Epilogue #2
I greeted them all and tried to hide my distraction.
There was still no Scarlett. Her responses to my texts had been vague. At least that’s the way my starting-to-panic mind read them.
“Your home is lovely,” my mother said, admiring the grand fireplace. “Maybe I could bring my DAR group here for a retreat in the fall?” she mused.
She wasn’t actually asking. She was planning.
“Dev, you got a minute to help go over the setup of the tables?” Gibson asked, sticking his head in the backdoor.
“Sure,” I nodded dumbly and followed him outside.
“You look like you’re gonna be sick,” he observed.
“I haven’t proposed yet,” I told him. “How can we have an engagement party with no engagement?”
“I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you,” Gibson drawled. Easy for him to say. He had a shiny gold band on his ring finger and a fucking permanent smile on his face these days.
“The girls here, yet?” Jameson asked from the yard.
“Not yet,” Gibson called back. “Be here soon. ”
“Wait a second.” I stopped on the deck. “She’s up to something. Isn’t she?” I dared them to lie to my face.
Gibson put his hands on my shoulders and helpfully shoved me in the direction of the stairs. “Scarlett? Up to something?” he asked innocently.
Jameson stuffed his hands in his pockets and whistled tunelessly while avoiding my gaze.
“If you don’t start spilling your guts, I’m canceling poker this week,” I threatened.
“Look. You want to get engaged, don’t you?” Gibson said, pointing me in the direction of the box truck from which a two dozen round tables were being unloaded.
I slapped my thigh. “That little sneak thinks she’s going to propose, doesn’t she?”
Gibson and Jameson shared a long look.
“Damn it. She’s held the fact that she said ‘I love you’ first over my head for four years. Can you imagine what she’ll do if she’s the one who pops the question?”
They nodded stoically, not willing to officially break the Bodine family code of blabbing on each other.
Bowie and Jonah wandered up.
“Why don’t you two take McCallister here for a little walk before he blows his top,” Gibson suggested.
“Did you know about this?” I asked, poking Jonah in the chest.
“Of course I knew. My wife can’t keep a secret to save her life.”
“None of them can,” Jameson grinned.
Four phones dinged, chirped, and tinkled simultaneously. The brothers glanced at their screens, four matching grins splitting their faces. God, they were annoying.
“Girls are here,” Jonah said.
I spun back toward the house. There was no way in hell that I was letting Scarlett Bodine propose to me. I was getting this one first.
“Where y’all goin’?” Bowie called after me.
“To ruin Scarlett’s plan!”
“What about the tables?” Gibson yelled.
“Fuck the tables!”
I stormed into the house under a full head of steam and followed the sounds of giggling and squealing in the direction of the upstairs bathroom.
“Wait until Devlin gets a load of you,” I heard Cassidy sing when I tackled the last of the stairs.
“You look attractive,” Cassidy’s sister agreed. “Not at all like your usual mess.”
“Thanks, y’all,” my future wife drawled.
I gave the door a boot and scared the hell out of the six women crammed inside.
“Devlin! What’s gotten into you?” Scarlett demanded, hands on hips, elbows jabbing the others in the confined space. Her hair, a sexy sable color, hung long and loose down her back, just the way I liked it best. She wore a white lace dress that hit just above her knees and fluffed out at the skirt.
It was the perfect look to propose.
I was irrationally furious, which is the only excuse for what I did next.
I, Devlin McCallister, Olamette County judge, hauled my girlfriend over my shoulder and carried her kicking and screaming out of the bathroom.
Her friends stared after us, mouths agape.
Cassidy was recording it on her phone, and I didn’t give a damn.
We passed my parents and Jonah’s mother on the stairs.
Scarlett quit her hollering long enough to give them a little “hey there, fresh towels are in the linen closet,” before I slammed our bedroom door behind us.
I dumped her on the bed so hard she bounced .
“If you mess up my hair, I will never forgive you, Devlin Brooks McCallister,” she howled.
