Page 173 of The Protective Gryphen

“Can I ask you something? Well, can I ask you two somethings?”

Elizabeth didn’t mind.

“Sure, honey. What?”

Here went nothing.

“We’d like to get married here. We want to make this the place we tie the knot. Is there anyway you can see it in your heart to…”

“Yes.”

Tears filled his eyes.

“You’re more than welcome to get married in a haunted castle if that’s your kink. It’s all yours. I want you to have that. Hell. I want you to have the castle. If I can figure out how to give it to you, it’s yours.”

He laughed.

“Uh, just let me have my wedding here. That’s plenty,” he admitted.

“Okay, that’s one something. What’s the other?” Elizabeth asked.

He went there.

“Will you plan my wedding for me? I don’t know how to do it,” he said, already knowing she would want to. “Gryphen and I want you to do the whole thing because we know it’ll be magical.”

Elizabeth was absolutely touched.

“Oh, like you were going to have a sporting chance against me. I didn’t get to plan the one at the White House, but I will plan this one.”

He figured.

“Are we going formal?”

“Yes, We’re going to wear kilts, and I want to live and be happy. I want my family there. Can you bring all your brood and we get the people I love most here?”

“We can do it, Ian. I’ll make it happen.”

He wasn’t surprised.

“And Elizabeth?”

“Yeah?”

“On the day I get married, I would love to have you by my side. Will you be my best woman? Because of you putting Gryphen in my world, I found my other half. Will you stand beside me and help me walk through that door into a new chapter?”

She sniffled.

“God. I’m such a mean old bitch, and here you made me cry on wedding weekend.”

Ian cried too.

“Will you? You’ve been there for me through everything, and it would mean everything to hold your hand as I walk down the aisle to Gryphen.”

“Ian Patterson, it would be my pleasure. We’ll have the bachelor party in town. There is a town, right? Or are there just goats. I don’t know if we should let the Marines around goats or crayons.”

He laughed.

“There is a town and pub.”

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