Hayley grimaced as she looked down at her dress. “Well, at least the men are gorgeous. We look like a Swiss Miss ad.”
“Now, now. You’ve had it in for these dirndls from day one. But admit it. They suit the setting, and the bride.”
“I swear I’m going to start singing ‘Climb Every Mountain’ as I walk down the aisle.”
“Maybe after a couple of drinks at the reception.” Jess scanned the men again. “So I see Decker and Cole. Yum. Which of the other ones is Daniel?”
“The one who out-hots the other three.”
“Ah.” She nodded. “Though he doesn’t quite out-hot Cole. Who’s the fourth guy?”
“Michael. Decker’s partner at their firm.”
Jess did a full circle, looking around. “Did Kyla hire a professional photographer? Because I’m looking at this setting, and those men, and I’m thinking a couple of pictures of this wedding on the Whisper Creek website would do wonders for business.”
“I’m not sure how much more business they can handle at this point, not that that wouldn’t be an excellent problem to have.”
“You never know. Destination weddings are all the rage these days. They could become a destination.” Jess wiggled her eyebrows playfully. “And then you and I can move out here and be the wedding planners.”
“Because I’m such a wedding-ish person?”
“Right.” Jess shook her head. “Never mind. Maybe I’ll move out and be the wedding planner, especially if it means I get to see men dressed like this all the time. And if I just moved here for good, I wouldn’t have to play the airport-hopping game to get here anymore.”
“How many airports did you hit to get here?”
“Five. But I made it.” She glanced at her watch. “Had to shower in the Seattle airport at five o’clock this morning, but here I am.”
“Seattle? That’s west of—”
“Don’t ask. It involved a great deal of eyelash fluttering, and I’m not proud. But I repeat: I’m here.”
Just then two fluffy dresses practically hiding the girls inside came skipping toward Hayley and Jess, braids flying.
“Hi, Hayley!” Gracie and Bryn lurched to a stop. “Kyla’s ready! We’re supposed to give the signal!”
“What’s the signal?” she asked.
“Two thumbs up!” Gracie smiled.
“At the minister,” Bryn added quietly.
Hayley noticed a definite pall under Bryn’s already pale skin. “Wait one sec. Let’s not give the signal quite yet.” She crouched down so she could look into Bryn’s eyes. “Are you okay?”
“My tummy hurts.”
“Does it feel like you swallowed a big pile of crickets?”
Bryn giggled. “No. Feels all swishy-swashy.”
Oh. Great.
Gracie leaned on Hayley’s shoulder. “She gets this way when she’s nervous.” She nodded. “And she is some nervous.”
Bryn grabbed Hayley’s hand fiercely. “There are a bazillion people here.”
“I know. They’re excited to see Kyla and Decker get married. And they’re excited to see you, too.”
“I don’t want to do it anymore.” Bryn shook her head, eyes growing wider. “It’s not a good idea anymore.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Hayley noticed Daniel looking their way, a concerned expression on his face. He started to head around the chairs toward them, but she motioned him back, having the very distinct feeling things would go better for all of them if Bryn couldn’t leap into his arms and back out of this whole wedding business.
Oh, boy. How was she going to get Bryn down the aisle without freaking out or throwing up? She glanced at Jess, who shrugged helplessly, and then something came to her. She took Bryn’s hand.
“I have an idea. Would you like to walk with me down the aisle instead, sweetie? And Gracie can follow after us?”
Bryn looked into Hayley’s eyes, apparently trying to decide whether that terror was all that much better than the other options, but finally she nodded ever so slowly. “Okay,” she whispered.
Hayley pivoted on her heel, managing to bury it one inch deep in grass before she ever started down the aisle. Time to sell it to the other twin, and quickly. She could see Kyla peeking out the French doors of the lodge. “Hey, Gracie, are you ready for an adventure?”
Her eyes sparkled. “Yes!”
“All right. Change of plans. Jess here is going to go first when the music starts, and then I’ll go next with Bryn, and then you can have the aisle all to yourself so you can spread all your petals for Kyla to walk on.”
