Wedding Mints and Witnesses

by Kelsey Browning

  Worry shadowed the dispatcher’s eyes. “Yes, but he hasn’t wanted to see much of anyone. You ask me, he looked like he swallowed one of those Japanese balloon fish things.”

  Great, she’d made the man she loved look as if he’d eaten a big plate of poisonous blowfish. Shame on her. But she put an extra push in her smile for Gloria and strode down the hall like she owned the place. Just because she was in the wrong didn’t mean she had to act like a whipped dog.

  But when she opened the door to Teague’s office, her resolve almost crumbled. He was sitting behind his desk, his eyes closed and shoulders hunched. He rubbed an absent hand across the bridge of his nose, and the shadows beneath his eyes made him look ten years older.

  “Teague?” she said quietly. Her heart ached knowing she’d caused his pain.

  He jerked straight so fast it sent his desk chair rocking wildly. “Jenny, I was… You look…”

  “Like a rational human being?”

  “I was going to say beautiful.”

  This man would never stop melting her heart. “Thanks.” Feeling suddenly unsure, she said, “Do you have time to take a drive with me?”

  If she’d thought his chair was out of control before, when he stood, it rotated like a supercharged carnival ride. “If you have bad news—like you’ve made a final decision bad news—I want you to just break it to me. Now.”

  She held out her hand, and he rounded his desk, one careful step at a time. How could she blame him for being cautious around her? She’d hurt him terribly, and it was time for her to make it right. With everyone. “Come with me to Summer Haven. I need to talk to Mom and pick up Grayson.”

  “Okay.”

  A few minutes later, they parked in front of the massive white house, and Jenny reached into the back seat to grab the wedding planner Lil had dropped off.

  “What’s that?” Teague asked.

  “You’ll see.” She scrambled out of the vehicle, carrying the glossy white book in her arms.

  They knocked on the front door, but no one answered. “Think it’s breaking and entering if we go on in?” she asked Teague. “They have to be here. Mom’s and Maggie’s trucks are both here.” Any other time she’d have knocked and just walked in, but after her recent behavior she’d rather receive the invite to come in.

  “With these gals it’s more like our civic duty to check to see what they’re up to.” He snorted. “Did I ever tell you about the time Lil and Maggie were up on the porch roof with chain saws?”

  He was right. There was never any telling the type of trouble her mom and her friends might be up to. She knocked again, then went inside, but it was quiet.

  “Mom?” Jenny called out.

  The sound of the kitchen door slamming made her wonder if her mom had just made a hasty exit.

  She and Teague walked down the hallway that bisected the first floor. Everyone, including Grayson and the two dogs, were streaming into the house from the backyard.

  Thank goodness. “Hi. No one answered so I let myself in. I hope you don’t mind,” she said tentatively. “I wanted to talk to you.” She looked toward Lil first, then bravely toward her mother. “To apologize.”

  “Welcome home, dear,” Lil said with a nervous glance toward the others.

  “What have y’all been up to?” Jenny asked. “You look guilty.”

  Surprised looks bloomed on the three women’s faces, but Grayson gave out a whoop and ran her way. When he wrapped his arms around her middle, she grabbed on to him and held him tight. Bowzer danced around them, trying to find an opening to insert himself into the hug. Finally, Jenny released her son and gave Bowzer a good head scratch. “I’ve missed y’all.”

  “Us too,” Grayson declared. “I like it here, but Mimi cooked something last night.” He leaned in close to Jenny and stage-whispered, “I don’t think it was supposed to be black or crunchy.”

  “Why don’t you see if Miss Lillian and Miss Maggie would be willing to go upstairs to help you and Bowzer pack?”

  Maggie and Lil immediately caught the hint and scurried to lead Grayson out of the room.

  “Mom, can we talk?”

  Teague placed a protective hand on her back, and it gave her strength.

  Her mom’s clothes were rumpled, and her hair was a mess. Her skin matched the color of the gray T-shirt she was wearing. The pinched expression on her face was so unlike her. It wasn’t one of annoyance—those were fairly normal. This was an expression of fear and worry.

