Page 26 of The Christmas Cowboy

“Mom?”

Lorraine looked up and started to say something, but she had to remove the pins from her mouth first. “Val! How was your trip?” Glancing down at their linked hands she said, “Liam?”

“Mom, I—We have something to tell you.”

Her mother put down her sewing. “What is it?”

“I didn’t go out of town. Well, I did but not to Wyoming.” Her mother simply looked at her. “Liam and I got married.”

Her mother stared at them. “You…”

“I’m married. Yes. Is Dad in the barn?” Lorraine nodded, still not having said anything. “He should probably be here before we talk any more.” Val picked up the phone and called the barn.

“Yeah?” Riley answered.

“It’s me, Val. Is Dad there?”

“Yes. I take it you’re back.”

“We are. Can you ask Dad to come up here?”

“I’ll do better than that. I’ll bring him up there myself.”

“You don’t need to come.”

“Oh, honey, I wouldn’t miss this for anything,” he said, sounding amused.

Annoyed but not surprised, she hung up. “They’ll be up here in a minute.”

“I didn’t even know you two were dating,” Lorraine said. She looked totally bewildered.

Val looked at Liam, begging him silently to help. “We haven’t been for long,” Liam said. “But when you’ve known each other as long as we have, we didn’t feel like we needed to.”

“Uh-huh.”

She didn’t sound convinced. Riley and her dad came in.

“What’s this about?” Jasper said. “Val, why couldn’t you come to the barn?” He glanced at Liam and said, “Hello there, Liam. Do you have something to do with this?”

*

Great. Now boththe Fletchers were staring at him as if he were a different species. Riley was trying—not very successfully—not to laugh.

“What’s going on, Lorraine?”

Before Val or Liam could speak her mother did. “They’re married, Jasper.”

“Who’s married?”

“Liam and I are married, Dad.”

“What?” He didn’t quite roar the question.

“Val and I got married. Friday,” Liam added. Jasper had turned alarmingly red. Knowing his health wasn’t great, Liam worried he might have a heart attack. Except, thank God, his heart wasn’t the problem. Val’s hand was squeezing his so hard she was damn near cutting off the circulation.

Lorraine and Jasper looked at Riley. “Did you know about this?” Jasper asked.

“Uh, yes. I was there.”

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