Operation Bailey Wedding

by Piper Rayne

  “Definitely.”

  We walk up to the pastor and the ceremony goes off without a hitch. Twenty minutes later we’re kissing and holding hands facing all our guests as the pastor announces us. “I now present you, Mr. and Mrs. Bailey.”

  I walk by my parents’ chairs and for a moment I envision them there smiling and clapping, my mom with tears streaming down her cheeks, pure joy for me, their eldest son.

  Holly squeezes my hand as though she knows. I smile and stop us in the middle of the row, bending down to kiss her. I truly am the luckiest man in the world.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Grandma Dori

  * * *

  My oldest grandchild is married.

  I’m so thankful I was still around to see the big day. I sit in the chair at one of the tables on the outskirts of Lake Starlight, settling in and taking stock of all my grandchildren.

  Brooklyn and Wyatt dancing together in a loving embrace. She found the ring. Juno let it slip to me and I hope Brooklyn finds the patience to wait until he’s ready to propose.

  Rome holds Dion with Harley next to him and Calista in between them. An instant family that will probably be the next wedding, although I think they’ll probably elope.

  Phoenix has a secret, but I’m going to give her time to figure it out before I pry too much.

  Denver’s busy hitting on the bartender in the corner. I wish he’d follow in his twin’s footsteps. He’ll be such a wonderful father, but someone will have to come and knock him over the head with love. It will take a special person.

  Sedona is in the corner on the phone. She’s become distant since venturing to New York. Rarely returns home and I have no idea who or what could be more important than spending time with her family. But like with Phoenix, I’m going to give her a few years to spread her wings before I intervene. Hopefully, I’m still around when it’s time to swoop in and help.

  Kingston’s infectious laugh pulls me away from my thoughts and I find him at a table with Selene’s daughter, Stella. I forgot that she’s home from school for a few weeks. Must be Selene’s guest to the wedding. He looks so happy. Then his friend Curtis puts a drink down in front of Stella and takes the chair next to her, resting his arm on the back of her chair. It’s the equivalent of a dog pissing on a tree. Kingston stands up, his smile vanishing from his face, but when he catches me looking, he smacks a smile back on. “Hey, G’Ma D, wanna dance?”

  “Thanks honey, but I’m too tired.”

  He nods and walks over to the bar. How will I ever get all my grandkids where they need to be before I die?

  Juno and Colton are trying to stop Myles and Daisy from having sex in the corner. Why those two dogs are here, I’ll never understand. I swear, people and their dogs these days.

  “Your grandchildren are all so beautiful,” Ethel says from next to me.

  “I know.” I smile.

  “But Savannah, she never looks happy.” She points and I follow the direction her finger is pointing and realize that I left her out when I was taking inventory of where all my grandchildren are in their lives.

  Savannah’s sipping a glass of champagne, scrolling through her phone like she’d rather be anywhere else than here.

  “She’s hard to figure out. A lot goes on in that brain of hers,” I say.

  “Hello? Oh, hi Midge,” Ethel answers her phone through her hearing aid. I’d be annoyed if I wasn’t so concerned about Savannah.

  She’s my sidekick usually, but this is one situation I’ll have to fix on my own.

  Liam sits at a table right across from her with a scotch neat and his phone in his hands. His gaze flickers up to Savannah every minute or so.

  These two might be my hardest case yet.

  I stand up, leaving Ethel to talk to Midge from Arizona. That old bat’s been talking about going down there in the summers and staying here in the winter. I told her she was doing it the wrong way, but she didn’t understand. I’m too old for wasted breath.

  Weaving through the tables, I keep my eyes on Savannah but approach Liam.

  “Liam? You haven’t asked me to dance?”

  He looks up from his phone, but the first thing he does is check if Savannah is still there.

  “Of course, Mrs. Bailey. I’d be honored.” He stands and offers me his arm.

  I ignore Savannah although I’m sure her eyes are on us.

  Liam escorts me to the makeshift dance floor and he takes my hand in his respectfully, not like Brooklyn and Wyatt.

  “So you like my granddaughter?” I ask before we fully circle around.

  “Excuse me?”

  Oh, Liam is so polite. Something you’d never expect from a man covered in tattoos.

  “My granddaughter.” He does the box step, but he’s got some swagger like my husband did. If I was younger, he might be able to swing me around the dance floor.

  “You have a lot of granddaughters.” The humor that’s lit in his eyes tells me he’s playing a game with me. But I’m the master. Juno might call herself the matchmaker, but she gets those skills from my side of the family.

  “There’s one in particular that you’ve enamored from afar for many years. Am I wrong?”

  “Do you like to be dipped?” he asks.

  “Too old for dipping, but Savannah isn’t.” I take charge and shift us, so he faces her. “Ask her to dance.”

  “I wouldn’t get yourself in the middle, Dori, it will only end badly.” He twirls me so that I’m facing Savannah. She’s actively trying to pretend she doesn’t care what we’re talking about. My poor girl.

  “I like the middle. It’s my favorite place to be.” I smile up to him.

  “Be careful who you say that to.”

