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“But you’re thinking about it,” I counter, reading between the lines.
My brother doesn’t say much which makes his subsequent silence so much louder. After a long moment passes, he finally sighs, “Do you want to marry him?”
I hesitate. It’s only a split second but Greer steps forward. He puts a hand on my shoulder.
“Look at me, kiddo,” he calls me by the nickname he gave me when I first arrived at the farm. “Tell me the truth. Whatever it is—bad, good, or ugly—we’ll face it together.” He’s said those same words since I was young. No matter what happened, I could always come to him.
He never chastised me. He never judged me. He just showed up in the middle of my messes and loved me, just as I was. I hope the receptionist he likes knows just how special he is.
“I want to marry him, and I want your blessing. You’re the…the closest thing I’ve ever had to a dad,” I sniff as I admit the words.
“Aww, hell, don’t cry,” Greer hugs me, the same way he did when I was little and in need of comfort. “You can marry the bastard if you want.”
Relief fills me. Grizz was right. My brother wasn’t mad, not like I thought he’d be. Still, I can’t help pushing my luck. “With your blessing?”
“With my blessing. I’ll even give you away.” When he pulls away from our embrace, he blinks away a sheen of moisture from his eyes. “But I’m still going to give him shit.”
11
GINGER
“It looks like the perfect getaway,” I tell Mackenzie as she flicks through the photos on her phone, showing off the mountain resort. She and Ace are going on a weeklong stay to Big Sky in Montana.
“It does have beautiful views,” Susie agrees when she sees the same photos.
“I’ve never been skiing, but Ace promised to teach me,” she sighs in the dreamy way only a woman in love does. “We’ll only be going for a few days. We’ll be back in time to celebrate Christmas with my dad.”
“Do you normally celebrate it with him?” Susie asks softly as she wraps another tendril of my hair around the curling iron. I don’t know how she’s done it, but she’s made my hair look amazing today.
“Every year,” Mackenzie beams as she blends my foundation into my face.
I’m worried that she’s going to be alone for the holidays. I let my mom know, and Susie will get an invite to our family’s annual Christmas gathering. Grizz and I will be at the farm on Christmas morning too. Of course, we’ll be there as a married couple.
Just the thought of my upcoming vows has me glancing down at the huge diamond ring on my finger. Grizz insisted on a huge engagement ring during our negotiation. Apparently, all of our negotiations must always start with me sitting on his face. A girl can’t complain about that term.
It’s been two weeks since Grizz told my brother that he’s marrying me. My fiancé offered to throw me the biggest wedding in the state. He told me I could have anything I wanted, and that no expense would be spared. His only other condition than the huge rock on my finger was that he wanted the wedding to happen immediately.
Since I couldn’t wait to be married to my soulmate, I agreed. I called Mackenzie and Susie. Between their help and my mom’s, we’ve managed to pull together what’s sure to be a beautiful ceremony.
Earlier this week, my brothers even finished moving all of my things into Grizz’s cabin. He’s talking about making it bigger and adding more rooms so we can eventually have kids. Turns out, our sexy breeding talk was more than just a kink thing. We both want a family. A big one with lots of kids to dote on.
“How’s your costume coming along?” I turn my attention to Susie, wanting to distract her from what Rogue is doing this holiday. I think Mackenzie would be supportive if her dad found a woman. But what would she think if that woman were Susie? Has Rogue even noticed her?
I know that he and some of the rangers rounded up the injured black bear. Their best guess was that something woke the bear from hibernation, possibly an attack from another creature.
One of the rangers tried to insist the bear was too badly hurt to survive, but Rogue called in every favor he could. Now the bear is recovering and if he continues to do well, he’ll be released back into the wild soon.
“I just finished the costume,” Susie announces and shows me a picture on her phone. Her elf costume is cute and modest and yet still somehow sexy.
“You have a gift!” Mackenzie squeals when she sees it. “You should get into costume design!”
“Maybe I’ll do that,” Susie muses just as Mom rolls into the room. We’re here in the back bedroom on the farm. While Grizz offered to marry me anywhere in the world, there was only one place I could see tying the knot—on my family’s farm. The Maples were the first people to take care of me, the first to teach me about love.