  “Please?” Jenny motioned to the kitchen table.

  Teague went into action, pulling out chairs for them both. He said, “I’ll just head to the parlor and—”

  Jenny grabbed his arm before he could leave. “No, this is about you too.”

  “Okay.”

  Jenny sat and swung the big white book onto the table with a thump, and Teague scooted in her chair. Did the same for her mom before he sat.

  Mom eyed the thick wedding planner. “Guess you came to give that back to Lil.”

  “Nope,” she said, “I came to give it back to you.”

  Abby Ruth held her hands in front of her like she was warding off a voodoo spell. “I don’t want it. I didn’t want it in the first place.”

  “Are you sure?” Jenny asked. “Because it might be hard to pull off this wedding without all these notes and checklists.”

  Her mom’s attention shot from the planner to Jenny’s face, and her expression was a combination of caution and hope. “Are you saying the wedding is back on?”

  “I am, and I think you’re going to need this.” She handed over the thick book. “That is, if you’ll help me. Please?”

  Abby Ruth snatched the book from Jenny’s hands and hugged it to her chest. “I’m rehired as the wedding coordinator?”

  “I’d love nothing more than you to help me with the most important day of my life. Do you want the job back?”

  “Hell, yes!”

  “Then it’s all yours, Mom. I love you, and I want to put the past behind us and start fresh. All of us.”

  Jenny knew everything would be okay when her mom’s mouth lifted into a broad smile. “I didn’t think you’d ever forgive me.”

  “There’s no changing the past. Didn’t you always teach me that it doesn’t matter what goes wrong but how you handle it when it does?”

  “I’m so sorry I made such a mess of things, but I promise you it was with good intentions. At the time I really believed I was doing what was best.”

  “I know, Mom.”

  “And I know now that it wasn’t for the best. It was unfair to you and to Red. To us all.”

  “No looking back,” Jenny said. “Maybe we can tell Red together.”

  “He’ll be so happy.” Abby Ruth got up, carrying the wedding planner under one arm. “The girls will be happy too.” She called out, “Lil! Maggie!”

  Footsteps echoed from upstairs. Bowzer was the first to appear, sliding along the kitchen’s slick wooden floors and thudding into a table leg.

  Abby Ruth set the wedding planner on the table just as Grayson came bounding in with Maggie and Lil following behind him.

  “Please tell me y’all haven’t cancelled the wedding vendors yet,” Abby Ruth said to Lil.

  “Are you saying…?” Lil’s eyes twinkled and her lips moved, but it was as if she was afraid to utter the words.

  “The wedding is back on,” Abby Ruth said, pumping her fists in the air.

  “Does this mean we get to have the doves?” Grayson hollered.

  “If you can find some, I’ll release them,” Abby Ruth said, and shouts of joy echoed throughout Summer Haven.

  * * *

  With all the wedding prep in recent days, Lil was taking a much-needed break in one of the front porch rockers when Maggie pulled up in front of the house. She emerged from the truck with boxes piled high in her arms, and she bumped the truck door closed with her butt.

  “What in blazes is all that?” Lil called out.

  The boxes tee
tered, and Maggie executed a nimble shuffle-ball-change to steady them. “I’ve been shopping.”

  “I can see that.” Lil jumped from her chair and met Maggie at the steps. “Let me take a couple of those before you kill your fool self.”

  Maggie rebalanced the remaining items. “There’s more in the back of the truck.”

  Lil cocked her head, reading the label on the side of one of the boxes. “Stuffed animal hidden cameras?”

  “Bruce found all this stuff for us on Craigslist. And it’s not costing us a cent.”

  “I never trust free,” Lil said with a sniff and set aside her load.

  “He paid for it, and I’m helping him fix his garage door and put up some shelves. Easy as pie, but you know he’s not all that handy, so it’s a win-win.”

  “No man is handy in comparison to you,” Lil said.

  “I’ll take that as a compliment.” Maggie carefully lowered the boxes onto the front porch decking.

