Winnie glanced over at him, her mood shifting from flirty and fun to a bit more serious. “All right.”
He reached over and took her hand in his. “I don’t see how we’regoing to be able to get married until next April,” he said. “And that feels like a really long time from now, don’t you think?”
Winnie sighed and looked out her side window, though her fingers in his stayed tight and secure. “It does feel like a long time.”
“Maybe I’m greedy and selfish,” Ty said. “I want you in the farmhouse sooner than that, but with your daddy’s surgery and both of my siblings getting married, I don’t see how it can be done before Christmas. Unless….”
Winnie gave him a few moments to go on, but Ty’s bravery totally failed him.
“Unless what?” she finally prompted.
“Well, I’ve got a couple ideas,” Ty said. “I’m not sure you’re going to like either one of them, which is why….”
“We’re talking about it,” Winnie said, shooting him a look. “Talking doesn’t hurt, right?”
He swallowed and nodded. “Right. I’ve been thinking about asking Bryan and Ellie if we could do a double wedding with them.”
“A double wedding?” Her voice pitched high enough to call dogs.
“Or,” Ty said quickly. “We could just elope. And I’ve got to be really honest—the more I think about it, the more an elopement sounds like exactly what we should do.” He watched the gorgeous Texas landscape roll by his window.
“We should just take a couple of friends, and the cats, and someone with the authority to marry us, and go to our favorite place and get it done.”
Winnie gaped at him, her eyes wide and the road in front of her forgotten. Then she started to laugh.
“What?” he asked.
“Those are both good ideas.” She grinned. “I think you’re insane if you think you can handle an elopement.”
“Why wouldn’tIbe able to handle an elopement?”
“Because you have more friends than any cowboy on the earth.”
“That is not true. Have you met Finn Ackerman? He’s the most popular cowboy on the planet.”
Winnie smiled at him and squeezed his hand. “I kind of like the idea of us just running away and getting married, but Ty. Come on. Your family has lived here for forty years, and I don’t think that’s how things are done in small-town Three Rivers. Your momma will think I’m pregnant.”
Ty rolled his neck, because Winnie wasn’t wrong. “Yeah, okay. So maybe I should talk to Bryan?”
“If you want to,” Winnie said. “But I was thinking, Ty, that we don’t need a big thing like what the Glovers do.”
He watched her, looking for any pressing of her lips or that little jump her jaw did when she got a little anxious. “You don’t want a big wedding? What had you planned for you and Carver?”
“Too much,” she said simply, though he did notice the way her fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “And I don’t really need it. It would be great if my family could be there. And yours. And any of your friends.” She threw him a quick look and focused on the road again. “But you know I’m not going to wear a dress, right?”
Ty grinned at her. “I’d actually be disappointed if you wore a dress, sweetheart.”
She let the breath huff out of her mouth, and Ty simply waited for her to tell him more.
“I guess I’m just feeling like it can be something simple,” she said.
“Which is why I think an elopement would be great. We could have your parents meet us at the Oklahoma border and set up a tent and have lemonade and all the Chinese food you want.”
Winnie smiled softly. “That does sound amazing.”
They settled into silence, no answers decided upon, while she drove back into town. But instead of turning south toward Main Street or the new downtown, she turned north, as if driving him out to Three Rivers Ranch. That was another forty-five minutes, and though Ty hadn’t eaten since lunch, he said nothing.
“What would you wear to our wedding?” he asked.
