“Okay,” I breathed instantly.

“And we’re not namin’ our puppy Josephine.”

He kept powering up as I pulled my face out of his neck in order to look at him.

“What?”

He rammed in, I whimpered, he stopped so I whimpered again.

“We’re namin’ her Daisy Mae.”

I felt my eyes get wide as my legs quivered and I repeated my question from earlier, “Are you insane?”

“Nope.”

“A Rottie,” he stroked, I stopped talking, he did it again and stayed planted so I kept going, “is,” he pulled out then drove up again, I bit my lip then powered on, “a noble breed. We can’t name a noble dog Daisy Mae.”

He ground up and that felt so good my hand slid into his wet hair and fisted.

“Josephine doesn’t go with Buford,” he told me.

“So?” I asked.

Keeping one arm around me, his other hand slid over my belly, down and in.

Then his thumb hit me.

My head fell back and my entire body quivered.

“She’s Daisy Mae,” Jacob declared.

“Please move,” I whispered.

“I will, you agree she’s Daisy Mae.”

He was. He was totally insane.

Or he was intent on driving me that way.

I righted my head. “That’s not fair.”

His thumb twitched and I moaned.

“Daisy Mae,” he repeated.

“Ja—”

His thumb slid away and my eyes went wide as my arms and legs tensed around him.

“Jacob!”

“What’s our dog’s name?”

“Please move,” I begged. “And I want your thumb back. We’ll talk about this later.”

His lips came to mine, they were curved up and his eyes were dancing. There was something about having Jacob buried deep inside me, the warm waters of a pool lapping around our na**d bodies, and his eyes dancing with humor that was completely and totally amazing. A moment to remember. Forever.

Have mercy.

“Say it. Daisy Mae,” he ordered.

“Right. Okay. Whatever. We can insult her by calling her Daisy Mae.”

His smiling mouth took mine, his tongue sliding inside, as his thumb honed in and he surged out then up, again planting himself deep but this time doing it without stopping.

I forgot about Daisy Mae.

I forgot about everything.

And it would be fifteen glorious minutes before rational thought came back and it occurred to me I didn’t really care our puppy was called Daisy Mae. That was actually kind of cute.

And more, I was super happy we were putting in a pool at my place.

But I was never going to tell Jacob that I hoped it was heated.

* * *

Thirteen months later…

The door opened and I saw my dad stick his head in.

He jerked his chin up.

I grinned at him then looked across the room to see Faye, as planned, had my mother’s undivided attention.

Mom would freak if she knew what I was doing.

When my sister got married, she’d done the same thing.

Mom and Dad let their kids live their lives but when it came to their weddings, they stepped in, or I should say Mom stepped in, and demanded tradition. A church. A white or, if necessary (as I deemed it was), ivory gown. A reception line. Formal photographs. Proper speeches. And Jacob had been told in no uncertain terms that if he shoved his piece of wedding cake all over my mouth, Mom was confiscating his snowmobile.

Last, and most important, the groom didn’t see the bride before the wedding.

Therefore, I’d spent the night at Jacob and my house, Jacob spent his at Chace and Faye’s since he sold his place when he’d moved into mine six months ago.

But I had something I needed to do.

And I was going to do it.

Lifting my skirt in my hand, I hustled to the door.

Dad and Krys were outside when I got through.

Krystal was carrying a wooden box I’d dropped by Bubba’s a few days earlier. She was also smiling.

Dad was deep breathing.

“My baby girl,” he whispered.

I looked up to him, saw the bright mixed with admiration in his eyes and grinned.

“Do I look okay?” I asked, throwing out an arm.

He nodded, his throat visibly convulsing.

My grin became a smile. I wrapped my arms around him and got up on my toes to kiss his cheek.

He gave me a hug and let me go, whereupon he gave me a shaky smile so I leaned in to give him another kiss on the cheek.

After the kiss, I whispered, “Love you, Daddy.”

