Getting to the Church On Time (5 page)

Tucker swept her up into his arms as he stretched to his feet and swung her around.

Everyone erupted into applause.

Levi looked around at the happy smiles and bright faces and knew that the next twenty-some hours was going to be a lot of fun.

“She had the ring already?” TJ asked.

“She’s had it for a while,” Tucker said. “Told her to just hang on to it until she was ready to wear it and make it official. She didn’t want to do that until we had a date.”

“Tomorrow?” Delaney asked. “Really?”

Tucker nodded. “If we win.”

She frowned at that. “Win?”

“Levi’s having a contest,” Ty announced, crossing the room to where Hailey was standing.

Her huge grin faded as her eyes rounded at his approach.

“Whoever wins, gets to take over Levi and Kate’s wedding stuff tomorrow,” Ty said, addressing Hailey. “What do you say? Let’s do this. Thirteen and a half years is long enough to wait.”

Hailey looked around the room, her gaze ending on Delaney. “I can’t compete against Delaney for this.”

“You’ll be competing against Delaney
and
Hope,” Ty said cheerfully. “We have to outdo all of them.” He was clearly not intimidated or deterred by the other contenders being friends and family.

Hailey looked surprised for a moment, then rolled her eyes. “I can’t compete against either of them, and definitely not both.”

“She’ll be competing against me too?”

This came from Hope. She was staring straight at TJ.

He gave her a big grin. A grin like Levi had really never seen from the perpetually grumpy oldest Bennett. Levi blinked a few times. That was the look of love. No matter how cheesy that sounded, that right there was it. Legend had it that TJ used to be more easygoing and happy but that was before he fell for Michelle—his crazy ex. But Levi hadn’t known TJ then. This was really good see.

“I’m ready, Sunshine. You and I both know I need you. Let me tie you down.”

Hope’s eye filled with tears but she smiled. “I don’t think we need to talk about what we do in the bedroom in public.”

That got a surprised chuckle from TJ and a low whistle from Ty.

“Good for you, brother,” the youngest told the oldest.

TJ gave him a wink.

A
wink
.

A little part of Levi wanted to just award the wedding to TJ. The guy was clearly head over heels. But then Levi looked at Tucker and Delaney and there was no mistaking that they were the real deal. Too. And now that they were public with their feelings and relationship, no one could argue that Hailey and Ty hadn’t been made for one another.

“What do you say, Conner?” Ty asked Hailey. “Help me win this.”

“You always have to win everything,” she said with a sigh, stepping into his arms.

“Well, when the prize is so amazing, how can I not want to win?” Ty asked, settling his hands blatantly on her butt.

“The wedding plans
are
pretty amazing,” Hailey agreed.

“I wasn’t talking about the wedding,” Ty said, kissing her sweetly.

She sighed. “You’ve already got that prize.”

“Oh my God, decide this soon,” Travis said, pulling his wife Lauren up against his side. He’d been the one recording everything on his phone. “Seeing my brothers all lovesick is making
me
a little sick.”

Lauren elbowed him, but his brothers all just flipped him off. In unison. He got that on the video too.

But Levi nodded. He had to agree with the sick part. At least Travis could go home and be with the woman
he
was lovesick over. Levi was going to bed alone.

“Okay, they all said yes,” he announced. “Now on to stage two. Voting will be at two p.m. in the gazebo tomorrow.”

“Voting?” Hailey asked Ty.

Hope and Delaney both looked up their fiancés as well.

“I’ll explain later,” Ty said.

“Yeah, we have some…projects to do,” Tucker told Delaney.

“Uh, hey, Mr. Mayor?” Ty asked TJ.

“Yeah?”

“You think you could convince the grocery store to open up for us for a bit? We’re all going to need supplies.”

Now Hailey looked less intrigued and more concerned. “Supplies?”

Ty grinned at her. “We’re going to need to get creative.”

She groaned.

“I think I could get him to open up. For me,” TJ said, nodding.

“Hey, no fair.” Tucker turned to Levi.

“
I
will get him to open up,” Levi said. He was on good terms will all the business owners in town. And he’d give the guy a nice cash bonus for the favor.

“Hey, we’re all staying in the same house,” Tucker said. “What if someone steals someone else’s idea?”

“We’ll split you up into different rooms and you’ll take turns in the kitchen,” Levi said.

“Kitchen?” Delaney squeaked.

“I’ve got an idea,” Tucker said, hugging her with a grin.

“And the girls will keep you honest,” Levi said, looking from one woman to another.

None of the girls actually confirmed that. Even the sweetest of the group, Hope, looked contemplative.

“You won’t have time to sneak around and spy on one another,” Levi said. “You have a short timeline to make this stuff work.”

What had he started? What if this just turned into a family feud?

“Even so,” Ty said. “You’ll have to referee. We’ll end up killing each other.”

Yeah, he would. Then something occurred to him and he grinned. “Oh, I have a better idea.”

“What’s that?” Hope asked.

“Didn’t you say your mother was staying up at the house too?” Levi asked Tucker.

At that, Tucker sighed, Ty groaned and TJ looked resigned.

Tucker & Delaney

“We have to
cook
?” Delaney paced across the bedroom they were sharing on the second floor of Ty’s house on Plum Street.

“Bake,” Tucker corrected. Then he shrugged. “But I have a better idea.”

“I’m all ears,” she said. “Because you know this has disaster written all over it.”

Tucker grinned at the woman who could create anything from wood, metal, plaster—or a combination of any of those. But give her flour, sugar and eggs, and everything went to hell.

