Mark sat there staring at her. This was the first time she had really talked about it, and he was just as interested as everyone else. “When he came back to sit down, I was thinking more about trying to touch him again without being obvious. I wanted to see if it would happen again. That’s why I didn’t know what we were watching. I ended up getting myself so wound up, I couldn’t sit there any longer.”
“That’s why you jumped up? I remember thinking I understood what your chills down your spine had always been trying to tell you and that I felt the same way. I got a jolt to my system when I brushed your leg, as well.”
“Yeah, I really was thinking about making a run for it. I was really freaked out.”
Mark was still staring at Jenny when Luke started talking. “I guess we can tell them about the bet now,” he said, looking at his wife, then Lisa and James.
Mark just laughed. He knew the day he told them he and Jenny had to go to Vegas for the business trip Luke was thinking something.
Jenny looked over at Luke with a grin. “Okay, I guess we deserved this. What was the bet about?”
“Well, for starters, except for James, we all knew you would come back married if she got drunk. James didn’t think you would marry her unless you were drunk too,” Luke said with a grin.
Mark shook his head. “I knew I couldn’t get drunk with her drinking the way she was. I knew I had to be able to maintain self-control,” he mumbled with a blush. “It didn’t save me completely, though.”
“Don’t start. We’re doing great. And we wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t done it,” Jenny said, pulling his hand up to her mouth and kissing his knuckles.
“I know. You made yourself pretty clear on the issue earlier,” he said, giving her a wicked grin.
“The bet was a lot more complicated than that, and we kept it between us four. We made it that day in the café after you left,” Luke said with another grin. “To make a long story short, I won the whole bet.”
This just caused Mark to laugh again. “I’m not surprised. I knew why you were laughing. And I should have paid for only one hotel room. I stayed with her to make sure she didn’t get sick. But that was all I did.”
“That was part of the bet, as well,” James jumped in. “The only one of us right about that part was Luke. He knew you would wait till she was sober.”
“Is there anything about our trip to Vegas you guys don’t know?” Mark asked with a snort.
“Well, you could tell us what you had for dinner,” Luke said, causing Mark to laugh again.
“I had steak and potatoes. Jenny had wine,” Mark said with a smirk.
Jenny smacked him on the arm and gave him a dirty look. “I had roast beef with potatoes and carrots thank you very much.”
“You took two bites of your roast and potatoes. You had more of your salad,” he added with a thoughtful look. “You were still sober enough to eat more of it. By the time they brought you your roast you had already drank two glasses of wine and was on your third. With such a low tolerance for alcohol, you were already pretty much toast.”
“Why did you let her drink so much?” Jamie asked with a sour look for first him then her daughter.
“I didn’t let her do anything,” he denied with a shake of his head. “I tried to slow her down. She wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Mom, you can’t blame Mark. It was more subconscious, than not. But I got drunk, so I could tell him how I really feel about him,” Jenny said, biting her lip, and flushing bright pink. “I knew I would never be able to do it sober. I didn’t know I was going to ask him to marry me. I should have, though.”
“Why do you feel like you should have?” Jamie asked with a confused expression.
“That was one of the reasons I was so nervous about being in Vegas with him. It’s the only place in the whole country where you can get married in less than an hour of becoming engaged. And I really wanted to have a wedding where all of you could be there.”
“Yeah, I’m still mad about that. I wanted to be in her wedding,” Hannah said, giving Mark a dirty look.
Jenny sighed, giving her sister an apologetic look. “Hannah, it really wasn’t his fault. I would never have made it this far any other way.”
Mark cleared his throat, looking down at his wife. “At the time, I would have agreed with you. But I know things now that make me think there would have been one other way.”
“What’s that?” she asked, giving him a strange look.
“As long as you had as little to do with the wedding planning as was possible, I believe you would have gone along with it,” he answered, shrugging his shoulders.
“You’re going to have to explain with more detail,” she said, giving him a strange and confused look.
“You would have gone to the courthouse with me to get a license. And you would have shown up to get married as long as your mom and your sisters done all the planning. You could have done it. You just couldn’t tell me yes when I asked you.” He just shrugged. “But it’s not something I would have ever thought of before.”
Jenny sat there staring him in the eyes for a few minutes realizing he was right. “It’s funny, but I know you’re right. It would have been easy enough for me to do it, as long as I didn’t have to talk or think about it,” Jenny said, laughing at herself.
“Okay, enough about that. I want to know about you two,” Jamie said, bringing the conversation back to James and Lisa. “So, Lisa, why was it more your fault than James’ you got pregnant before you were married?”
When Lisa started glowing, Jamie knew this was going to be a good story, and she turned to James. “Do you want your chance to tell us?”
“Mom, I’ll tell you. His version is tilted in my favor, and it shouldn’t be. It was my fault no matter how much he wants to take the blame.”
“Lisa,” James huffed. “I could have sat you back down on the floor, but I didn’t.”
“That doesn’t matter. It only saves me from being fully to blame. I’m the one who came to your room and crawled in bed with you. I wasn’t thinking.”
“You crawled in bed with him?” Carl exclaimed, nearly raising up out of his chair.
