Snowbound with the Best Man

by Allie Pleiter

  “No one can say you aren’t determined.”

  That was one way to put it. “We all are.” Figuring the moment couldn’t get worse, Kelly decided to risk a question. “Bruce, do you think Darren and Tina would consent to give an interview?” Not that it wasn’t a dicey proposition to let the press have access to the bride. Brides could get crazy right before a wedding, even one as laid-back as Tina seemed. But Samantha looked like she’d need a lot of convincing that this was going to be a great wedding. Someone had to get her to see that “rustic” was a good thing, not the flaw Ms. Douglas seemed to view it as.

  “I don’t see why you can’t ask,” he replied.

  That was good enough. “Great.” She turned to Samantha. “Should I see if I can arrange a coffee this afternoon when they arrive?”

  “Yes. Can you take me over to the shop to see your designs now?”

  She hadn’t gotten Lulu’s breakfast. She hadn’t gotten her own. School was in an hour. She’d come nowhere near addressing the girls’ antics last night. But Kelly smiled and said, “Of course.” She checked her watch, scrambling for how to make this work. “Just...give me a minute to get Lulu settled for breakfast and school.”

  “Why don’t you let me help you with that?” Bruce stepped in. “I’ve got something I’ve been meaning to discuss with the girls.” He leveled a serious look at both of them, sending Carly sinking into the chair Kelly would have occupied. “And then Carly and I can walk Lulu to the bus stop for school.”

  If she didn’t have the time to deal with this right now herself, Bruce was the next best thing. They’d have to talk about it between themselves—and soon—but the priority was to straighten out the girls, and Bruce seemed ready to take that on.

  “Thanks, Bruce,” she said. “That’d be a great help.” Kelly looked squarely at Lulu. “You will listen carefully to everything Mr. Bruce tells you, won’t you?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Lulu replied.

  Not the solution I planned, Kelly thought as she gathered her things to take Samantha over to the shop, but today seems to be the day for plans going out the window.

  Chapter Nine

  Despite multiple efforts, everything seemed to get in the way of Kelly’s talking to Bruce about what had happened. Samantha required a lot of attention, snow complicated all sorts of things and then Bruce was called upon to go fetch Darren when his truck broke down on the way into town. What else could go wrong?

  “You finally made it!” Kelly exclaimed as a rather bedraggled-looking Bruce, Darren and another groomsman stomped the snow off their boots in the Hailey’s Inn Love lobby well after two.

  “We did,” announced Carly, who looked rather bedraggled, as well. The round trip to fetch Darren shouldn’t have taken more than an hour, but had required three thanks to the weather. Already they were talking about canceling Lulu’s school tomorrow. The bride’s flight from where she was visiting with her parents in Ohio had been delayed—twice—and forecasts now called for a worrisome seesaw between melt and freeze over the next twenty-four hours.

  “How’s Tina?” Kelly was almost afraid to ask.

  “Frazzled. I keep telling her not to worry, that we’ve still got plenty of time, even if she doesn’t make it in until tomorrow.” Darren looked around to his companions and shrugged. “Well, she did say she wanted snow.”

  “And snow you got,” Kelly replied cheerfully. “It’s going to be a beautiful wedding, Darren. Every wedding has one snag, and look at you—you’ve gotten it out of the way already.”

  “I suppose,” Darren said, looking unconvinced.

  “Nonsense. The hard part’s over, Darren—you’ve arrived. We’ll make it perfect from here.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Kelly spied a weary-looking Samantha Douglas coming down the stairs. “Will you excuse me for a moment?”

  She dashed over to the writer as she reached the bottom stair. “Did you enjoy your trip to see the falls, Samantha?” Once it looked like the bridal party interview wouldn’t happen on time, Kelly had arranged for Bill Williams to take Samantha and her photographer out to frozen Matrimony Falls to see the amazing waterfall that gave the town its name.

  “I imagine it’s quite stunning when the water’s actually flowing.”

