Teacher's Christmas Cowboy (Trinity Falls Sweet Romance - Icicle Christmas #5)

Cora laughed too, and Jared’s merry eyes met hers over Sylvester’s head. This was a good way to spend their morning.

“I wish we could do this every day,” Sylvester said, suddenly.

Jared’s eyes went serious, and Cora bit her lip.

“You mean you wish it was Christmas every day?” she asked.

“Sure, but not the present part,” Sylvester said. “This part.”

Her heart felt like it would burst with emotion.

“Me too,” she told him softly.

She looked back to Jared, but by the time she turned, he was kneeling by the stove, holding up a beautiful ring.

“I know we’ve only been on one date,” Jared said. “But I’ve known you long enough to know I don’t want to go any longer without being part of your family.”

Love warmed her heart, and her throat hurt from trying to hold back her tears. But this wasn’t just her decision.

She looked to Sylvester, wondering how he would feel about not being the only important person in her life.

“The ring is very special,” Sylvester told her carefully. “It was his grandpa’s. And when you wear it, you can feel like family is always with you.”

His words hit her hard. Sylvester had a family talisman of his own. Jared explaining about the ring would have meant a lot to him. But that also meant that Jared had told him he was planning on proposing at some point.

“Jared talked to you about this already?” she asked.

“He wanted my permission,” Sylvester said proudly. “He said I was the most important man in your life, and if I didn’t want him to marry you, then he wouldn’t even ask you.”

“Wow,” she said.

“And then he told me about the ring,” Sylvester said. “He said it’s not fancy, but he hopes you like it anyway because… because it means a lot to him.”

She smiled at how hard he was working to remember exactly what Jared had said.

“I think it’s absolutely beautiful,” she told her son, knowing she was also telling Jared. “And besides, people don’t need fancy things to know that they’re important to each other, right?”

“That’s why it doesn’t matter that our TV is very small,” Sylvester said, nodding.

“So is it okay for me to say yes?” she asked Sylvester.

“You have to say yes,” he said, suddenly looking worried. “You’re going to, right? We’re going to be a family and that’s like a team. I’ve never been on a team before.”

“Okay,” she told him. “I really like that idea.”

Jared chuckled and she looked down at Jared’s handsome face, wondering how he could have become so important to both of them in such a short time.

“Yes,” she told him. “I want you to be part of our family. I want to marry you, Jared Webb.”

Tears sprang to his eyes as he slid the pretty little ring onto her finger, and then her eyes were blurring too.

Jared stood, lifted Sylvester in his arms, and hugged them both to his chest as Cora let go and sobbed like a baby, too filled with happiness to do anything else.

“Is someone crying in here?” Ginny asked from the kitchen doorway. “It’s only pancakes?—”

Cora looked up to see her mother-in-law tilt her head, looking at them as it all dawned on her.

“Get in here, Grandma,” Jared said, opening his arm to Ginny. “We have good news.”