“Love you too, my precious baby,” he whispered back. “Also love that today I’m givin’ you to a good man who’ll see to you.”

I drew in breath.

“Or maybe I don’t love it,” Dad went on. “But at least I can live with it.”

At his words, I gave him a squeeze and another smile.

Then I turned to Krys.

She handed me the box.

I wasted no more time since I didn’t have any and ducked out the side door. Carefully, on my fabulous and fabulously expensive ivory heels, I dashed around the back of the church and went in the door on the other side.

Chace and Rich were waiting for me.

“Is he alone?” I asked Chace.

“Yeah, Emme,” he answered, looking me up and down then his gaze came to mine. Without further ado and absolutely no warning (except the intense look in his eyes), he proceeded to blow me away. He did this by whispering, “Love this, honey. I couldn’t build a better you for my boy.”

At his words, my heart skipped a beat and I had to let go of my skirt and put a hand to the wall to stay standing.

“That means a lot,” I whispered, and it did. From Chace, it definitely did.

“I know,” he replied.

I pulled in breath, and if I kept doing that, I was likely to pass out.

“Darlin’, you gotta hurry,” Rich said, and I looked to him. “You’re both at the church on time but it’s also kinda important for you to be in the sanctuary on time.”

“Right,” I mumbled, and he smiled at me.

Then he bent in to give me a peck on the cheek.

When he was done, I looked between the men, giving them a grin.

Then I went to the door they were guarding to keep visitors at bay. I lifted a hand and knocked.

“Yo!” I heard Jacob call, and that set my lips to again curving.

I turned the knob, put my hands behind my back to hide the box, and walked in. Closing the door with my foot, I saw Jacob standing in front of a mirror tying a dove gray tie.

Dark suit that fit perfectly. Dove gray tie. Charcoal gray vest. Ivory rose in his lapel.

God, he was beautiful.

Suddenly, I understood why a bride didn’t see her groom before the wedding. Because if she saw him in all his splendor, she might not be able to fight back the urge to jump him and consummate the marriage precipitously, forcing everyone to wait to get to the buffet.

Luckily, Jacob and I had done that, repeatedly, and we didn’t have time to do it again, so I was able to fight that urge.

Barely.

His eyes in the mirror came to me and his hands stopped moving.

“Hey,” I greeted.

Slowly, he turned. As he did, his gaze was moving all over me but he said nothing.

Then he said something.

“Didn’t know you could get more beautiful.”

Tears hit my throat and so I wouldn’t dissolve in a puddle of goo, or alternately messy sobs that would destroy my makeup, I quipped, “I aim to please.”

“You excel at that, baby.”

God, he wasn’t making this easy.

He was making it beautiful, but he wasn’t making it easy.

To get past that, I had to suck in a breath through my nose.

“You wanna make out before we get hitched, kinda hard to do with you across the room,” Jacob remarked, and finally I grinned.

“You can’t tell Mom I’m here,” I told him as I started his way.

“I’m more likely to share government secrets with terrorists than tell your mother that,” he told me, and I giggled as I stopped two feet in front of him.

Suffice it to say, Jacob wasn’t a big fan of tradition when it came with being forced to sleep in a whole different town than me, pre-wedding or not. But Mom put her foot down in a way neither Jacob nor I could deny.

That still didn’t mean he was happy about it.

“Hopefully, it won’t come to that,” I replied, and Jacob’s focus intensified on me.

Or, more accurately, the fact that I stopped two feet away.

“Emme, baby, I’m supposed to step in a church in five minutes and I don’t think you’re supposed to be on my arm when I do that. You wanna clue me in why you’re here?”

I pulled the box from around my back and lifted it up between us.

His eyes dropped to it and his body went completely still.

He’d told me about what Dane had done with his kaleidoscope.

It creeped me way the hell out that Dane was following me, so I decided to discuss that with my therapist and find a way to let it go. And I did that.