She nodded her head, wiping the tears from her face. “Yes, I’ll marry you. A hundred times over, yes.”
As soon as he had the ring on her finger, Brock jumped to his feet and picked her up, hugging her close, causing a cheer to go up from the assembled guest.
Brock felt someone tap him on the shoulder and he sat her back down to turn his head. Jenny stood there, holding out a bouquet. “Before you ask, this is not from Zane and Amanda’s wedding. The decorations may be, but Brock managed to talk Mrs. Annie May Henderson into opening the flower shop long enough to make you your own wedding bouquet. He’s got me convinced he could talk anyone into anything. Considering what he did to her prize rose bushes,” she whispered just loud enough for the two of them to hear. “Just so you know, I’m pretty sure she called him every name in the book while she was making it, but she’s here now. She told me, if you didn’t say yes, she was going to beat him with her cane, all the way down Main Street.”
“Yeah, you saved me a beating,” he grinned, a twinkle in his eyes.
6:49pm
Several minutes later, with a veil on that Jenny, Lucy and Jessie had taken the time over the last couple of days to make, Mary Ellen stood at the back of the church with her father by her side. She wore a big sappy grin on her face that she couldn’t seem to contain, no matter how hard she tried. She knew he had obviously asked for help, but for once, Brock had finally managed to make one of his crazy stunts turn out right.
Her father cleared his throat, drawing her attention up to him. “You know, there for a little bit today, I was thinking I might really have to give the boy a thrashing.”
“Believe me, I was starting to get worried, myself. Brock does have a knack for screwing up the simplest of things sometimes.”
“You know, I still could, if you want me to. And I know for a fact, Josh is willing to help me, if I need him to. Not that I’d be likely to need much help. Brock would probably just take it without fighting back,” he said, giving his only daughter a serious look. “Are you sure this is what you want?”
“Yes, Daddy, this is what I want,” she smiled brightly. “I love the man. Even if he does prove to be crazy sometimes.”
“Well, I might actually feel a little sympathy for him on that one,” he said, grinning down at her. “I’ve heard a few times in the last couple of days, you’re the one making him crazy.”
She blushed but managed a smile all the same. “I guess the next fifty or so years could be really interesting then.”
“Probably so, but you do have one guarantee in all of this.”
“What’s that?”
“Your life won’t be boring.”
She chuckled, just shaking her head as it finally came her turn to start down the aisle. She took a deep breath, doing her best to calm her nerves. The last few days had been an emotional rollercoaster, but at this moment, she was the happiest she had ever been in her life.
Stepping up beside Brock, she finally took note of the suit he’d obviously been wearing the whole time. While it wasn’t a tux, it was definitely dressier than his usual attire. She looked up at him, giving him a bright smile. “You look very handsome,” she whispered, starting to let go of her father to take his hand a second before she heard Pastor Macy clear his throat to draw her attention. She looked up at the minister, embarrassment staining her cheeks and mouthed, “Sorry.”
He just smiled in understanding before continuing. “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?”
“Her mother and I,” her father said before turning to kiss her on the cheek then place her hand in Brock’s.
7:53pm
The ceremony had been over for nearly an hour and everyone was still in the reception hall eating cake and talking when Mary Ellen’s brother, Josh, stood up to draw their attention his way. He cleared his throat and waited for the room to fall silent. Once everyone was quiet and looking up at him expectantly, he gave his new brother-in-law a hard look and barked, “Why did you take my only sister to Vegas and get her drunk? Then ask her to marry you? Why didn’t you just ask her, while she was sober, three years ago, when she first started working for you?”
He swallowed, standing to his feet, gripping Mary Ellen’s hand tightly. “For one, I didn’t realize she would have married me three years ago,” he answered, flushing crimson.
“That only answers part of my questions,” Josh growled, looking to the whole world like he wanted to tear Brock’s head off his shoulders.
“Well, I didn’t get her drunk. I never intended to get her drunk, either,” he answered with a little more confidence this time.
“Are you saying she got herself drunk?” the other man asked, looking skeptical. “She doesn’t drink but once or twice a year. And then it’s very little.”
“I only asked her to wait for me at the bar where the restaurant was while I checked in,” he nodded. “I didn’t feel it was necessary to make her stand in that line with me. It took me like twenty minutes to get through. When I finally got there, with the intentions of our having dinner, she was already drunk.”
“I don’t buy it,” Josh grumbled, moving like he intended to come around the room to where Brock stood.
“Joshua Keith Edwards, stop right there,” Mary Ellen snapped. “He’s telling you the truth. I was a little wound up trying to figure out what he was up to. I drank three too many Long Island Ice Teas trying to relax. I should have stopped after the first one.”
“Three too many?” her brother barked, giving her a sour look. “It’s a wonder you could even stand to make it through a wedding ceremony. Even a short Vegas one. He couldn’t have been gone that long.”
“Well, he did just say it took twenty minutes. I honestly don’t remember. I downed the first three pretty quickly,” she replied with a blush. “I was just finishing the last one when he showed up.”
