39. Maggie
Chapter thirty-nine
Maggie
A s soon as I turned away from my interaction with Felix, a hand grabbed my upper forearm and led me to the hallway bathroom. Before I knew it, Lina was shoving me inside and locking the door behind us.
“What was that about? I saw him looking at me. Did he mention something?” Her tone was desperate, eyes wide. Terrified.
“No, no. I mean, sort of.” I shrugged. Clearly, my answer did not match her urgent need for clarification. She rolled her hands, motioning for me to go on. “He was looking over at you, so I asked if something was going on. He just said you avoid him like the plague.”
Without a moment’s thought, Lina burst out laughing. So hard that she curled over, and her body shook. I wasn’t sure why, but I laughed along with her. It felt so good. So refreshing that I could mindlessly just laugh with someone like we were teenagers making dirty jokes.
What I didn’t realize, though, was that maybe Lina’s leaning over wasn’t so accidental.
She opened the bathroom cabinet and pulled out what looked like the bag full of makeup I seldom got the chance to use.
Confusion laced my thoughts, as I was sure I had put it away in my bathroom upstairs after getting ready this morning.
Lina straightened and unzipped it, rifling through the contents until she found a compact of pressed powder and its matching powder puff.
“What are you doing?” I asked as she dabbed the round applicator into the powder and pressed it below my eyes and beside my nose.
“Touching you up. It’s your party after all.”
I scrunched my brows in disbelief, and Lina shrugged. “You have been crying for half the night.”
“Those are happy tears!” I laughed through my defense.
“I know,” she smiled. “But Mike and Alvita will want to take pictures of you and everyone. I didn’t want to do you the disservice of ignoring your tear-streaked face.”
Another laugh burbled out of me.
“Hold still!”
“Okay, okay.” I paused. “Wait, you just happened to find my makeup bag in this bathroom? What’s your angle?”
“Oh, you’ll see.” She smirked as she dabbed a small amount of blush on my cheekbones, rolled mascara on my lashes, then placed everything back inside the bag.
“Okay, there’s definitely something going on.” Everyone had been dropping weird hints all day. Was there something else I was missing? I thought the entire surprise was already over. I crossed my arms.
“I don’t know,” Lina sang. “You’ll just have to come with me.”
I startled when she opened the bathroom door and dragged me back through the main living area—which was oddly empty, proving that something was definitely up—and to the back door in the living room.
I knew it was fairly cold out by now, so I reached for my jacket that hung over one of the chairs, but Lina stopped me, adjusting it on my shoulders.
She smoothed out any crinkles it made in my dress and fluffed the roots of my hair before eyeing me up and down.
“I am so lost.” I stared back.
“Oh, you won’t be in a minute,” she replied.
I shook my head in complete confusion, but Lina ignored me, going to open the back door. When I turned around, she was gone, and Jack had slipped inside.
My insides melted seeing him after the emotional rollercoaster that was tonight. His warm smile and trusting eyes. His broad shoulders that were…
Sinking to the ground in front of me.
His right hand reached into his pocket and pulled out a velvet box.
Oh, my god.
He’s proposing.
My palms cupped my mouth before I could let out a sob and scream yes before he even asked the question. My legs shook and my heart pounded.
“Maggie Hennicke. My first love. My childhood friend. My barn partner. You were my first kiss. My first time. And now I get to be the father of our baby . I know I asked you to be my fake wife on the way here, but I’m sick of pretending.
I want to take your last name for real. You took my firsts, and I took yours, and I want to keep taking yours until my last breath.
Please, Mags, say yes. Say you’ll marry me for real. ”
His words were so sweet. So real and so true. We were each other’s firsts. I wanted to be each other’s lasts, too.
“ Yes! ” I cried and fell to my knees with him. He slid a beautiful, pear-shaped diamond onto my finger and pulled my lips to his. I kissed him with everything I had. Every ounce of gratitude that this man—the man I swore I would never marry—made me want everything with him.
“Okay, good.” He pulled back with a smirk that I knew meant he had something else up his sleeve. “I have to go.”
Then he turned around, opened the back door, and left, with my dad entering all but half a second later. “Are you guys on a carousel, or something?” It was suspicious that no one would let me see the backyard.
My father only smiled and reached his arm out to mine. When I hooked my elbow with his, he opened the door wider.
The moment the chilled air rushed inside, my jaw dropped for the second time that night. The entire party had moved outside and split into two groups, creating a makeshift aisle that led to…
Jack.
Of course, it was Jack. It would always be Jack.
There he stood, under an arch of white and green flowers that blossomed in the most beautiful way.
His eyes were misty as I looked him over, nearly ignoring the scene around him and focusing on the man I entrusted my entire future with.
He turned it into this. The Maggie panicking on her bathroom floor at two pink lines would never have thought that this is what her life would look like a few months down the road.
A baby on the way into a perfect family? Check.
The most sincere and thoughtful husband who turned our lives upside down for me? Check.
An incredible community of people who have supported us on our journey? Check.
My vision became blurry as tears filled my eyes. Everything about this night screamed romantic gesture, but I never expected what was in front of me.
