The Trouble with Cowboy Weddings by Nicole Helm

Author:Nicole Helm
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2019-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Gavin stalked into the house. He shoved his traitorous, shaking hands in his pockets. He’d been dreaming that Lou had been looking at him like . . .

You will not fall for this bullshit.

He wasn’t going to do it again. It wasn’t as if time was suddenly going to change how things were between them. He couldn’t let himself be fooled into feeling that way again. He had to be strong. He had to be certain.

When he walked into the dining room, still too severe and plodding, everyone had already taken their seats along the long, ancient dining room table. Mom had used the nice tablecloth, and things were set up in that just so way that meant Mom and Grandma had put some extra work into this.

When Gavin stopped in the entrance, all eyes turned toward him. He wanted to turn tail and run like a damn coward, but Lou was right behind him and she came to stand at his side.

It was the perfect time to announce everything. After all, they were standing here and everyone was looking at them with some amount of concern in their gazes.

Gavin didn’t dare look at Lou, but he reached out and only fumbled a little as he slid his arm around her waist. He didn’t pull her closer, though he probably should for the show of it. He just couldn’t act quite that much in his current state.

He forced the biggest, happiest smile he could muster and looked out at his family and hers.

“Well, we have a little bit of an announcement.”

A few people at the table looked at one another, but mostly all eyes remained on him and Lou. Too many pairs of speculating eyes. Gavin opened his mouth to say the words, but he couldn’t get past the flutter of panic stuck in his esophagus.

The silence stretched on, and the more it did, the more Gavin couldn’t seem to get any part of his body to work the way it should, most especially his voice.

“We’re engaged,” Lou said brightly as she slid her arm around his waist so they were standing there holding on to each other in front of everyone they loved. “Gavin and I are going to get married.”

When Gavin looked at her out of the corner of his eye, he saw her holding her free hand, wiggling the ring he’d bought for someone else but also, somehow, her. It twinkled in the light like some kind of joke.

Gavin and I are going to get married.

He knew what he’d been doing from the beginning and still Lou saying those words in front of everyone he loved made his stomach churn.

But he only had a second to feel that heavy sense of impending doom before Em’s squeal nearly pierced his eardrums and Molly and Lindsay’s laughter filled the air.

Em jumped out of her chair and rushed toward them, her eyes suspiciously bright, her arms wide open. Gavin figured she’d engulf Lou in the hug, but she grabbed on to both of them, pulling them together and toward her.

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