Surrender My Heart

Reese finished tossing the green salad, then glanced out the window of her RV to see if Brody had finished grilling the burgers. With a smile of contentment, she watched his profile as he flipped one burger, then the other, then her gaze went to the trees surrounding their campsite. They had been in Yellowstone for nearly two weeks, and she had never been happier.

“How’s it coming?” she called through the screen as her gaze went back to him.

He turned in her direction, and with a grin, said, “Nearly done. What about you?”

“Everything else is ready,” she said. “Do you need a plate?” When he nodded, Reese took a plate out of a cabinet and carried it outside, then held it out to him. But he didn’t take it from her. Instead, he wrapped his fingers around her wrist and pulled her close to him before leaning toward her and pressing a soft kiss to her lips.

With a burst of emotion, Reese kissed him back, still unbelieving that she and Brody had reached this point in their relationship. Though Reese had only known Brody for a month, during that time they had had to jump the hurdle of Reese’s fears over the truth of her background—her father in prison for selling drugs, her mother an alcoholic—and her fears that she wasn’t good enough for him.

Brody had assured her that those things didn’t matter to him, and as much as she wanted to believe him, she worried about how his family would feel about that information. Despite those worries, she had given her whole heart to him. 

And that scared her more than anything. 

She pulled away and handed him the plate, then smiled. “I don’t want the burgers to burn.”

Brody laughed as he took the plate from her. “No, that would kind of ruin dinner, wouldn’t it?”

* * *

Brody watched Reese as she climbed back into her RV and marveled that he had finally earned her trust. And her love.

A smile of soul-deep contentment curved his mouth. After Megan, the woman he had loved, had been killed in a car accident, he had believed he would never fall in love again. But he loved Reese Montgomery with a fierceness that stunned him. When he had first met her he had sensed the vulnerability beneath her independent streak. But it was only after he had gotten to know her that he had discovered how difficult it was for her to trust that those around her would not end up hurting her. Which made it all the more sweet when she had finally admitted her feelings for him.

Brody placed the grilled burgers on the plate, then carried them into the RV where Reese had set the table.

“I’m starving,” she said as she sat at the table. “That hike today wore me out.”

“Me too.” Brody sat across from her, then grinned. “I might want to go to bed early tonight.”

* * *

Reese’s lips turned up in a knowing smile. The night they had confessed their love for each other, Reese had invited Brody to sleep in her RV. It wasn’t only that she wanted him with her, although she wanted that very much, she had also worried that he was cold in his tent. Despite the fact that it was mid-June, the nights in Yellowstone dropped to nearly freezing, and Reese didn’t like the idea that she was warm and cozy in her RV while Brody was huddled in his sleeping bag, trying to stay warm. 

“Are you sure you’ve been comfortable in my bed?” she asked with a slight smirk. “It’s only a double, you know.”

Brody’s eyes twinkled. “I suppose I could throw my sleeping bag on the floor in here.”

Reese speared a tomato. “Maybe you should. I don’t want you getting too used to having me beside you every night.” She was only half-joking. In reality it was she who had to keep from getting used to having him by her side. As much as she wanted Brody to be with her for the rest of her life, she was less certain that his family would be as accepting of her as he had been.

Family was important to Brody—that was obvious to Reese. And she wouldn’t allow herself to be the wedge that would come between him and his family.

“Hmm,” Brody murmured before taking a bite of his hamburger. Then he slowly chewed and swallowed before saying, “Are you having doubts about us already?”

She had zero doubts about her love for him, and she was confident that he loved her. But being in Yellowstone had been an oasis, and she was scared about the future. She hadn’t told Brody how Josh, her ex-husband and the only man she had been with before Brody, had told her only a year before that she wasn’t the right kind of wife for him anymore, that her background was a liability to him in his new career. And that he no longer loved her, that he loved someone else. 

The thing that had made it so much worse was the fact that Josh had known her as a teenager, had known her background as well as anyone in her town. Yet he had married her and had promised to love her until the day he died. If someone who was from a humble background himself had come to the conclusion that she was unworthy as a mate, and then had dumped her without a second thought, what would keep someone like Brody—whose father was a plastic surgeon, whose mother was an attorney, whose whole family was educated and sophisticated and so above her—from jettisoning her like so much garbage over the side of a ship?

Reese knew the moment of truth was drawing ever closer and that she would have to face Brody’s family soon. The thought terrified her.

Her hand shook slightly as she lifted her glass to her mouth.

“Reese?” Brody placed his forearms on the table and leaned forward. “You know I don’t have any doubts about us, right?”

Forcing a smile onto her mouth, she set her glass on the table. “I know.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

Partly pleased that he had gotten to know her so well that he could tell something was bothering her, she was also guarded. Not wanting to have the conversation they had already had several times—the one where he reassured her that his family would love her—she changed the subject. “I was just wondering if we should have a campfire tonight.”

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