  Kelly had always found the falls to be just as beautiful a sight frozen as in the summer, but she kept that to herself. “It is. Our bride actually considered having an outdoor wedding in front of the frozen falls, but we all decided that was a bit too much of a risk in winter weather.”

  “Yes,” Samantha said coolly. “Winter weather can indeed be risky.”

  “Not if you’re prepared,” Kelly countered, “and we are. In fact, our groom and his party just arrived. Why don’t you come meet him?”

  Before Samantha could object, Kelly waved Bruce, Darren and the other groomsman over to where Samantha was standing. “Darren, this is the writer Bruce told you about from Southeastern Nuptials. Samantha Douglas, this is our groom, Darren Billings.”

  “I had a bit of a time getting here,” Darren admitted, “but it looks like I made it to the church on time. Well, the valley at least. Nice to meet you, Ms. Douglas.”

  “Hello,” Samantha said, shaking Darren’s hand. “So you’re the elk groom.”

  Kelly cringed. Bruce raised an eyebrow. Darren simply smiled. “I suppose I am. Tina jokes that I would have invited the herd if I could.”

  “How unusual.”

  “That’s me. Tina sure is tickled you’re covering the wedding. When I told her about the interview, she said it made her feel like a celebrity. She’s sorry to be missing talking with you today, but I think we’ve still got time before the wedding. Say, have you ever met an elk, Ms. Douglas?” Darren asked, clearly proud of his life’s work. “Such noble creatures.”

  “Only on the dinner plate, I’m afraid,” Samantha replied.

  Carly’s eyes went wide. “You eat them?”

  Kelly watched Bruce clamp his hand on Carly’s shoulder, surely wishing he could clamp it across her mouth. “Maybe we should head upstairs, Carly.”

  “But you said I could get ice cream,” Carly promptly reminded.

  Ice cream? Kelly raised an eyebrow at Bruce. How had his giving the girls “a talking-to” ended with a promise of ice cream?

  “The long trip required a few incentives,” Bruce explained with a grimace. He looked down at his daughter. “Why don’t we head upstairs for a bit and let Mr. Darren settle in.” He looked at Kelly. “We’ve...um, got a few details to go over, don’t we?”

  “That we do,” she said, still feeling awkward. “Perhaps you could come by the shop after Marvin’s? Lulu should be home from school in an hour or so and we can talk about...details...then.”

  “Am I still in trouble?” Carly asked.

  “It’s definitely time for us to head upstairs for a bit.” Bruce ignored the looks Darren, Samantha and the photographer traded as he turned Carly toward the stairs.

  “Everything okay?” Darren asked. “Bruce did seem a bit put out on the drive.”

  “Everything’s fine,” Kelly assured. “Samantha, would you like to interview Darren now? I can arrange for his bags to be brought up to his room.”

  “I wouldn’t want to impose after Mr. Billings’s long journey,” Samantha said.

  “No, it’s fine. Find me a good cup of coffee and I’ll be as good as new. It’ll give me something to do while I wait for Tina anyway.”

  Kelly clapped her hands together. “Great, then, it’s settled. Grab those comfy chairs over in the front room and I’ll ask Hailey to take care of the rest. Samantha, I’ll be back around to escort you over to meet Pastor Mitchell and see the chapel.”

  Within ten minutes, Darren and Samantha were chatting over coffees in the inn’s front room. Kelly fought the urge to stay and supervise, but she was sure Samantha would c
onsider that intrusive. Besides, it wasn’t as if she was nervous about what he might say. Darren had loved all the unique preparations, according to Tina, and she was going to have to trust that all that creativity would come through in the interview. And if not the interview, then in the events about to unfold for the wedding.

  If everything got the chance to unfold.

  Of course it will, Kelly told herself. The groom was in town. The next hurdle to clear was Tina and her parents’ safe arrival. Then the guests, then the rehearsal dinner, then the ceremony. One step at a time.

  And the next step was talking with Bruce about the valentines. That felt as daunting as any of the wedding tasks. They’d need to correct the girls’ thinking without squelching their friendship. Not to mention clearing the air between Bruce and herself so that the wedding didn’t get more complicated than it already was. Ha! Kelly mused to herself. Add that to my endless list of tasks.

