by Marie Force
“Um, guys,” Regan said from outside the door. “You’ve got a tent full of people waiting for you.”
“We’re coming,” Cameron said.
“No, we aren’t,” Will whispered, “but we will be later.”
Cameron laughed at his shameless comment as he finally put her down. She reached for the door, but he stopped her.
“I need one minute.”
She glanced down at the obvious bulge in his pants and covered her mouth to contain her laughter.
“Keep laughing, and I’ll go out there just like this. Won’t that make a great photo for the wedding album?”
Despite his threats, she couldn’t stop laughing.
When he was ready, he reached around her, opened the door and gave her a light swat on the butt, sending her through the door ahead of him. Outside the tent, their wedding party awaited them.
Regan lined them all up and gave orders to the DJ through her handheld radio.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my pleasure to introduce our wedding party,” the DJ said. “First up, the father of the bride, Patrick Murphy, accompanied by the parents of the groom, Lincoln and Molly Abbott.” Molly walked into the tent escorted by both fathers. “Next we have friends of the bride, Emma Mulvaney and Troy Kennedy. And now, we’ve got a whole bunch of the grooms’ siblings, starting with Lucas and Landon Abbott.” The identical twins walked into the tent holding hands and acting like the buffoons they were to hysterical laughter from the guests. “Let’s see if Hannah Roberts and Hunter Abbott can top that . . .” Unlike their younger siblings, the older set of Abbott twins showed more decorum as they walked into the tent. “Next we have Ella and Max Abbott followed by Charley and Wade Abbott. Let’s put our hands together for our flower girl, Simone Mulvaney!”
Simone went skipping into the tent to thunderous applause.
“She’s eating it up,” Lucy said.
“She’s adorable,” Colton said.
“She’ll be playing wedding every day from now on after this,” Cameron said.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please offer a round of applause for our maid of honor and best man, soon-to-be husband and wife themselves, Lucy Mulvaney, best friend of the bride, and Colton Abbott, brother of the groom!”
“Here we go,” Lucy said, holding hands with Colton as they went into the tent.
EIGHT
TAKING FULL ADVANTAGE of a moment alone, Will put his arms around Cameron and leaned in for a kiss.
Cameron looked up at him. “I never told you how incredibly handsome you look today, or that you were absolutely right about the ties.”
“Absolutely right, huh?”
“Don’t get used to that. I don’t expect it to be a regular thing.”
He was still laughing when the DJ asked everyone to get on their feet to welcome their bride and groom, “Mr. and Mrs. Will Abbott!”
Mrs. Will Abbott . . . Walking into the tent on the arm of her husband, Cameron marveled at the magical atmosphere Regan had created. She’d seen sketches and heard the ideas, but seeing it all come together was nothing short of spectacular. Will’s whispered “Wow” confirmed he was impressed, too.
Everything had been done in shades of gold with fall accents. Tea lights had been strung throughout the tent, which, coupled with the candles and flowers on the tables, contributed to the cozy, intimate feel. Cameron loved it.
They went directly to the dance floor, where their wedding party waited to welcome them for their first dance as husband and wife. After much deliberation, they’d gone with “All of Me” by John Legend, even though Will had joked that every bride and groom in America was currently choosing that song. Cameron had said she didn’t care what anyone else was choosing, because the song was perfect for them.
“You were absolutely right about the song,” he whispered in her ear as they danced. “And PS, I love all your perfect imperfections.”
“Imperfections? What imperfections?”
She loved that potent smile of his, and even more, she loved that she’d get to see it every day for the rest of their lives.
The DJ invited Colton and Lucy to join them on the dance floor, and the four of them finished out the song together. When the song ended and the applause died down, the DJ asked the rest of the wedding party to join the bride and groom on the dance floor for “All You Need Is Love.”
“My dad will love you forever for choosing this song,” Will said as he spun Cameron around.
“That’s why I chose it.”
Naturally, Lucas and Landon hammed it up and had everyone laughing hysterically. Then Landon snagged Regan’s hand and dragged her onto the dance floor, leaving his twin to pout comically on the sidelines while Regan tried to keep up with Landon.
Having been bowled over by an Abbott brother herself, Cameron could empathize with the wedding planner, who didn’t seem to know what had hit her as Landon swung her around.
“Should we rescue her?” Will asked.
“I bet she’s perfectly capable of rescuing herself if need be.”
Regan was saved when the DJ asked Patrick Murphy to join his daughter on the dance floor.
Cameron had left the song choice up to her father and had no idea what he’d chosen.
Patrick approached her, bowed gallantly and extended his hand to her.
Smiling, Cameron stepped into his outstretched arms and held on to him as the first notes of Stevie Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” played.
“How’d I do?” Patrick asked.
“I love it. It’s perfect.”
“It’s true, you know. I may have done a shitty job of showing it at times, but you were always the sunshine in my life, Cam. I hope you know that.”
“I do,” she said, trying frantically not to cry.
Molly had chosen “You’ll Be in My Heart” by Phil Collins for her dance with Will, and watching the two of them laughing and talking as they danced, Cameron was filled with love for both of them.
