“I love you,” she whispered when she was finally able to pull her mouth from his.

“I love you, too,” he whispered back against her ear. “And I can’t wait another second for you to be mine.”

With that, he put her back on her feet and took her hands in his as the officiant began the ceremony.

“I’m very pleased to welcome everyone to what has to be the most unique wedding I’ve ever been a part of.” Everyone laughed and then the man said, “Lori, Grayson, do either of you have anything you’d like to say to each other before I continue?”

Lori nodded. She moved closer to Grayson and looked up into his beautiful dark eyes. “I love you. Always. Forever.” All her life, she’d talked and talked and talked. But today, standing with Grayson in her mother’s wedding dress in front of their families, there was nothing else she needed him to know.

Grayson grinned down at her, somehow not at all surprised by the fact that she’d chosen this very moment to stop being a motormouth.

“Grayson?” the officiant asked. “Is there something you would like to say to Lori?”

“Yes, there is.” His deep voice rumbling over her skin felt as good as the sweet caress of his hands always did. “When your mother and your siblings and I planned this wedding to surprise you, I wanted to be able to stand here and tell you the exact moment I fell in love with you. But I can’t do that.”

“You can’t?” A pin could have dropped in the grass and it would have been heard in that moment as everyone grew perfectly silent to listen for his reply.

“No, I can’t. Because every single moment I’ve spent with you is that moment, Lori.” With a collective “Ahh” and “Isn’t that sweet?” sounding from their audience, he told her, “I fell in love with you when you crashed into my fence post and chased after my chickens and fell down in the mud with the pigs. I fell in love with you when you taught everyone in town to line dance. I fell in love with you when you put Mo’s feelings before your own and stayed with her for as long as she needed you.” One fat tear slid down her cheek as he said, “And, most of all, I fell in love with you when you showed me that it was safe to love again. I keep falling in love with you again and again. Just like I’m falling right this second.”

She had to kiss him again before they both said “I do,” and then Grayson was sliding a beautiful ring onto her finger and Lori was picking up one of the wildflowers on the ground to twine it around his ring finger.

The man who claimed he wasn’t good with words—and who had thought he wasn’t capable of loving again—had just proved himself irrevocably wrong. On both counts. She couldn’t wait to tell him every single little thing she loved about him, of every possible way he’d pleased her with this surprise wedding today. But all that talking would have to wait.

Because she wasn’t nicknamed Naughty for nothing.

And right now was the perfect time for the new bride to drag her new husband off to a secret corner of their property to show him exactly how much she loved him, body and soul.

Epilogue

Mary Sullivan had always been proud of her children. Not only because of how successful they’d always been, but because of the exceptional men and women they were. And just as she so often had before, she thought about their father Jack and how he would have loved to see another of his precious little girls getting married...

But she’d already cried enough tears today during the beautiful ceremony. She wanted the rest of her day and evening to be filled with smiles, with laughter, with hugs and joy. It was so easy to find that joy, because it was all around her.

Her oldest son Marcus was dancing with his fiancée, Nicola. They would be getting married at his winery and vineyard in Napa Valley later that year and Mary was greatly enjoying helping them plan it, since they were often traveling in support of Nicola’s music career. Not everyone understood Nicola and Marcus’s relationship—the young pop star and the mature businessman—but Mary couldn’t imagine her son with anyone who could have brought him more happiness.

Mary turned her gaze to her next oldest son just as Smith and Valentina gave each other one of their secret smiles. Mary had never admitted as much to anyone, but Smith had been the one she worried about the most over the years. People always told her, “What a charmed life your son must live as a movie star!” but she had known better. Year after year, as his star had grown brighter and brighter, he’d paid a higher and higher personal price for that fame. In Valentina he’d found someone absolutely ideal for him: She understood the demands of his world, but wasn’t at all interested in the glitter. It warmed Mary’s heart to see the peace, the contentment, on her son’s face.

The sound of a little girl giggling drew Mary’s attention to Chase, Chloe, and Emma, their daughter. The three of them were over by the barn looking at the pigs, and Emma was clearly delighted by the farm animals. Mary smiled as she watched the way her son Chase took such good care of his family...and her smile grew as she observed Chloe’s extra special glow. She couldn’t wait for them to have another little boy or girl. Something told her she wouldn’t be waiting long.

Over on the grass, Ryan was tossing balls to the kids, and his fiancée Vicki was helping the girls and boys chase them when they tumbled out of their little hands. As soon as her son had brought his best friend home for dinner in high school fifteen years ago, Mary had known they were “the one” for each other. A decade and a half later, they’d both finally realized what they meant to each other in a perfect friends-to-lovers love story that made Mary feel good every time she thought about the two of them.

Not far from the impromptu baseball game, several of the men were gathered around Zach’s Ferrari. His fiancée Heather’s enormous dog, Atlas, was sitting right beside him and Heather was holding their other, much smaller dog, Cuddles. But while the men were all focused on the car, Zach was reaching out for Heather and running his hand through her long hair, saying something for her ears only that had her laughing. There weren’t a lot of women who could have gone toe to toe with Zach, let alone run him in circles. Only the very extraordinary woman he’d fallen in love with. Every time Mary saw the two of them together, she deeply appreciated the ability both her son and Heather had to laugh and love in equal measure.

Mary’s firefighter son Gabe was dancing with eight-year-old Summer while Megan sat out the dance in the shade of a large oak tree with their poodle. Mary knew Megan was having a little trouble with morning sickness, but from the huge smile on her face as she watched her husband and daughter dance together, no one would have guessed it. Again, tears threatened as Mary thought about the way Megan and Summer had come into their lives when Gabe had saved them from what could have been a deadly apartment fire. They were all so blessed to have found each other and Mary couldn’t wait to hold another baby in her arms come Christmas.