Chapter 16
Nellie looped her arm through Sue Ellen’s as they all decided to walk to Wilder and Bex’s house for dinner.
Nell smiled as she watched Gator and Rowan playing with the kids as they strolled through the neighborhood.
It was only a mile to Wilder’s and the night was so lovely and the kids were so wild.
It seemed like a no-brainer to walk over.
“Even with everything that’s going on,” Nellie said to her sister, “you seem happy and at peace.”
“I am. There’s one problem though,” Sue Ellen admitted.
“Ingram.”
Sue Ellen shook her head. “Not really. I trust Gator to take care of him if needed. No, it’s what to do when Ingram is caught.” Nell nodded and listened, knowing her sister needed to talk through something. “I have a confession. I don’t want to go back to Holland Springs.”
Nellie could feel Sue Ellen’s tension as if she thought Nellie would be angry. Of course, she was used to Ingram always yelling at her. “I have a confession too,” Nellie said, turning to look at her sister. “I don’t want to go back to Holland Springs either.”
The sisters looked at each other and then burst out laughing.
“Mother will lose her mind,” Sue Ellen giggled.
“Let her. I’m tired of that town’s judgment of us and your marriage. They all sided with Ingram and that’s unforgivable. Here though? I’ve never felt judged. Just welcomed and supported in ways I never dreamed possible.”
Sue Ellen bumped Nell’s shoulder. “And I’m sure the sexy surgeon has nothing to do with it.”
Nell bumped Sue Ellen’s shoulder. “And I’m sure that brawny reptile wrangler had nothing to do with it either.”
“He has everything to do with it. Oh, Nell, I don’t know what to do. He’s been so wonderful. Do you know he holds me every night so I can go to sleep without worrying Ingram will find me?
He’s so polar opposite from Ingram that Mother would die. But I’ve never felt more cherished.”
“And not a single person here has judged you about that, have they?”
Sue Ellen shook her head as Gator scooped up James and Rowan picked up Tally to cross the street. “Never. In fact, everyone stops me to make sure I know they think Gator is the best man a woman could get. I mean, he’s not country club material but Shadows Landing doesn’t have one anyway.”
“Yeah, but is he loving husband material?”
Sue Ellen’s face softened as she watched Gator with her kids. “I think so. At least boyfriend material. I’m afraid that he doesn’t think of me like that. Nell, he’s never kissed me.”
“Well, then. You said you were becoming a new you. Maybe this new Sue Ellen kisses the boy first.”
Sue Ellen’s grin lit up the evening light. “I think you might be right. It will be fun to see such a giant man crumble under me for a change.”
They crossed the street and walked the short distance to Wilder’s house. There were cars and bikes on the front lawn where the Morettis and the Townsends were all gathering.
“I never knew what we were missing,” Sue Ellen whispered as the front door opened and family spilled out, grabbing up the kids, shaking hands with the guys, and being hugged by the women.
Wine glasses appeared in their hands, food was shoved in their mouths by Bex’s mom and aunts, and all of Rowan’s sisters-in-law were talking a mile a minute with them.
This was what it was like to be included.
This was what it was like to feel wanted.
“Of course I can be your horse!” TJ said jovially as he was suddenly on his hands and knees with Tally on his back, while Gator was on his hands and knees with James on his back.
“It’s a horse race!” PJ called out.
“You have to get to the starting gate,” Frankie told them as suddenly a race track was laid out, and, with the sound of a bell from Ray’s phone, TJ and Gator took off to the cheers of the crowd and the squeals of the children.
Sue Ellen swiped at her eyes that had grown damp. “Nell, even if I’m not with Gator, I don’t think I can leave Shadows Landing.”
“Sue Ellen, I don’t think I can either.”
“Well, I’m glad that’s settled. It would be hard for you to leave when you’re married to my brother.”
“Sweet magnolia!” Sue Ellen gasped and spun, but Nellie already knew the voice.
“Damon,” Nell said with a roll of her eyes.
“You’re pushier than a Regency mother during the Season trying to get Rowan married off.
What are you hiding? A scandal? No dowry?
Are you broke? Does he need glasses? I guess he is a bluestocking.