The DJ asked members of the wedding party to take their places at the head table and called Colton to the microphone, making most of the Abbotts groan.
“Don’t give him a microphone,” Max said.
“No kidding,” Lucas replied.
“I’d rather he have it than any of the three of you,” Will said to his youngest brothers.
“Good point,” Landon said.
“If the peanut gallery is finished . . .” Colton pointed to his younger brothers. “On behalf of Will and Cameron, I’d like to welcome everyone to this very special occasion. Most of all, I’d like to welcome Cameron to the Abbott family, although she’s been one of us pretty much since the day we met her, black eyes and all. For the rest of her life here in Butler, Cam will be known as . . . ‘the girl who hit Fred.’” The entire Abbott family and everyone from town helped Colton finish that sentence, much to Cameron’s pretend dismay.
“Cameron, you already know this, but you got yourself one of the good guys. It goes against everything we believe as Abbotts to say nice things about each other in public, but I’m going to risk the ridicule of my other brothers by saying a few nice things about my brother Will.”
Lucas, Landon, Wade, Max and Hunter booed him and gave him the thumbs-down while Will laughed at all of them and Molly shook her head with exasperation.
“This is what happens when you raise your kids in a barn, Mom,” Colton said to more laughter. “Anyway . . . Cam, there are a few things you ought to know about Will. You already know he’s faithful and always willing to lend a hand to anyone who needs it, especially city girls who smack into moose during mud season. I suppose he’s not hideous to look at, although opinions vary on that.”
“I’m going to kill him,” Lucy muttered, making Will and Cameron laugh.
“Now for the stuff you don’t know . . . Will once won
a hot-dog eating contest by downing thirty-four hot dogs in five minutes. Did you know that?”
“Um, no,” Cameron said, looking at her husband in amazement and disgust.
“It was a dare,” Will said, as if that explained everything.
“Gross,” Cameron said.
“I thought so, too,” Molly said.
“Incidentally, I came in second place with thirty-three,” Colton said.
“Why am I not surprised?” Lucy said. Her fiancé’s appetite was a thing of legend in the Abbott family.
“Did you know, Cameron,” Colton continued, “that Will once climbed a two-hundred-foot evergreen tree, again on a dare, and nearly broke his neck when the top buckled under his weight?”
“I hadn’t heard that one, either.”
“Wrap it up, Colton, before she changes her mind about me,” Will said.
“There’s so much more I could say.”
“But you won’t,” Will said, “because you know I have more on you than you’ve got on me, and your wedding is coming up soon.”
“This is true,” Colton replied gravely, “so I’ll let you find out the rest on your own, Cam. I’ll close by saying you’ve married one of the finest guys I’ve ever known, and risking a lifetime of ridicule from the peanut gallery, I’ll add that I love you both and wish you all the best. To Will and Cameron.” After everyone had toasted, Colton called his fiancée to the microphone. “Luce? Your turn.”
Lucy took the microphone from him. “Go sit down and try to behave.”
“Well, that’s no fun.”
“I’m sorry about him,” she said to laughter. “I’m doing what I can to fix him.”
“Good luck with that,” Lucas said, earning him a slap upside the head from Colton as he passed behind him.
“Will and Cameron, thank you so much for making us all a part of your special day. Colton talked about his brother, and it’s my job to tell you about the bride, my best friend, a sister of my heart, and soon to be my sister-in-law. Funny how that worked out, right?”
“I love it!” Cameron said.
“Me, too,” Colton added to more laughter.
“When Cameron first told me about this guy she’d met in Vermont, I was skeptical. Cameron’s a city girl through and through, or so I thought, until I saw her here in Butler with Will, immersed in the Abbotts and captivated by the family business. That’s when I realized she wasn’t a city girl after all. She’s a Butler girl, and now she’s an Abbott. For as long as I’ve known Cam, she’s longed for the kind of family she’s now a part of, and I want to thank you all for giving her that. To you guys it’s just another day in Abbott land, but for someone who never had siblings or a mother, you can’t possibly know what it means to her to be a part of this incredible family. So on behalf of all the people who love her, I ask you to take good care of her. She means the world to us.”
Cameron leaned into Will’s one-arm embrace as she wiped away tears.
“Will, I might’ve been skeptical at first, but five minutes after I met you, I knew you were it for my girl. I’ve not had one minute of doubt on her behalf since then. I hope you will always be as happy as you are today. I love you both. To Will and Cameron.”
As everyone raised their glasses once again, a disturbance at the entrance to the tent had a few people screaming and everyone else on their feet to see what was going on.
“Oh. My. God.” Cameron couldn’t believe it when Fred the Moose strolled into the tent like he’d been invited to the wedding.
“No way,” Will said, equally stunned.
And then Hannah was on her feet and moving swiftly toward the moose, who stopped in his tracks at Hannah’s command.
“Hannah!” Nolan shouted. “Don’t move!” He vaulted over the table where he’d been sitting with Molly, Lincoln, Elmer, Megan and Patrick, and put himself between his petite wife and the massive moose. “What’ve I told you about taking on that moose?”