  “As you should,” Lil said. “Now what the heck are we doing with boxes of hidden cameras?”

  “With these, we’ll have this place totally covered for the wedding. Everything is wireless, and Bruce will be able to watch live footage and record too. He’s so amazing.”

  “You’re so smitten.”

  Maggie beamed. “He’s great. I love spending time with him, and we’re having fun working on this plan.”

  “I’m happy for you, Mags.” Lil poked inside a box and pulled out something fuzzy that she couldn’t quite identify. “Where’s the camera?”

  “Behind the eyes.”

  That was a tad creepy. “Will we have to dissect the animals to remove the cameras so we can use them at the wedding?”

  “Well…not exactly. Bruce said the way they’re made, the transmission devices are wired in the threading. We need to keep them intact.”

  “And how do you expect to spy on people with dozens of stuffed animals?”

  “We’ll use them as table centerpieces.”

  Lil’s burst of laughter caused Ritter to howl and come running to the front door. “You don’t think that will be the least bit suspicious?”

  “Stop laughing. This will work. And if you want to talk about suspicious, let’s chat about Ritter. Why is he in the house?”

  “Don’t change the subject. We’re discussing this surveillance scheme of yours.”

  “I’ll make it work.” Clearly hurt, Maggie gathered up her boxes and hugged them in her arms. As she scrambled to get inside the house with her bargains, Ritter lumbered out while the door was still open.

  “Thanks a lot, you traitor. I told you this was just between us,” Lil said to the mutt. He pushed his nose under her hand, and she gave him a scratch. “You’re a good boy.” She walked out into the yard. “Come on, Ritter.”

  He made a poor attempt to hop down the front steps, ears flopping, then trotted alongside her to the backyard. She put him inside the garage. “Don’t look at me like that with those eyes. I’m on to you.”

  She never thought a dog could capture her heart like this. She reached into her pants pocket and tossed a cookie into the air. Ritter snapped it mid-fall, and it was gone in one gulp. “What did I tell you about chewing your food?”

  Ritter sat and let out a woof.

  “Who’s training who here?” she scolded him but reached into her pocket and tossed another cookie. Ritter caught this one and gave two good chomps before licking his lips. “That’s a good boy.”

  Maggie came out the back door. “Are you out here talking to the dog?”

  “Of course not. Just putting the stinky mutt back where he belongs.” Ritter plopped down with a whimper, and she tried not to make eye contact with him. That dog seemed to understand everything she said.

  “Okay, well, Bruce is on his way over to help me hook everything up, but I want to install the two cameras on the roof before he comes. I hate to make him feel bad, but there’s no way he can get up on that roof. As uncoordinated as he is, he’d fall and hurt himself for sure.”

  “Wouldn’t do much for his ego to see you up there either,” Lil said.

  “Exactly. Can you help me with the big ladder?”

  “Sure.” Lil followed Maggie into the garage, avoiding Ritter’s baleful stare the entire time. Together they eased the ladder onto their shoulders and carried it out to the front of the house without much problem.

  “Thanks, Lil. If you can steady the ladder, I’ll grab the cameras and install these two quickly.” Maggie clipped a hot pink carabiner to her belt and slipped on two teddy bears by the ribbons around their necks. With the bears dangling from her belt like drunken pandas, she climbed the ladder with the ease of a seasoned firefighter.

  Pride swelled in Lil’s chest. Maggie never stopped amazing her. In her seventies, this woman could still do most things younger women would struggle with. Lil pressed her weight against the ladder to ensure Maggie’s safety.

  A horn honked twice from the driveway. Turning in expectation of Bruce Shellenberger’s arrival, Lil was surprised to see Teague getting out of his sheriff’s cruiser.

  “What are you two up to now?” He asked, his tone tight.

  “Hey, Teague.” Lil wiggled her fingers. That man had the most impeccable timing. This wasn’t the first time she and Maggie had been caught on the roof. Of course, last time they’d done it on purpose to trick him into trimming the trees for them. That was before Lil had realized how self-sufficient she and her friends were as a team.

