught you to see.”
Her eyes returned to his.
“I see the woman who walked twenty miles through a blizzard and lived.”
He nodded toward the cabin.
“The woman who made three useless bachelors eat at a table instead of over the stove.”
From behind them, Wyatt muttered, “I wasn’t useless.”
Levi elbowed him silent.
Cole continued.
“I see strength.”
His voice softened.
“I see home.”
Bee’s eyes filled before she could stop them.
“And what exactly are you asking?”
Cole looked at the bag in her hand.
“Stay.”
“As your cook?”
“No.”
“Housekeeper?”
“No.”
She swallowed.
“Then what?”
Cole hesitated.
For the first time since she had known him, the mountain man looked nervous.
“My wife.”
Behind him, Wyatt’s mouth fell open.
Levi grinned.
Bee stared at Cole.
“You don’t owe me marriage because you rescued me.”
“I know.”
“And I won’t belong to you.”
“I don’t want you to.”
“Then why?”
Cole took her hand.
“Because every time I imagine next winter, you’re here.”
That answer broke through the last wall around her heart.
Bee slowly set down her bag.
“All right.”
Cole blinked.
“All right?”
She smiled.
“You should ask properly before I change my mind.”
He immediately dropped to one knee.
Wyatt burst out laughing.
Cole ignored him.
“Beatrice, will you marry me?”
“Yes.”
Cole stood and kissed her.
Carefully.
Nothing like Arthur’s claim of ownership.
Nothing taken.
Everything asked.
Months later, when Bee and Cole traveled into town to marry, Arthur saw them outside the mercantile.
His eyes moved over Bee with the same old contempt.
Cole started forward.
Bee stopped him.
Then she walked directly to Arthur herself.
“You once called me worthless.”
Arthur said nothing.
“You abandoned me because you thought my body made me useless.”
She glanced toward Cole, Wyatt, and Levi.
Then smiled.
“Best thing you ever did for me.”
Arthur’s face darkened.
Bee walked away without looking back.
Years later, the brothers still joked that Bee had arrived as a half-frozen stranger and somehow taken command of the entire mountain.
Bee always corrected them.
“I didn’t take command.”
Wyatt would immediately answer,
“You absolutely did.”
And Cole would simply smile.
Because Arthur Miller had abandoned a woman he thought was too large to love.
What he failed to understand was that Bee had never been too much.
He had simply been far too small to deserve her.
