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“Sorry everyone, we’ll get back to the dancing in a minute. I just wanted to say a few things if you’ll grant me the floor. First, isn’t my sister the most beautiful bride ever?”
Lots of polite clapping, with the occasional foot stomping thrown in.
“She’s going to make a fantastic wife and mother, and I’m so sorry I didn’t get back here in time to see her tie the knot—” He stopped at Vic’s frantic arm motions and coughed. “Oh well, this is awkward. Apparently the baby news wasn’t fully leaked yet. Well, guess what, my sister and her new husband are having a baby. Nope, this wasn’t a shotgun wedding, no matter what you may think.” He coughed again. “Do they even still have those?”
Jill clutched her violet to her belly. Oh boy, this was going downhill fast.
“Anyway, best of luck to the happy couple. Moving on. I have a couple more announcements to make. One I hope might make my sister stop shooting death glares at me. I brought a special guest.” He gestured to a table along the edge of the dance floor, way in the back, and Jill gasped as she recognized Mrs. Townsend. “Vic, I thought our mom should be here for your special day, just like Dad. I hope you know how much we all love you.”
Vic cupped her hands over her mouth and rushed toward the back of the room, eliciting tears and clapping as she went. Jill was so occupied watching Vic’s tearful conversation with her mom that she almost missed the rest of Bryan’s speech.
“I met this woman a long-ass—uh, I mean many years ago. She’s my sister’s best friend, and she tolerates me with about the same level of borderline disgust. In my defense, I only put spiders in her hair that one time.”
Jill grinned as applause broke out around them.
“It turns out that the girl next door sometimes grows up to be the woman who makes you fall in love with her, whether or not you’re ready. She makes me want to be a better person, and I think I am with her. Or I will be, if she agrees to allow me back into her life. I screwed up big time, and now that I’m living here in Haven again, I’ll have plenty of time to get my shit straight. Um, life straight.” He adjusted his bowtie. “This is why I play ball and don’t narrate the news.”
That got the biggest laugh of the night.
“Her name is Jillian St. John, and I love her enough to promise I’ll never call her Jilly Bean again. Except on Easter, because, really, who could resist?” The grin he sent her traveled across the room and straight into her heart, warming her from her chest to her toes and everywhere in between.
Now it was her turn.
Jill crossed the room, clutching her violet to her chest. She didn’t stop until she was at his side. Heart pounding in her ears, she leaned up to kiss him, extending the moment even as the crowd whooped it up. Then she grabbed the microphone out of his hand. “She says she loves you, too, but if you slip up any day but Easter, she’ll tell everyone here about that time you accidentally dropped a carton of eggs down your pants.” She gave him a saucy grin. “Oops, just did.”
Bryan grinned and dragged her against his side. “Sounds like a touchdown to me.”
When the guests returned to their desserts and dancing, he murmured in her ear, “Come outside with me?”
Hearing the tension in the question, she nodded. “Sure.” She frowned at his profile as they walked. “Bry, what about the team? What’s going on?”
“Later.”
“Okay then.” Shaking her head, she let him lead her out the nearest exit.
Once they were outside on the back deck, he moved to the railing and gestured up at the stars. “I asked Vic for advice on how to do this. She suggested I bring you out here, show you some star, then lead you back to the gazebo over there so you’d be impressed with my sense of romance. I almost did, too.”
She took a deep breath of the crisp night air and joined him at the railing. Something else was afoot, even bigger than him declaring to an entire room of family and friends that he loved her.
He loved her.
“You do realize that Cory and Vic hooked up for the first time in that gazebo, right?”
His grimace made her laugh. “I tried to forget. Thanks for reminding me.” He shook his head. “But that’s not why I didn’t do it there. I thought rather than borrowing her ideas for how to convince you to give me a shot, I should come up with some of my own. So I am. Coming up with them, I mean.” He dragged his hand down his face. “Man, I suck at this. Did you hear my speech? Horrific.”
She stepped closer and grabbed his hand. “Are you kidding me? That speech made this the best night of my life.”
Her pulse skipped at the intensity in his eyes. “There’s a reason I’m so terrible at this. Well, besides basic ineptitude. I’ve never loved a girl before. I’ve definitely never carried around a speech I wrote and wore out the paper within twenty-four hours because I folded and refolded it so much.”
If he kept this up, she was going to start crying again. “Bry—”
“Wait. Let me finish.”
Her mouth curved. “I forgot you had a speech. Sorry.”
“Exactly.” His grin flashed before he tensed again. “And I’ve absolutely never asked a girl to marry me when I’ve never even asked her on a regular date with no conditions attached. So I decided I’d offer you my promises now, with an option to seal the deal for real later.”
Promises. W
