“Sure.”
“I’m not going to give you a hard time.It’s not that.More like I want to say well done for helping her figure out what she really wants.”
“I can’t take the credit.All I could do was support her while she figured it out for herself.”He smiled.“It seems to me that you were doing the same thing for her here.”
“I was trying,” said Taryn.“All that matters is that she figured it out for herself.I’ll be sad to see her go, so make sure you bring her around sometimes, will you?”She gave him a knowing smile.“I get that this place won’t be a regular haunt for you guys, but every girl likes to go out for a special dinner sometimes.”
She met his gaze and held it.“Especially averyspecial dinner.Like if someone wanted to do something like… propose.Then I think this is the kind of restaurant a girl might like to be when that happens.”She laughed.“It seems to me that if a guy were ever thinking about getting down on one knee, it might help if he knew that dinner would be on the house.”
Jake glanced over at Savannah.“Don’t you think it’s too soon?”
Taryn laughed out loud.“Sorry, Jake.I didn’t know if it was even on your mind, but I had to test you.I figured you’d either freak out and run or tell me to mind my own business.And let’s be honest, you’d have every right to do that.”She looked over at Savannah and gave her a little wave.“The fact that you didn’t do either of those things tells me that you want to ask her but you don’t know if she’ll say yes, is that right?”
He nodded slowly.“Kind of, but not completely.See, the thing is… you’re right – I do want to ask her.But it’s not that I don’t think she’ll say yes.”He smiled, and a rush of warmth filled his chest when the truth hit him.“I hope this doesn’t sound arrogant, but I really can’t imagine her saying no.The timing is more about… well, we haven’t been together that long, for one thing.And for another, until we got together, I wasn’t thinking about marriage.Not for years, anyway.Not saying that I don’t want to, but…”
“You guys are young,” said Taryn.“There’s no hurry.And damn, as far as I’m concerned, there’s no need to get married at all.I just figured you guys would want to.It seems to be what people do around here.”
“Yeah, I want to, but I don’t want to put any pressure on her.”
Taryn pursed her lips.“We should probably get over there.They’re starting to wonder what we’re talking about.”
He glanced over at Savannah and Dalton, who were watching them curiously.
“Before we go, though,” Taryn continued, “we both know I can’t answer the question for you, but I can make a suggestion.”
“What’s that?”
“You could maybe have the best of both worlds.Ask her to marry you, give her the ring, and then take as long as you both need to figure the rest out.”
Jake nodded.“I thought about that, but I didn’t want it to seem like I was only half in.”
“Oh, Jake, you’re so all the way in, it’s obvious – even to me.Savannah’s the same.You’ve got no worries there.Seems to me that if you ask her, you’ll take the pressure off of both of you.And you’ll give Savannah something it seems to me that she’s never had.She’ll be your fiancée, and if you think about it, since her mom died, she’s never been anyone’s anything.”
Jake scowled.He hated the way that sounded.
Taryn touched his arm.“There you go.I’d say that’s your answer.Just the look on your face says it all.You hate the idea of her not belonging with anyone, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do.Because it’s not true – she belongs with me.She does have Josh, and Sadie, and Harvey, and now she’ll have my dad and Jo, and Uncle Dom and Sadie and—”
Taryn laughed.“Exactly.When she has your ring on her finger, she’ll be able to claim all of them officially; I think she needs that.”
Seeing her sitting there with Dalton, looking a little uncertain even though she was smiling, Jake had to agree.Going forward, it was his intention to make sure that in the future, whatever Savannah needed, she would get.
~ ~ ~
As they drove back around the lake, Savannah held Jake’s hand and brushed her thumb over his knuckle.
He shot her a quick smile.“I can’t believe I get you back this early.”He squeezed her hand.“Even better, that I get you back for good.”
“Isn’t it great?”she agreed.“I feel so much better now.I didn’t think it’d all work out this quickly, but… I just had to talk to Taryn as soon as I got there.It was one thing kicking the can down the road when I didn’t know what I wanted or what I could do, but as soon as we figured it out, I just had to tell her.I didn’t want to string her along.”
She loved the way Jake smiled.“She’s good people.I like her.She’s in your corner no matter what.”
“I know.If nothing else, I’m glad that I got to work there for a while, just to get to know her.You know…” She stopped abruptly when the sound of Jake’s phone ringing filled the cab of his truck.
“You should take it,” she told him when Josh’s name came up on the screen.“I feel bad now.Did you guys have plans for this evening?He’s probably cursing me.”
“No way.He’s more likely wanting to see if you’ve eaten and if you’re going to need anything.”He hit the button to answer the call.“Hey, Josh, we’re just—”
