his forever, because he knows how damn lucky he is to have her.”
“Why don’t you say things like that about me?” an old woman whispered to her husband.
“Because I haven’t gotten lucky in years,” he muttered.
Van bit down on her lip to stop herself from laughing. Or maybe crying. Her whole body was tingling. She didn’t know what to do with her hands, so eventually she clasped them together, looking up at Tanner with shiny eyes.
“Savannah Butler. Beautiful, clever woman. Love of my whole damn life.” Tanner jumped down from the chair, still smiling at her, and then dropped to a knee in front of her, pulling a ring box out of his pocket and opening it up. “I have something to ask you.”
Van’s heart started galloping in her chest.
“Will you do the honor of agreeing to be my wife?” Tanner asked softly, looking up at her through thick lashes. “I promise to always take care of you. To kiss you as often as you deserve to be kissed.” He slid his eyes to where Gray and Maddie were watching. “And if I knock you up, I promise I won’t complain about your gas.”
“See?” Maddie elbowed Gray. “That’s true love.”
“I know, baby.” Gray kissed her head.
“Say yes!” Becca shouted out. “Come on!”
Everybody was silent. All eyes were on Van. The old Van would have panicked about what they were all thinking. If they were judging her.
But the new Van didn’t care. Not one bit.
Instead, she smiled and looked around, taking in the warm faces of everybody watching. “He’s lying,” she told them all. “I’m the lucky one.”
“You’re killing me here,” Tanner told her, his lip quirking. “I’m kinda waiting for an answer.”
Van laughed, clapping her hands over her mouth. “Oh goodness. Yes! The answer’s yes.” Tanner started to laugh, too. Grabbing the ring from the box he was holding, he slid it onto her outstretched finger. Then he stood and pulled her against him, smoothing the hair from her face with his hand before kissing her hard and hot.
“Go, Tanner!” somebody hollered, followed by a whole host of whoops and catcalls. The older folk started cheering, and Van’s lips curled beneath his before they finally pulled apart.
“Let’s make it a short engagement,” Tanner murmured to her. “Like really, really short.”
She grinned up at him, happiness shining out of her. She’d never get tired of this man. Of his smile, or the way he teased her, or the good humored way he took the ribbing from his brothers.
They’d be spending the rest of their lives together, and she couldn’t wait for it to begin.
“Yeah,” she said, cupping his face with her hands, rolling onto her tiptoes to brush her lips against his. “A short engagement sounds good to me.”
Epilogue
There were three things that everybody in Hartson’s Creek agreed on. It hardly rained in November, a wedding should never be held after the last crop of corn was brought in, and Savannah Butler and Tanner Hartson were two crazy kids who never listened to advice.
And still Tanner found himself standing at the front of the First Baptist Church, his hair soaked from the downpour that had caught them on their way in, plastering their hair to their faces.
Not that he cared. Because in a few minutes she would be here. The woman who brought sunshine into his life on the darkest of days. She was going to be his wife, and he was counting down the seconds.
“Stop looking at the door,” Logan murmured. “She’ll get here when she’s ready.” He was standing on one side of Tanner, Cam and Gray were on the other. He couldn’t decide between his brothers who would be the best man, so he’d asked them all.
A loud cry came out, and Tanner looked over his shoulder at Maddie, who was cooing at her baby son. Well one of them, anyway. Tanner was pretty sure that was Marley. Presley, the younger twin, was being cradled by Aunt Gina, who was smiling happily at the babe in her arms. Even his dad looked happy as Presley gurgled up at them both.
Apparently, surprise twins were still a thing. Tanner bit down a grin when he remembered Gray telling him the first thing Maddie said when she got her breath back after giving birth.
“I told you I was big.”
That was the understatement of the year. According to the doctor, hidden twins were rare but not completely unknown. Marley – the bigger baby – had been hiding his twin during the ultrasounds,