Hero by Nature Read online

  She smiled into his shoulder and wrapped herself more tightly around him. “Yes.”

  Nothing more. He held her even closer, his cheek against her hair, and together they drifted into the restful sleep they’d both been denied during the past three lonely weeks, knowing they’d wake still wrapped in each other’s arms.

  Epilogue

  “I NEVER THOUGHT I’d see this,” Summer Anderson said with an incredulous shake of her head, her short, honey-brown hair accented with a spray of miniature flowers, her brilliant blue eyes accentuated by her deep blue bridesmaid’s dress.

  “What makes me mad is that she had to let out the bodice of the dress,” Spring agreed solemnly, the violet dress that matched her eyes styled to allow for her seven-month-plus pregnancy. She’d worn her silvery-blond hair up, and a spray of flowers identical to the ones Summer wore was clipped to one side. “Except for a slight difference in length, mother’s wedding gown fit us just fine.”

  “Don’t pay any attention to them, honey. You look just beautiful,” Lila Reed told her youngest daughter with a smile as she straightened the antique-lace wedding gown Autumn had just slipped into. The dress clung snugly to Autumn’s nice curves and fell to just above her ankles. Its tea-length design had made it quite convenient for all three sisters, who ranged in height from Summer’s scant five-feet-four to Spring’s five-seven.

  “I feel kind of strange,” Autumn admitted, observing herself in the mirror of the Bradford’s guest room. The woman who stared back at her was a pink-cheeked, dewy-eyed bride, her auburn hair twisted into a sleek roll adorned with flowers. She looked small and feminine in the delicate lace gown. Autumn thought longingly of her brown baseball cap and blue jeans.

  She and Jeff had chosen to be married in the living room of his parents’ Sarasota home on this Saturday afternoon in May. The guest list was small, somewhat to Kathleen’s disappointment. Kathleen had wanted an enormous church wedding for her only son, to be attended by everyone she knew. Because the exchange of vows would be such a deeply private moment for Autumn, she hadn’t been able to comply with that request, but they’d compromised with this intimate, very traditional ceremony to be followed by a reception at the country club where the Bradfords had celebrated their wedding anniversary a couple of months earlier. Jeff and Autumn had agreed to attend the reception, allow Kathleen to show them off a bit and then slip quietly away for a week-long honeymoon in the Bahamas, as neither of them could take off any longer than that from their jobs.

  “Daddy’s waiting for you in the hallway,” Spring told Autumn, interrupting her bemused examination of her reflection. “He’s been grumbling all day about having to go through this again, but he’s really delighted that he’s going to have the chance to give away his remaining daughter.”

  Autumn muttered something about “archaic, sexist traditions,” but Spring only laughed and hugged her, careful not to muss her. “You look happy, Autumn. And Jeff is as wonderful as I’d expected him to be. I’m so glad you managed to work out your problems.”

  “Thanks, in part, to you,” Autumn answered gratefully, returning the hug. “You were so patient with me when I called you in hysteria.”

  “You’d have made the right decision without me,” Spring answered confidently. “But I was happy to help.”

  Autumn patted Spring’s protruding stomach. “You’ve got yourself a terrific mother, kid,” she informed her soon-to-be niece or nephew.

  “You’ll make a terrific mother yourself,” Spring returned, hinting broadly.

  “Yeah,” Autumn agreed happily. “I think I will.”

  Summer stepped up to claim her own hug, and then it was time for the wedding to begin.

  Her hand held snugly in the crook of her father’s arm, Autumn paused in the doorway of the flower-bedecked living room, taking a deep breath that strained the already-snug bodice of her mother’s wedding gown. Her eyes rapidly scanned the small crowd of witnesses, her heart swelling with affection for each one. Webb, Emily and Ryan, already looking like a family, though the adults hadn’t yet exchanged their own vows. Bob and Pam Cochran and their tiny daughter, Pam looking as proud as if she’d been entirely responsible for the happy outcome of Jeff and Autumn’s romance. Derek and Clay, smiling fondly at their youngest sister-in-law. Autumn’s mother and Jeff’s mother, sitting side by side and sharing a box of Kleenex.

  Finally Autumn’s eyes lifted to the makeshift altar, where Jeff waited patiently for her, flanked by her sisters on one side, his father and his partner Julian on the other, the minister standing just behind him. Seeing him standing there, darkly handsome in his pearl-gray suit, his ebony hair gleaming in the overhead lighting, his blue eyes glowing with love and happiness, Autumn remembered the words that had come to her mind the first time she’d set eyes on him that morning in October. A beautiful man. Now she knew that he was as beautiful on the inside as he was on the outside.

  Her gaze locked with his, she stepped confidently forward, perfectly content with the roles she had chosen. Wife. Lover. Partner. Friend. Jeff smiled and held out his hand.

  HOURS LATER Autumn walked out of their hotel-room bathroom, her hair loose around her shoulders, the clinging black nightgown—a never-before-worn birthday gift from Summer—swishing around her ankles. She caught her breath as Jeff turned to smile at her, wearing only the bottom to a pair of gray cotton pajamas. “So you really do wear cotton pajamas,” she managed lightly, her eyes drinking in the sight of his gleaming, lamplight-bronzed chest.

  “I haven’t worn them much since I met you,” he admitted with a husky chuckle. “They always seemed unnecessary on the nights we spent together.”

  “So why are you wearing them now?” she asked softly, one eyebrow lifted meaningfully.

  He hesitated for a moment, seeming to consider her question, then grinned and shrugged. “The same reason you’re wearing that luscious gown, I suppose. A mere formality. Come here, Autumn Reed-Bradford.”

  Autumn laughed and went into his arms. “I think we can do away with the hyphen. I don’t mind sharing your name. Perhaps the custom is obsolete, but it does make things less confusing in the long run.”

  “I love you, Mrs. Bradford,” Jeff told her unsteadily, pulling her closer.

  “I love you. Dr. Bradford.” She lifted her face for his kiss.

  Jeff started to walk with her toward the bed, but Autumn held back, shaking her head firmly. “Oh, no. Not yet. There’s something you have to tell me first.”

  He grinned, knowing exactly what she meant. “Elwood.”

  Autumn choked. “Elwood? Your first name is Elwood?”

  “Harvey was Mother’s favorite movie,” he explained diffidently, his cheeks suspiciously warm.

  Autumn laughed so hard that she had to hold her side. “I knew you reminded me of someone. Jimmy Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd,” she managed to say with a gasp. “The consummate gentleman, unfailingly polite and considerate. Gentle, kind, sensitive. Just naturally perfect.”

  “I’m not a lush!” Jeff protested. “I hardly drink at all.”

  Autumn waved a dismissive hand. “That’s not what I was talking about, and you know it.”

  “I knew this is the way you’d react. That’s why I refused to tell you before you married me,” Jeff muttered, his lips twitching with the smile he was trying to hold back.

  “Oh, Jeff, I love you.” She threw her arms around him, causing him to lose his balance and fall backward onto the bed, his arms closing around her to catch her to his chest. “And I would have married you even if I’d known that your first name was Elwood. But don’t you dare start talking to invisible rabbits!”

  “I won’t,” he promised with a laugh, his hand going to the hem of her gown. In one smooth move he stripped the sexy garment off over her head, baring her to his exploration. The smile he gave her was anything but gentlemanly.

  Delighted with the rare glimpse of the charming devil beneath his Southern gentleman exterior, Autumn abandoned herself willing
ly to her husband’s love-making, eagerly returning the courtesy.