“Not to mention the last two after we sat down to order dinner. And that you kept stealing my beer,” Brock grunted as she smacked him in the stomach for bringing that part up. She figured she was in enough trouble as it was. She didn’t need him helping her get into more.
“You let her order two more after you sat down to eat?” her father barked. “I thought you said you hadn’t planned on getting her drunk.”
“I didn’t let her do anything,” he said, throwing his hands up in surrender. “She was going to get them no matter what I said. She tried ordering another one after the sixth one, but I managed to stop the waitress from bringing it to her. That’s when she started stealing my beer.”
“Then why did you take her to Vegas?” Janie Edwards asked, drawing everyone’s attention her way with her softly voiced question.
Brock sighed and turned to face his bride’s mother. “I was planning on asking her to marry me, while she was sober, and trying to talk her into getting married before we left Vegas. I wanted to be married before Christmas.”
“Well, you made your deadline, and you didn’t,” Janie laughed.
He chuckled as well before continuing. “I had called my cousin Jarod and told him I needed my grandmother’s engagement ring out of the family vault. He sent his wife Michelle to Vegas to meet me with it. That’s the trouble Jenny was referring to over the ring. I didn’t plan on asking her to marry me until after the ring arrived.”
“Then what did happen?” Josh grunted, giving him a dirty look.
He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face, praying all these questions would end soon. “She was already drunk. I wasn’t thinking about the kind of trouble we could get in if we were both drunk, so I drank beer with my dinner.”
Josh fisted his hands, his knuckles turning white, giving him a killer look. “You were drunk as well?”
“Yeah,” he swallowed, nodding his head. “And things got out of hand. The next thing I knew, I’d said we need to wait… until we were married, and she dragged me to the chapel.”
“She dragged you to the chapel?” her brother asked, giving him a doubtful look.
<
br /> “Yeah,” Brock nodded.
“You just got done saying, you were going to try and talk her into marrying you before you left Vegas.”
“Yes, but I wouldn’t have tried while she was drunk,” he grumbled, starting to feel insulted. “And I know now that she wouldn’t have agreed. She would have asked to come back home and get married with all of you present. I would have given her what she wanted. I promise.”
“That’s enough, Josh,” Mary Ellen snapped, giving her brother the stink eye. “He tried to talk me into waiting till the morning, when we were both sober again. Halfheartedly, I’ll admit. But he did try.”
Josh nodded his head, looking back at his sister. “Are you happy with the way things turned out?”
“Yes, Josh,” she said, smiling at her oldest brother. “I love him. Otherwise, no matter how drunk I was, I would never have married him.”
Josh nodded his head, finally sitting back down. “Then I’ve said all I have to say. Welcome to the family, Brock.”
“Thank you, Josh,” he said with a nod in the other man’s direction. “Now, if the rest of you will excuse us, my wife and I are going to cut out of here.” He didn’t wait to see how she was taking his suggestion. He just leaned down and picked her up to throw over his shoulder and headed for the door. “Goodnight all. Have a good one.” They left amidst a roar of laughter and whistles, Mary Ellen burying her flaming cheeks in the back of his suit jacket, doing her best to hold the tail of her dress down over her backside.
8:36pm
Brock pulled the truck to a stop and was out and around the front end of it before Mary Ellen had managed to reach for the door handle. On the ride from the church, she had become so nervous, she was shaking. Thankfully, he had brought them back to her house, rather than making the trip all the way out to his. He had mentioned something about one of his brothers promising to take care of his horses for the night and in the morning, but they’d have to go out there sometime later in the day tomorrow. Whether he’d made the decision to stay at her house tonight for her comfort, or because it was much closer to the church, she’d have to be sure to thank him for the choice later. After her nerves had a chance to settle down.
He opened her door, giving her a bright smile and held a hand out to her to help her out of the truck. “May I be of some help, Beautiful?”
She gave him a shaky smile, laying her cold hand in his warm one. “Thank you.”
“Oh, I need to get you in the house. You’re freezing,” he said, picking her up to cradle in his arms, drawing a squeak from her lips.
“Brock, the walkway could be slick with all this fresh snow. You might fall,” she huffed, slapping him on the shoulder.
“Well, then you better not squirm,” he chuckled, racing up to the front door. He stepped up on the porch and sat her down on her feet and waited for her to dig her keys out of her pocket. Once inside, he immediately closed and locked the door behind them.
He was a man at the end of his self-control and barely gave her time to get her heavy coat off before he had her dragged back into his arms and was kissing her like she was the air he needed to breathe. His enthusiasm was definitely helping her state of mind, but she was still just a little too nervous and was needing some space to give her mind time to catch up to the present.
She pushed back a little in an effort to catch her breath. Rather than fight her on the issue, he moved his mouth across her jaw and started making his way down her neck. “Brock,” she breathed. “Slow down a little. If you don’t, I may pass out on you.”
He wrapped his arms tighter around her, pulling her up on her toes and buried his face in her neck. “I don’t think I can. I meant it when I said I wanted you for far more than just sex, but I’m getting desperate here. I need you more than I can really explain.”