“Yes, I was just meaning to wake him up.”
“No, you weren’t,” Jamie laughed, pushing her husband back down in his chair before he made it very far. “You might not have been consciously thinking it, but you knew what you were doing.”
Lisa didn’t bother to answer. She just blushed bright pink and put her head down. She had already come to the same conclusion.
Carl cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention, once again. “This has all been very interesting,” he said turning back to Mark. “But I want to know how you are going to make up for me not getting to walk my daughter down the aisle.”
If Mark had been easily intimidated he might have made a run for it. As it was, he just laughed. This was not the response Carl had been looking for, and the grumpy look he wore increased in severity.
Mark finally decided he needed to give the man a break. “Well, actually, the night we got married, I told myself if she stayed with me, we could have a real wedding on our first anniversary. If she wants one. I’m not going to make her do it. But I really think it would make my parents happier too. My mother, despite understanding how desperate I was feeling, has been rather grumpy with me for the last three months. And most of all, she deserves a real wedding.”
Jenny gasped, shocked by the thoughtfulness. Of course, she was starting to realize she shouldn’t be shocked by the way her husband’s mind worked. After all, he had almost single handedly insured that the Jones family wouldn’t have to move. And to this date, she was the only one who knew that.
“I would love that,” she smiled up at him before pulling his head down to give him a big kiss on the mouth.
“Well, do you want a big church wedding, or something smaller?” Jamie asked, getting into the spirit of planning another wedding.
“Not a big wedding.
That’s not really my style. I think I want to do something more like what James and Lisa did.”
“Well, roses are your favorite flower, and pink is your favorite color. Do you want white and pink roses?” Jamie asked with a kind of far off look on her face.
“Yeah,” she nodded. “That would be great. Would you mind grilling, Dad?”
“Of course not.” Carl said, finally giving Mark a big grin. That was all he had wanted. To be able to walk his daughter down the aisle.
“Do you want a tent or dance floor? Or both?” Jamie asked her eyes growing huge.
“Okay, Jamie. We’ve got a few months. You don’t have to plan it all tonight,” Carl said with a grin.
“Hey, I think we should start a new bet,” Luke said, grinning at Zane.
“What about?” asked an unsuspecting Zane.
“Well, which of you siblings will get married next. Maybe it should be just between the married couples.”
“Funny, Luke,” Zane huffed.
“Fine. You can bet if you want.”
His brother-in-law snorted, lifting one eyebrow. “Not what I meant.”
“Oh, I know what you meant,” he said, still grinning.
“Fine. You’re on. Who do you think is going to get married next?” Zane said, gritting his teeth. He already knew Luke meant him.
“You,” he replied back, his grin spreading wider.
“Well, I disagree. I think it’ll be Hannah,” Zane said, turning to look at Jeff when he said her name.
Jeff just glared at him without saying a word. He didn’t have to ask what Zane meant.
“Me? Why me? I’m not even dating anyone, right now,” Hannah asked, doing a pretty good job of looking clueless. Enough so, at least Zane didn’t know she knew what he had meant.
“Little Sister, I’m not dating anyone either,” he stated as if it should be obvious that meant very little in this bet.
“Okay, is anyone else of a different opinion?” Luke asked with a grin.
“You know. Why don’t we just let this be between you two. I’m not betting against Luke. I don’t figure there’s any point,” Carl said, grinning at Zane. That caused his son to scowl and everybody else to laugh.
“Well, if we’re going to do it that way, I think the stakes should be something other than money,” Luke said with a grin.
“What do you want?” Zane asked, knowing he really shouldn’t be making this bet, but unable to stop himself. “I know what I want.”
“Funny, Zane. I know what you want.”
“Whatever Luke. What do you want?”
“I want you to do a strip dance,” he answered, trying not to laugh.
“You want me to strip?” Zane asked, looking at his brother-in-law like he had lost his mind.
“Yeah, in front of everybody. You can stop at your underwear. You can leave those on.”
“You’ve lost your mind,” he snorted, trying not to laugh.
“I’m just trying to make it more interesting. I’m going to pray you come around during the warmer months, because you might have to do it outside in the backyard. We want to have enough room for everybody to see you. However, as part of the bet, I get to pick the song and the time and location for when you pay up. And I’m not going to tell you till the time comes.”
“I doubt everybody’s going to want to see me do a strip dance, even stopping at my underwear.”
“I don’t know about that. I definitely want to see you have to do this. I think it will be really funny,” Jenny said, struggling hard not to laugh. “I know your future bride will love it when she hears about it.”
“Does everybody feel the same way about this crazy wager?” he asked, giving his sister a dirty look.
When everybody else in the room hollered yeah, including his mom and dad, he knew he was beat.
“Alright, I’ll do it,” he said, growling in Luke’s direction.
“Okay. But you need to understand that you have to actually dance and strip to the song. You can’t just walk out there and take your clothes off and call it done.”
“Fine. If that’s what you want. I want to drive the Stingray. I get to take it to Springfield and back.”
