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“Oh, I think that’s a wonderful idea.” Grandma Kate beamed at her. “I bet your father is thrilled. He’s quite the amateur historian, isn’t he?” She winked at Jenny, and his woman just nodded.
I wonder what that’s about. He’d try to remember to ask her later.
“As to the financial inheritance, I have earmarked some to be put away and invested for the future. But the bulk of the estate is going to go to some of the charities that my grandmother favored, as well being put into a foundation that will be devoted to helping women who were in the position my birth mother was in. She’d turned her life around but never really had the chance to get that second chance.”
“I’m very proud of you, Jennifer Collins,” Grandma Kate said. “You’re a good woman.”
Dale looked at him. He saw the expression on his twin’s face. People said that only identical twins shared a connection, a kind of knowing what the other thought or felt. But he and Dale both knew that wasn’t true. Parker gave him a slight nod and then looked at Grandma Kate.
“She is, isn’t she?” He turned to Jenny. Sitting on her left, he picked up her hand and kissed it. There must have been something in his gaze that alerted her. She set down her fork, and Dale, on her right, picked up her other hand.
It sure wouldn’t be a bad thing at all if she learns to read us. We’d never have any secrets from her, and that’s fine.
Parker tried to steady his nerves. He was shaking inside, his palms were beginning to sweat, and his stomach pitched as if he was on the back of a bucking horse. And then he met Jenny’s gaze, and his world turned right. In fact, it had never been this right in all his life to date.
“Jennifer Collins, you’re not only a good woman. You’re the best woman—and the only woman for us. Sweet Jenny, I love you with all my heart. Will you marry me?”
Her gaze widened, and he didn’t worry about the misting he saw there, the beginning of tears. He was pretty sure those would be happy tears.
Dale used two fingers under her chin to turn her attention toward him. “Jenny, I love you with all that I am. I want to grow old with you and have babies with you. Will you marry me?”
Jenny gave a little sob and then looked back at him, tears now streaming, even though her smile beamed, simply radiant.
“Yes! Oh, yes! I want very much to marry you both.”
Cheers, whistles, and applause accompanied the moment he bent down and kissed his fiancée for the first time. Then Dale kissed her, too. Ari practically jumped out of her chair, came over, and hugged Jenny—then handed her a napkin to mop her tears.
In the midst of the happy chatter that followed, Parker heard a knock at the door. Jackson got up to answer it and returned moments later, a strange look on his face—as if he was trying to keep a poker expression but finding the task difficult.
“Parker? Dale? Can you come here for a moment, please?”
Parker looked at his brother, who must have been as curious as he.
Dale shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
Parker cast a quick glance around the room. No one seemed particularly concerned about the interruption.
“You best go see what’s up,” Grandma Kate said.
Parker nodded, gave Jenny a quick kiss, and followed Jackson. Dale was close behind him.
Outside, a hundred or so feet from the house stood a Ford dually. Stencilled on the driver’s door were the words Jeb’s Horse Haulage. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t pull the memory close. The Ford had a large double horse trailer attached. Standing with two men he didn’t recognize were his and Dale’s coworkers—all their coworkers.
Dale shook his head. “What the hell?” he asked softly. Parker doubted anyone else could hear him.
“You coming down here, or what? Don’t be shy, girls. The horsies won’t bite you.” Chase Benedict laughed. That bit of cousin-speak was just enough to get them moving.
They approached the group standing around the trailer. As if they’d been waiting for just that, Jesse and Barry opened the doors and slid the ramp out.
A familiar nicker, a beloved black coat and white star, and wise equine eyes—the images hit him all at once, and Parker actually felt a sob escape before he could stop it. “Apollo.”
