Chapter 24
At the shocked look on her face he also asked, "Is it too soon my dear?"
"Oh no!" she whispered with earnest. "I love you more than I can say and I want nothing more than to be your wife. So my answer is yes, a thousand times yes!"
He laughed and told her, "Once is enough my love."
The two of them took longer than usual to eat a meal because there was quite a bit of staring at each other and hand holding.
"When would you like to get married Amica?"
"Oh soon please! As soon as we can. Unless there is a reason for us to wait?"
"I can't think of any reason for us to wait unless you want a big wedding that would take time to plan. You know halls to rent, bands to hire…things like that," he chuckled.
"No, no something small and simple is fine with me."
"Okay then. All we need to do then is to choose a date. I can ask a friend of mine Chaplain Turner to marry us and if you like we could even have the ceremony here at the house."
"That would be a wonderful idea AJ. Now I just need to go through my things and find something approaite to wear."
He paused a moment before saying, "Amica, I know you are thinking that way because you don't want to let me spend money because you don't have any of your own right now. But once we are married everything will be shared between us anyway. So please allow me to give you the money to buy a wedding dress."
"Oh AJ I really don't think…"
"Please Amica let me do this! You have come to mean so much to me in such a short time and I would really like for you to have the dress of your dreams."
She stared at him and saw how serious he was about this. Letting go of her pride she nodded and said, "Thank you AJ that is really sweet of you."
"Good, that is settled then. Why don't you ask Harriett to go shopping with you when you're ready to go?"
"I'd like that. Do you think she would be my maid of honor or matron of honor because she is married right?"
"Yes she is married to a great guy named Bud and they have two little boys named AJ and James. And I am sure that she would be very happy to be your matron of honor."
"James is a great name. It was my father's name."
"You haven't said anything about your parents before. Are they still alive?"
"No, both of them are gone. Dad was killed in the Gulf and mom a few years later to cancer. I was an only child so no siblings."
"You are lucky there! My twin sister Adel was the bain of my younger life."
"Where is she now?"
"Still running the family rance in Texas. She took it in a new turn a couple of years ago opening it up to disabled children so they could come in and learn to ride horses."
"Oh that's great! I am sure that has been very gratifying!"
"You could ask her that if I can get her to come up for the wedding."
"Oh do you really think that she would come that far?"
"If she can get away from ranch I'm sure she'll come."
"I would love to meet her."
"She will love you Amica."
"I hope so. Do you think one day we might go to Texas to visit her ranch?"
"Of course we can. Have you ever ridden a horse? I'd love to take you riding."
She laughed, "As long as you teach me first I would love to go riding with you."
"Why don't you go and give Harriet a call?"
"I will," she agreed. A few minutes later she had Harriett on the phone and the two of them made plans to go dress shopping on Saturday.
The next day they were cuddled up on the couch after dinner watching a movie. During on of the commerical breaks there was an add for diapers. Amica turned her head to look at AJ and asked, "You know we never really talked about it, but do you want more children?"
To be continued…
