Page 85 of Sweet Trouble
She had no idea who in the world it could be so early on Christmas morning, and she hoped that there wasn’t anything wrong.
She wasn’t supposed to see Tripp until later, but when she opened the door, there he was.
She smiled in relief, but her smiled faded when she saw the intensity of his cerulean gaze.
“Tripp,” she said uncertainly. “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas,” he said, his voice husky and low. “May I come in?”
She stepped back without speaking, her heart speeding up in her chest. What on earth was happening? They had texted last night, and everything was fine. She and the girls were supposed to be going over to the farmlater this morning to spend time with his family, so what on Earth was he doing here now?
Tripp stepped inside, but instead of going all the way back to the kitchen after he kicked off his boots, he stopped in the living room.
She blinked up at him, wondering if he really did have bad news. Why else wouldn’t he follow his nose straight to the delicious breakfast that was waiting? And why wouldn’t he want to greet the family and get Christmas hugs from the girls?
“I got this finished yesterday when you and the girls were baking,” he said softly, flicking the wall switch and bathing the room in soft light.
Her heart lifted instantly. He had put in the lighting for her grandparents, and it was a perfect, warm light for reading and knitting, set just over the sofa and the big comfy chair. There was even a small chandelier over the table where she and the girls liked to play board games. It had a round oiled-metal base with what looked like wide candles with tiny bulbs inside them, and it made her think of the pictures in the Scandinavian Christmas book she’d had as a child.
“Oh, Tripp,” Jillian said softly. “This is the best Christmas gift ever.”
“Hopefully not thebestone,” he said with a smile in his voice.
She turned to thank him, but he was down on one knee.
“Oh,” she breathed.
“Jillian,” he said. “I know you might not be ready to take this step yet, and that’s fine. But I wantyou to know thatI am.I’ve adored you since we were kids, and now you’re even more amazing than you were back then. I’m ready to marry you, ready to be as much of a father to those beautiful girls as they’ll let me, ready to take care of your grandparents, and to love all of you to pieces.”
“Oh, Tripp,” she said, trying her best not to cry. “I… I need to talk to my family.”
“Of course,” he told her. “But just so you know, I spoke with your grandparents, and they gave me their blessing to ask…”
But he trailed off at the sound of excited whispers from the hallway.
Jillian turned to see Posey’s happy little face peeking in.
“Give them space, Posey,”Mari told her from the hallway.“We want her to say yes.”
“Did she already say yes?” Posey asked brightly, her eyes moving to Tripp.
“Come on in, girls,” Jillian laughed. “You may as well be here for this. It’s about our whole family, after all.”
Posey skipped into the room and Mari slunk in after her.
And when Gram and Grampy followed, looking not a bit chagrined, Jillian had to laugh.
“I would have asked them to be here in the first place,” Tripp said. “But I thought you might like me to ask you privately.”
“I’m glad you did,” she told him, her heart warming at his thoughtfulness. “And I’m glad everyone’s here now. So girls, are you telling me that this is what you want? You want me to get married again?”
“Tripp is nice,” Mari said firmly. “He gets me.”
“And he plays with me,” Posey put in. “Plus, he said we can have pink bedrooms at our new house on the farm, if you say yes.”
Jillian couldn’t help smiling at those two votes of confidence from her daughters.
“Gram and Grampy,” Jillian said, turning to her grandparents. “I thought I would be here with you.”
