One Wish (Thunder Point #7)(91)

By six the bride and groom had arrived, and another cheer erupted. The music picked up its pace, the champagne flowed, all glasses were filled and the noise was wonderfully happy. Caterers brought plates to the wedding party. The rest of the guests, mostly the Basque population of the Pacific Northwest, fell on the buffet like locusts. But the food was never ending, as was the wine, it seemed. And the dancing, even during dinner while others ate, was extraordinary. Paco Lacoumette took the floor and was joined one at a time by his brothers, his sons, nephews, even his klutzy son-in-law, and showed them all what this clan could do. It was like a flash mob, so much fun. The cheers were enough to almost bring the tent down.

Grace sat with a few of the people from Thunder Point: Spencer and Devon and their kids, Cooper and Sarah and little Summer. They asked if Troy was coming and she said she had hoped so, but he wasn’t sure. “He had something going on today.”

“Well, it wasn’t work. Rawley’s holding down the fort. I could do that,” Cooper said of the men dancing.

“A couple more glasses of wine and I’m sure you will,” Sarah agreed.

“Why didn’t I come from a clan like this?” Spencer asked. “These people know how to have fun.”

“From the looks of this place, they know how to work, too,” Cooper added.

Grace took her plate as if she’d be going back for more, but she put it in the bussing cart and wandered out of the tent. The sun was setting, the party was going strong and she walked toward the orchard. She wanted a good look at it before it was dark. The house and garden stood between the big party tent and row after row of blossoming pear trees. She looked at Mrs. Lacoumette’s garden with envy and crouched down—vegetables, flowers, herbs. Everything was just coming in—the vegetables weren’t even showing their faces yet, but she longed for this. That’s what she would do next—get a house with room for a garden and teach her child how to grow things.

“Grace?” a voice called.

She looked up and saw Troy. He looked like he’d slept in his suit—his tie was crooked and there was a smear of dirt on his face. His duffel was sitting on the path behind him. “I thought that was you.”

She stood. “Troy. You came? Why weren’t you here for the wedding?”

He waved over his shoulder and a noisy tow truck pulling his Jeep edged away from the party, leaving Troy behind. “The car broke down. The tow driver dropped me here. In all the calls I had to make to get service, my phone went dead.”

“What happened? You have grease on your—”

“What didn’t happen?” he said, pulling out a handkerchief. “I was running late to start with, then the damn thing just crashed. Transmission. It wasn’t going anywhere. I bet a million dollars the jerk who sold me that Jeep put a rebuilt transmission in it. I have to go to the guy’s garage in the morning before we head home to see what’s up. I might have to tow it home, get Eric at the service station to look at it. Jesus, I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t think you were coming,” she said. “I didn’t hear from you. In fact, you’ve been pretty quiet.”

“Did you know that when men are in love there’s a kind of atrophy of the brain that causes them to do stupid things? Even when they know better?”

“I didn’t know that.”

“I’m living proof,” he said, taking her hand and walking with her along the path to the orchard. “Gracie, can you forgive me?”

“For having doubts?” she asked.

“For not grabbing you and kissing you and begging you to marry me the second you told me there’s a baby.”

“Oh. That. Well, yes, I guess so. You want to get married? Because you don’t have to. I’m going to have it no matter what you say or do.”

“Grace, I want to marry you even if there is no baby! I love you. I can’t sleep unless you’re next to me. And I may not be rich but I have important things. There are a million things I can give you that nobody else can. It appears I can give you children, without hardly trying.”

That made her smile. “In fact, trying not to,” she said.

“Did I mention I’m good with kids?” he asked her. “I’m not a teacher for the time off. I love what I do. I get a kick out of the kids. I’d like a few of my own.”

“A few?” she asked.

“I get that I’m slightly less than fifty percent of the vote, but I think we’ll be good parents. As a matter of fact, I think we have a lot in common.”

“A couple of days ago you were worried that it wasn’t enough.”

“Yeah, I got hung up on things that had nothing to do with us. We have fun together. Really, I’ve never had this much fun with a girlfriend before, and we don’t even have to do anything to laugh a lot. Who would’ve guessed a picnic in the Jeep would get you excited? Good thing, too, since it looks like that’s about all that Jeep’s going to be good for. I spend half my time off in that little dorm room you live in and it’s not too crowded—that means something. Every day when I wake up if you’re not right next to me, I start thinking about when I’m going to see you.”

“You’ve had a lot of girlfriends, Troy. What makes this different?”

He stopped walking and turned her toward him. “You do, Gracie. I’ve dated a lot, but I’ve never been this serious about a woman. I’ve always known I’d settle down when the right woman came into my life and a couple of times I asked myself, Is this her? Is this the right one? I never asked with you. I knew. I knew right away. But we had to learn about each other. You had to learn to trust me.”