Page 43 of Easy On Me

She pressed her lips tight, so I knew she was unimpressed with me. But she was listening, and that was something. She’d calm down, and Daddy trusted me.

My gut knotted. I was bound and determined to give Tyler easy, and my mama throwing down about us when Tyler’s mother accepted me didn’t fall under that.

The idea of choosing between them made me sick.

But the choice was no contest. I was committed to Tyler all the way.

“Delane.” Daddy’s soft, firm voice cut across my mild sense of panic, so relief loosened my gut. He had my back, and he’d work on her. “You know him. He’s always gone his own way. When he does something, he’s committed, and he follows through. This isn’t new.”

“I just don’t want to watch him make a mistake.”

“And you’re not. Elizabeth? That would have been a mistake. Tyler is . . . she’s right for me, Mama. I need you to accept her.”

A pause hung before Mama sighed. “And you know I will.”

“Good.” The firm note in my voice surprised me, and Mama’s eyes widened, just a little. Daddy covered her hand. “Because she’s important and she has to come first.”

Surety sank in with every syllable, and I relaxed further. This – putting Tyler first in everything – this was right.

And easy.

Chapter Twelve

Tyler

“He wants me to move in with him.” I flicked through a rack of vintage wedding dresses, white and ivory and even a soft pink, lace and silk and satin gleaming under the warm light of the chandeliers. Across the room, Mama Nancy examined a gown from the eighties with puffy sleeves and lace scallops on the skirt.

Marilyn quirked a single brow. “Were you planning to marry him and not live with him?”

“I could understand not wanting to live with Joey. But Jase is great.” Maggie glanced at her phone, tapping out a reply to the third text she’d gotten since we’d walked through the door at Timeless, filled with glossy wood floors and racks upon racks of quality vintage clothes. I frowned. Noah had put a ring on her finger and seemed kind of clingy, but that constant checking in seemed more like control.

Guilt pricked at me. I’d been so buried in the shock of finding myself pregnant, plus my plans with Jase, that I hadn’t been the friend to her I normally was.

“I knew we’d live together after we were married.” Long filmy sleeves caught my eye, but the bodice was very seventies polyester and very itchy. “He told his parents and didn’t say how they reacted.”

“Oh.” Both of my friends stared at me with big eyes. I got that. I’d stared at Jase the same way when he’d dropped that news as an aside while we watched a movie and he folded his laundry. I hadn’t wanted to look insecure by asking what they said.

Marilyn recovered first, shifting to her smooth corporate expression. “Maybe their response was positive, and he didn’t feel the need to expound.”

Maggie snorted. “More like he’s a guy and is clueless to the idea he needs to.”

“Ding ding ding.” I held up a lace dress with long sleeves. “He’s smart but has dumb moments.”

Like eight years of them with his ex.

“You should try that one on.” At Mama Nancy’s quiet voice, I cast a startled look over my shoulder. When had she crossed the store to join us? “And don’t worry about his parents. If they don’t like it? Leave them to me.”

Letting that lie – Mama Nancy could be the most intimidating person I knew – I tried on the dress, falling in love with it as I did so. The lace was finely woven with a silk underlayment, tiny buttons doing up the back below a deep vee. Besides being very well-made, the dress was almost a perfect fit – not too fancy, but special enough for a party to celebrate beginning a life together.

“Oh.” Mama Nancy’s hushed exclamation shimmered in the air when I stepped out of the dressing room. She lifted a hand to brush my cheek, her eyes wet and shining. My own eyes prickled, and I laid a hand on my lower stomach. I would love this baby as much as Mama Nancy loved me, would be everything for them my biological mother hadn’t been for me.

And Jase would be there, too, to help me.

I released a breath, aware of Mama Nancy’s soft gaze on my face. We were committed to one another, to our baby. We’d decided. Was there really any reason for us to wait?

With my dress pinned for alterations and a pair of satin pointed-toe pumps selected, we moved on to lunch at one of Sweet Grass’s outdoor tables. I let Marilyn and Maggie’s dissection of the menu flow over me while I texted Jase that I’d found my dress. I always ordered the burger here since they were amazing.

“Mrs. Nancy.” The deep male voice rang a little familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I knew it from. “Haven’t seen you in forever.”