He groaned, his back very unhappy with him for kneeling for so long. “I’m too old for that,” he said, chuckling.

  “Jed,” Cherry said. “You didn’t put the ring on my finger.”

  He turned back to her as Lee said, “Congrats, Jed.”

  “Oh, didn’t I?” He looked at the diamond in his hand. “Look at that.” He made no move to slide it onto her ring finger.

  “Jed.”

  “You wouldn’t say yes.”

  “Don’t be salty about that,” she said, moving into him and putting both palms against his chest.

  “I’m salty,” he said, clearly teasing her.

  “Fine,” she said. “I take back the yes.”

  “You can’t take it back,” Will said, and Jed burst out laughing.

  He grabbed Cherry’s hand as she fell back a step, and he slid the ring onto her finger. “There.”

  Cherry looked down at her hand and the diamond.

  “Happy?” Jed asked.

  She looked up at him, stars in her eyes. “Yes,” she said again, and to Jed, it was the best “yes” Jed had heard.

  He kissed her again, and instead of cheering this time, Travis said, “All right, enough kissing. How long until tacos?”

  Jed broke the kiss this time, and he ducked his head, took Cherry’s hand, and they left the kitchen. He made it all the way to the front porch before he took her into his arms and kissed her again.

  This time, it wasn’t a laughing kiss while her family cheered. It was the kiss of a man who loved a woman, and the kiss of a woman who’d finally—finally—said yes to her salty cowboy.

  28

  Cherry gathered her skirt so it wouldn’t drag in the sand, then stepped out of her sandals and left them on the boardwalk, the way everyone else in the wedding party had done. She wouldn’t be walking down the aisle with anyone—not today at least—as Lee and Rose had designed their wedding a tad differently than that of a traditional ceremony.

  Just the fact that the Coopers had driven to the beach for this was wildly off-kilter, but Cherry sighed at the sight of the perfectly white chairs with tall, straight backs. Pale pink bows drifted in the breeze, and she joined the swell of guests already under the two big tents that provided some protection from the sun.

  At the end of the aisle, an altar made of wood, leather, and petals waited under a flap that kept it shaded but provided a superb view of the ocean beyond. The blue, evening sky with wispy clouds drifting through the deepening colors, the scent of frosting which hung in the air, the way a smile felt like it infused love into her heart—all things Cherry adored about weddings.

  This one felt special, of course, because this was Lee. Emotion crowded into her throat, but she took her spot in the front row with Gretchen. Shay and Rissa and Spence stood on the other side, and Cherry turned back toward the entrance to the tent.

  Mama and Daddy stood there, and they carefully stepped off the boardwalk and came slowly down the aisle. Speakers secured in the corners of the tent piped in pretty music, and Mama wore a smile that would rival a queen’s as she made her slow journey to the front row. Right behind her came Lee, flanked by Will and Travis—almost like they were some sort of cowboy posse that shouldn’t be messed with.

  A glow emanated from Lee that only accompanied a groom on his wedding day, but he didn’t smile. Cherry rolled her eyes at him, and that got the corners of his mouth to lift ever so slightly. Trav and Will seriously walked while they scanned the crowd, as if they expected trouble to jump out at any moment.

  “Hey,” Jed whispered as he arrived from behind Cherry. So maybe her brothers were right to look for issues. She laughed to herself, because Jed wasn’t trouble unless she counted how erratically he made her pulse bounce through her veins.

  “There you are,” she hissed back to him, threading her fingers through his. “You almost missed it.”

  “I was helping…someone.”

  She looked at him, but he zipped his lips and pointed toward her brothers. “Hmm,” she said, a clear indication that she didn’t enjoy his secret-keeping. But she did turn back to her siblings as they arrived at the altar. Lee took up his position at the front, accepted a hug and kiss from Mama and then Daddy, who moved to sit on the end of the first row where Cherry stood.

  Will moved to the left, and Gretchen joined him. Trav went to the right, and Shay joined him. Rissa and Spence fell in line on that side, and Cherry and Jed went to the left with Will and Gretchen.

