Soft music played in the arena as they made their way to the large opened doorway that led to where all her friends waited. In the middle of the doorway, astride a big gelding sat Ethan Grant.
As they stopped just inside the doorway, Ethan called out, “Who gives this woman to be bound?”
“I do,” Harold Henderson said proudly as he squeezed Gwen’s hand, leaned toward her, and kissed her cheek. He brushed a lock of hair from her cheek and then adjusted the silky veil that billowed in a soft wave from the back of her Western hat. “I love you, sweetie. Thank you.” There were tears in his blue eyes as he veered away and rode through the entry and turned to the right, to join all their friends in the arena seats.
The girls had gone out of their way to decorate the arena and the barn for the reception that followed the binding ceremony. Guests had come from far and wide, including Julián’s family and his brother Peter, and his spouses Jordan and Tracy, and their new baby boy, Cameron.
The three of them had debated about telling Chris’s family and had decided the charade was unnecessary. At first, his family had been shocked but they had such a resoundingly good opinion of both Gwen and Julián, they’d accepted the news with surprising alacrity.
Naturally, Chris had to face off with several of his brothers when they ridiculed him for, in their opinion, not being able to keep a woman happy on his own. Out of the earshot of his mother and grandmother, Gwen had relieved them of that notion until they’d all been red-faced with embarrassment and apologized to her. Proving he was still a big ass, Roberto mentioned the possibility of him moving to Divine. Gwen told him she had a lovely friend named Judith Bowers she’d love to introduce him to.
Gwen’s marriage to Julián had been performed earlier that day with a Justice of the Peace. When she’d talked privately with Chris about it, he’d told her that he didn’t mind that she’d married Julián. He had eleven older brothers who would see to perpetuating his line so he didn’t worry about it. His one request was that if they were to have a boy who took after him, as he’d taken after his great-great-great-grandfather, that his middle name would be Christiaan. Gwen had been happy to agree.
Grace and Michael moved past Ethan into the arena where the ceremony would take place. Ethan grinned at Gwen and said, “Your men are waiting for you, Gwen.”
Gwen urged Zephyr forward and chuckled as two white, silky lassos looped around her, one from the left and one from the right, where her men sat proud and handsome on their horses, dressed in solid black Western suits.
How did they manage to convince me to allow myself to be lassoed? Oh, that’s right. They coerced me with orgasms. A little sigh escaped her at the memory.
The men took up the slack in the ties as they drew alongside her and followed Ethan into the ring, as the music played and their friends applauded them. Once in the center of the ring, each man loosened and lifted the silky ropes from around her torso, careful to not tangle them with her hat and veil. They coiled them up and looped them over their saddle horns.
To both, Gwen whispered, “Keep those ropes handy, gentlemen. I plan to use them on you later.”
Ethan coughed into his hand, probably hiding a chuckle, before he began the ceremony that would bind them as husbands and wife. She looked from one to the other, filled with joy for the extraordinary turn her life had taken in what she’d thought was the midst of disaster. She didn’t regret any of it. As if symbolizing that fact, all three of them had gotten tattoos consisting of two simple words in script lettering. “No Regrets.” Gwen’s was on her hip, and the men’s were around their right biceps.
Gwen looked from man to man as she held both their hands. Chris winked at her and whispered, “Love you,” before he turned his attention back to Ethan. Gwen snuck a glance at Julián, to find he was already watching her, the tenderest of gazes directed her way.
She squeezed his hand and mouthed, “Love you.”
In the end, she’d gotten her dream, and she’d gotten her beloved horse back, but she gotten so much else as well. Getting tangled up in Divine hadn’t been a bad thing after all. Their friends surrounded them, loved them, and supported them. These people were Divine, which was more than just latitude and longitude coordinates on the globe. Divine was the place her heart, and the two men of her heart, lived and loved.
THE END