Before she could jump to her feet and kick me in the balls or put me in a headlock, I stretched out on top of her and clamped a hand over her mouth.
Her eyes went from furious to ready-to-get-naked in less than two seconds.
I was already hard. Something about seeing her in all that white lace made my blood thicken.
“Marry me,” I demanded. My carefully drafted, ruthlessly memorized speech was out the window.
Hell, I was on Plan Quadruple Z by this point.
And I wasn’t going to spend another second of my life without putting a ring on this woman’s finger.
Whether I’d have to wrestle it on remained to be seen. “Marry me, Scarlett. Be my wife.”
She made a muffled sound, and I removed my hand before she could bite me. Scarlett never hesitated to fight dirty. It was one of my favorite things about her.
“About damn time,” she said with a cocky grin.
“About time?” I shouted. “You’ve been avoiding me all fucking day.”
“I had to get ready for tonight,” she said, rolling her hips against me.
I gritted my teeth, trying to focus. She hadn’t said yes yet.
“Say yes, Scarlett.” I nibbled at her lower lip and felt her pulse kick up under my fingers on her throat.
“Yes, of course I’ll marry you,” she sighed, begging me to deepen the kiss.
“And I get the credit for proposing?” I asked, a little worried that she’d said yes so easily. “I asked first.”
She dropped her head to the mattress and laughed. “I think I can give you that one.”
“I can’t believe you thought you were going to propose,” I said gruffly, tracing my fingers over the soft skin of her neck .
“Oh, I never planned to propose,” Scarlett countered.
I lifted up, resting my weight in my elbows. “What?”
“I knew you’d do right by me and propose today,” she said smugly. “I just figured if we were gettin’ engaged and I was turning thirty and all, why not get married tonight?”
My mouth opened, and no words came out. Scarlett giggled beneath me. “Y’all sure are sexy when you’re speechless.”
“I’m going to need you to run that by me again,” I finally managed.
“As soon as you put a ring on me—I’m assumin’ there’s a ring—” she said pointedly. “We’re gonna go say some vows in front of most of Bootleg, eat some barbecue, drink some beer, shove cake in each other’s faces, and then you and I are gonna get real naked and biblical.”
I dropped my forehead to Scarlett’s. “I love you more than anything in this world. Do you know that?”
“I sure do. And the feelin’ is mutual. You’re my one, Dev. I want more of all of this with you. I want babies upstairs and grandkids on the lake. I want you every night for the rest of my life.” She cupped her hand to my cheek, rubbing her palm over my beard. “Now, about that ring…”
At dusk, Scarlett marched down the grassy backyard aisle lined with Citronella candles with her four brothers as an escort.
That didn’t surprise me. What did was the Bodines handing Scarlett over and then lining up next to me, a perfect bookend to the bridesmaids on Scarlett’s side. Family. Blood and otherwise.
As Old Judge Carwell launched into his Southern-accented recitation of the vows, I couldn’t stop rubbing my thumbs over Scarlett’s palms, reassuring myself that this was indeed happening.
My mother was politely sniffling into my father’s handkerchief in the front row.
Gran and Estelle sat next to them snapping about a thousand pictures with their phones.
Jonah’s mom and Cassidy’s parents took up Scarlett’s side.
Beyond them was the better part of all of Bootleg.
And above us, someone had thought to turn on the strings of lights we used for parties.
I could smell bonfire and brisket. Everyone in the audience had a drink in hand.
And when Scarlett looked up at me, eyes sparkling with a joy that mirrored my own, I knew that I was more than ready for another fifty or sixty years with her. She was my adventure and my safe place. My best friend. And I was going to spend the rest of my life loving the hell out of her.
We all had a good laugh when Old Judge Carwell got to the honor and obey part.
And, when I got the go-ahead to give my wife our first kiss, I leaned in so only Scarlett could hear me. “Just remember who proposed first.”