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Say he did ask Dana to marry him. Would she say yes knowing he wasn’t sure he should have children? Or was he overreacting? After all, he’d just finished telling his friends there was no reason to think that they could or would screw up enough to ruin their kids.
But they’d both grown up in decent families. Not with nightmare parents.
Chapter Eleven
A few days after the baby shower, Travis and Tobi held their wedding ceremony at their house. Dana had been there several times in the months since she’d come to Whiskey River, but this afternoon the house had been transformed to host a wedding. The living room was adorned with beautiful flowers and the furniture had been moved to accommodate chairs. There were only eighteen or twenty people in attendance, including the bride, groom and minister, the couple having decided to have an intimate ceremony.
Tobi and Travis both glowed with happiness, which made Dana’s sentimental heart sigh. Tobi looked gorgeous in a strapless white knee-length wedding dress with a fitted lace bodice and a flared skirt of lace netting over satin. Travis looked very handsome in a dark suit and blue dress shirt. Tobi’s matron of honor was Travis’s sister Laurel, who was pregnant with twins but not due for a while. Her extremely pregnant sister-in-law, Savannah, was a bridesmaid, as was her friend Siobhan Murphy. Travis’s brother Harlan was his best man and Zack and Levi stood up with him too. When it came time to say the vows everyone except the bride and groom, the minister, and the best man and matron of honor sat down.
Levi wore a perfectly tailored black suit that she suspected was custom made. His face was freshly shaved and his hair brushed. He was tall, dark, handsome and hot. But he didn’t look like the Levi she was accustomed to. The man she knew was more of a jeans and T-shirt guy with a day or two of stubble growth on his face, depending on what he was working on and whether he was thinking of some invention while he showered and got dressed.
Dana felt a little surreal sitting with Levi at a wedding. Two of his best friends’ wedding, at that. First a baby shower and now a wedding. Hers and Levi’s relationship status change was still so new that lots of things felt surreal. Except the sex. That was totally real. And awesome.
She had hoped she could keep it together and not do what she usually did at weddings, but that was clearly a futile hope. As Tobi and Travis spoke their vows to each other and exchanged rings, her tears started to flow. Surreptitiously, she dabbed a tissue to her eyes and sniffed.
“Are you crying?” Levi leaned over and asked Dana.
“Hush.” Damn. I knew this would happen.
“You are. You’re crying.”
Dana turned and glared at him. “Quiet,” she hissed.
He subsided but she could feel him darting puzzled glances at her throughout the rest of the ceremony. Dabbing at her eyes and nose, she tried to ignore him while Tobi and Travis repeated their vows.
She realized with a pang that she wanted this. Love, marriage, babies. Oh, not right now, but some time in the future. Would Levi want that too? Or would that scare him away? Is that what had happened before? She didn’t know. All she knew was so far he seemed content with the way things were.
Finally, the minister said, “If anyone knows of a reason why these two people should not be married, speak now or—”
“Oh!”
Dana and Levi looked at each other. “What was that?” Levi asked.
“It came from that direction.” Dana pointed to a few chairs over where Savannah sat with her niece and nephew on either side. She looked surprised. Then she clutched her stomach and groaned loudly.
“It’s Savannah,” Levi said.
“Mommy,” Laurel’s little girl Katrina said in a clear, piping voice. “Something’s wrong with Aunt Savannah.”
“Keep going,” Travis told the minister. Harlan left his side to go to Savannah.
The minister, an older man who had, according to Travis, known his family since they were all in diapers, appeared befuddled. “But—but—”
“She’s not objecting. She’s having a baby. Besides, I thought we agreed to skip that part.”
“Oh, that’s right. I’m sorry,” the older man said, even more flustered.
“Let’s get on with it. Skip to the end.”
“By the power vested in me by the state of Texas, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride,” the minister said in a rush.
Travis and Tobi kissed and then immediately went to see about Savannah. After a low-voiced conversation, Travis spoke to the guests. “We’ve got a family emergency here. You go ahead to the reception and Tobi and I will be there soon. We hope.”
“Let’s go see what they want us to do to help,” Levi said.
Dana followed him, feeling a bit out of place.
Everyone was talking at once. Levi took Travis aside and they stood a short distance away from everyone, talking earnestly. Harlan announced he was taking Savannah to the hospital. He wanted to carry her to the car but Savannah refused, saying it would be good for her to walk. Dana could see him arguing with Savannah as they left the house. Harlan looked wild-eyed, nothing like the calm, cool and collected man Dana was accustomed to seeing.
