Family Merger - By Leigh Greenwood Page 0,91

minor misunderstanding. I expect we'll have some real fights down the road, but that won't change the way I feel about you." He got up and sat down on her lounge chair. She made room for him. "I don't want you ever to feel you can't tell me when you think I've taken a wrong turn. I've found out I don't know very much about building a family. I want you to help me."

"It'll be the blind leading the blind," Kathryn said, so happy she felt tears coming to her eyes. "I made an even bigger mess out of mine."

Ron took her lemonade out of her hands and set it on the table. He drew her hands to his lips and kissed them. "We can learn together. Deal?"

"Are you sure you want to have more children?"

"I hated being an only child. I want Cynthia to have a couple of brothers and at least one sister."

"I'm too old to be chasing after three kids."

"I'll help you. I missed too much of Cynthia's growing up. I don't want to do it again."

"I heard about your establishing a program to help unwed fathers. I think that was a wonderful idea."

"I got it from you, so you can compliment yourself."

"If I do, I'll compliment myself on being lucky enough to have you fall in love with me. Why on earth did you do it?"

"I was bored and looking for something to do."

She punched him and he pulled her into an embrace. "Can you move in right now?" he asked when he broke the kiss. Kathryn laughed at the foolishness of such a question.

"You're making the fatal mistake of marrying into high society. We have to have a formal engagement, hundreds of showers and a huge wedding with a reception at the country club. I figure it'll take at least a year to plan."

Ron looked horror stricken. "Let's elope."

"Okay." She couldn't believe she'd just said that. "When?"

"How about tonight?"

"Give me time to pack a suitcase."

"You can get married just as you are. After that you won't need clothes for at least a week."

Cynthia came out of the house carrying a bathing suit.

"You won't need that," Ron said. "You have to help with an elopement."

"Lisette and Kerry?" she asked.

"No, us," her father said.

Cynthia grinned broadly. "Can I give the groom away?"
Epilogue
"Are you sure you want all of us to be in your wedding?" Julia asked Kathryn.

"Of course she does," Lisette said. "We're her friends. I want all of my friends to be in my wedding."

"I couldn't wish for three prettier bridesmaids," Kathryn said.

"Yeah, right, with all of us so pregnant we're showing."

Kathryn couldn't believe she was getting married to Ron with only three hours notice, the length of time it took them to get a license and blood tests. Her living room was crowded with the families of her sister and her older brother, Alan.

"I had to come," Elizabeth said when Kathryn expressed surprise at her arrival. "I had to see if the man you bagged was worth waiting so long."

Elizabeth's husband, Bill, had already congratulated Kathryn three times, so Kathryn figured Ron probably met her sister's approval, too. A bustling at the front door heralded another arrival. Kathryn's younger brother, Bruce, his wife and three children were making a noisy entrance, all wearing shorts, T-shirts and tennis shoes.

"Are you married yet?" Bruce called over the hubbub.

"No," Kathryn replied. "The preacher hasn't arrived. I thought you were camping in the mountains."

"We were," her brother said, working his way through relatives to reach her, "but when Alan called and said if I wanted to see my little sister get married at last I had a little over two and a half hours to get my butt back to Charlotte, I packed up the kids and broke every speed limit between here and the mountains." He gave Kathryn a bear hug. "Where is the poor guy?" he whispered in her ear.

Kathryn laughed happily. "He's standing right next to me." She turned to Ron. "This is my disreputable younger brother, Bruce," she said. "And this is - "

"I know who he is," Alan said, interrupting. "His picture has been in the paper half a dozen times this last week. How did you manage to catch such a big fish?"

"Now you know why I say he's disreputable," Kathryn said to Ron. "He'll say anything to embarrass me."

"Actually it was the other way around," Ron said, shaking hands with Bruce. "She tried to get away, but I whisked her off to