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“I’m thinking about it all. Life. Happiness. Family. Love.” He spun her around slowly, tipped her chin up, and kissed her gently. “Because of you, I have it all.”
“Me, too,” she whispered back.
He kissed her, and didn’t stop until someone cleared his throat. “Ahem.”
Moaning, Eric stepped back, reluctantly ending the kiss. “What?”
“You know what.” Chris crossed h
is arms. He was a cop here in Jefferson and had gotten married recently, too. Shelby liked him. “It’s time.”
Shelby frowned. “For what?”
“Poker. Lots of poker,” Chris replied.
Wyatt grinned, throwing an arm over Eric’s shoulder. “Brett’s coming while Anna changes into her traveling clothes. We have time for one round before he’s off.”
Eric laughed. “Do you mind, Shel?”
“Of course not,” she said, rising up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Win big.”
“I already did,” he whispered.
Wyatt rolled his eyes. “Jesus.”
“Seriously,” Cole, Eric’s other brother, grunted. He was in the military and was taller than his brothers. Harder, too. “Get a damn room.”
Chris laughed. “Ignore them. They’ll understand soon enough.”
Cole flipped Chris off.
Wyatt rolled his eyes. “Never. Gonna. Happen.”
The brothers wandered off, ribbing each other, and Brett followed after them, waving at Anna as she stood on the stage. Anna waved back, looking so incredibly happy at this moment that it almost felt like Shelby was intruding by witnessing it.
But then the DJ announced that all the single ladies had to come onto the dance floor, and before Shelby could fade away against the wall, Eric’s mother was dragging her onto the dance floor, laughing. “Come on, Shelby. You’re not getting out of this one!”
Shelby let her future mother-in-law drag her onto the floor, and as she crowded in with the rest of the women, she glanced around the room. White tablecloths. Flickering candles. Pink flowers. Laughing people. Family. All of this, all of her life, was good. She never thought she could be so happy, so complete, until she met Eric Hamilton…
And he swept her off her feet.
“One. Two.” Anna laughed, chucking the flowers over her shoulder without counting to three. The bouquet arced in the air, twisting and turning as it cascaded down to the crowd…
Right into Shelby’s hands.
The person next to her, a cousin of Eric’s, gasped. “What’s on your finger? Is that an engagement ring?”
Just like that, as the crowd formed around her…
The secret was out.
