Page 52 of Choosing Happily Ever After

Faith stared at both of them, and looked to Logan, who shrugged. Finally she spoke. “What about your…your treatment, Hope?” She leaned in and whispered the last part, not wanting to be overheard. A lot of people still didn’t know about Hope’s diagnosis, although that would have to change. “You can’t just leave, Hope. What about the doctors and—”

“Don’t worry.” Hope held one hand out to her sister. “I promise you I’ll do everything under doctor supervision.” She glanced up at Levi, and his heart squeezed with love for the woman and how readily she’d accepted his plan. “But the doctor has already given me the all clear to go ahead and have a child before I have the surgery, so Levi suggested that while we try for that baby, and maybe for the first few months of the pregnancy, we do some traveling. It’s all perfectly safe. And then we can have the best of both worlds and still be able to come home and settle in for the baby. And then I’ll have the surgery,” she added, mostly for Faith’s benefit.

Faith shook her head back and forth as she took it all in. “Okay,” she said slowly. “You know how I feel about it all, but you also know I’ll support whatever you want. I just want you to be happy, Hope.”

Levi watched as the sisters hugged, and Hope brushed a few tears from her eyes as she pulled back. “I’m really glad you said that, Faith. Because there’s more.”

“More?” Faith sighed and shook her head. “I have a feeling I’m not going to like this.”

Hope grinned, but Levi was pretty sure Faith was right; she probably wasn’t going to like what was coming next, but he hoped that she’d be okay with it anyway. The plan would still work if she wasn’t, but it would be so much easier if she was, and it would make Hope happy.

“I was hoping…” Hope hesitated and looked back at Levi, who nodded and took her hand. “Wewere hoping,” she started again. “That since you’ve been such a huge help here already and you seem to have adapted to it all really well, and—”

“You want me to stay and help you with the business?”

“Yes,” Hope answered quickly. “I mean, no. Not really. I want you to run it.” She dropped the bombshell. “Completely.”

Levi watched as Faith absorbed what her sister had just said to her. “Run it?” she asked. “Completely?”

Hope nodded. “Completely,” she confirmed. “But not just that, I want you to be a partner.Mypartner.”

“Partner?” Faith looked around at the small group that was gathered. Around them, the wedding festivities continued as their friends and family danced and celebrated. It was the wedding that Faith put together in short notice. If there was ever any proof that she was capable of doing the job, they were standing in the middle of it. “I don’t…I don’t…”

“Don’t answer now,” Hope jumped in. “We shouldn’t have even mentioned it today.” She glanced back at Levi and smiled. She wasn’t worried, and neither was he. This just felt right and he was confident that Faith would see it, too.

“Whoa.” Logan, who’d remained largely quiet up until that point, stepped forward. “You said a minute ago that we’d need to work together.”

Dammit.Levi had been hoping he wouldn’t bring that up.

“What did you mean by that?” Logan looked directly at him. “Why would we need to work together?”

“What?” Faith choked out the word and Levi vaguely noticed Logan offering her his beer, but she pushed his hand away. “What are you talking about? If you think for a minute that I’m going to—”

“I think I hear our song!” Hope grabbed Levi’s hand and tugged. “Excuse me while I take my new husband for a dance.”

Levi couldn’t help but laugh once they were a safe distance away, and he spun his wife into his arms on the dance floor. He’d dodged a bullet, and they all knew it. They also all knew that there was going to be a difficult conversation at some point. But that point wasn’t now, so he turned his back on his cousin and his new sister-in-law, and put all his focus on the only thing that really mattered at that very moment.

His wife.

ChapterFifteen

Faith

Faith wentover the calendar in front of her again. She’d already gone over it four times but despite the repetition, it wasn’t looking any easier. In fact, it might just be looking harder and more impossible than it had when she’d agreed to take over the operations of Ever After Ranch.

A decision she was rapidly beginning to regret.

“I don’t know about this.” She shook her head and spoke aloud to no one in particular. “There’s no way I can do this.”

“Of course there is.”

Faith looked up to see Hope, a smile on her face as she walked into the kitchen. Faith was pretty sure her sister hadn’t stopped smiling since the surprise wedding three days earlier. It was nice to see. Really nice. But her sister’s happiness didn’t make it any easier to accept the fact that she may have just made the worst decision of her life in accepting Hope’s partnership offer.

Faith shook her head. “I don’t really see how. This schedule is crazy. How do you do this?” She looked back to the schedule and started making mental lists of all the things she’d need to take care of in order to pull off an entire season’s worth of weddings on her own. “Do you really think it’s fair to the brides?” she asked without looking up. “I mean, they booked their wedding when they thought that you were going to be executing their special day. I’m hardly a worthy substitute.”

Hope put her hands on Faith’s shoulders and squeezed. “I don’t want to ask you if you’re sure about your decision,” she said. “Because I don’t want you to change your mind.” Her sister’s voice was laced with concern and the slightest bit of worry, and immediately Faith felt bad. The last thing she wanted was for Hope to worry about her business or her while she was gone on her trip. It was important that she and Levi go on this trip and enjoy every single moment of it without any concern for what was going on at home. The only thing they needed to worry about was making a baby.

As much as Faith didn’t like the idea of her sister putting her treatment off to have a child, it was important to Hope, and whatever was important to Hope was important to her. Besides, Faith trusted Levi, and she knew he’d make sure she was safe and healthy.

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