AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Gerty swallowed, glad the words went down easily. “Yes, please.”
“Of course I want to have an engagement,” he said. “My parents want that. I imagine yours do too. I know you’d prefer something small for the ceremony and wedding, and that’s just fine. I was just—”
“Is it?” Gerty asked. “Having something small?”
He tilted his head, and that made his jacket shift, showing more skin along the zipper of his coat. “Yes,” he said in his crisp, CEO voice. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“You’re an important person in the community,” she said. “Hunter and Molly had a huge wedding downtown.”
“Does that sound like me at all?”
“No, but…it doesn’t sound like Hunter either.”
“Hunter is quiet,” Mike admitted. “He loves fishing and crossword puzzles. But he’s far more social than I am. Molly’s family was also well-known in the community.”
Gerty slipped back into his arms, and he draped the chain around her neck. He tugged her ponytail out of the way so the cool metal sat against her skin, and Gerty liked it. She liked it, because it came from him, and she swore she could feel the imprint of his touch on it, and now on her.
“I don’t want a big wedding,” he whispered as he pressed his cheek to hers. “I want to see you in a pretty dress, with your momma and daddy and siblings. All of your horses will be lined up, of course, and Max can walk you down the aisle.”
Gerty smiled against his face, but he didn’t. “My daddy would never allow that.”
“Mm, probably not.” He took a breath. “I know you want to do it here on the farm, and I’m good with that. This is going to beourhouse.Ourlife together.”
“It just makes sense for us to start it here,” she whispered.
“I have a lot of uncles and cousins,” he said. “I’d like them here, and that requires a little bit of a lead time.”
“So like, can we get married next weekend?”
Mike pulled back and searched her face. “You’re not kidding.”
Fear bolted through Gerty, and she shook her head. “I want to be yours. I want to marry you. I just….” She sighed and looked away. She kept the blinds closed back here, and she couldn’t see outside to anything that might have soothed her.
“You don’t want to be engaged,” he said.
“I’d like to skip it.”
“That’s why I bought the necklace.”
She brought her eyes back to his. He smiled and reached up to smooth back her hair. “I know you, baby doll. I know you don’t want to be engaged, but I want to have something official where when people ask, I can tell them, yes, we’re getting married.”
She reached up and touched the cowboy hat. “So this is like the diamond ring.”
“Sort of,” he said. “I mean, I didn’t get down on both knees and ask you to marry me.”
Her eyebrows went up. “You want to do that?”
“Yes,” he said simply.
Gerty backed up to give him room, but he chuckled and shook his head. “No, baby doll.” He took both of her hands in his, and foolishness ran through her. “I want to ask you to marry me very close to the wedding date.”
He kept his eyes trained on their joined fingers too. “So I was thinking—if you agree—that we count the locket as our pledge to each other to get married. It’s not an engagement. We pick a date. We tell our families. We start planning the wedding, and then sometime really close to that date, I’ll ask you to marry me and give you a ring.”
Mike allowed some time for the things he’d said to settle into the kitchen, and only then did he look her in the eyes. “What do you think?”
Gerty knew exactly what she thought. “I think you’re the sweetest man in the whole world.” She tipped up onto her toes and pressed a kiss to his lips. “I think you’re perfect for me. I think I need to figure out how to print that picture you took of us a couple of weeks ago in our Halloween costumes so I can put it in this charm that I didn’t know was a locket.”
He grinned at her, and she returned it. “I think I need to talk to my mom and get started on a dress.”
