Getting to the Church On Time (6 page)

“You don’t want to marry me tomorrow?” He tried to fake a pout but was pretty sure he didn’t pull it off. For one, he’d never pouted a day in his life. For another, this woman knew him. Too well sometimes.

She laughed and crawled into his lap. “You know that I don’t need to have the big ceremony to feel committed to you.”

He wrapped his arms around her. His little hippie. No, she didn’t need the traditional route—the ceremony and the ring and the vows.

He did.

TJ wanted to stand up in front of their town, all of their friends and family, and declare that he loved her and would until the day he died. He was a traditionalist. Even a little old-fashioned.

But he didn’t tell her that. He didn’t want her to think he wasn’t happy or that he didn’t feel committed now.

He was all in. Forever. He didn’t need the vows or rings either.

But he wanted them.

He wanted his ring on her finger and his last name behind hers.

TJ knew Hope loved him. He knew he made her happy. She was staying here with him, he knew that. Besides, it had only been a few months. They didn’t need to get married yet. Or at all.

Hell, he shouldn’t even want that. His last try had been a disaster.

But he still did. He wanted Hope forever and he wanted the world to know it.

“I knew I wanted to marry you some day,” he said, the scent of wildflowers surrounding him. “But then Ty and Tucker started talking about all of this and I suddenly wanted it now.”

Hope tipped her head and ran her thumb over his lower lip. The touch sent a shaft of heat to his cock. He caught her thumb lightly between his teeth. She sucked in a breath.

“I love you, TJ.”

“I know. And if you never want to do the whole—”

“I do.”

TJ paused. “You do?”

“I want the whole thing,” she said, her big green eyes full of love.

A sight TJ planned to see every day for the rest of his life.

He didn’t deserve her, but he wasn’t letting her go now that he had her.

“I want to be a Bennett,” she said.

TJ’s heart clenched so hard he couldn’t take a breath for a moment. “Hope—”

“And I want to make more Bennetts,” she said with a little smile.

Was there something to say other than
I love you
? TJ wondered. Sometimes those three words just didn’t seem adequate. He loved the chili-cheese fries at Dottie’s. Hope loved to garden. Saying he loved her didn’t seem like enough sometimes.

“I want to stand up and tell everyone who will listen how much I love you and that I will forever,” she said.

And TJ realized that sometimes
I love you
was absolutely perfect.

He grabbed her wrist as she dragged her thumb over his lip again. He stared into her eyes. “You
are
a Bennett. You’re a part of this family no matter what.”

“I know.”

He could tell she really did.

“But I want…” She gave a little laugh. “This is going to sound silly.”

“Say it,” he told her firmly. Something in him said that he
had to
hear this.

His commanding voice didn’t intimidate her. In fact, it usually turned her on.

She wiggled on his lap and he had to clamp down on her hips to keep her from distracting him. He wanted to finish this conversation.

“I want my name to officially be Hope Bennett. I want to sign my checks with that name and put that on the order forms at the shop.” Hope had just started a little shop on Main Street that specialized in essential oils and their many uses, including handmade soaps, lotions and mixtures of oils for everything from arthritis pain to improved memory.

TJ wasn’t sure what to say. A very primitive possessive streak went through him, making him want to claim her this way. Hope had grown up without a traditional family like the Bennetts. Her mom had been a single mom who was a restless wanderer. Her father, a Sapphire Falls native, hadn’t been a part of her life until they’d met just a few months ago.

The idea that Hope wanted a family—
his
family—made his heart swell to the point he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to take a deep breath again.

But he wanted to be sure she knew that she
was
his family, forever, no matter what her last name was on the order forms.

“Everyone will be there for you, always,” he said. “Even if we don’t do the wedding thing.”

“I know. I want the wedding thing.”

He had to be
sure
. “It will be in the snow, Sunshine. No flowers, no bare feet, no throwing breadcrumbs instead of rice for the birds.”

She grinned. “I would love to see you in bare feet in your backyard with a flower garland around your head and—”

“Winter wedding at the church sounds good.”

She giggled. She knew that he’d do anything for her. Flower garlands were not really a TJ Bennett kind of thing. But neither was green tea, peppermint foot soaks or yoga, and he was doing all of that. And he could honestly say the tantric sexual positions Hope had introduced him to were worth choking down some crazy tea once in a while.

Of course, a lot of the time he thought Hope was making him use mud facial masks and meditation just because she thought it was funny to see him doing those things. He also suspected his brothers put her up to it some of the time. But he got the last laugh when he got her massage oils out and used them on her and then showed her some TJ Bennett sexual positions. She liked his methods just fine.

“And you know you can tell everyone how much you love me anyway. Over and over. All the time,” he told her. “I’ll get you a t-shirt. Hell, I’ll get seven and you can wear it every day.”

“Deal,” she said with a grin. “But I still want a wedding.”

His hands tightened on her.

“And the other thing…” he said.

She nodded. “Making more Bennetts.”

He felt his throat tighten. He’d thought he had a son. Michelle had told him the baby boy she’d given birth to was his. He’d done the diapers and feedings and everything. And then she’d ripped his heart out when she’d told him the baby was actually someone else’s.

He’d loved being a father for that short time. He loved being an uncle to Delaney and Tucker’s boys and Lauren and Travis’s baby girl. But he hadn’t let himself think about having kids. He loved Hope and it didn’t matter if they had children. He’d want to be with her anyway. And he hadn’t known how she would feel about it. She’d had an interesting childhood and was still dealing with some issues with now knowing her biological father and her half-sister. In the few months they’d been together, TJ just hadn’t brought it up.