How embarrassing.” She fluttered her eyelashes and wrinkled her nose at him.
Damon smirked and Sue Ellen gasped again. It was hard not to when Damon smiled in any way. The man was sex in motorcycle boots.
“Uncle Damon! I won! I won!” Tally screamed as she ran full tilt for Damon, who bent down and scooped her up in one motion to put her on his shoulders.
“You were the best jockey I’ve ever seen. Tally, don’t you think your Aunt Nell should marry Uncle Rowan?”
The little girl’s eyes went big and her smiled was even bigger. “Yes! And Mama can marry Mr. Gator.”
Sue Ellen’s face turned bright red because there was Gator holding James. “Yes!” James yelled. “Mama, are you going to marry Mr. Gator?”
That told everyone what Ingram meant to the children.
“They have to date before they can get married,” Marissa, Bex’s mother, told them. “I have an idea. Why don’t we let them go out on a date right now while you two stay with me?”
“Will you get married after the date?” James asked Sue Ellen and Gator.
“I’d love nothing more, but a man has to take time to show the woman he’s dating that he’s worthy of her,” Gator said as he got down on one knee to speak face-to-face with James.
“And you have to kiss her like they do in Cinderella!” Tally added, causing Sue Ellen’s cheeks to now turn fuchsia. Damon smiled on like a proud uncle.
“They can’t do that unless they go out on dates.
Do you want to let them go out on a date while you both help me fill the cannoli?
I have chocolate and vanilla filling,” Marissa asked, holding up two piping bags and winking at Gator and Sue Ellen.
“In fact, why don’t you let us take the kids all night?
Would you kids like a sleepover with the Morettis? ”
The kids cheered and Damon was forced to put Tally down as she and James ran into the kitchen to be spoiled rotten by Marissa, Julia, and Gianna.
“Well,” Gator said, standing up, “it would be my honor to take you on a date, Ellie. If you feel comfortable with that?”
“I’m more than comfortable with that. I’d love to.”
Gator’s blush matched Sue Ellen’s as they left to walk back to Rowan’s to get his truck.
“I am so freaking excited about that,” Natalie said as soon as the front door closed.
“Me too!” Waverly added.
“Not as excited as me,” Maggie told them.
“His family moved to Columbia for his father’s job the day after Gator graduated from high school.
He hasn’t really had a family that shows up for him since then.
To see him this happy and in love, and to be that loved in return, makes me so happy.
His family loves him, and he loves his family.
They’re just very different from one another.
They don’t understand Gator and his way of life.
” Maggie sniffled and Natalie blew her nose.
“That’s—” Jordana shook her head as if trying to find the right word. “Yes, very happy for them too.”
Olivia wasn’t crying. Instead, she was staring at Natalie and Maggie with something that looked like horror as she saw the tears. Nell glanced behind them to see Marissa and her sisters smirking. “Told you,” Gianna said, before leaning over the counter and topping off Nellie’s wine glass.
“Told you what?” Damon asked, also looking uncomfortable with the crying women. Their husbands now had their arms around them and were handing them tissues.
“They’re pregnant,” Marissa said as if it were obvious.
Damon’s head snapped back to them and he stared as if he could look inside their bellies.
“Are you both?” Rowan asked as the crowd around them grew.
Stone’s and Hunter’s smiles told them the answer.
“We are,” Stone said proudly. “Nat is twelve weeks.”
“And we are too,” Hunter said as Maggie blew her nose.
“I’m ten weeks,” Maggie told them as everyone burst out in congratulatory praise. “I knew Nat was going to tell you all tonight and I was going to wait two more weeks for our big reveal.”
“Now it’s a party!” TJ called out, opening more bottles of wine. “More for us.”
Bex smacked her big brother’s chest and rolled her eyes at him.
Nellie laughed and leaned into Rowan when he put his arm around her after hugging his brothers and sisters-in-law. Then he leaned over and placed a soft kiss on her temple and Nellie melted.
Damon held up his left hand and waved at Nell with his ring finger before heading outside for a celebratory cigar with some of the guys. Nell rolled her eyes, but snuggled closer to Rowan. Could this really be her life?