“Hey.” Declan frowned at his fiancée.
Trinity tapped her camera icon, turned her back to her entire family behind her, held the phone up so she could get everyone in the shot. “Say cheese.”
They all smiled; a few of them actually complied with the order. She snapped the photo and sent it back to Jon.
TRINITY: Family time
TRINITY: The whole gang
JON: Have fun but wish you were here with us having dessert
TRINITY: Me and you and pancakes tomorrow
JON: Can’t wait
Declan, Skye, and Liz carried the huge chicken divan casseroles to the table.
“Let’s eat and talk about the wedding.” Skye clasped her hands at her chest, excited about marrying Declan.
They were perfect for each other. And Trinity loved Skye. She’d become a part of the Almost Homemade family, too, when they partnered with the farm she grew up on in Wyoming where she and Declan planned to get married. Sunrise Farms was a huge collective of people who lived as a community on the property. Everyone there had been shaken when the leader of what was at the time Sunrise Fellowship murdered Skye’s friend and partnered with a militia group bent on taking down the government with guns and bombs. But Skye and Declan helped the FBI take them down.
Skye reorganized the whole business. Her parents took over the new poultry and egg operation that supplied Almost Homemade. The other members went back to doing what they loved, working the farm and supplying the stores with fruits and vegetables.
Declan and Tate ran Cedar Top Ranch and supplied Almost Homemade with all the beef they needed.
They liked to keep business in the family.
And family came first.
Everyone took their seats around the long farmhouse table. While plates were filled with the yummy, cheesy casseroles, salad, and rolls, Trinity took a moment to glance around and take them all in. She loved that they made time to come together like this.
After the texts with Jon, she wished he and Emmy were here. It didn’t matter if they hadn’t known each other long. The connection was there. Their attraction was electric.
She really liked kissing him and hoped that turned into more.
She’d put her social life on the back burner for a long time now to get the stores up and running. She’d lived an all-work-no-fun life for too long.
And she hated that she used work as an excuse because she didn’t want to admit how hard it had been to overcome the trauma after her kidnapping and find her way back to being someone who didn’t shut others out for no reason but her own paranoia.
No one had really interested her until Jon.
So why not dive in, explore the heat between them, and see where things went from there?
Declan laid out the wedding plans. “So the wedding will be here. Something very similar to what Tate and Liz did for their wedding.”
“I thought you were going to hold it at Sunrise Farms,” Trinity interrupted.
Skye shook her head. “We’ll have a small ceremony here. Family and close friends. Adria shouldn’t travel right now.”
“You guys don’t have to change your plans because of me.” Adria rubbed her hand over her enormous belly. Twins took up a lot of space.
“We want to be surrounded by our family,” Declan explained. “That includes you, sis. So Skye’s parents, sister, Adria’s family, and a few close friends from Sunrise will come here for the ceremony and small reception. Then, Skye and I will go on our honeymoon, and when we return, we’ll have a bigger reception at Sunrise Farms.”
“When is the wedding?” Trinity asked.
“We finalized all the arrangements yesterday and will hold the ceremony four weeks from this Saturday.” Skye got nods from all of them.
No matter what they had planned, if anything, for that weekend, they’d all rearrange things to make it for the big day.
And Adria would love to have her sisters Roxy and Sonya, plus their husbands, here for a visit. They’d all become close.
Skye turned to her. “I’d love for you to be a bridesmaid.”
Trinity expected to be asked. She’d been everyone’s bridesmaid so far. “Absolutely.” She’d add another dress to her collection of dresses she’d probably only ever wear once. “I assume your sister will be your maid of honor and your father will walk you down the aisle.”
Skye nodded. “And Declan will have Drake and Tate stand up with him. Your parents can’t wait to come home and see all of us. They’re talking about getting a place in town so they’ll be here for the birth of the babies and enjoy being grandparents.”
“With Adria and Liz pregnant, they’ll expect you and Declan to get working on the next McGrath addition soon,” Trinity teased.
“That’s what the honeymoon is for, right?”
Everyone stared at Declan, then looked at Skye for confirmation he wasn’t joking.
She shrugged. “We want to start a family soon.”
Trinity set down the beer she’d been drinking. “Wow. You guys don’t waste any time.” And by that, she meant all her brothers.
“When you know what you want, everything seems to fit into place.” Declan had always been the practical, organized one among them. Of course he had a plan for this. Get married to the love of his life, start a family, be happy.
It seemed so easy.
Check, check, and check.
All of her brothers used the same plan.
She knew it was anything but simple. And her brothers had all been through the ringer getting to the aisle for one reason or another. So maybe it made perfect sense that once they got past all the bad, they wanted all the good.
After being kidnapped and scared for her life, she understood not wanting to waste precious time.
Maybe that’s why she was so ready to wallow in the way Jon made her feel when they were together, and she was absolutely ready for more of it.
After dinner, the joking, teasing, and just having fun with her family, she helped clean up and grabbed her stuff to head back home.
Drake surprised her by taking her shoulders. “I haven’t heard you laugh this much in a long time.”
Declan added, “You smiled a lot more tonight.”
Tate hugged her. “If this is because of Jon, we’re happy you’re happy again.”
Trinity glanced at the other women. “What’s going on?” Her brothers had never been this way with her.
Adria touched her arm. “They’ve been worried about you, Trinity. We all have. What happened with Clint changed you.”
“You were too quiet for too long,” Drake said, an understanding in his eyes.
She didn’t know quite what to say except, “I’m fine.”
Tate tugged a lock of her hair. “You say that all the time. Today you actually look it.”
Unsure and a little embarrassed, she shook her head. “Don’t worry about me. Things are good.” And if that had to do with Jon, well, all the better, because she couldn’t wait to see him tomorrow. It had been a while since she’d been excited about anything, so that was a good sign. For her. And for them. “I’ll see you all soon. I need to get on the road.”
She had the longest drive back. Drake and Adria only lived about fifteen minutes from the ranch, and Tate and Liz lived in the cabin on the property they’d renovated several months ago.