  Their perfectly balanced family, now that she had someone too. The sparkle of the diamond on her left hand caught her eye, and she looked down at it. She nearly got blinded, as the sun seemed to have honed in on the gem, and it threw light around the tent.

  Down at the other end of the aisle, Rose’s parents and sister stepped off the boardwalk and began the trek to the altar. Cherry opened her free arm for Nat as the woman arrived, and she patted the younger woman’s forearm and gave her a smile.

  “You look beautiful,” she whispered. Nat wore the same pale pink as Cherry, Gretchen, Rissa, and Shay, and because she was dark-haired and skinned too, it was a fabulous color on her.

  Movement in front of her took her attention from Nat, and Cherry pulled in a breath at the sight of Rose as she held her full skirt in her hands, positioned herself at the head of the aisle, and smoothed out her dress. It hugged her from the bodice to her waist, and then fell as if draped over an umbrella. She radiated light and joy to the whole tent, and Cherry wasn’t the only one who sighed.

  Beside her, Nat sniffled, and Cherry kept her tucked close and tight. She knew how confusing and upsetting weddings could be, and her heart wept for Natasha.

  Rose didn’t move, though her eyes had locked with Lee’s. Ford came out from behind the crowd, and he looked like the most handsome nine-year-old on the planet. He wore a tuxedo, same as his father. He wore the same wide-brimmed cowboy hat, and Cherry had helped him color the stitching on his cowboy boots, so they were completely blacked out too.

  He offered his arm to Rose, and she curtseyed and took it. No one else in the Cooper family had married anyone with children, so this was all new for them. None of them had gotten married on the beach either, but Rose, Autumn, and Nat loved the beach, and it wasn’t that far from the farm.

  Autumn came from the left, and she wore the most darling party dress in bright pink to keep with the bridal colors of rose, sage green, and robin’s egg blue. She took her mother’s hand, and when the three of them were properly joined together, they all faced the altar—and Lee.

  He shifted nervously in the sand, but Cherry felt certain only she could tell. He wore no emotions on his face whatsoever, but with every step Rose took toward him, his smile grew a little more. Millimeter by millimeter, his mouth turned upward until his son, his almost-wife, and his nearly-stepdaughter stood in front of him.

  He bent down and brushed his lips against Autumn’s cheek, said something to her, and then she went to stand beside Rose’s mom. Lee hugged his son, and Cherry loved seeing her gruff, rough, handsome brother soften for his child. He’d always been stern but absolutely tender with Ford, and his son moved to stand in front of Cherry.

  She gave him a smile, and Ford returned it. Lee took Rose’s hand, and they turned toward the altar. The pastor stepped behind the altar, and Cherry adjusted so she was facing the altar too.

  “Please be seated,” Pastor Olson said, and he waited while the crowd did that. Once everyone settled, he continued with, “Gathering together is always such a blessing. When townspeople, friends, and family get together, the joy and love they have for one another can be felt. I can feel it here, with Leland Cooper and Rosalie Reynolds and their families. Those who’ve come to celebrate with them have brought a great spirit with them, and pure happiness is here.”

  Cherry’s smile slipped. She wanted the pastor to get to the meat of the ceremony, and she cut a glance at Lee. He obviously did too.

  “I believe you two wrote vows for one another,” Pastor Olson said, getting to things now.

  “Yes,” Lee said, digging into his inside jacket pocket. He pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper, and Rose turned away from Cherry so she couldn’t see her face.

  She still heard her ask, “You wrote it down?”

  He looked up from the paper. “Yes. You didn’t?”

  She giggled and shook her head, and Lee shifted again. “Well, I had to write it down.” He cleared his throat and focused on the paper again. “Rose, Rosalie.” He ground his voice against his vocal cords again, and Cherry almost winced for him. The tension around the altar rose, and she sensed movement behind her.

  She willed Will to stay where he was, and she shot a look behind Pastor Olson to Trav, who looked like he might go help Lee read his vows too. Rissa caught Cherry’s eye, and she wore concern too.

  Another second went by, then two. The silence filling the tent was absolute, as the wind had decided now was a great time to die.

