Page 66 of Texas Made
“You don’t seem too sure of that. What’s going on?”
He pulled something out of his jeans pocket and got down on one knee. Stupefied, Jaclyn stared at him. “What are you doing?” she asked in a whisper, which was all she could manage.
“Give me your hand.” Still in shock, she did so. “Jaclyn, I love you. I want to be with you always. I want to raise a family together. Not immediately,” he added hastily, and she laughed. But the look in his eyes, so sincere, so loving made her catch her breath.
“Will you marry me?”
He held a ring in his hand. A beautiful art deco style engagement ring with a round central diamond surrounded by smaller diamonds on a platinum band. “This was my grandmother’s. We can get another one if you don’t like it.”
“I love it.” She struggled not to cry. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Marshall.”
“Thank God,” he said, rising. “My knees can’t take that kind of abuse for long.” He took her in his arms and kissed her. “Are you crying?”
“Just a little,” she said, sniffling. “Happy tears.”
“I want to get married as soon as possible.”
“I do too, but it will have to be after Chase and Ella’s wedding. Which means—Won’t that be hard for your parents and Cole and Jedidiah to get away again so soon after that?”
“Not if we elope.”
“Elope? You want to elope?”
“Yes. How does this weekend sound to you?”
“This weekend?” Evidently, she was incapable of doing more than repeating what he said.
“If you can get away, Damaris said she’d cover for me this weekend. I told her I wanted to take you away for a couple of days before you get too busy with the new business.”
“You want to go somewhere and get married? Won’t your family be disappointed? And…and…what about my parents?”
“My family will deal. Hell, they’ve got Chase’s wedding. That should be enough to suit them.” His brow furrowed. “Do you want a big wedding with all the trimmings?”
“No. I just never thought about eloping.” Hopefully, her parents would forgive her for running off and getting married without them.
“If we wait, we won’t be able to do it for who knows how long. I’m not waiting forever for Chase and Ella to tie the knot. It’s their fault for being so dang slow about it. They’ve been living together for months. They’ve even built a house. There’s no reason they couldn’t have already done it.”
Elope? What was the important thing here? Being married to Marshall.
“I can book a weekend getaway wedding and honeymoon special for this weekend in Aruba. Say the word and I’ll make the reservations.”
“Aruba? You want to elope to Aruba?”
“Yes. How about it?”
“Are you sure you don’t mind not having your family there?”
“I’m sure, but what about you? Would you rather have a small wedding later on that your mom and dad can come to? If that’s what you want we can do it.”
“Honestly, I just want to marry you. I don’t care about the rest of it.”
He grinned. “My feelings exactly.”
“I’ve never been to Aruba.”
“Neither have I. What do you say, Jaclyn?”
“Yes!” She threw her arms around him and covered his face with kisses. “Yes, yes, yes.”