That she was bringing it up, and saying it was something she wanted, made a desire more intense than he’d never experienced rip through him.

He could have it all. Because of,
with
, this woman. Until a few months ago, he’d resigned himself to bachelorhood and being a fantastic uncle only.

Now she was offering him love, family, the whole package.

“A baby?” he finally managed to ask.

“No,” she said with a little head shake. “Like four babies.” Then she added, “But not all at once.”

He laughed. Or tried to. It was tough past the tightness in his throat. His gaze dropped to her stomach and he stroked a loving hand over it. “You know I’ll be there. We can raise amazing kids together without a wedding.” It was true. Absolutely. All of it. But
damn
he wanted to marry her.

“Well, look at you being all liberal and open-minded,” she said softly.

“I’m trying,” he said. “A marriage license doesn’t make a guy a dad or not a dad.”

“No, it doesn’t. And a man can be a great husband to the woman he loves without a marriage license as well.”

“Right.”

She leaned in and put her lips to his. “I still want a wedding.”

“Well,” he said after swallowing hard. “In that case…yes, Hope Daniels, I will marry you.”

She smiled at him with a look of such love and trust and yes, hope, that he just shook his head. “How’d I get so lucky?” he asked her gruffly.

She took his face in her hands. “It’s not luck. This was meant to be. I was meant to be yours.”

And he was done talking about any other alternative than marrying this woman and keeping her by his side for the rest of his life.

“Yeah, well, I feel damned lucky,” he said.

Then he flipped her to her back and had her undressed in record time.

Ty & Hailey

“Peppermint brownies—easy.” Hailey pulled a brownie mix and peppermint extract from her cupboard. “Just need candy canes. And I know exactly what to do for the decoration.”

“No brownies,” Ty said firmly.

She looked over at him. “Why not?”

“Your brownies are all mine.” She’d made brownies for him when he’d first moved in next door—okay, before she knew it was
him
, but still—and he had an enduring fondness for them.

She gave him a little smile. “The only brownies I can ever make again are for you?”

“Yes.”

She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t even get them baked the last time I mixed up brownie batter.”

“And they were delicious.” He’d had a hell of a good time spreading the chocolatey batter all over his
very
favorite dessert—Hailey herself.

“So if I don’t make brownies, what are we going to make?”

“You told me about how you saw Levi and Kate having hot chocolate on the bench in the square the very first night they met, right?” Ty asked, crossing to the stove and reaching into the high cupboard above it.

“Right.”

He pulled out a bottle of chocolate liqueur and a bottle of peppermint schnapps. “He didn’t say the recipe had to be baked.”

Hailey grinned. “We’re so winning this thing.” She put the brownie mix back into the cupboard next to her.

He laughed and leaned against the counter, watching her. “Thought you didn’t want to compete against Delaney and Hope?”

She waved her hand. “I’m looking at it as competing against Tucker and TJ. This was their idea. And TJ beat me out for mayor. I’m totally down for taking his wedding.”

Ty chuckled. Hailey didn’t actually mind that TJ had beaten her in the recent mayoral race. She was now the Director of Community Development and Tourism for Sapphire Falls. Which was a lot of what she’d been doing, and loving, as mayor anyway. TJ now had to do all the paperwork and meetings and she got to be out in the town, socializing…and bossing people around. It was the perfect job for her really.

“It was my idea first,” he felt compelled to say.

The series of contests to win a big Christmas-themed wedding actually was something she might have come up with, given the chance. Hailey and Levi were a good pair in many ways—Hailey dreamed big and Levi, and his wallet, loved to support crazy fun.

“That doesn’t surprise me.” She walked toward him. “You love to compete with, and beat, your brothers. You knew they’d jump on the idea, didn’t you?”

Ty couldn’t deny it. He grinned and pulled her close, then turned, lifting her onto the counter and stepping between her knees.

Tucker’s boys, Henry, Charlie, David and Jack, were in the living room with Kathy and Thomas, Ty’s parents. They had a full house with the storm. Two of them actually. Which meant no getting Hailey naked in the kitchen. But he loved it. He had been living in Colorado for the last few years, coming home to visit for holidays for only a couple of days at a time. He hadn’t experienced a house full of people and laughter, people jostling each other in the kitchen or fighting for their turn in the bathroom, in a very long time. Growing up with four brothers had given him his share of all of those things and he’d never expected to miss it.

But now, having his parents and his brothers, their wives and girlfriends, and even their kids under the same roof—or two roofs with only a small yard in between—made him feel content and nostalgic in a way that shocked him. He’d been happy about buying the house next door to Hailey from day one, but now it was working out beautifully. Both houses were old two-story family homes. They each had four bedrooms and two bathrooms, making it easy to put everyone up during the storm.

Ty kind of hoped the snow continued for a couple more days.

“I also did it because I want to marry you and I thought this was a good way to get you down the aisle. You love this big community stuff.”

She linked her fingers behind his neck. “I do. But you don’t have to do anything to get me down the aisle but ask.”

“Yeah?”

“Of course.”

“Well, then, if we don’t win, we’ll start planning something of our own.”

She frowned. “What do you mean if we don’t win?”

“I’m just saying that it won’t be horrible if TJ or Tucker wins. It’s pretty awesome to see them both so in love and everything.”

Hailey’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, it’s nice. Whatever. They can plan their own thing too
when
they don’t win. You better not be going soft on me, Tyler Bennett. I expect Olympic-medalist-level performance from you.”