Stone chuckled. “See you later, Agnes.”
He followed me outside to his truck where I climbed into the high passenger seat.
Stone got behind the wheel and turned to me. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.” I slipped on a pair of sunglasses as a defense against the sun and my champagne headache and leaned my head back.
As he drove I gave up trying to guess where we were going.
When we ended up turning into some industrial park I was completely confused. Until Stone pulled into the parking lot past a sign that read, Mudville Inquisitor.
“The local paper? Stone, if we’re going to submit our engagement announcement I would have liked some time to write it up. And God, they’re not doing photos today, are they?”
I reached up and pushed my unwashed hair off my forehead. Any points he’d earned for his planning of the romantic proposal and choosing the perfect ring were about to be overshadowed by this current bad idea.
“We’re not here for our engagement announcement, although, I guess we’ll need to do that soon.”
“Then why are we here?” I asked as my tired brain searched for an answer.
Did he want to subscribe to the paper under both our names now we were engaged? It would be a sweet gesture, but we could do that online, couldn’t we? And Agnes already subscribed.
Stone cut the engine and walked around to open my door while I still tried to reason out why we were here.
Then, somehow, the pieces started to fall in place. My eyes widened. “Did you decide to take the Mister Naughty column?”
Was this his way of breaking the news to me?
“Dammit, Harper.” Stone frowned, looking stern. “You make it almost impossible to surprise you. You know that?”
“Sorry.”
He let out a huff. “It’s fine. I shouldn’t have tried to keep it from you. Yes, I accepted the column. But that’s not the surprise.”
“Then what is?”
“The column is ours. Not just mine. I contacted the editor and pitched a dual column. His and hers. Kind of a he said, she said thing. Mister and Ms. Naughty. I told them the only way I’d do it was if you did it with me.”
My heart thundered as I asked, “What did they say?”
“They agreed with me that the reason the posts on the forum were so popular is because people enjoyed us bickering with each other. They loved the idea. The column is ours, if you want it.”
I had to wrap my aching head around this new development.
Meanwhile, he continued, “It shouldn’t interfere with your regular writing. I think we could knock it out in a few hours a week maybe—"
“I want it.” I let out a shocked laugh. “Let’s do it.”
"I was hoping you’d say that.” He grinned. “So, was this worth getting out of bed for?”
“Yeah, I guess.” At his raised brows, I added with a smile, “Yes. It was.”
Writing a column with my new husband. Of all the things I could have predicted this year would bring, this was not one of them.
There was going to be a lot to talk about when I got to my parents’ house this afternoon. I’d called to tell them last night about the engagement, but now there was the news about the column too.
An idea struck me and I said, “Hey, now that we’re engaged and writing partners, do you want to come with me downstate to visit my parents?”
The look of fear on his face had me laughing. Stone shook his head. “Sorry. Can’t. I have to help get the tree lot ready.”
“Yeah, yeah. Sure.” I cocked up one brow but couldn’t really blame him.
First, I knew he did have to set up the Winter Wonderland at the farm market. But more than that, he’d already met my mother once. That first day at Morgan's when she’d accused him of selling her old corn and then said it was overpriced.
That had been a hell of a day.
Stone glanced at the time on the dashboard. “We’d better get inside. They’ll be waiting for us. It’s nine.”
Although I strongly suspected he was changing the subject away from visiting my parents, I agreed. “All right, Mister Naughty. I’m ready.”
He smiled. “So am I, soon-to-be Mrs. Naughty. So am I.”
EPILOGUE
Stone
“Do you, Boone, take Sarah to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold, from this day forward, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, forsaking all others, until death do you part?”
“I do.” My little brother’s voice shook and I wondered if it