  “Lee,” Rose said, and he looked up. “You don’t need the paper.” She put her hand over it and gently pushed down, lowering his hand with the paper in it. “Just pretend it’s a song you’re going to sing to me.” She smiled, and Lee stuffed the paper back into his pocket.

  “Rose,” he said again, his voice clear now, no gruffness to be heard. “Last year, you caught my eye from across the room, and I haven’t been able to see anyone since. I haven’t been perfect with how things have gone between us, but every time you tell me what I’m doing wrong, I do my best to fix it. Because I love you. I love your daughter, and I think we’ll be able to build an amazing life together.”

  He swallowed, and while that wasn’t quite the version of his vows he’d practiced at the farmhouse last night. Cherry gave him an encouraging smile, but he didn’t look her direction. “All right,” he drawled. “That’s it.”

  Rose reached up and touched her fingertips to Lee’s lapel, right over his heart. “Lee, I noticed you at math night, mostly because of your cowboy staring.” A few people laughed, Cherry included. Lee included, which said a lot about how far her brother had come in his transformation.

  “I dubbed you Handsome, because you made my nearly dead heart beat in a way it hadn’t in a long time. I wondered about you, and while a few of our first interactions didn’t go exactly according to the fairy tales, everything else did.”

  He inched closer to her, his hand sliding along her hip. His smile told Cherry how much her brother loved the woman in front of him, and she leaned back into Jed, hoping he’d look at her like this on their wedding day.

  “You’ve been my Prince Charming Cowboy, and I love you, I love your son, I love your family, and I love your farm. I don’t expect things to be perfect, but I do expect that we’ll live happily-ever-after, with a little work, a little sacrifice, and a lot of love.”

  “What beautiful sentiments,” Pastor Olson said, beaming at everyone. He moved out from behind the altar and stood in front of Rose and Lee on the other side of it, his back to the crowd. After he’d gone through the traditional question for Rose, she said, “I do,” and Pastor Olson turned to Lee.

  “Leland Howard Cooper, do you take Rosalie Millicent Reynolds to be your lawfully wedded wife? To love, to cherish, and to cleave unto until you both shall go all the way of this earth?”

  “I do,” Lee said, and his smile exploded onto his face.

  “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” Pastor Olson said. Then he sprinted out of the way, and Cherry burst out laughing. He’d apparently officiated weddings for her family before, and he knew the uproar about to happen.

  Lee took Rose into his arms fully, bent her back, and kissed her to the enormous noise of over one hundred pairs of hands clapping, a whole choir of cowboys hooting and hollering, and plenty of whistling.

  Cherry’s voice wouldn’t sound, because she was weeping. She applauded as loud as she could while Jed whistled behind her. Lee lifted Rose out of the dip, and they faced their adoring crowd. He lifted their joined hands, and Cherry yelled to Nat. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go give them a hug.”

  She didn’t beat Mama or Daddy, but Cherry was very next in line to hug her brother, and he gripped her with the power of a python while she did the same back to him. After a few long moments, he stepped back and looked into her eyes. “You’re next.”

  “I’m last,” she said, reaching up to wipe her eyes. She’d likely ruined her makeup, but she didn’t care. It would be dark soon, and with the flickering tiki torches that would light their dinner service, no one would know.

  “Perhaps last is the best of all,” he said. Then Will swept him away. Cherry turned, suddenly lost, and Jed took her hand.

  Then she wasn’t lost at all. She melted into his side, where she always wanted to be, and he leaned down among all the chaos, and said, “So are you sure we have to wait until the end of August? We could get married right now.”

  She turned and looked up at him. “What?”

  “Your parents are here and dressed, as are mine. All of your siblings…” He left the words there, and Cherry shook her head.

  “No,” she said, and he grinned good-naturedly. Things changed in her head, though, but she held back from saying anything until she could sort through her feelings. Right now, she wanted to bask in the rightness of this wedding, and when it was time to move over to the tables for dinner and dancing, she did that.