  Liam’s a hard nut and I guess I have no option but to put him in an uncomfortable situation.

  “Savannah,” I call out.

  She glances up from her phone.

  “Don’t do it, Dori,” Liam says but with no real conviction because he knows as do I, that he wants this to happen, he’s just not going to admit it to himself.

  “I’m old, this is how I enjoy my last years. You’re not going to take that away from me, are you?”

  His lips fall to a straight line.

  “Come here, Savannah.” I wave her over.

  She stands and walks over like the good granddaughter she is. I feel half bad that she’s falling for my trick.

  “What?” she asks.

  “Here.” I leave Liam and hand him over to her.

  Our arms fall and the two stand there on the edge of the dance floor while I walk away.

  “Grandma?” she asks.

  “Don’t lose my spot. I’ll be right back,” I yell back.

  Going to get my purse, Ethel is still talking to Midge, but everyone thinks she’s delusional and talking to herself since it’s through her new Bluetooth hearing aide.

  “Let’s go,” I whisper.

  Calista walks by with Sedona. I dig into my purse and hand her the child safety pops I’ve been instructed only to give her. Cue rolling my eyes.

  “Go get Aunt Savannah and Uncle Liam to dance together,” I say to Calista.

  She looks to the dance floor.

  “What are you doing, Grandma?” Sedona asks.

  I wave her off.

  “He’s not my uncle,” Calista, my brilliant great-granddaughter, says. Seriously, like genius IQ level this one.

  “Not yet, he’s not. Not yet. Now scoot.” I hand her the lollipop and she skips down the open path taking both their hands and putting them together. When they still don’t dance, she pushes on their butts until they start moving.

  “You’re dangerous,” Sedona says.

  “Best to remember that.”

  Ethel and I walk out with her still talking to Midge about how hot Arizona is. No shit, Sherlock.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Wyatt

  Three days after the wedding…

  * * *

  Austin and Holly’s wedding is
over. The majority of the town traveled to go see their Lake Starlight baseball team win state. Brooklyn and I are still here because the chickens can’t be left alone, but I think that’s more of a blessing.

  “So, what do you have planned tonight?” She hops up on the counter as I’m making myself a sandwich for lunch. She’s been peppy and perky since the wedding.

  “Nothing. Want to watch an Avengers movie?”

  “Avengers?” she cringes.

  “Do you want to watch something else?”

  “I was thinking we could go out to eat. Maybe get some wine or a fancy dessert.”

  Does she really think I’m an amateur at this? Technically, I am. I’ve never asked a woman to marry me before. But I’m not going to put it in a glass or in a dessert for her to choke on. Total cliché.

  She doesn’t know that I know she found the ring, but secrets and Baileys never last long. I overheard them talking.

  “Let’s just get in our pajamas, order a pizza and veg out for the night.”

  “Oh, okay.” She hops off the counter, all pep gone from her step.

  “Did you want a sandwich now though?”

  “No, I’m not hungry. I’m going to go feed the chickens.”

  I watch her go to the little coop we built, and she pulls Manhattan out, letting her roam around the yard.

  I go upstairs and grab the ring, abandoning my sandwich on the counter. I’d do about anything for this woman, including scrapping my original proposal idea. The proposal doesn’t matter, she does.

  “Brook? I have to go into town. Want to come with me?” I holler out of the screen door.

  “No.”

  Well, shit.

  “Come on. It’ll be quick and we can pick up a pie at Lard Have Mercy.”

  She turns and her lips tip up either because she loves pie, or she thinks I’m going to shove the ring into a blueberry pie. She’s wrong. Mostly because there’s no errand to go into town for and there’s no stopping at Lard.

  “Okay.” She puts Manhattan back in the coop and walks up to the backdoor like she’s a child I just told to come in for the night. “Let me wash my hands.”

  I swing the keys around my finger, waiting for her, then we go out to my truck. She climbs in without a word. We drive through downtown Lake Starlight, but I don’t stop.

  “Wyatt, where are you going?”

  “I have somewhere else we have to stop first.” I head down toward our old apartment complex and park the truck. “Come on.” I nod, opening my door.

  She meets me in front of the building, and we stare up at where we first met. “No place has ever held happier memories for me than this place.” I stare up at her apartment. “From the book that was thrown at my head to when I saw you in a wedding dress standing in front of me.”

  “What was it you said?” She’s playing along.

  “I said I thought my worst nightmare had come true.”

  “Right?” She rolls her eyes. “God forbid you get married.”

  I swing my arm around her shoulders. “I feel like a different man. Hell, I am a different man. I never knew what I was missing, that when I met the right person, how much my view on it could change.”

  “It’s not like we’re married,” she says with a tinge of disappointment in her voice.

  I shake my head, my left hand digging into my pocket.

  “Nope, it’s not.”

  “You can still get out if you want. Yeah, there’s the house, but you bought majority.”

  “When will you understand, it’s ours. What’s mine is ours.”

  “I don’t have anything to say what’s mine is ours.”

  “Then how about we just be a whole.” I open my palm and the sun makes the diamond sparkle even more than it did in the store when I chose it.