Jack offered a slight nod, asking me, without words, to approach him. I was entranced, wobbling with each step of certainty I took. The faces beside me blurred into translucent shapes and colors. All I could see was him .
He stepped forward and took my hands in his, and Lenz stood behind us with a small book opened up in his hands. He knew I would say yes. Of course, he did, because I had already said I would marry him that morning after we first said we loved each other.
This was our wedding . We never recited any words from our hearts.
Never signed a piece of paper promising our lives together.
And here I was, puppeteered the entire night into coming to this party, wearing a white dress, makeup fixed and perfect—even proposed to—and dragged outside to see this .
My heart squeezed in my chest as the warmth of Jack’s fingers seeped into mine.
I got lost in the chestnut pools of his eyes as they gazed into mine.
“Hi, Mags,” he whispered just loud enough for me to hear. “Want to get married right now?”
“Jack,” I gushed, moving my hands to cup his face. He raised his hand to thumb away a stray tear, grinning ear to ear. “I don’t even have anything prepared.”
But it didn’t feel like he was putting me on the spot. It felt like he was asking me how I felt about him. Promising me that he would keep the words to himself forever. Just for us.
He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Just listen.”
Lenz stepped forward and kissed my cheek, whispering, “Thank you for everything you have done for my son.”
I gave him a knowing look, and he nodded before looking down at his book.
“J?ck and Magdalene Hennicke, you are here today to solidify the promises you made to each other only a few months ago. While this has been a short journey, it has been an eventful one. You have chosen to enter a partnership that will last you a lifetime of love, laughter, happiness, and memories. Every challenge you face, you will face together.”
My eyes teared up as I held eye contact with Jack through Lenz’s every word.
The world faded as everything that had happened over the last seven months, from rekindling our spark upon returning home to working for him to learning I was pregnant to…
everything else, fled through my mind. It was the journey I never imagined I always needed.
And Jack was there for every second of it, learning me, holding me, trusting me, loving me.
My thoughts shifted when he reached into his left pocket to pull out a small, velvety red box and opened it to reveal two wedding bands.
Two real wedding bands. Jack and I still wore the excuses for rings we bought online all those months ago when we first came to Wyoming.
We tried our best to put off purchasing new ones—and I hadn’t realized how sentimentally attached I was after Jack slipped them onto our fingers in the cab of his truck just before first meeting Mike and Alvita—but it never seemed to happen.
Or maybe Jack was simply waiting for this moment.
He slid the yellow gold band with encrusted diamonds onto my left ring finger, where my new engagement ring sat, his eyes never leaving mine.
I resisted the sharp intake of breath that threatened to break the moment.
Faking a marriage to Jack for this long and overthinking the fear of anything that could happen in the future? That felt terrifying then.
This was monumental.
This was the true promise—in front of everyone—of how much we loved and cared for and cherished one another. All of the reassurances, the promises that we would stay for each other and for our family, the words of confidence despite our fears of the future—they all led up to this perfect moment.
“Maggie Hennicke,” Jack breathed out. It wasn’t loud enough for the guests to hear.
I wasn’t even sure if Lenz could hear him.
His words were just for me. “I know I didn’t give you the traditional wedding you deserve.
I’m sorry you found out that you were going to be my wife over a Bluetooth phone call.
” A teary laugh escaped me. “But I’m not sorry about anything that happened between us.
Not about how unconventional and scary everything has felt in the last seven months with you.
I’m not sorry I was at the party that night, I’m not sorry you came to work for me, and I’m not sorry for taking you with me to start our new life here. ”
Tears streamed down my face from my everything baring his heart to me. There were no words left to say. How could I bring myself to speak after that?
He wanted to hug me, I could tell. He wanted to comfort me on my emotional rollercoaster, not only from the pregnancy, but from each singular event today.
I was tipping over the edge of crying for the next twenty-four hours out of pure disbelief.
How could I be so fortunate to have someone like Jack cater to every part of my life?
I shook my head and took a deep breath. I could do this, right? It was only impromptu wedding vows.
You’ve never even had a wedding—just wing it .
And wing it I did, but it wasn’t hard. It was simply the truth.
“Jack Hennicke, there is no one in this world who could love me the way you do. Even before… everything , you knew me. You cared for me in ways I couldn’t do for myself.
You shielded me. You protected me. You took the initiative to create a life for our family.
I can never thank you enough for everything you have done for me.
For our baby. For our lives together. I promise to give you a lifetime of happiness, trust, and safety, just like you’ve given me. I promise to love you no matter what.”
Even Jack’s eyes were teary now. A stray slipped from his tear duct.
I wouldn’t dare to look at Lenz and my dad. I knew they were losing it, and seeing that would only expedite my overwhelming urge to sob.
Jack leaned in and kissed my cheek. “I already love you no matter what.”
I offered a small smile and whispered back, “Wait until I yell at you when I’m in labor with our baby.”
His brows raised, hope pleading in his eyes. “You promise?”
I blinked slowly, noting that only Jack would be excited about being yelled at during the birth of our child. Of course, he was. He didn’t care what the tone was. He just loved me no matter what. “I promise.”