“Walk by myself?”
As she nodded, Hayley crossed her fingers that Gracie would embrace the plan, most especially because she had no others up her sleeve.
“Yay!” Gracie did a little fist pump, grinning.
“Yes? So we’re good?” Hayley looked from one to the other, noticing for the first time that they were both holding onto her dress. She turned toward Jess, who was smiling widely and looking freakishly adorable in her dirndl, damn her.
“Jess, are you ready?”
“Ready!”
“Okay, girls. It’s time!”
Both girls grinned and peeked down the aisle to locate the minister. Then Gracie appeared to forget the signal they’d worked on just last night. Instead of two-thumbs-up, at the top of her little lungs, she yelled, “We’re ready!”
Chapter 14
Daniel fought a strange sensation in his gut as he watched Hayley with her arms around his girls at the far end of the aisle. He could see that Bryn had suddenly realized this flower girl thing meant walking down an aisle teeming with strangers on both sides, and she was not at all amused.
But then he saw the slightest smile, and she nodded at Hayley, then hugged her tightly. Next, Gracie did a fist pump and adjusted her dress like a grown-up little princess. And then the yelling. He shook his head, but couldn’t stop a smile from taking over his face.
First down the aisle was Jess, looking like a Cherokee princess with her long black hair, dark eyes, and olive skin. Out of the corner of his eye he caught Cole staring like a parched man at a desert mirage, but it seemed too obvious to give him an elbow. Before he could even complete the thought, Hayley started down the aisle, hand closed tightly around Bryn’s.
Bryn still looked terrified, but Hayley leaned down and whispered something in her ear, making her giggle, and then she smiled the whole way down the aisle. Daniel shifted his eyes from his daughter to Hayley, and was floored by the zing he felt fly through his body. What the hell?
She was in a dress she’d called ridiculous, and in all honesty, he’d have to agree with her there. She looked like she was trying out for the part of Maria the governess. But for all of its crazy colors and lines, it set off her red hair and pink cheeks in a way that made her look like a fantasy calendar girl.
They reached the altar end of the aisle, and Bryn looked up at him from under her lashes. He gave her a thumbs-up, and she grinned shyly and returned the gesture. Hayley helped her sit down in the front row beside Gracie, then took her place beside Jess at the altar.
And then the music changed, and Daniel took a deep breath, because this was always the hard part. He’d been to six weddings since Katie’s death, and at every single one of them, he’d felt all antsy when the wedding march started. All he could ever think of was Katie, how she’d looked that day as she came down the aisle, how her face had glowed, how she’d taken his hand at the altar, how her voice had shaken through her vows.
As Kyla came down the aisle, looking sweet and gorgeous at the same time in a white gown she’d apparently ordered from some exclusive Boston bridal shop, Daniel’s eyes should have been firmly on her.
But instead, they were glued on Hayley. Glued on the way her hair cascaded down her back, the way her pink-painted toenails peeked out from her sparkly sandals, the way her cheeks kept flushing when he caught her eye.
And as Kyla took her place beside Decker, Daniel found hims
elf blinking hard. It was Katie he should be thinking about right now—Katie he should be picturing standing at the altar.
Not Hayley.
—
“Aww, she’s so beautiful,” Jess whispered in Hayley’s ear as Kyla made her way slowly toward the altar where they waited. Hayley held her breath, praying that she’d make it all the way down the aisle without tripping. The silk runner was turning out to be a lousy match for the lumpy grass underneath, and Hayley’d almost done another header on her way down the aisle. “I think it’s so sweet that she asked Roscoe to give her away.”
Hayley ripped her eyes away from Daniel’s and grinned as she caught Roscoe’s eye. “Well, it’s kind of a natural choice. That old cop’s the reason they met in the first place, and he’s the one who chased her down last year when she tried to leave.”
“So romantic.” Jess fluttered her hand near her throat, and Hayley could see tears in her eyes. “And that dress. We were so right. She looks like a princess.”
