“Wait,” he said.
She paused, searching his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing in the world,” Travis assured her. “Everything is perfect. Which is why I want to do this…”
He reached into the cargo pocket of his pants; it was a small box he’d been carrying around all day, since it had come express mail with the last charter plane.
Jenny looked at it curiously, then raised surprised and suspicious dark eyes to his.
Travis cleared his throat. “I love you, Jenny,” he said without preamble. “I know you’ll need to return to LA to give testimony in the next few months and I thought you might want to go up to Alaska afterwards and meet my family.”
“Meet your family?” Jenny repeated, a slow, cautious smile blooming on her beautiful face.
“As my bride,” Travis added. He popped the box open to display the modest diamond ring.
Jenny gave a wordless squeak, clasping her hands over her mouth.
“Crap,” Travis remembered, hastily dropping to one knee. “I was going to kneel for that part.”
He pulled the ring from its velvet casing, thinking too hard about other velvet casings, and offered it to Jenny.
Jenny gave him a trembling hand, nodding wordlessly, and Travis slipped the ring onto her finger.
“It fits perfectly,” she breathed, smiling with her whole face.
“It’s useful being able to quiz your twin sister for information,” Travis confessed, as he stood.
Jenny grinned. “Oh, how’d Tex take that pressure?”
“Cussed me out for beating him to the punch like I didn’t even know that cowboy was capable of.”
“Did he mention the possibility of a double wedding?” Jenny asked.
Sensing a trap, Travis searched her eyes. “Do you want one?” he asked cautiously.
Jenny looked seriously back. “As a teenager who was sick of being a twin, I would have wanted to kill you for suggesting it. But now?” her face softened. “I sort of like the idea. I wouldn’t have met you if I hadn’t come to save Laura and Tex. And they wouldn’t have met if Laura hadn’t been pretending to be me. If Laura and Tex wanted to, I’d do it.”
“We could have the ceremony in the gardens, a reception on the bar deck, if you wanted,” Travis suggested.
“Ceremony on the beach,” Jenny counter-offered. “I want this garden to be our place, alone.”
Travis bent down to kiss her. “I’d be fine getting married by the dumpsters behind the kitchen,” he said easily.
Jenny scrunched her face at him. “I would not be okay with that.”
“So picky,” Travis grouched merrily.
Jenny put her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly. He could not get enough of the taste and feel of her that close. He pressed his hard member against her, drinking up the lush curves of her through her thin dress.
When she drew back after a moment, Travis felt it as keenly as if he’d lost something.
But she didn’t go far, gazing into his eyes. “I love you, Travis,” she said seriously. “I am so happy to be marrying you.”
“I love you, Jennavivianna Rose,” he told her just as seriously back. He had loved her full name from the first moment he’d heard it.
Her face lit up with mischief. “Want to crush a flowerbed?”
Travis gathered her back into his arms in answer, sweeping her off of her feet and back into the nearest bank of flowers, peeling her dress over her head as he lay her down.