  She checked the long list on the clipboard she carried as she walked across the street, stepping around the accumulating drifts. At least the snow had tapered off long enough to let Samantha see the falls. Preparations hadn’t gone anything close to smoothly, but everything was still moving ahead, and that’s what mattered.

  Even as she had the thought, a big fat snowflake landed on her paper, melting into a wet ring as two more followed suit. She looked up into the gray-white sky, thick clouds hiding any hint of sun as heavy flakes began to fall all around her.

  She sighed. The predicted second wave of snow had begun. We can still do this, Kelly told herself as she hugged the clipboard to her chest to protect it from further flakes and dashed for the flower shop door.

  * * *

  An hour later, Bruce pushed open the door of Love in Bloom to finally talk over this sticky situation with Kelly. Not one bit of this vacation was turning out the way he’d planned. Between Kelly, Lulu, Darren and the snow, he was beginning to wonder if the entire wedding was going to be an exercise in adapting to challenges.

  “Remember what we talked about,” he reminded Carly, who despite a healthy dose of ice cream was dragging her feet reluctantly behind him. A smarter man might have forced the ice cream to wait until after this necessary apology, but he wasn’t a smarter man. Not lately.

  Carly looked around the shop. “I know I’m s’posed to say I’m sorry to Miss Kelly,” she said in a low, slow tone. “And tell her that Lulu and I will mind our own business.”

  “That’s right.” He hadn’t put it quite so harshly, but Carly’s wording did prove she understood how their meddling was wrong.

  “What’s right?” Kelly came in from the shop’s back room.

  “We’re right here, right after ice cream,” Bruce said, wondering what she’d heard.

  “Oh,” Kelly said. He didn’t know if it made him feel better or worse to know she looked as unsettled by this whole business as he did. The entire day seemed to conspire to keep them from discussing it, which just made the anticipation of it worse. What made it worst of all, honestly, was the unnerving notion of a grain of truth to what the girls had done. There really was a—a what? A pull, an attraction, a friendship, a something between him and Kelly. It was just that the timing and circumstances were way off.

  “Hello, Carly,” Kelly said with a slightly serious tone as she came out from behind the counter.

  “Hello, Miss Kelly.” Carly stepped forward, evidently summoning her pint-size bravery to get straight to the point. “I’m sorry me and Lulu made those valentines without your—” she scrunched up her face to recall the big word Bruce had used “—permission.”

  Kelly crouched down to Carly’s height. “I see.”

  “I really like you and Lulu,” Carly said, looking right into Kelly’s tender eyes. “We were just wishing.”

  “Wishes are good things,” Kelly replied, “but some wishes grown-ups get to make for themselves.” Bruce was relieved she kept her gaze on Carly when she said that.

  “That’s what Daddy said,” Carly replied. “And that I hafta say I’m sorry. So I am.” She surprised Bruce by asking her, “You’ll still let me be flower girl, won’t you?” There was a great deal of worry in her tiny voice. To her, it probably made perfect sense that the florist was in charge of the flower girl.

  “Oh, sweetheart,” Kelly said as she pulled Carly into a hug. “Of course I will. Darren and Tina chose you to be flower girl, nothing changes that.” She pulled back and held Carly’s shoulders. “And I accept your apology. What you and Lulu did was wrong, but I am glad to know you like me, because I like you, too, and I want us to be friends.”

  “What about Dad?”

  Kelly straightened. “Your dad and I can be friends, too, but that’s up to us, not to little girls sneaking valentines. Understood?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Carly said.

  “Well, now, I’ve got something on the counter that you can play with while your dad and I talk, okay?”

  He followed Kelly through the archway to her back room, where they could talk while still keeping an eye on Carly happily coloring at the shop counter. She produced her valentine, handing it to him matter-of-factly. “What did yours look like?”

  He pulled his version from his jacket pocket and handed it to her, scanning the frilly card she gave him. Even though they were essentially trading evidence of wrongdoing, it still felt peculiar to be standing with this woman exchanging valentines.

