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“Maxi? What are you girls doing out here?” he asks.
Maxi looks over her shoulder at us.
“Go ahead,” I encourage.
Maxi clears her throat and turns back to him. “You wanna get hitched?”
His eyebrows rise. “What?”
“You heard me,” she barks.
He lets go of the door and steps into the hallway.
“Um, Maxi, sweetheart, you didn’t drink anything, did you?” he asks under his breath.
“What? Of course not. I’m pregnant,” she scoffs.
“You didn’t get into any containers Leona brought?” he inquires further.
“I’m not high either.”
He looks around at all our faces.
“Well? Don’t leave me hanging. It’s embarrassing,” Maxi hisses.
“You’re serious?”
“Yeah, Isley’s taking care of the paperwork. And she can do the ceremony. So, if you want to get married, we can do it now, but I’d like to do it before midnight so we aren’t stealing Ansley and Garrett’s Christmas Eve wedding day.”
Corbin processes the scene before him and tries to carefully assess Maxi’s state of mind, and it’s both amusing and kind of heart-wrenching.
He leans down and looks her in the eye. “I don’t have a ring.”
She smiles and shakes her head. “I don’t need a ring. And I don’t want months of planning and dress fittings and picking out stupid flowers.”
She looks over her shoulder at Taeli and Ansley. “No offense.”
Taeli shrugs. “None taken. It’s not for everybody.”
She looks back at Corbin. “My momma is gone. I don’t have a father to walk me down the aisle. Lynn will forgive me. I’d rather spend the money and the time adding a nursery on the house and buying me a godforsaken minivan or something. So, I don’t need a diamond. I just need you. If you want me.”
He takes her face in his hands. “I want you more than anything in this world,” he whispers.
“You two can use my and your father’s bands,” Sara-Beth offers as she takes her ring off.
“We couldn’t,” Maxi begins.
“Shush. Yes, you can. Our forty-fifth wedding anniversary is coming up, and we wanted to do something special. We’ll get new bands.”
Hilton slips his ring from his hand and offers it to Corbin. “Be honored to have you use the bands we used to commit ourselves to one another, son.”
Corbin looks back at Garrett. “Are you good with this?”
Garrett grins. “Yeah, man. Hell, it’s perfect timing. If you decided to elope last minute any other time, I’d likely be halfway across the world and have to miss it.”
Maxi looks around. “I can’t believe I’m still standing here, waiting for an answer.”
“Yes, Miss Bufton. It would be my honor to marry you,” Corbin shouts to the rafters.