As if her husband hadn’t spoken, Hannah stepped around him. “Fred, this is a private party, and you weren’t invited. Now turn around and go on home.” The wedding guests were barely breathing as they waited to see what the gigantic moose would do.
“Moo.”
“Fred . . .”
“Moo.”
Cameron had a sinking feeling that her resident moose stalker was looking for her. “Let me talk to him.”
“No, Cameron,” Will said. “Stay right here.”
“If he’s looking for me, maybe he’ll go home if I say hello.”
“I don’t want you anywhere near him.”
“He’s not going to hurt me.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“Yes, I do.” Cameron figured he’d already had ample opportunity to hurt her, and he never had before. “Let me go.”
“I’m going with you.”
Hand in hand, they walked around the head table and across the dance floor to where Hannah and Nolan had stopped Fred from progressing any farther into the tent.
“Hi, Fred,” Cameron said, feeling like an idiot to be actually talking to a moose.
“Moo.”
The loud noise from the moose had Cameron swallowing hard and forcing herself to continue. “Thanks for stopping by to wish us well, and thanks again for that night in the mud. I’m sorry if my car hurt you, but you did me a super-big favor, even if you don’t realize it.”
“You did me a favor, too,” Will said. “We owe you big-time.”
Cameron summoned the courage to reach out and stroke the moose’s snout, causing him to let out a gentle moo that sounded more like a coo of pleasure.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Lincoln said. “I was right. He does have a crush on her!”
“Sorry to say she’s taken, old man,” Will said.
Before their eyes, Fred sighed, deeply, and turned around, making an older woman shriek as he came a little too close to where she was sitting. He left the way he’d come. No one in the tent moved or spoke until Fred disappeared into the woods.
Nolan broke the silence. “You and I are going to have a conversation about this moose-whisperer business when we get home. Do you hear me?”
Hannah smiled sweetly at him. “Yes, dear.”
“She’s humoring me, isn’t she?”
Cameron laughed as relief coursed through her. Fred had come, he’d seen her and he’d left without incident. “I believe you’re correct about that, Nolan.”
“I couldn’t believe when you touched him,” Will said. “I swear my heart stopped for a minute.”
“Don’t let that happen. I need that heart beating for the next sixty or seventy years.”
“Then stay away from that moose.”
“He’s stalking me!”
“It’s because you flirt shamelessly with him. I feel for him. You’re pretty hard to resist when you let loose with those eyes of yours.”
Before Cameron could work up an indignant reply to that, the DJ interrupted them when he started the music up again, urging everyone to get up and dance until dinner was served.
The dance floor quickly filled with couples—Lincoln and Molly, Nolan and Hannah, Hunter and Megan, Cameron and Lucy, Max and Chloe, and Patrick, who had asked Mary to dance.
“What’s the matter?” Will asked, following her gaze to where Patrick and Mary were having an animated conversation as they danced.
“I don’t like that.”
“What? Your dad dancing with Mary?”
“Yeah.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t want him to break her heart.”
“They’re just dancing, Cam.”
“He met her the other day at the office and said she’s adorable. I told him then to leave her alone. She’s a nice person, and he’s a love-’em-and-leave-’em charmer.”
“It’s a dance, hon. I think she’s safe.”
“For now,” Cameron said. “But I’ll be watching him to make sure that’s all it is.”
“Isn’t he leaving tomorrow?”
“That’s the plan.”
“I don’t think you need to worry.”
Cameron didn’t pursue it any further with Will, but she vowed to keep a close eye on her father for the rest of the evening to make sure he didn’t step out of line with Mary.
Toward the back of the tent, she watched Gavin Guthrie approach Ella Abbott. He gestured to the dance floor. She crossed her arms and shook her head. He said something else to her, causing her to shake her head again. Gavin walked away from her, his shoulders slumped.
Ella watched him go, looking heartbroken and despondent.
Well, Cameron thought, wasn’t that interesting? She’d have to get to the bottom of that situation after they returned from their honeymoon.
“Where’d you go?” Will asked against her ear, sending a cascade of goose bumps down her back.
She looked up at him. “I’m right here with you, my love.”
“Then you’re right where you belong.”
NINE
THEY ATE, THEY drank, they danced, they laughed, they cried, they posed for a million pictures, they tossed her bouquet, which Mary caught, and they loved every minute of their wedding. The DJ ended the dancing at midnight with “In My Life” by the Beatles, a dedication from the father of the groom to the happy couple.
After one last dance, they tearfully said their good-byes to friends and family—as well as Trevor and Tanner, who were going to spend the next two weeks with Lincoln and Molly—and headed for the cabin to pick up their bags. They had hired a car service to drive them to Burlington to spend their wedding night at the family’s lake house. They would fly to Fiji on Patrick’s plane the next morning.
The second the door closed behind them, Will had her in his arms for a passionate kiss that had her clinging to him, responding to every stroke of his tongue with one of her own.
“God, I needed that,” he whispered many minutes later.