  “I’m so sorry this happened.” It seemed like the right thing for him to say.

  “It’s not your fault.” Her tone was as flustered as his. “It’s...well, it’s nothing you did. The girls just...dreamed it up, that’s all.”

  Bruce rubbed the back of his neck at the collection of glittery hearts in his hand. “Carly’s never done anything like this before. I don’t know what to say.”

  “Lulu hasn’t, either. But she will be spending this afternoon writing you an apology note. I’ve already told her so.”

  “There’s no need,” he said. “She apologized—and rather dramatically at that—at breakfast.”

  “Well, she ought to have.”

  “I think we can let it drop. By now, they get why what they did was wrong.”

  Kelly sighed. “She’s still writing that letter, because I want her to think long and hard before she tries anything like that ever again. But then, yes, we can all let it go.” She picked up a square of green foam from the shelf next to her and began to fiddle with it. “I don’t mean that...well, that you’re... I mean, you’re a perfectly nice man and all but...”

  “They were way out of line,” Bruce finished for her.

  “They just got caught up in the day. We’ve dealt with it like responsible parents, and now we can just move on.” She was looking anywhere but at him. “There’s a lot to do.”

  “And the second wave of snow’s arriving. This batch is supposed to be worse.”

  Kelly put a hand to her forehead. “Yes, there’s a snowstorm coming. And Samantha’s watching everything we do.”

  “Well, I’ve secured the arrival of the groom. How else can I help?” Had those words just left his mouth? Shouldn’t he be heading on back to the safety of the inn rather than offering to spend more time in close proximity to Kelly Nelson?

  He pretended not to notice how anxiously relieved she looked at his offer. “Well, now that you mention it, I am in serious need of someone with long arms.”

  Twenty minutes later, as Bruce was finishing washing out the last of some tall tin containers in Kelly’s back room, he heard his daughter call, “Come here, Daddy. Come look!”

  He turned the corner from the back room to find Carly twirling in the center of the shop with a wild crown of flowers and ribbons on her head. She looked just like a princess—if that princess had an unchecked enthusiasm for flowers and ribbons. The thing on top of her head was closer to a parade float than anything he’d see
n in a fairy book. He could barely find her eyes under all the decoration.

  “I’m princess of the reindeers!” she declared, twirling one hand in royal splendor.

  “That’s quite a crown, Your Majesty,” he replied, barely containing his laughter as the crown wobbled over her eyes.

  “Just ‘Your Highness,’” Carly corrected. “Majesty is for kings and queens, and I’m only a princess.”

  “Oh. Excuse my mistake, Your Highness.”

  “Miss Kelly is the queen,” Carly pronounced, gesturing toward the counter. Bruce followed her gesture to find Kelly arranging pine boughs with an equally silly—but slightly smaller—crown on her own head. Kelly smiled and bobbed a curtsy as if flower shops crowned reindeer queens and princesses every day. Things felt as if they’d returned to the ease between them—mostly.

  Bruce returned his gaze to Carly, who seemed to be eyeing his own head with clear plans for further coronations.

  “Easy there, Pops,” Kelly said, catching his worry. “I suggested an adaptation.” From next to her on the counter Kelly produced a makeshift tie fashioned from the red flannel he recognized as Darren and Tina’s wedding fabric, only with three large red carnations affixed down the front. Not exactly dignified, but a lot better than what he’d feared given the headgear of his current companions.

  “You may kneel,” Carly said in an exceedingly royal manner.

  There was nothing to do but lower himself down on one knee and reply, “As you wish, Your Highness,” with as much solemnity as he could muster.

  “I pronounce you the Reindeer King,” Carly declared as Bruce bowed his head for her to slip the decoration over his head with all the pomp of an Olympic medal. “You may rise.”

  Kelly gave a dignified “golf clap” from her post behind the counter. “Hail, hail, Reindeer King,” she said with a chuckle. “With wishes of health and prosperity to both you and your kingdom of my very clean tall vases.”

  “I made ’em myself,” Carly boasted as she pointed to both the tie and her crown. “With a bit of help.”