Page 32 of First Moon

“I already said yes.”

“On land this time?”

He took my left hand. “Ivy James,” he said, softer now, “will you marry me?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “Still yes. Always yes.”

He slid the ring onto my finger. It fit perfectly.

The ring sparkled in the September sun, creek water running over my hand, Jack’s fingers wrapped around mine. Sycamore leaves clapping softly overhead. The rope swing drifted lazily behind us, innocent as could be, as if it had not just tried to ruin our engagement story.

I looked at the ring, then at Jack.

“It’s beautiful.”

“So are you.”

“This is going to be a heck of a story to tell our kids.” I laughed, and he pulled me into him, wet chest to wet chest, standing on the warm rock with creek water dripping from our bodies.

Then he kissed me and I lost all sense of time or place.

9

JACK

Later, after we’d eaten our fill of the best fried chicken I’d ever had and all the other delicacies June had packed for us, we lay on the rock side by side, warmed by the late afternoon sun filtering through the trees.

“Did you ask my daddy?” Ivy asked, taking my hand.

“I did. He told me you weren’t his to give away. Or that’s what your mama told him to say anyway.”

“He’s really quite evolved.” She turned her head to look at me. “But thanks for doing that. He’ll not forget it. Respect’s big with him.”

“I understand.”

She turned on her side, resting her head in one hand, her fingers trailing down my torso with the other, my muscles responding with a shudder.

“When should we have the wedding?”

“Whenever you and your mama want. I’m just the groom.”

She grinned. “You’re a good man, Jack Wilder.” She kissed me. “And I have an idea. It’s going to sound a little out there, but a few years back Madeleine and I took a girls’ trip to this dude ranch in Montana. She’d had a bad breakup, and we needed to get away. We both fell in love with it. Crescent Moon Ranch. It has all these individual cabins to rent and this fabulous restaurant run by one of the Moon brothers. The Moon family is good people. What if we did it there?”

“As long as June approves, I’m in.”

“We could rent it out for the whole month of December. Invite the boys in the band and our families. Madeleine, obviously.”

“The whole month? What would we do?”

“They have everything there. Sleigh rides. Nature walks. A bonfire every night. Cooking lessons. Line dancing lessons. Horses available to take out on the trails. They even have a wedding planner. Sammie. She’s married to one of the Moon brothers.”

“How do you know this?”

“I might have daydreamed about a wedding there when Madeleine and I visited. It’s so beautiful and romantic.”

“I thought you’d want to get married here,” I said.

“It would be better to do it somewhere neutral so it’s part of both of us. Plus, if we do it there, no one can find us. Paparazzi, I mean.”