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“And you’re going to have a large family, I presume?”
Sydney shrugged. “I’ll have as many children as God wants me to have.”
“We want at least a dozen, sir.” Lewis hadn’t been more than a step or two away from her the entire evening.
“A dozen?” Her papa chuckled. “Your mother is going to want one of them to marry well. Her idea of well, not ours.” He winked at Sydney.
She smiled. “I’ll make sure at least one marries well.” Her idea of well, not her mother’s. She knew her papa understood that.
“I’m going to take my leave,” Papa told her. “I need to get back to your mother who I’m certain has paced a trench in the floor in the blue parlor.”
“I’m certain she has.” Once again she embraced her father. “Thank you for coming to make sure I’m safe, Papa.”
“I’ve been a day behind you the entire way. I did lose you for a moment when I got to Fort Worth, but then I talked to a woman who told me she gave you directions to the Daileys’. It was easy from there.”
As her father walked to his rented carriage, Sydney sighed. She would miss him, but she was in a much better position now.
Lewis held his hand out for the first dance of the evening, and as soon as they were waltzing in the middle of the church lawn, she asked, “Did I hear you tell my papa that you love me?”
Lewis swallowed hard. “Yes, you did. And I’m not even ashamed of it.”
“Ashamed of lying to him? Or ashamed of telling him the truth?”
“I do love you, Sydney. God was certainly smiling down on me when you rode your bicycle to the ranch and befriended my mother.”
“No, he was smiling on me.” She rested her head on his shoulder for just a moment. “I love you too, Lewis Dailey. With everything inside of me.”
He kissed her and when he lifted his head, there was a slight grin on his face. “Does that mean you’ll teach me to ride your bike tomorrow?”
“I will, but wouldn’t it be more fun if you had one of your own?”
“Let’s make sure I don’t kill myself on the thing first!” he said, realizing that his life was just now beginning. With Sydney.
