Susan Mallery - The Marcelli Bride

Jensen’s gaze narrowed. “My daughter is an extremely special young woman. You’d better take damn good care of her.”

“Yes, sir. I will.”

“Oh, Daddy.”

Joe turned and saw Darcy standing in the doorway. She looked from him to her father and sighed.

“Stop interrogating Joe. What if he doesn’t want to marry me? You can’t make him.”

“Want to bet?” the president asked.

“I doubt it’s an executive order any of us would be proud of,” she told him, then turned to Joe. “Don’t worry. I’ll get my father off your back.”

He crossed to her and took her hands in his. “I don’t want him off my back,” he said, staring into her eyes and knowing he would never get tired of looking at her. “I want him monitoring everything I do because then he can see how happy I’m going to make you. And because you deserve that. I love you, Darcy. I want to marry you. I want you to have the wedding of your dreams and a life so filled with happiness, you can’t stop telling people how lucky you are.”

A single tear trickled down her cheek. He brushed it away with his thumb. “Why are you crying?”

“Because I’m already so happy.” She threw herself at him. “I love you, Joe. I want to marry you. I want to get married in the gazebo on the winery grounds and have a dress made by the Marcelli women. I want to be a part of your family, and I want you to be a part of mine. I want to have kids and dogs and learn about wine and live with you until we’re older than Grammy M and Gabriel.”

He kissed her. “That’s a pretty big list.”

“You up to the task?”

“Absolutely. I can’t wait to get started.”

They kissed again and went on kissing until the sound of someone clearing his throat interrupted. Joe pulled back. “Think I should ask your dad’s blessing?” he asked with a grin.

Darcy nodded. “He’ll say yes, but it would be a nice gesture.”

He turned to the president, who eyed him with two parts suspicion and one part acceptance.

“Oh, did you hear about Brenna?” Darcy asked.

Joe chuckled. “Oh, yeah. Twins. Brace yourself. They run in the family.”

“We can handle it. We can handle anything.”