find something that was just mine. A way to contribute."

"But you don't need to?"

"You see." She pointed at him with a wet finger. "That's exactly my point. That's what you say every

time. I didn't need to learn to bake bread. I don't even have to cook or do dishes. I wouldn't have to do

my own laundry or Rose's if I didn't insist, and I don't have to do anything else."

"I offered to take in laundry. I'd like to try a garden and grow our own vegetables. I just suggested making a few gowns to sell. I know you don't need any paltry offering I can make." Her voice trembled.

"I know I don't have much to give."

Noah listened to her words and recognized his every denial. It was true he'd turned aside all those suggestions. He hadn't wanted her to do anything out of obligation.

She looked up at him, her hazel eyes dark and imploring. "I need to feel important."

Her plea came from her heart and it nearly broke his. That she felt this way was his wrongdoing. How had he made such a mess of things? "I tried to make your life easy. I was trying to make things up to you, I guess."

"That's not your place," she told him.

"I can see that now. Instead of making the way easy, I denied you things that would give you a sense of belonging."

She looked at him, her glistening eyes wide with relief.

"I'll probably make a lot more mistakes," he said. "Don't know much about women. About marriage.

Just don't stop talking, Katy. I need you to talk." A smile quivered on her lips.

He stepped to cup her cheek in his palm. "I need you to show me what's important. If it's important to you, it's important to me. You can do anything you want, anything you like. You can grow vegetables and sew little nightdresses. You can raise a flock of chickens and cook all the meals you like."

She brought her damp hand up to cover the back of his and looked into his eyes. He leaned down to press a tender kiss against Kate's lips. He felt her tremble and pulled her close. Rose squirmed on his arm and fussed.

Kate pulled back to look at her baby. "She's probably ready to eat and go to bed."

"I'll be up in a few minutes," he told her.

Kate took Rose from him and carried her upstairs, where she lit lamps and changed the baby.

After Rose had nursed, Kate tucked her into her cradle and performed her own nightly ritual. It seemed

to take Noah a long time to finish his chores She lay down and closed her eyes, thinking over the things

he'd said and the reassurance he'd given her. She understood now that he'd wanted to provide for her and to make her life easier, and she appreciated that. If he could only understand how much easier her life already was. But easy wasn't everything. Fulfilling and rewarding were just as important.

Shed drifted off to sleep when she heard footsteps and saw a tall, broad-shouldered man cross the room. She sat up in alarm. He turned up the wick on the lamp and she clutched the bedclothes to herself, wondering who had so calmly walked in and made himself at home.

His clothing was familiar, as was the stride when he crossed to the bed where she sat.

"Katy?" Noah's voice.

He sat on the edge of the bed and she stared.

"Noah?" With a hand that shook, she reached up to touch his cheek. His eyes closed and a muscle

ticked in his jaw as though he steeled himself for a physical blow.

His cheeks were cleanly shaven, revealing a strong jaw and a full, sensitive mouth. The scars themselves

were not pretty, and some might think they distracted from his handsome appearance, but she saw only the face of a kind, honorable, hurting man.

"So this is you," she said.

His eyes opened and he read her expression with uncertainty. "You tried to tell me a dozen times that

you didn't feel needed. I was too dense to see that. Well, I do need you. I need you to love me," he said.

More than she'd ever hoped for. More than she'd dreamed and thought she'd never have. More than words could say or she could express was the part of himself that Noah offered now.

"I want to be the man you need."

Even though tears sprang to her eyes she got up on her knees and kissed him long and hard. Framing his face with both hands, she looked into the eyes of the man who'd given her everything.

"You are the man I need. I didn't ask you to do the things you've done, but you did them to prove your love for me. At first I didn't let myself hope that you had feelings for me, not more than pity or guilt or maybe even attraction, because I didn't want to love you and not have your love back."

"I thought you only wanted Levi's child, but what you did today...and what you've done now?" she stroked his cheek "?shows me you do care for me. I'm sorry I was such a dolt and.. .and I do love you, Noah. I've known it for a while. I think I knew it when I took off Levi's ring."

"I need you to know how important you are to me," he said.

She blinked through her tears and nodded. "Okay."

"I need you to keep making me see life in color and to show me all the good things I never took time to

look at. I need you talk all the time and even tell me what I'm thinking."

She gave a little laugh and stroked his cheek.

"But mostly I need you to love me."

"I do. I love you." She kissed the scar at the corner of his mouth and the one near his eye. "You're

thinking you love me, too." She inched away to look into his eyes expectantly.

"All along I thought Levi should have loved you," he said gruffly.

She smiled and waited.

"1 loved you then, I guess," he said.

"And now?"

"I love you more now."

"And tomorrow?"

"Forever."

It was an unlikely way she'd met this man. An unlikely wife she'd made. But life with him was already better and fuller than her girlish dreams could ever have imagined.

Epilogue.

Copper Creek, Colorado 1892.

Kate squinted into the late afternoon sun and studied the approaching rider with butterflies of anticipation in her belly.

Noah. He'd been gone a week, and she'd missed him so fiercely she could hardly sleep at night. But in this, their second year of marriage, she had finally learned that when he said he'd be back, he meant it. The occasional trips he took to buy stock were the only times they'd been apart. At first whenever he rode off she'd felt an oppressive sense of loss that she couldn't seem to shake.

But he always came back. Always.

He rode in close to the house where she stood on the bottom step of the porch, and eased from the saddle with a creak of leather and a fluid grace that still made her mouth go dry.

He lifted the weathered black hat from his head and hung it on the pommel before approaching. He

hadn't shaved for a day or so, and his skin was burned from days in the sun, but he looked wonderful to her.

"I missed you somethin' fierce, Katherine Cutter."

Her heart did a backward stumble in her chest at his familiar voice and the words that spoke to her

need. She brought a hand to her breast. "And I missed you."

She stood in his massive shadow now, squinting upward. "We need to talk," she told him.

His expression darkened. "Something wrong with Rose?"

"Rose is fine. Perfect." He'd seen to that, providing for them both and being a father to this child, just as

he'd promised. "See? She's napping." She indicated the tiny form on the bunk which still had a place on

the porch during warm months.

Noah took her hand and she led him to where the toddler lay peacefully sleeping. Noah knelt at the side of the bed and ran his sunburned fingers over her pale blond hair in a gentle caress.