She went to where her laptop was sitting on the dresser and opened it. “We’re going to have to find something easy,” she said. “Or convince your mom to help us.” She looked up. “She wants you to be married so you can officially adopt the boys. Maybe she’ll be our accomplice even though we’re up against Ty and TJ.” She frowned at him. “And why did we have to go up against Ty and TJ? If you really want to do this, let’s just plan something for after New Year’s. Or if you want a big town party, let’s do it
on
New Year’s. You know I don’t need it to be all fancy and crazy. We could just see if Pastor Michaels is willing and—”

“Delaney.”

She stopped and blinked at him. “What?”

“I love you.” He had always known he wanted to be a husband and father, but he’d had no way of knowing, of even fathoming, how much he would love the woman who would make him both.

“I love you too.”

“And I’m sorry.”

She blinked a few times. “Sorry for what?”

“I want to be married to you. Like yesterday. The minute I realized that there was this whole wedding already planned, that you wouldn’t have to worry over or work for, I wanted to do it. And now you’re worried and working on all of this. I’m sorry for getting involved in a contest, where we might not win now anyway, and getting you all wound up. We’ll just tell Levi that we’re out.”

Delaney just looked at him for a few more blinks. Then she crossed the room to where he was sitting on the bed. She climbed onto his lap, straddling his thighs, put her hands on either side of his face and kissed him.

There were many different kisses between them. The good-morning kiss, the happy-news kiss, the you-make-me-laugh kiss, the I’m-sorry kiss, the take-me-to-bed-now kiss. This one was the I-love-you-even-though-you-screwed-up kiss.

Tucker held her hips as her lips moved over his, soaking in the feel of her, the smell of her, the knowledge that she was here, with him, forever, whether they went through the ceremony tomorrow or not.

“I want to marry you yesterday too,” she said, finally lifting her head. “And we have yet to come across a challenge we couldn’t meet.”

He looked into the eyes that comforted him and turned him on at the same time. “With you, I really do have it all. You know that?”

“I do,” she said with a sweet smile. “And if there was ever a reason for me to go into a kitchen with the purpose of attempting to make something edible, this would be it.”

He grinned at her. “And we have to do it together. So you know what that means.”

“That it might actually turn out?”

He chuckled. “That even if it
doesn’t
turn out, we’ll have fun.”

“Aw.” Then her eyes narrowed as she smiled. “And if I was anyone else, that would just sound really sweet. But I do know you, and I know exactly what you mean by that.”

He laughed as he tipped her to her back and rolled to cover her. “I still think it will be pretty sweet.”

“You don’t even know what we’re going to make.” She wrapped her arms and legs around him as he nuzzled her neck.

“Whatever it is, I need to taste test it—on your mouth, and fingers…” His voice dropped as he kissed his way down her neck to her collarbone. “And nipples.” He looked down and was thrilled to see her nipples pressing against the soft cotton of her shirt. He kissed his way over her shirt to her stomach. “And belly button.” He kissed down the seam of her yoga pants. “And clit,” he breathed hotly against her.

“Tuck.” Her voice was husky and her fingers tangled in his hair. “We need to pick out a recipe.”

He started wiggling her pants down. “And a decoration to make.”

Her fingers stopped, then tightened in his hair. But he realized she was tugging to get his head up rather than pushing him closer to where he wanted to be. He looked up. She had an eyebrow arched.

“Decoration?”

“We have to make Kate and Levi a Christmas decoration of some kind.”

She pushed against his head and started scrambling up the bed. With his fingers hooked in the waistband of her pants, that only served to pull them down farther and Tucker couldn’t help but think this was working out really well.

“Tuck! We don’t have time for this!”

“We
always
have time for this.”

She started tugging her pants up. “I have to find a recipe I can’t burn and make a something out of…what do we even have here? All of my stuff is out at the farm.”

Tucker tugged the pants down, revealing her pretty blue panties. “We’ll go to the store later and get whatever you need.”

“A glue gun? Glass beads? Spray paint? Mod podge?”

He couldn’t help but look up from the silky skin of her thighs at that. “Mod what?”

“Podge.” While he was a bit distracted, she tugged her pants back up. “How can you say you want to be with me forever and not know what modge podge is? We’ve been together for—” She stopped and looked at the ceiling, obviously counting. “Almost seven months and you don’t know what modge podge is?”

“Well, I…guess I…” Then he really looked at her face, realized she was teasing him, and forgot about the ice-blue bikini panties. “You’re in big trouble,” he told her.

She giggled and scrambled quickly up the bed.

He went after her, climbing up her body and taking her lips in a deep kiss.

She was panting slightly when he lifted his head.

“How about I get you modge podge and glitter and any other damned thing you want, if you let me strip you down and lick you head to toe for about twenty minutes?” he asked, already bunching her shirt up.

“Twenty minutes? I’ve got a magical dessert to make.” But she wasn’t fighting the shirt thing very hard. In fact, she lifted her arms and he easily slipped it over her head.

“How about fifteen minutes and I tell you that I know about a cheesecake recipe that’s no bake?”

She arched her back as he reached behind her for the clasp on her bra. “Is it peppermint?” she asked.

He lowered his head to one nipple and it was another minute or so before he answered, “How hard can it be to make it peppermint?”

“Make what peppermint?” she asked, squirming underneath him as she pushed her pants and panties down.

“That’s my girl.”

TJ & Hope

“You don’t really want to do this.” Hope tossed her little purse onto the bed as she kicked her shoes off.

“Marry you? Of course I do.” TJ sat down on the edge of the bed. “And we are so going to win this thing.”

Hope turned and leaned back on the desk. She looked skeptical. “This whole thing is pretty flashy. The public declaration, the contest, the impromptu wedding. This is so not you. What’s going on?”