Page 107 of The Mistletoe Mix-up

“I should. At least then I wouldn’t get in trouble for forgetting our anniversary,” Luke said.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

“I think you should adjust the tattoo, Sam,” Robert said.

“What do you mean, Dad?” Wren asked.

“I think you should have one more heart for the date you two get married.”

Wren glanced at Sam, her gaze spinning around the room to the expectant expressions of her family members. Everything had shifted so completely, Wren felt like she was in a parallel universe. How could her dad have casually brought up marriage as if they hadn’t recently had a conversation about her very strong feelings regarding holy matrimony. Was he messing with her or Sam on purpose?

“Will you excuse me?” she said. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom.”

Wren went into the bathroom and took a deep breath. She couldn’t believe that her dad had brought up marriage. After the conversation they’d had, he knew she was on the fence about it, and he’d thrown the possibility out like it was a certainty. Plus, getting Sam’s hopes up?

God, how could he be so insensitive? She could just imagine Sam thinking that she had mentioned something to her dad, and her sweet, wonderful Sam would be elated, and then she’d have to be the one to burst his bubble.

What her father needed was a swift kick in the pants for interfering and opening his big, troublesome mouth.

There was a knock on the door, and Robert asked, “Peeing or pooping?”

“I’m not doing either.”

“Well, then, open up the door and let your dad in.”

“You wanna have a conversation in the bathroom?”

“Isn’t that what you girls do? You have something serious to talk about, so y’all crowd into the bathroom and talk?”

“You are not a girl.”

“Maybe not, but I wanna have a talk with you just the same.”

Wren opened the door and let her dad in. “What do you want?”

“I just want to say that I know we had that talk last week about feelings and marriage and lifetime commitments.” Robert leaned back against the sink, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared down at her. “You said you can’t see yourself being married, but you are talking about putting a permanent mark on your body for that man. If you are that far gone, the least you could do is put a ring on your finger.”

“Tattoos can be removed.”

Robert scoffed. “Yeah, but it’s expensive and hard and painful. You are thirty-five years old and have never gotten one. Now you are talking about getting one that marks your relationship with that man out there.”

Wren copied his posture, crossing her arms and glaring at him. “Which is not as big of a deal as saying yes to the dress, and the cake, and till death do us part.”

“Married or not, love is a big deal, sweetheart,” Robert said, reaching for her shoulders and squeezing them. “You need to stop talking about all this stupid foolishness that ‘you don’t see yourself getting married because of your past, blah blah blah—’ Kiddo, get over it. I made mistakes, your mom made mistakes, you’ve made mistakes. Learn from the mistakes and have the kind of relationship you want.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do, but everyone else keeps pushing,” she muttered with no real conviction. The thought of walking down the aisle to a waiting Sam held some definite appeal.

“If you really don’t wanna get married, that’s fine,” Robert said, reaching for the door handle and opening it. “But if you’re just not getting married because it’s something you’ve been telling yourself you don’t want for nineteen years, you go out and you look at that man’s face, because I guarantee you, he would marry you tomorrow if you said yes. That is how far gone he is for you.”

Wren opened her mouth to answer, but he stepped out and closed the door before she could get a word in, jumping in surprise when he stuck his head back in. “Also, I’m not one to gossip, but I’ve heard a few things around town about Sam Griffin and women. So if you’re the one for him and he’s the one for you, I’d snap him up, because he apparently has a line of ladies waiting for him.”

“To throw a pie in his face,” she quipped.

“Oh yeah, I saw that.” Robert smirked. “Stopped by between cutting ice sculptures to throw one myself.”

“You were doing chainsaw ice sculpting?” Wren’s mouth hung open when her father nodded. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because I didn’t want any of you stopping by to watch in front of the whole town.”