Page 54 of Hers to Tame
“You can drive whatever you want to drive, beautiful.” I hear one of the boys yell out to hold out for an Aston-Martin. Pointing at him, I keep my eyes on her. “He’s not wrong, they’re nice cars.”
“What about our jobs? Where will we live?” She’s taken a slow step toward me, stopping to wait for my answer.
“I resigned a couple weeks ago. I start full time with the Fort Worth District Attorney’s office in two weeks. I’m sure I can push that back for a honeymoon though. I figured we might have to add at least a library on to your house. You know, for all of our comic books.”
That draws a whole new round of cheers from the boys and a handful of girls. She slowly walks toward me with tears rolling down her cheeks. When she gets to me, she kneels down, taking my hands, and nods her head.
“Is that a yes?” I ask.
“That’s a yes,” she answers, throwing her arms around me. I pull her in for a kiss as the hallway erupts around us. Standing us both up, I look at my watch when the bell rings. The hallway is quickly packed with kids all talking excitedly about Miss Emerson’s engagement.
I pull a box out of my pocket, sliding the ring onto her finger. It’s a large single diamond set down in a platinum band. I already have the wedding band in the glove compartment of the car. Leaning over, I almost have to yell in her ear to be heard above the noise.
“If this is your lunch break, I think we can just make it to get the license and still have you back for afternoon class.” It takes a little longer than that since Maggie keeps getting stopped to show off her ring. When we finally make it out the door we’re stopped by Julien who pulls her into a huge hug.
“You’re a smart man, Colin Rhett. Maggie is one of a kind. I’m just glad you finally came to your senses.” I’m actually starting to like this guy. He might have to be our fifth man at the next poker night.
“Me too, Julien. Me too.” I usher her to the car before we head across town to the courthouse.
“You're getting married when?” Mom asks, her face scrunched in a scowl. After dropping Maggie back off, I headed to my parents’ house to break the news. Now we’re sitting around our kitchen table while my parents look at me like I’m crazy.
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m absolutely thrilled that you are getting married, but you decided on having it in a week?” Mom looks at me, her face morphing into one of exasperation.
“I know you’re trying to plan Lily’s wedding this fall. We just don’t want to wait. Maggie doesn’t have any family, so we want it to be small. It’ll be a piece of cake for you. Right, Mom?” I try, turning my most charming smile on her. She laughs before hugging me.
“You know that charm is going to get you in trouble someday. Okay, let me get my notebook. Can you both come over this evening for a while? We have a lot of arrangements to make in a short period of time. Adam, you’d better cancel whatever plans you have for next week.” Dad looks at me with a smirk on his face.
“How did I get dragged into this? I’m not the one who’s trying to give you a heart attack.” Ignoring him, she turns back to me.
“You need to get your wedding party lined up quickly so we can get a rush on everything starting Monday.”
“Also,” I say. This time both of my parents look at me in exasperation. “Can I leave some boxes here? I have to make arrangements to get the rest of my stuff from Kansas City, but I brought my rare books, so they’ll have to stay here until I can figure out where everything is going.” Mom throws up her hands, heading toward the kitchen.
“I think that’s Mom speak for you’re now my problem,” Dad says with a sigh. “Let’s go get your boxes. You can store stuff in your old room for a while.” He stands up to come help. “I’m proud of you, son. You finally got your head out of your ass.”
“Why does everyone keep telling me that? Was it really that far up there?” I ask as we head out the door.
Leaving my parents’ house, I head straight for the museum Lily works at. It’s better she finds out sooner rather than later. I had been there when she got engaged to Matt, and I don’t want anything I do to take away from her engagement.
I convinced her to meet me in the coffee shop down the street for a couple of minutes. When she walks in, I’m already seated with our coffee and pies.
“What have you done?” she asks, sitting down.
“Why do you always ask that?”
“Because when you want to meet me on a weekday, it's because you’ve always done something stupid. The sooner I know what it is, the better prepared I am to deal with it.”
“Oh.” I look down, stirring cream into my coffee. She watches me taking a bite of her pie.
“Colin, I don’t have all day. Spit it out.”
“I asked Maggie to marry me,” I blurt out, looking up at her. She sits staring at me. “Next weekend. She said yes.” Wow, she is really quiet. It’s starting to freak me out. “But I don’t want anything to take away from your engagement. We’re just going to have a quiet ceremony…”
“Shut the hell up, Colin!” I do as she says, shutting up immediately. You would think she is the oldest sibling in this family. “How dare you think I would be pissed about you getting married. I am so damn excited for you, I can hardly breathe.” She jumps up, rushing around the table to throw her arms around me. I stood up when I saw her launch her attack, so I pull her into a tight hug.
“Are you sure you’re not pissed at me?” I ask.
“I’m pissed I didn’t get to be there, but I would have blubbered like an idiot.” She turns me loose.