  Maggie clomped around on the porch roof muttering and hopefully coming up with a story Teague would believe.

  “Please tell me you don’t have a chain saw up there again,” Teague called up to her, taking off his hat and tossing it on the ground beside the ladder. Then he put his foot on the first rung.

  “What are you doing?” Lil asked him. “We have this under control.”

  He didn’t slow down for a nanosecond, and soon he was on the porch roof. “And what exactly is it you’re doing up here? Wait. Are those stuffed animals on your belt?”

  Lil backed away from the house far enough to get a look at a stunned Maggie and an accusatory sheriff.

  “I’m putting in a security system,” Maggie said matter-of-factly. “Can’t be too careful these days.”

  “You think those fuzzy bears on the roof will scare people off?”

  “Doesn’t seem to be working on you, but then you’re one of the good guys.”

  “Thanks,” he said. “I think.”

  Maggie smiled and went about the business of positioning teddy bears strategically at the roof corners.

  Lil shielded her eyes to check Maggie’s work. From here the nanny cams didn’t look like more than clumps of leaves or small squirrels. No one would even notice.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  For three solid days since Jenny had announced the wedding was back on, Abby Ruth and the girls had been pretending to consult with Honey and marking off tasks in that gigantic wedding planner at a pace that would have impressed even Elisabeth with an S.

  They’d had to work quickly, but Abby Ruth and Jenny had taken time to go to Red’s house together and let him know the wedding was back on. He’d been so touched that he’d pulled them both into a hug that went on for nearly a minute. Abby Ruth’s breath caught remembering the look on Red’s face when Jenny asked if the two of them, together, could give her away at the wedding.

  In that one moment it was as if all the years they’d been apart had disappeared. And Red had sure stepped up to the plate to help out with all the wedding prep that needed to get done. He’d become chief runner and fetcher.

  With his help, they’d made up lost ground and added some touches, like the lavender sachets Lil wanted but Abby Ruth had vetoed before. It took him trips to four stores to gather enough light blue tulle circles for the wedding, but he’d taken the task as seriously as the World Series.

  They’d even conjured up some white doves. Only six, but that would have to do. A promise was a
promise, and Abby Ruth had no intention of ever letting Grayson down.

  They’d just finished working on the menu for the rehearsal dinner when Sera walked into Summer Haven with a huge box.

  “UPS just showed up.” Sera hugged the package to her chest. “I thought this would be all for nothing when the wedding was cancelled, but now it’s just in time.”

  “Something for the wedding?” Abby Ruth asked.

  “Kind of.” Sera handed it to Abby Ruth. “It’s for you.”

  “What is it?”

  “Open the box and see.”

  Maggie grabbed the scissors from the knife block on the counter and handed them to Abby Ruth. “Here you go.”

  Abby Ruth sliced through the tape and opened the flaps. “Is this a garment bag? Sera, Jenny already has a dress.”

  “It’s not for Jenny. It’s a mother-of-the-bride dress.”

  Hell’s bells, she hated to hurt Sera’s feelings, but there was no way she was wearing a dress.

  “I know what you’re thinking, but take a look at it first. You’re in for a surprise.” She pressed her fingers together like she was praying. “Please. Just trust me.”

  The zipper released with the ease of melting butter, and inside the bag was a long, slim dress in a western cut, covered with bugle beads the color of bluebonnets. “What in the world?”

  “You can wear your favorite boots with this dress,” Sera told her. “Pull it out of the bag and turn it around.”

  “Wow.” No other word could describe the back of the elegant dress. It had a cutout the shape of the Texas star. Unique and sexy and so her. “I have to admit, it’s pretty.” A grin spread wide on her face as she held it up to her body. This was a dress she could see herself wearing. “My black boots would look nice.”

  “That dress will look great on you. Go try it on.”

  “Where in the world did you find something like that?” Lil asked Sera.

  “Do you remember the year Jessie Wyatt was up for an Academy Award?” Sera asked.

  Maggie’s jaw dropped. She looked at Sera, then back at the dress. “Of course! I knew I’d seen something like that before. This was the dress she wore.”