“Okay.” When Luke looked at him and agreed without the slightest hesitation, he knew he was in trouble. Zane hadn’t figured he would agree so easily. The more sure Luke was of something, the more likely he was to be right. And apparently, he was really sure of this. That just made Zane uncomfortable, because the only woman he wanted to marry was Amanda, and he didn’t figure she’d ever be in love with him.
“Okay. That’s enough of that. It’s been real fun watching Luke put Zane in the hot seat, but we have some family business we need to discuss, and since we are all sitting here, we might as well get to it. Your mom and I are thinking about turning the running of the Bed and Breakfast over to Hannah, completely. We were wanting to know if the rest of you were okay with that.”
“Is she going to own it, or just run it? Like a manager?” Phillip asked, with a curious look. “Personally, I don’t have a problem with either. I’m just trying to understand what you’re telling us.”
“Your mom and I will still own it. At least for now, she’s just going to run it. Your mom could really use the help, and Hannah isn’t going back to school. She’s done.” Carl looked over to where some of his younger children sat, and added, “And don’t any of you younger ones think, because she’s quitting, that the rules have changed for you. Hannah has her reasons for not going back. She has agreed to do some online courses to finish out her degree, so she isn’t quitting, entirely.”
“I’m with Phillip. I’m okay with whatever you decide,” Zane said, stifling a laugh.
“What are you laughing about?” Hannah asked, giving him a dirty look.
“Just wondering what’s going to happen the first time one of them looks at you, and says, ‘Honey, can I speak to one of your parents, please’. You know, because they think you’re just a child.”
“There’s a difference between being short and looking like a kid. Can you not see she has...? Never mind. She doesn’t look like a kid,” Jeff said, working hard not to snarl at Zane. He didn’t think explaining to Zane that Hannah had really great curves was going to help him get Zane off his case about her.
That just made Zane laugh harder. He had caught on to what Jeff was thinking without the words. “I didn’t say she did. But someone’s going to make the mistake just the same. Some elderly lady, who can’t see really well and only realizes she’s short is going to think she’s about twelve.”
“Okay, you two. That’s enough. We need to take a vote on it. Everyone over the age of eighteen can vote. Raise your hand if you are okay with Hannah running the B & B.”
Jamie started to count until she realized everyone had raised their hands. Even a few of the younger children who weren’t supposed to be voting.
“Okay, then. That’s, that. Everybody’s okay with it, then.”
Epilogue
Saturday, May 10
Jenny reached for the Tabasco sauce, pouring a healthy amount of it on her scrambled eggs, causing her mom to give her a concerned look. “Jenny, watch it with the hot sauce. Are you trying to send yourself into labor?”
“Yes, I am. I was due almost two weeks ago, and if I don’t go into labor before Monday, Dr. Kobby is going to put me in the hospital and induce my labor. And I’m tired of being pregnant. I want this baby out of me, already,” she answered, not even bothering to look up at her mom.
“I know how she feels. Give me some of that Tabasco sauce,” Mindi said, reaching across the table.
“Mindi, you’re only five days past your due date, and you don’t like hot sauce,” Luke said trying to hold back a chuckle. “I don’t think that’s necessary. You’re just going to give yourself heartburn and you probably won’t be able to eat anything for lunch. And I’ve already told you, the baby is going to get here sometime today.”
“I’m willing to try it
,” she said, pushing her husband’s hand back when he tried to reach for the bottle. “Maybe it’s something I do that sends me into labor.”
“Wait a minute. You think the baby’s going to be born today?” Jamie asked Luke, looking like she was getting excited.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure of it,” Luke said, nodding his head.
“Can I ask how you know?” Zane asked, giving his brother-in-law a strange look. “We’re used to you being able to read people. But this is different.”
“I know, and I really can’t explain it, but I just know,” Luke said, shrugging his shoulders.
Lisa just shook her head at Luke. “Seriously, none of the stuff you can do surprises me anymore,” she said before turning to Mindi and Jenny. “Have you all tried having sex? I’ve heard that works.”
“Were you past due with Andrew?” Jenny asked, trying to remember when Lisa’s due date had been.
“Not really. I don’t think three days counts. I hadn’t resorted to trying to induce my labor yet.”
“It’s a good thing Dr. Kobby is a young doctor. I get the feeling he’s going to be delivering a lot of babies for the next, say, twenty years. I think he may be delivering two of them before the day is out.”
“Really? Are any of those babies going to be yours and, say...”
“Shut up, Zane,” Jeff said, nearly growling. The other man just chuckled, knowing he had hit his mark with his partner once again.
Jenny decided to ignore Zane and Jeff and turned back to answer Lisa. “To answer your question, we’ve been having sex for a week now. It’s not working.”
“Maybe the baby’s just not ready to be born yet,” Mark said, reaching down and rubbing Jenny’s lower back. She just looked at him, barely resisting the temptation to snarl at him.
“Why don’t you try going for a run?” Luke asked with a grin.
“Oh, yeah. That would definitely work, but I probably wouldn’t have the energy to push afterwards,” she snarled. “I think you need to put on an empathy belly and go for a run. See how well you do.”
Married in Vegas (The Townsends Book 3) Page 24