  A couple of hours later, with the firelight dancing along the edges of the dance floor, Cherry stood with Rissa, Spence, and Jed. She held baby Bronson in her arms, though he was a chunky six-month-old now. Lee carefully cut a piece of cake and then turned toward his new bride.

  Rose wore a wild look on her face, but Lee fed her the chocolate cake delicately so none spilled or dripped onto her dress. She took a chunk and looked like she would do the same for him.

  Instead, she mashed it into his face, and he jerked backward. Laughter filled the sky, and Cherry joined hers to it. Everyone cheered, and the crowd who’d stayed through dinner surged forward to get dessert.

  “Mama wants Bronson,” Rissa said, taking her boy from Cherry. “And I think your cowboy wants to dance with you.” She sparkled like the stars in the sky as she looked at Cherry, and she and Spencer left to go give Bronson to Mama, who sat next to Daddy on a wicker couch along the edge of the dance floor.

  Cherry sighed and turned back to Jed. “I’m ready to get out of this dress,” she said, tugging along the fabric under her arm. “It’s starting to itch.”

  He looked at her with a glow in his eyes. “You look like a princess.” He ran his fingers along her bare shoulder. “I do want to dance with you.”

  She sagged into his arms, glad he could hold her up and smile at the same time. “Do you dance, cowboy?”

  “Don’t all princes?” he teased.

  “Yes,” she said, cataloguing her use of the word. “They do.” She let him lead her onto the dance floor, where they blended in with the other couples who’d opted to do that over taking a piece of chocolate cake back to their table.

  She never wanted to be in anyone else’s arms except for Jed’s, and she rested her cheek against his chest, perfectly content. “Jed,” she said after a few moments. “I’ve been thinking.”

  “All right,” he said cautiously. “Is this a good kind of thinking or a bad kind of thinking?”

  “What if we got married in July?”

  “July?” he said, really drawing out the word into three syllables. “Outside, Cherry? Do you know what the weather’s like in July?”

  “About the same as August,” she said lightly. “It’s mid-April now. I need a couple of months.” She peered up at him, willing him to understand.

  “A couple of months is June,” he said. “And Deb’s due in July. June really would be better.” He raised his eyebrows, clearly asking a serious question.

  “June?” she mimicked, lowering her voice and adding plenty of disbelief to it. “Do you know what the weather is like in June, Jed?” She backed out of his arms. “Maybe we should wait until December.”

  “No, no,” Jed said, grabbing her wrist and bringing her back into his arms. He held her against his body as they swayed, and Cherry tipped her head back to look at him. “June,” he murmured. “July. August. I don’t care, as long as it’s sooner and not later.”

  “You won’t even have the house where you want it by then.”

  “It’s where I want it right now,” he said. “Because if you’re there, then it doesn’t matter if it’s a cave.”

  Cherry couldn’t help smiling at him, because he did know exactly what to say to make her feel loved and cherished. “A cave? I’m not living in a cave.”

  “Why not?” he challenged. “Some princesses lived in stone castles, and that’s basically a cave.”

  “They had towers,” she said. “And servants.”

  Jed ducked his head and ran the tip of his nose down the side of her face, his breath washing over her neck and making her shiver. “I’ll be your servant,” he whispered just before he kissed her.

  Cherry kissed him back, this glorious man she loved. She loved that she could argue with him, and that she could tease him, and that she could be herself with him—salty or sweet. He got to do the same with her. He broke the kiss, as they were dancing in public at a family wedding, and looked into her eyes.

  “All right,” she said, not using the word yes this time. “End of May?” She swallowed, because that only gave her six weeks. Six weeks to put together a whole wedding. She hadn’t really started yet, though she’d sat down with Mama and gone over a couple of things after the proposal last weekend.

  Jed chuckled and brushed his knuckles down the side of her face. “End of May it is, my princess.” He kissed her again, barely pulling his lips from hers to murmur, “I love you, Cherry Cooper.”

  He tried to kiss her again, but Cherry wanted to speak first. She kept distance between them, her neck aching and a headache forming along her forehead. “I love you too, Jed,” she said. Then she kissed him so he’d know what she’d said was absolutely true.