“We spent most of the day making love—which is the best way to spend a Friday, ever.” Ken grinned.
“Do I detect a ‘but’ in there?”
“His but is the same as mine,” Ian said. “But even so, we could very happily just go home and go right back to making love.”
“Me, too. But your grandfather invited us to supper, so we’ll make him happy and go.”
Inside, Grandpa Noah was waiting for them. He asked her to have a seat for just a moment in the living room, because he needed the boys for something.
As she sat, she looked around this room that held so much of the history of Ian’s and Ken’s families—especially of the grandmother that both men had adored when they were younger.
Margaret Owen Kendall had had an influence on the kind of men Ian and Ken had grown up to be. Alice would always be sorry she’d never had the chance to meet that good woman.
“Baby?”
Alice looked up as Ian and Ken approached. They stood side by side before her. She thought to stand but didn’t. Alice could have sworn she felt a feminine hand on her shoulder, a silent command for her to remain sitting.
Then the men each dropped to one knee.
“We already asked, and you already said yes,” Ian said. “But we’re asking again, formally, to suit the occasion. Alice Benedict, I love you with all my heart. Please do me the honor of becoming my wife.”
“I love you Alice.” Ken’s voice shook with emotion. “You’re my miracle, and you’ve made me complete. Please, do me the honor of becoming my wife.”
Then Ian revealed a box he held in his hands, a very old-fashioned-looking ring box. He opened it, revealing a beautiful ring, a center ruby flanked by two diamonds. The gold looked soft with age, but the gems sparkled with the light of the room.
“This was our grandmother Margaret’s ring.” Ian spoke quietly. “Grandpa told us she wanted it to go to whichever one of the two of us got engaged, first.”
The reverence in his tone melted her heart. His love for his grandmother was there on his face. Ken, beside him, looked no less moved by this moment.
“We have to wonder if she’d somehow known this would be how it would work out, because I know she loved us equally,” Ken said.
A gentle squeeze graced her shoulder then was gone.
“I love you both with all that I am. Yes, I’ll marry you. And I’ll live the rest of my life grateful for your love.” Her eyes teared, and she didn’t care. This was a moment. She held out her hand, and together, Ian and Ken put the ring on her finger. It fit perfectly, and that didn’t surprise her in the least.
“Now we can go to supper,” Grandpa Noah said.
Alice sensed the lump he had in his throat. Once she’d stood and kissed her men, she walked over to Grandpa Noah.
She hugged him, gratified when he closed his arms around her. “Thank you, Grandpa. I will cherish this ring forever.”
“My Maggie would have loved you,” he said. “And she’d have been damn proud of these two, as well. Now, let’s go. I’m hungry.”
Alice thought it more likely he was in a hurry to get to Lusty Appetites because he wanted to get out of the sea of emotion that had filled his living room.
But that wasn’t it at all.
“Surprise!”
Alice gaped as she looked around the dining room of the busy Lusty restaurant. It was packed! They’d stepped inside to the shouted greeting and raucous applause. Everyone she knew in Lusty—and a few she knew that weren’t from Lusty—were there, clapping for them. The buffet had been set up, and hanging from the ceiling, a huge sign declared the occasion. It read, “Congratulations Alice, Ian, and Ken!”
Alice felt her heart trip. Her first real experience in Lusty had been the engagement party the town had thrown for her brothers and Bailey. And now, it was her and her men who were being honored.
Grandpa slapped his “boys” on the back. “I surprised all of you!”
“You did,” Ian said. “Thank you, Grandpa.”
Ken echoed the sentiment, and Alice gave him another hug and kissed his cheek. “Thanks, Grandpa.”
She thought he rather liked having her call him that.
“Lusty is a place for family. That’s something I’ve known since I was a boy, coming with my dad to visit the woman he considered his second mother, Chelsea Benedict Jessop-Kendall. And this is what family does.”
Samantha, Preston, Charles, and Taylor joined them. “This is what family does,” Samantha said.
“We’ve heard that all our lives,” Ian said. “About Lusty being the place for family. We thought we understood what that meant.”
“We thought it had only to do with the freedom to love who and how you would,” Ken said. “But it’s a lot more than that. It’s belonging and knowing that, no matter what, you don’t have to face anything alone. Thank you.”
“All of you,” Ian said. “You’ve made us a part of you, and for that, we’ll be forever grateful.”
“You’re welcome. Congratulations to the three of you.” Samantha hugged each of them in turn, and then she took Alice’s hands in hers. “I’m so very glad you found each other.”
“Me, too,” Alice said. Samantha laughed and squeezed her hands.
The Uncles—that was how her men thought of Samantha’s husbands—hugged her and assured her that if her men didn’t toe the line, she was to let them know and they’d “correct the flaw” immediately.
Rather than take affront, Ian and Ken both promised their uncles that they’d do their best to take care of Alice. It was such a Lusty kind of family moment that Alice felt tears threaten.
Anna, Craig, and Jackson Jessop joined them. The older men hugged her and offered her their congratulations before moving on to shake hands with Ian and Ken.
Anna’s hug was particularly warm. Alice clung just