“Jess, hold it together. We haven’t even gotten to the mushy part.” Hayley blinked her own eyes harder than she should have to right now. What in the world? Jess melted at the sight of a bridal gown even if she didn’t know the bride, for goodness sake. But not Hayley. She’d never cried at a wedding.
But this was Kyla, who’d suffered through six levels of hell in the past couple of years and lived to tell the tale—barely. If anyone deserved a happy ending, it was her. That’s why Hayley was all teary, right?
She dipped her head and did a quick pass to wipe the droplets from her cheek while everyone else was looking at Kyla, but as she raised her head, one set of eyes was focused squarely on her.
She wanted to look away, wanted to want to look away, but her eyes had developed their own mind, and they wouldn’t let go of his gaze.
“Just a suggestion,” Jess whispered out of the side of her mouth. “But if you want to convince us you’re not interested in the guy, you might want to stop staring at him so intently.”
Hayley blinked, then shook her head carefully. “Not staring.”
“So are.”
“Shh. Fix her dress.”
Kyla had reached the altar and Decker, and the glow in her cheeks was matched only by the sparkle in her eyes as she placed a kiss on Roscoe’s cheek and took hold of Decker’s hand. Roscoe turned to sit, and as she and Jess straightened Kyla’s train, Hayley’s eyes widened when she realized the old cop was taking out a handkerchief to dab his own eyes.
For the next ten minutes, the minister talked about love and commitment and cherishing and children and family, and usually this was the part Hayley sort of tuned out as she checked out the guests. Today, though, the words found their way through her usual armor and settled themselves uncomfortably in her gut.
Usually she could get through these ceremonies with a minimum of engagement. Just a traditional American rite of passage, she’d think. For which the court system, conveniently, had devised an extraction procedure when things didn’t turn out the way starry-eyed newlyweds thought they would.
It wasn’t that she didn’t wish people well when they got married. It’s just that she more wished they’d clue in and realize marriage wasn’t a solution to some perceived hole in their lives. Wished her female friends would understand that they were stronger on their own than they were as half of a couple.
Jess elbowed her, and Hayley looked up quickly to see Kyla trying to hand Hayley her bouquet. Time for the vows. When Decker pulled out a piece of notebook paper and cleared his throat nervously, Hayley felt her eyes go wide. No way. Decker Driscoll, alpha cowboy of all cowboys, had written his own vows?
“Kyla, I know the last thing you ever expected was that someday you’d marry a cowboy and live in Montana, but I’m humbled and honored that you ever agreed to do either of those things, let alone both. I never expected to be lucky enough to come back here, let alone to get to stay here with the most amazing woman in the world.”
Decker took a deep breath, collecting himself—and Hayley realized she was clutching her bouquet hard enough to snap stems. A pair of chickadees swooped through the wildflower arbor, and Hayley could hear the muted buzz of bees in the meadow around them, but all eyes were on the bride and groom.
Kyla squeezed his hand, and he looked up from his paper, into her eyes. And then there was a moment where it seemed like even the birds stopped singing, and Hayley could swear the guests in their tippy rental chairs stopped breathing all at once.
As Kyla and Decker stood there, seemingly oblivious to their two hundred guests, Hayley put her hand to her chest before she even knew she was doing it, and Jess took hold of her elbow.
Then Decker found his voice again, looking down at the paper, then crumpling it and letting it fall. He took both of Kyla’s hands in his and smiled down at her, and Hayley felt her own heartbeat pounding in her ears.
“Kyla, if you’ll do me the honor of becoming my wife, I promise to try to be the man you deserve, which is a better man than I currently am. I promise to support your dreams and share mine. I promise to chop enough firewood to keep your freezing feet warm all winter and watch at least one cheesy chick flick per month, whether I want to or not.”
The guests laughed with Kyla as he continued. “I promise I will never let anything come between us, including rogue wildlife, blizzards, or even fire. I will let you win at Monopoly—sometimes. And I will eat your campfire cooking, even if it’s terrible. But I will never say it’s terrible.”
