Getting to the Church On Time by Erin Nicholas Read Free Book Online

to say other than I love you ? TJ wondered. Sometimes those three words just didn’t seem adequate. He loved the chili-cheese fries at Dottie’s. Hope loved to garden. Saying he loved her didn’t seem like enough sometimes.
    “I want to stand up and tell everyone who will listen how much I love you and that I will forever,” she said.
    And TJ realized that sometimes I love you was absolutely perfect.
    He grabbed her wrist as she dragged her thumb over his lip again. He stared into her eyes. “You are a Bennett. You’re a part of this family no matter what.”
    “I know.”
    He could tell she really did.
    “But I want…” She gave a little laugh. “This is going to sound silly.”
    “Say it,” he told her firmly. Something in him said that he had to hear this.
    His commanding voice didn’t intimidate her. In fact, it usually turned her on.
    She wiggled on his lap and he had to clamp down on her hips to keep her from distracting him. He wanted to finish this conversation.
    “I want my name to officially be Hope Bennett. I want to sign my checks with that name and put that on the order forms at the shop.” Hope had just started a little shop on Main Street that specialized in essential oils and their many uses, including handmade soaps, lotions and mixtures of oils for everything from arthritis pain to improved memory.
    TJ wasn’t sure what to say. A very primitive possessive streak went through him, making him want to claim her this way. Hope had grown up without a traditional family like the Bennetts. Her mom had been a single mom who was a restless wanderer. Her father, a Sapphire Falls native, hadn’t been a part of her life until they’d met just a few months ago.
    The idea that Hope wanted a family— his family—made his heart swell to the point he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to take a deep breath again.
    But he wanted to be sure she knew that she was his family, forever, no matter what her last name was on the order forms.
    “Everyone will be there for you, always,” he said. “Even if we don’t do the wedding thing.”
    “I know. I want the wedding thing.”
    He had to be sure . “It will be in the snow, Sunshine. No flowers, no bare feet, no throwing breadcrumbs instead of rice for the birds.”
    She grinned. “I would love to see you in bare feet in your backyard with a flower garland around your head and—”
    “Winter wedding at the church sounds good.”
    She giggled. She knew that he’d do anything for her. Flower garlands were not really a TJ Bennett kind of thing. But neither was green tea, peppermint foot soaks or yoga, and he was doing all of that. And he could honestly say the tantric sexual positions Hope had introduced him to were worth choking down some crazy tea once in a while.
    Of course, a lot of the time he thought Hope was making him use mud facial masks and meditation just because she thought it was funny to see him doing those things. He also suspected his brothers put her up to it some of the time. But he got the last laugh when he got her massage oils out and used them on her and then showed her some TJ Bennett sexual positions. She liked his methods just fine.
    “And you know you can tell everyone how much you love me anyway. Over and over. All the time,” he told her. “I’ll get you a t-shirt. Hell, I’ll get seven and you can wear it every day.”
    “Deal,” she said with a grin. “But I still want a wedding.”
    His hands tightened on her.
    “And the other thing…” he said.
    She nodded. “Making more Bennetts.”
    He felt his throat tighten. He’d thought he had a son. Michelle had told him the baby boy she’d given birth to was his. He’d done the diapers and feedings and everything. And then she’d ripped his heart out when she’d told him the baby was actually someone else’s.
    He’d loved being a father for that short time. He loved being an uncle to Delaney and Tucker’s boys and Lauren and Travis’s baby girl. But he hadn’t