“Has my mom seen this?”
He laughed and shook his head.
“Come on!” I grabbed his hand and started pulling him back up to the house. “Maybe the girls are still awake. I can’t wait to tell them.”
“Let them sleep,” he argued. “If you tell them tonight, they’ll be too excited to go back to sleep.”
“They wouldn’t be the only ones. I don’t think I’m ever going to sleep again.” I turned and whispered as I walked up the deck steps.
Mom and Fred were sitting at the island drinking coffee when we walked in. They both turned toward the back door. I was barely through it when my mom covered her mouth with her hands and started crying as she ran toward me. We met in the family room and hugged each other tight, rocking back and forth as Fred came over and gave Brody a quick hug.
Mom pulled back from me and held her arms open for Brody. “Come here, my favorite son-in-law.”
Fred came over and put his arm around my shoulders. “I’m so happy for you,” he said as he squeezed me.
“Thanks, Fred.” I laid my head on his shoulder. “How perfect is this? First you and mom get married, now it’s my and Brody’s turn.”
“Lucy and Piper will be excited to be flower girls again.” He laughed. “They sure love dressing up.”
“Definitely.” I nodded, lifting my head and looking at my mom. “How long have you guys known about this? I can’t believe you didn’t slip. You’re terrible at keeping secrets.”
Mom waved me off. “What, Fred? Like two weeks?”
“Yeah.” He nodded nonchalantly. “Since that day at lunch.”
“What day at lunch?” I asked as I looked back and forth between them.
“A couple weeks ago, Brody called one morning. He knew it was a day you weren’t working and asked if we were free. He wanted to take us to lunch.” Fred sat on the couch and took his glasses off, rubbing his tired eyes. “Anyway, he told us about his plan and asked for our blessing.”
My jaw dropped as I turned to Brody. “You did?”
He shrugged. “I had to do it the right way.”
“Brody…” I sighed, wrapping my arms around his waist. “I don’t think it’s possible for you to get it wrong. Ever.”
So many wonderful people contributed to the making of this book and I want to take a second to thank them.
Thank you to Kelsey Kukal-Keeton at K. Keeton Designs for another amazing cover photo.
Thank you to my cover designer, Sarah Hansen at Okay Creations, for somehow crawling into my brain and seeing exactly what I envisioned for this cover and nailing it.
Thank you to Angela McLaurin at Fictional Formats for working her amazing, formatting talent on my book and making it just as pretty as the last one.
Thank you to Dina Lepczynski for your amazing eyes and proofreading this one last time for me.
To my sweet, fantastic editor, Megan Ward… I don’t even know where to begin. Getting this book ready was stressful for both of us, but you never gave up on me and for that, I will always be grateful. Thank you for cleaning up my messy story, thank you for pushing me to be a better writer, thank you for being my friend.
To my betas… Michelle Finkle, Chelle Northcutt, Kaci Buckley, Shelly Collins, Christy Elliott, Happy Driggs, Deb Bresloff, Pam Carrion and Jenn Haren… the input from you ladies was crucial to this story and some of your suggestions made everything ten times better. Thank you for taking the time to read, sometimes more than once, and share with me. I am eternally grateful.
To all the bloggers who have participated in reveals, tours, pimping and supporting me… None of us authors would be where we are if it weren’t for you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all that you do.
A big ole’ thank you to Michelle Kisner Pace for answering hours and hours of questions, sometimes the same one more than once. Okay, a lot of times the same one.
To my CP, Melissa Brown. You have fielded more neurotic phone calls from me and read more rambling, insane messages than any one human should ever have to. Thank you for not changing your number and blocking me, and for believing in me when I didn’t Happy Driggs. “Shut up and just write.” If I had a dollar for every time you said that to me, we could go to every book event in all of 2014. And maybe 2015. I love you, asshole. Thank you for pushing me… even when I pushed back.
Tara Sivec… I’m glad our “babies” are being born so close together. We need to get them together for a play date soon. Perhaps at the Subway in Sturgis?
To my husband and kids, and my mom… Your support is the absolute foundation of my career. Thank you for making it a strong one. I love you all more than anything in this world. (I know I said that in the last book, but it’s true.)
Beth Ehemann lives in the northern suburbs of Chicago with her 4 children and her husband, Chris, who is really a big kid himself most of the time. She enjoys reading, writing, photography, martinis, and all things Chicago Cubs.