Hayley watched Kyla as Decker spoke, and a feeling stole over her that she wasn’t sure she even recognized. It was like a warm blanket settling on her shoulders, and as she watched Kyla’s smile grow wider and wider, and watched Decker’s thumbs stroke her hands as he spoke, and watched the love practically leap out of his eyes, she wondered if maybe, just maybe, she’d been wrong all this time.
Maybe there was love with staying power, and maybe her best friend had found it.
And maybe, just maybe, watching the two of them at the altar made Hayley feel like, for the first time, being alone wasn’t all it was cracked up to be in the end.
She took a shaky breath as Decker paused one last time, then pulled Kyla’s hands up to his heart and covered them with his own. “Kyla, if you’ll have me, I promise to hold you, cherish you, love you, protect you. Forever. If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.”
There was a pregnant pause as he finished, and then Kyla threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. Hayley looked out into the congregation and struggled to find a dry eye, which thankfully made her feel less obvious as she swiped at hers.
Ten minutes later, Jess handed her a tissue. “Here. You’re getting water spots on your dirndl.”
“Hmm?” Hayley tore her eyes away from the happy couple heading back down the aisle toward the main lodge. “I’m smiling, not crying. I can’t believe he quoted Pooh.”
Jess reached up with a tissue and patted Hayley’s cheekbones dry. “I think it was Piglet, actually.” Then she motioned Hayley toward the aisle. “Come on. Our turn.”
Jess took Cole’s arm and headed back up the aisle, leaving Hayley face-to-face with Daniel, who put out his right arm in a gallant gesture as he winked.
“Shall we, dirndl-girl?”
She hooked her hand around his elbow, but instead of leaving his left hand free, he brought it up to cover her hand with a little squeeze. She darted a glance his way, but it almost seemed like he’d done it without thinking. They waited at the altar until Jess and Cole had made their way down the aisle, then started walking.
“No falling, okay?” He glanced over, a smile tugging at his lips as he whispered.
“I’ll do my best.” Hayley looked behind her, where his girls were standing on either side of Michael, ready to take their turn down the aisle. “Bryn and Gracie are a safe distance away this time.”
He squeezed her hand gently. “It’s okay. I’d ca
tch you.”
Hayley swallowed hard at his words, so casual, yet so comforting. When they got to the end of the aisle, she started to pull her arm back to her side, but he gave it another squeeze. “Sorry. You’re stuck with me until we get inside. My girls haven’t managed to break your ankles yet, and I’m not having it on my conscience if it happens on my watch. Plus, we can’t let anything happen to that gorgeous dress.”
She rolled her eyes. “How many hours ’til I get to take it off?”
“Um…”
Her cheeks heated instantly. “I meant…oh, never mind.”
“Just smile, and no one will even notice the dress.” He squeezed her hand again. “Though, if we’re being honest, it’s really not that bad.”
“You’re definitely not being honest, then.”
He pulled away without letting go, and looked her up and down like a cattle appraiser. “Okay, you’re right. I was just trying to be nice.”
Hayley laughed. “Thank you.” They reached the porch, and she knew it was time to separate, but part of her wished she could keep her hand hooked on his arm for just a little bit longer. Or a lot longer. But no. “And now your duties are complete. You’ve delivered me to the lodge, and didn’t even have to catch me once.”
He slid his arm free, smiling. “It’s going to be a long reception. There’s still time.”
Chapter 15
Two hours later, dinner had been cleared, the toasts had been spoken, and the dancing was in full swing in a gigantic tent that had been erected outside the lodge. Kyla and Decker were making their way among the tables, visiting with their guests, and it looked to Hayley like most of Carefree, Montana, was here.
Jess had just headed out onto the dance floor with Cole when Hayley felt a warm hand on her shoulder. Daniel. “So I know you don’t whistle—or cook—but do you dance?”
“On occasion.”
“Would this be one of those occasions?” He put out a hand and raised his eyebrows. “Come dance with me, Hayley.”
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