“That one we had the time at the Townsends, when Tyler and Lucy were getting married. You remember the ice cream con…” he said, tapering off when he realized he had never told her about that conversation, and she was now giving him a very stern look, with one of her perfectly arched eyebrows raised in irritation.
“Would that be the conversation about ice cream you would never tell me about?”
He gulped, sitting back in his chair. “I don’t know what you’re referring to.”
“Uh-huh?” she snorted, now shooting ice daggers out of her beautiful, blue eyes. “Brock.”
“Yes, Dear?” he grinned, praying he was out of trouble, but not believing for a second he was. Life would never be that easy for him with Mary Ellen as his wife.
Mary Ellen smiled sweetly. “Do you want to be sleeping on the couch?”
He gulped again, shaking his head, his eyes growing huge. “No. I want to sleep in bed, beside my beautiful, sexy wife.”
“Then you better fess up, and tell me about the ice cream conversation,” she said, crossing her arms in front of her, her voice dropping low with warning.
“Well…”
“Yes?” she said, still arching that eyebrow.
“It was about ice cream flavors, and I was talking about rocky road,” he answered, knowing already she wasn’t going to let him off with that much explanation.
“Brock,” she snarled. “I had figured that much out. Explain.”
“We were just comparing the women in our lives to ice cream flavors,” he gulped, giving her a sheepish look.
Her eyebrows lowered, and she pushed her empty bowl back, leaning closer. “You were comparing me to rocky road ice cream?” she growled. “And think very carefully before you answer, or you might just end up on the couch for a month, anyway.”
“Well,” he gulped, wondering if he grabbed her and kissed her, if he could cause her to forget what they were talking about. He threw the idea out before he gave himself time to act on it. Mary Ellen was way too sharp for him to try something like that. She might kiss him back, or she might bite his lip off. Either way, he would still end up having to answer her question. “It was more our relationship at the time, that I was comparing to rocky road ice cream. I mean, it really was a little rocky.”
A chuckle burst from her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. “It certainly was, and you just saved us from it becoming rocky again.”
He breathed a sigh of relief and wrapped his arms around her tightly, so he could pull her out of her chair and across his lap. “I love you, Mary Ellen.”
“I love you too, Brock,” she said, leaning in to whisper in his ear. “How about we go back to the bedroom now?”
He groaned and jumped to his feet with her still clutched tightly to his chest and turned to make it swiftly down the hall. Yeah, life with Mary Ellen would never be easy, but it would always be worth it.
Epilogue
Thursday, January 1
2:35pm
The weather had been sunny and warm for the last couple of days. At least for the time of year. The high had been in the lower forties, which had been plenty warm enough to melt most of the snow that had fallen over the Christmas holiday. When Brock and Mary Ellen had gotten up that morning to see the sun still shining, they had decided to move as much of her stuff from her house in town as they could. She had already talked to her landlord, who had also been present at their wedding, and told him she would be out by the end of January, but they had decided they didn’t want to waste the nicer weather while they still had it. They both knew Missouri weather well enough to know it could be fifty with the sun shining today. Then fifteen degrees with snow and ice coming down tomorrow. They were just finishing up putting away the last of what they were moving for the day when they heard a knock at the door.
Brock handed Mary Ellen the last of the china she had inherited from her grandmother, so she could finish putting it back in the hutch that had come with it and leaned in to kiss her on the forehead. “I’ll go get that.” She just smiled and watched him jog out of the room before turning to carefully sit the last of the dessert plates in the cabinet with the ones already sitting there.
A few seconds later she heard voices steadily growing louder as Brock and their visitors made their way toward the kitchen. When the trio stepped through the door, her cheeks instantly flushed scarlet from embarrassment when she recognized the lone female in the group. “Hello… Michelle isn’t it?”
“Yes, Mary Ellen,” the other woman smiled. “I see you’re in a much better mood than you were the last time we met.”
“Yes, I’m really sorry about my atrocious manners that day. I was a little aggravated at Brock. You just happened to have shown up at a bad time.”
“It’s alright,” Michelle shrugged, giving her a kind smile. “Jarod did warn me you might be a little grouchy because of how crazy Brock had been acting. Apparently, he was being kept up to date by his cousin Zach. I think that boy is a bigger gossip than most women. I think he means well though.”
“Yeah, Zach is pretty sweet most of the time,” Mary Ellen chuckled.
Brock gave his wife a sour look, over her comment about his brother, before turning to look at his cousin Jarod. “So, what brings you two out here?”
“We wanted to tell you the big news in person,” the other man grinned.
“What news is that?”
“We’re expecting our first child the middle of this year and we’re moving out here to be with the rest of the family. We’re both tired of the big city life,” Jarod added with a huge grin. “And the isolation from the rest of you.”
Brock gave a hoot of surprise and smacked Jarod on the arm before wrapping him in a bear hug. “That’s great. All of it. Though I do have to say, it took you long enough to decide to move out here.”
“I was raised in California,” Jarod shrugged. “It’s not my fault my father wanted to live a different life than the rest of you all. God rest his soul,” he added under his breath.
“Where’s Mike Junior at these days?” Brock asked, giving the other man a pain filled, concerned look.
Jarod shook his head, trying to shrug off the pain caused by his brother’s name. “I don’t know. The last time I heard anything, he was somewhere in New York.”
“Okay, enough of the heavy stuff,” Brock said, clapping his hands together. “I haven’t said anything to Mary Ellen about this yet, but since you two were sharing some great news, I’m going to share some as well.”
“What are you talking about?” Mary Ellen asked, her eyes growing huge with concern.
“I promise, this is not one of my crazy stunts,” he grinned, knowing exactly what she was thinking. “As a matter-of-fact, this is one of the smartest, sanest ideas I’ve ever had.”
“What is it, Brock?” she growled, placing her hands on her hips to give him a stern glare.
“I’m turning the running of the paper over to you fully, so I can help my brothers on the ranch more,” he said, smiling at her. “I can always go in on days when you need more help. Like on Wednesdays when all the store ads are run. And just so you know, I was planning on doing this before I took you to Vegas. I’ve been thinking about it for almost a year now.”
“You’re going to let me run the paper by myself?” she asked, feeling a lot of surprise and a little scared. “Are you sure I’m ready for that?”
“Mary Ellen, you practically do it yourself now. I know for a fact you can do it.”
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Married by Christmas (Sapphire Springs Book 2) Page 16