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Mike slammed the lid closed and took a deep breath. He wasn’t worried about Gerty saying yes to his proposal. He wasn’t worried that she didn’t want to marry him. He wasn’t worried that she wouldn’t show up in only three more days for their wedding.
Her grandparents had narrowly escaped a late spring storm in Montana to be here for the wedding, and they were staying in the house Mike had been working on with Gerty’s father in every spare moment he’d had in the past six months. They’d live in that house come summertime, once they got everything in Montana packed up and moved down here.
Gerty literally didn’t have anything left in Montana, and Mike couldn’t wait to start their life together here in Ivory Peaks, the city of Denver, and the Rocky Mountains.
Jane brushed her hands along his collar. “You look great. Your mother and mine have been cooking up a storm. Everything is perfect.”
“Thank you, Jane,” he whispered.
“If you don’t come out in the next couple of minutes,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken his gratitude. “Your sister is going to say something she’ll regret.” Jane’s blue eyes caught on Mike’s, and they said so much more than her voice did.
“Opal wouldn’t ruin this for me.”
“Not you,” Jane said meaningfully again. “Your momma hasn’t said anything to her about her now-former doctor boyfriend, but unfortunately, my momma didn’t get the message.”
“Oh, boy.”
“It’s damage control out there,” Jane pulled her hands back. “Got the ring?”
Mike held up the box. “Got the ring.” Mike forced a smile to his face, and he rolled his shoulders. Only a flicker of pain, a whisper of it and then gone.
He felt overly hot, but that was because unbeknownst to Jane or anyone else, he wore two shirts. Nonetheless, he followed his cousin out of the bedroom and down the hall to the big living area in Hunter’s mansion. It was the biggest space they owned, and the wind had kicked up here in Colorado too.
Hunter stood at the counter where Mike had seen him several times, a drink in his hand and his head thrown back as he laughed with Uncle Cy and Mike’s father.
Daddy saw him and immediately put down his glass of orange juice. “There he is.”
Mike hugged his father, though he’d been out here twenty minutes ago. “Everyone’s back?”
“Your momma just got here,” he said. “She has the cake out in the garage.”
Everywhere Mike looked, he saw Hammonds. Daddy’s four brothers were here. Their wives, and all of their children. Every single one, and Mike couldn’t help but send up a prayer of thanks for the goodness of his family.
Gerty’s grandparents and her uncle Mike visited with Uncle Colton, and her siblings sat with Hunter’s kids and Matt’s kids, their cousins.
Jane stood by the hallway that led into the foyer, and she suddenly turned and signaled to everyone in the room.
The noise went down in a wave, with only the youngest not understanding until it was too late that he was supposed to quiet down.
Boone moved past Jane first, and then Cosette. Gerty came last, and she paused to take in the crowd gathered there.
She’d known this was a dinner with Mike and his family, and she’d met all of them over the holidays, which they’d spent in Coral Canyon, at the Whiskey Mountain Lodge and Mike’s parents’ house.
She surveyed the crowd, and Mike stepped forward, the ring box gripped in his hand. Gerty wore fairly normal attire for her. Her patchwork jeans were a step above those she wore around the farm. Her blouse tonight didn’t have sleeves, and it billowed in pretty pink, purple, and blue flowers.
“Baby doll,” he said, and her eyes locked onto his. She took a step toward him before he asked her to, and he added, “I need some help with my shirt,” as she approached.
She scanned him from head to toe. “Looks mighty fine to me, Mikey.”
A couple of people twittered with laughter, but Gerty’s mouth barely twitched upward. He grinned, because he loved the woman in front of him so very much.
“Go on,” he said, nodding down to the buttons on his shirt.
“In front of everyone?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Gerty heaved a sigh, really putting on a show, and reached to start unbuttoning his shirt. She started at his collar, and she quickly undid the buttons while Daddy and Mike’s uncles catcalled.
