Her Best Friend's Proposal #SYTYCW15 #Special Edition Suzanne Swartz

Chapter 2 #SYTYCW15 #Specialedition

"You did what?"

Jack watched disbelief cross his oldest brother's face as he straightened from hammering the last nail in the fencepost. Even though Jack had chosen a career that was about as far removed from the family horse and cattle farm as he could get, he still found himself back at Lone Oaks at least once a week lending Reese and their father a hand in whatever needed doing.

Today, it was only he and Reese since it was one of the days their father went into his law office in Beaumont. A country lawyer, Eli Blackwood, mostly handled family and real estate law. His penchant had never been for litigation. That was left in the capable hands of his partner and brother-in-law, Earl Palmer.

Propping a booted foot atop the board Reese had just nailed in place, Jack grinned. "I asked Tess to marry me."

Reese tipped his hat back on his head and pulled off his leather work gloves. "Tess O'Neill?"

"What other Tess is there?"

His brother's wide shoulders lifted and fell in a shrug. "Just making sure. What'd she have to say about it?"

"That she needed some time to think it through. I think it caught her totally by surprise."

"You think?" Reese countered. "What on earth prompted you to even ask her in the first place? Is there something going on between the two of you the rest of us don't know about?"

"We've been friends forever, Reese."

"What about Daphne?"

Jack rolled his eyes. What was everyone's preoccupation with Daphne? "Come on, Reese. Let's be serious here."

Reese's' brows rose a notch. "You don't think asking Tess O'Neill to marry you is a little out of left field? Even for you?" He hooked the claw of the hammer over the top rail. "Seems to me it would make a hell of a lot more sense if you'd just told me you'd proposed to Daphne. At least you've dated her."

"Tess and I have been out a million times."

"As friends."

"Good friends," Jack felt compelled to elaborate.

"Friends with benefits?"

"That's a bit personal, don't you think?"

"Like I asked before. Is there something going on between you and Tess?"

"Not like you mean."

Reese narrowed his ice blue gaze. "You're really serious about this." It was more of a statement than a question.

"I've never been more serious about anything in my life."

"Do you love her?"

Rubbing at the stubble on his jaw, Jack leaned over the top rail of the fence and adjusted the cap he wore backwards on his head. "Of course, I love her. She's been my best friend since I was thirteen years old. I think she knows more about me than I know about myself."

"But she obviously didn't see this proposal coming."

Jack laughed. "No. She sure as hell didn't." Even though he'd thought about it more than once over the years, he hadn't planned to suggest it to Tess at her sister's engagement party. He really hadn't had a plan at all. It just happened. The words just tumbled out as if they were meant to be said right then and there.

He wasn't even sure if the decision had been conscious. It wasn't as if he'd been dwelling on it, biding his time to find the perfect moment to broach the subject. It was as if something at the time had just clicked.