  “Wyatt!”

  I fall down to one knee and hold the ring out for her. “I fell in love with you here in that small apartment and I plan on falling in love with you more every day for the next sixty or more years. How does that sound?”

  Her left hand shakes while her right hand covers her mouth. Tears well up in her eyes.

  “YES!” she screams, and I slide the ring onto her finger. “This is how it’s supposed to feel,” she mumbles, and my heart almost bursts I’m so happy.

  “Now.” I take her in my arms. “Do you have anything to tell me?”

  She bites her lower lip and shoots those eyes, that make me do about anything, to me.

  “Yes, I know you found the ring. Relieved now?”

  “I just love you so much,” she says.

  I laugh and pull her closer. “The feeling is mutual, my little snoop.”

  “It was purely by accident.”

  “You ruined a great proposal.”

  “Really?”

  “You’ll never know. It might have been a trip to Paris.”

  Her eyes bulge. “Was it?”

  “Who knows. Let’s go home and celebrate.”

  “Are you thinking big wedding?” she asks as we climb into the truck.

  “Whatever you want. I only care that I’m marrying you. We could go somewhere right now if you like. It makes no difference to me.”

  I start the truck and she touches my hand to stop me from shifting gears.

  “Let’s do exactly that.”

  “What?”

  “Just go get married. Us two. No one else.”

  “Now?”

  She nods.

  “What about the chickens?”

  “I’ll call Uncle Brian, he didn’t go to the game. Couldn’t get it off work.”

  “Okay.” I feel my smile inching up at the corners.

  “Really?”

  I lean over my center console and lay my hand on her cheek. “The sooner you’re my wife, the better.”

  I kiss her and then we drive to the house to pack a bag and go off to secretly get married.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Myles and Daisy

  Three weeks after wedding

  * * *

  Myles flops down next to Daisy by the couch. “They’re doing it again.”

  “I have ears.”

  “You wanna do it?” he asks her.

  “No. I’m not having any more of your puppies. I can barely hold my pee now.” Daisy yawns and rolls her head along the blanket.

  “They’re trying for a baby.”

  “What are you, the writer of the Lake Starlight Buzzwheel?”

  Myles rubs his head to Daisy’s. “No, we both know who writes that.”

  “I was joking.” Daisy yawns again.

  “They’re not going to love us when the baby comes.”

  “Holly will always love me. You need to stop sniffing that guy’s crotch and stop jumping on people if you want to stick around.” Daisy’s eyes close.

  “Let’s remember who was here first.” Myles turns his head in the other direction.

  The iPad lights up on the coffee table and Myles gets on all fours and presses the notification with his nose. A new Buzzwheel post lights up the screen.

  * * *

  We’ve got a lot of news today….

  * * *

  We have a new Bailey to join our Lake Starlight population count. Holly Bailey has made it official according to the Division of Motor Vehicles. Congratulations to the happy couple.

  * * *

  And a big congratulations again to the Lake Starlight baseball team for winning state. Thankfully everyone was in agreement to wait to have the parade until after the new Mr. and Mrs. Bailey returned from Hawaii. The parade will be this Saturday at ten in the morning. You don’t want to miss it.

  * * *

  There’s a rumor that we lost a Bailey the same weekend we gained one, but nothing’s been changed down at the DMV yet. Brooklyn isn’t officially a Whitmore just yet, but we’ll see if she decides to change her name.

  * * *

  Have you seen Rome Bailey?? The man is on a mission and we’re liking what we see. Someone snapped a pictur
e of him at the gym with his shirt off and let’s just say, my dad never looked like that.

  * * *

  Rumors continue to swirl around Savannah Bailey and our hot tattoo artist, Liam Kelly. Nothing is official and no one has any credible evidence that anything is going on with them, but they still have people talking. Who could blame Savannah if she’s getting more from Liam than just a house to stay in?

  * * *

  Xo,

  Buzzwheel

  Savannah and Liam… let the war between love and hate begin October 15th!

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  Chapter One

  Early Monday morning I tiptoe down the hall with just a towel wrapped around my body, slide into my bedroom, and slowly close the door. Once it clicks shut, I release the breath I’m holding, hoping I was quiet enough not to wake Liam.

  Getting ready while trying not to make any noise is harder than dragging Grandma Dori out of the Lucky Tavern on dart night. Slowly sliding the hangers over the metal bar, I select the easiest and most loose-fitting outfit from the closet. After Austin’s wedding on Saturday with the heat index the highest it’s been in three summers, I’m bloated. Once I’m dressed, I comb through my long blonde hair hoping it air dries enough to throw up in some sort of updo before I leave because a hairdryer is out of the question this morning.

  I successfully managed to avoid Liam all day yesterday by being out of the house and I don’t plan on running into him today.

  I make my bed, hang the damp towel off a hook on the back of the door then close my closet after grabbing matching heels. I turn to leave but before I do, walk back over to the bed and slide my hand along the comforter to smooth out a wrinkle. I grip the door handle and turn it slowly, halting at the sound of movement.