She giggled and laid her cheek against the top of his head. “It sounds like you may need to slow down too.”
He growled, picking her the rest of the way up off the floor as he rose to his full height. “I don’t want to, but I think you’re right. I’m afraid things are going to go too fast if I don’t,” he added with a crimson blush across his cheeks.
She pushed out of his arms and turned toward the hall. When he made to follow her, she stopped him with a hand in the air. “Hang on, Big Guy. I’m going to go, as they say in the movies, change into something more comfortable.” She giggled and shook her head. “Now I’m talking like I’m in the movies. Anyway, when I’m ready, I’ll call for you.”
“Something more comfortable,” he swallowed, picking up on her meaning just fine. “Woman, I’m having a hard-enough time not ripping your clothes to shreds as it is. And you’re about to make it worse?”
She chuckled and turned in the direction of her bedroom once again. “Just take a few deep breaths and try to calm down. And you should probably get a little more comfortable, as well,” she said, turning back long enough to make a gesture to show she was referring to him taking his suit jacket and shoes off.
He gulped again, shaking his head at her as he watched her make her way down the hall. “She’s crazy. Calm down, my foot,” he grumbled, yanking his tie lose and toeing his boots of at the same time. “What? Does she think I’m made out of stone?”
By the time she called down the hall for him, he had managed to divest himself of his jacket, tie and shoes and socks. He was just finishing with the last few buttons on his dress shirt, including the ones on the cuffs. “Alright, Brock, you can come in here, now.”
He took a deep breath, doing his best not to pass out himself and quickly made it down the hall to her bedroom door. He stepped in the room and came to an abrupt stop, his knees nearly buckling under him. “Oh,” he breathed, working to slow his racing heart. She now stood there in a flowing white nightgown that reached clear to her ankles. It was so thin he could almost see through it. The front nearly dipped to her navel with a slit up one side nearly to the top of her hip bone. And he was sure the only thing holding it in place was the strap that went around her neck.
He reached out to cup her cheek in his big hand, his fingers shaking. “You are absolutely the most beautiful creature I have ever seen.”
She gave him a shy smile, raising her hands up under his unbuttoned shirt, to run them up his bare stomach and chest, the soft hair on his chest tickling her fingers. “You’re not so bad, yourself.”
“If you want that nightgown to survive, you need to take it off, now,” he growled, barely hanging on to the last threads of his self-control.
She chuckled softly and reached up behind her neck to untie the halter straps and let it slither to the floor. He sucked in an appreciative breath and pulled her against his chest to lean down and bring their mouths together. It wasn’t long and everything else was forgotten. Including their shaking nerves.
Chapter 11
Saturday, December 27
9:25am
It was nearly eight in the morning when Brock and Mary Ellen made it out of bed. Which for the both of them, was sleeping in late. For two people who were usually at work between five thirty and five forty-five, over two hours of extra sleep was a welcome indulgence. Well, if you want to call what they were doing sleep.
They had gotten up and eaten a breakfast that consisted of eggs, bacon, sausage, toast and hash browns. Not to mention coffee and orange juice. Well, Brock had anyway. Mary Ellen had passed on the sausage and hash browns and only eaten half the amount of eggs and bacon Brock had. So, she couldn’t help the surprise she felt, when not thirty minutes after they’d gotten up from the kitchen table and washed their breakfast dishes, the man was asking for ice cream.
“You seriously want ice cream?” she asked, trying not to laugh. “It hasn’t been that long since we finished breakfast.”
“Yes, I want ice cream,” he said moving over to pull her up off the couch where she had been sitting while he rubbed her feet as they watched ‘A Christmas Carol’ after finally exchanging Christmas presents.
“Brock, it’s the middle of December. There’s snow on the ground,” she laughed, giving him a skeptical look. “It’s too cold for ice cream.”
“It’s never too cold for ice cream,” he bantered. “It’s either ice cream, or we’re going back to bed. And I distinctly remember you saying I was going to have to wait till tonight, because you were so sore and needed recuperation time.”
“Brock,” she gasped, turning scarlet. “You woke me up three times last night. Well, this morning too. After the first time. You’re going to kill me.”
“No, I’m not,” he chuckled with a shake of his head. “You will adjust.”
“I don’t know about that,” she snorted. “You’re proving to be insatiable.”
“Three years, Woman. I’ve watched you walk around that office, shaking that glorious backside of yours. Not to mention the rest of you.”
“Are you saying over time you’re going to lose interest?” she asked, feeling a little uncertain all the sudden.
He snorted, shaking his head. “No way. But things will probably start to level off where once or twice a day is enough,” he answered with a cheesy grin. “How about that ice cream? Or do I carry you back to the bedroom? One way or the other, I’m getting something sweet.”
“Fine, we’ll go get some ice cream,” she squeaked, jumping up from the couch.
10:23am
“This reminds me of that conversation I had with the guys,” Brock said, scooping up another bite of rocky road ice cream.
“What conversation?” Mary Ellen asked, taking a bite of her chocolate ice cream with strawberry sauce.
Married by Christmas (Sapphire Springs Book 2) Page 15
