Page 3 of The Yes at Yuletide

They’d named the girl Alicia, and she captured Ivory’s heart with the way her eyes fluttered open and showed Ivory the dark depths with extra-wide pupils. She couldn’t focus them quite yet, but Ivory smiled down at her anyway.

She bent down and pressed a kiss to the girl’s forehead, wishing once again that she could’ve have more kids. The familiar jealousy and bitterness only arrived for a moment, and then it vanished away.

Grateful for that, she closed her eyes as Alicia did too, and she sent up a prayer of thanksgiving for all she’d been given.

Later that afternoon,Ivory rode in the truck with Tripp at the wheel. He bumped over the dirt road to the huge blue barn at Shiloh Ridge Ranch, her heartbeat accelerating with every moment that passed. “Why am I so nervous?”

She looked at her husband, glad they’d driven alone. Isaac had climbed into the truck with Ollie, and they’d left thirty minutes before Tripp and Ivory. Ollie had wanted to come help set up, and Isaac wanted to do everything his older brother did.

“I don’t know,” Tripp said. “Maybe because our nineteen-year-old son is getting married in two days.” He tossed her a dry smile and reached for the door handle. “It’s going to be okay. As soon as we walk into that barn, we’re going to feel this rush of love. The Glovers are good people. Our whole family is going to be there.” He toed the door open and turned back to her. “We’re not going through this alone.”

She took a deep breath and nodded. “You’re right.”

“Plus, you look amazing in that dress.” He gave her a sexy smile and added, “Stay put, my love. I’ll come help you down.” He got out of the truck and straightened his tie as he rounded the front of the vehicle. He wore a glinting, silver tie tack with a huge W on it right in the center of the silk, and he had matching cufflinks on his dark-as-midnight jacket.

He still took her breath away every time she laid eyes on him, and as he opened her door like a true Texas gentleman, Ivory turned her legs toward him, keeping her knees together. “Kiss me before we go in,” she murmured. “Just to settle me.”

Tripp stepped right into her legs and slid his hand up the length of one of them. “This is not the end of the world,” he whispered. “Even if they get divorced, it’ll be okay. Think about your life. It turned out okay, right?”

“I don’t want him to hurt,” she said, letting her eyes drift closed.

“People have to hurt sometimes,” Tripp said. “Then they know the pleasure from the pain.” He touched his lips to hers in the sweetest kiss imaginable, and Ivory sighed into the soft stroke of his mouth against hers.

“I love you so much,” she whispered, letting her fingers curl through the ends of his hair. “Thank you for loving my son. Thank you for being our rock for the past decade.”

“Thank you for loving me back,” he said, and then he backed up and extended his hand to her. “Come on, little lady. It’s time to go rehearse this dinner.”

Ivory slipped from the truck and tugged her form-fitting dress back down. She was probably too old to wear such a slinky, sequin-y gown, but it fit the colors Aurora had chosen for the wedding, and the way Tripp looked at her made her feel at least ten years younger.

They clasped hands and entered the barn, where soft, flowery music piped through the speaker system.

All the tables and chairs had been set up already, and each chair had a delicate bow tied around the back of it, in the exact shade of the Texas bluebonnet. Ivory paused, her heels right on the threshold of the hardwood dance floor in the barn. She’d been here before, of course. For parties and other weddings.

There was something different this time.

This time, her son’s marriage altar stood at the front of the hall, with its gleaming, colored gems and gorgeous antique lace. The tables had been covered with ivory clothes, and flowers spilled from the tops of slender vases. They went up and up and up, creating a glass column in the middle of the table.

Each vase held a different color of glass, and it glinted around the room the same way the multi-colored gems did at the bottom of the altar. The flowers coming from the tops of the vases were all white. White tulips. White daisies. White gardenias. White baby’s breath. White lilies.

“This is stunning,” Ivory said, pulling in a long breath.

Across the room, the window had been rolled back to show the kitchen, and Ivory caught sight of a couple of people workingin there. Other than that, the hall was empty, as Ollie had asked them to come early so he and Aurora could “show them around.”

“There’s Bishop and Montana,” Tripp said almost under his breath. “Where are the kids?”

“You mean the ones saying I-do?” Ivory asked, nodding as Oliver came out of the kitchen. He once again struck her as far older than she knew him to be, especially as he fiddled with identical cufflinks on his suit coat in an identical way Tripp had a half-hour ago.

“There’s my boy,” she said, her smile overtaking her whole face. She stepped into the hall at the same moment Aurora edged out of the kitchen and joined Ollie. With him in that stunning suit and her wearing a dress the color of the deepest green gem in the altar, Ivory thought they made the most handsome of couples.

Aurora had pinned her hair back on the sides, and she looked older to Ivory too. She wore makeup, but not too much. Heels, but not too high. She was the perfect complement to Ollie, and Ivory’s heart warmed to the point of bursting.

“They look so good together.” She glanced at Tripp, who’d come with her. “They’re going to be fine. More than fine. They’re going to be just like your momma and daddy.”

“Let’s hope with less than seven boys,” he muttered.

Ivory giggled, released his hand, and ran the last few steps to take both Ollie and Aurora into a hug, each arm going around one of them. “Oh, you two are perfect for each other,” she whispered, kissing her son’s cheek and then Aurora’s. She leaned back and looked at them, her joy coming out in the form of a smile and tears. “Just perfect.”

Chapter Three

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