Wedding Cake

by Josi S. Kilpack

  They said their good-byes, and Pete, Brooke, Jared, and Maggie left. Shawn and Liam checked all the doors and windows of Gayle’s house, and Liam had a final conversation with the security guard who would stay in the living room all night. Sadie got ready for bed and then waited for a text from Pete assuring her that everyone was safely at the hotel.

  Sadie: Good. I’ll see you in the morning.

  Pete: I’m counting on it. Until tomorrow . . .

  Sadie: Until tomorrow. Good night.

  Chapter 26

  Malloy entered the conference room of the police station, a sterile white-walled room located at the back of the building, at 9:06. Around the table were seated Pete and Sadie, Sadie’s children and Liam, and Pete’s children and spouses. Maggie was still at the hotel, even though Sadie had said she could come if she wanted to. She’d deferred, saying that this was a family thing. Everyone present was both eager and anxious as they watched Malloy take the empty chair at the head of the table.

  “So,” he said once he sat down. “Anything out of the ordinary this morning?”

  Everyone looked at everyone else, waiting for someone to speak up but there was no response.

  “I guess not,” Pete finally said. “We’ve all been very vigilant but things seem to be . . . back to normal.”

  “Which is probably exactly what Jane wants us to think,” Shawn cut in. “She hasn’t left.”

  “She might have,” Brooke said. “With the amount of pressure put on her yesterday, I can’t imagine she’d still be here. The whole town is on alert, and there was an article in this morning’s Post.”

  “She hid out for two years,” Shawn reminded her.

  “But there’s nowhere left for her to hide.”

  “Maybe, but then again how did she get out of town without her car?” Shawn countered. “The woman’s diabolical. Who knows how many contingencies she planned for.”

  Breanna cleared her throat and spoke before Brooke could continue the argument. “I think we can all agree that we can’t know for sure whether or not Jane’s still in town so we have to proceed as though she is.”

  As usual, Breanna was the voice of reason. Everyone nodded in agreement, though some were reluctantly offered. To plan with any other option in mind was foolish.

  “So, how do we move forward?” Jared asked. “Is the wedding going to happen?”

  No one spoke up right away, and Sadie met Pete’s eyes across the table. It seemed no one wanted to be the one to take accountability for saying either yes or no. After a few seconds, Sadie cleared her throat. “That’s such a hard question to answer,” she said. “Of course we want the wedding to happen, but not if it’s dangerous, and, like Breanna pointed out, we have to assume that Jane’s still a factor.”

  “We have to further assume that if she’s still in town and still determined to make good on her threats, she could very well be waiting for the wedding itself to make her next move,” Pete said. “Since nothing else seemed to have worked for her the way she wanted to, this is kind of her last chance.”

  “Which means we can’t have the wedding,” Brooke added, shaking her head. “We can’t risk it.”

  “No, we have to have the wedding,” Shawn said, capturing everyone’s attention and causing Brooke to frown. “If Jane’s going to use the wedding as her big moment, it’s our chance to put an end to this.”

  “At what cost?” Brooke said, sounding frustrated.

  “At what cost do we cancel it?” Shawn countered. Sadie could tell he was trying to keep his tone conciliatory. “Using the actual wedding as her stage is exactly the kind of attention Jane wants, so let’s give her the rope to hang herself with.”

  Brooke was shaking her head before Shawn even finished. “This isn’t a game.”

  Shawn leaned across the table. “No, it’s not, but—”

  “What about a fake wedding?” Breanna broke in, sending Shawn a big-sister look that showed she was not impressed with the way he was handling the conversation. Shawn sat back but didn’t push the issue, for which Sadie was grateful. She didn’t want hard feelings between anyone here—especially soon-to-be stepsiblings. Breanna continued, “We replace the guests with police officers, but for all intents and purposes it’s still the wedding—or, as Shawn said, the rope.”

  “We’d have this fake wedding at the same time and place?” Sadie asked.

  Breanna nodded. “We’d want it to look as though nothing had changed, that we took Jane at her word and assumed she was gone so we kept everything as planned.”

  “Except that it’s fake?” Brooke asked. She seemed open to the idea.

  “It’s arranged like a sting or something.” Breanna gestured with her hands to indicate that she didn’t know exactly what to call it. “With the hope that Jane shows up.”

  “And if she does, she’s surrounded by cops,” Shawn said, his face brightening with the prospect.

  Breanna nodded. “Right.”

  “It’s worth exploring,” Malloy said, surprising Sadie with his agreement to such an unconventional idea. “Let’s brainstorm some details of how it would work to see if it’s a real possibility.”

  For the next half an hour they discussed details and options, and everyone seemed to be on board with the idea. Immediate family would attend for authentication purposes, though no children, as well as the police officers already on the guest list. Malloy felt certain he could find an additional forty cops to sit in as the other guests, and Heather and Michelle volunteered to call all the real guests and explain that the actual wedding would be held at a later date. People would be disappointed, but they all loved Sadie and Pete so they’d certainly understand. The caterers would still be on hand; the new cake Rachel had made would sit on the table in the corner just as planned.

  Malloy would hold a special meeting a couple of hours before the ceremony where he could prepare everyone who was going to attend. Liam would coordinate with Allen Security to man the exterior since Jane would likely expect that. The excitement built and the plan came together rather seamlessly, but something ate at Sadie until she finally raised her hand to get everyone’s attention.

  “This is all great,” she said with a smile. “And I so appreciate everyone coming together to plan this out.”

  “But?” Shawn prompted her when she paused.

  “But, if we’re going through all this trouble to stage a fake wedding, why not make it a real one?”

  Everyone remained silent so she continued, “If we don’t catch Jane today—heaven forbid—we’ll be right back where we are now, scared and worried about putting people at risk with another wedding.” She looked at Pete who nodded to let her know he supported this idea. “We’ve paid for everything that will be utilized in this fake wedding and to make it seem real we’ll have our closest family members there, we’ll be saying all the same things we’d say for a real wedding, doing all the same things we’d do for a real wedding, and Jane might not show up at all. So, why not make it the real thing and avoid putting on a show with something this special?”

  “With cops as the guests?” Jared asked.

  Sadie nodded. “To make up the difference, yes. We still keep it to immediate family”—she thought of Gayle—“and a few select friends. We do everything we’ve discussed here: security, extra police instead of those guests who won’t be there, same time, same place, videographer, lunch. But we have a real officiator, and we make real vows to one another.”

  “If we do a fake wedding and catch Jane, you could have the real wedding tomorrow,” Shawn said. He was obviously unaware of the planning that went into a wedding, but the point he was making was a reasonable one.

  “A real wedding consists of Pete, me, an officiator, and you guys,” Sadie said, glad she’d had the chance to talk to Gayle yesterday and make that realization before this moment. “If we make the vows to one another, it’s real. Quite frankly it feels extremely awkward to playact this in front of everyone only to do the real thing at a later d
ate.”

  “And what if Jane shows up and turns your real wedding into a circus?” Jared asked. His wife, Heather, nodded in agreement. She wasn’t the only one. But Pete and Shawn were watching Sadie carefully, and she could read that they were thinking deeply on her suggestion, weighing it out, and, she hoped, seeing the wisdom in it.

  “If Jane shows up before we’ve taken our vows, we’ll have to have another wedding later on. But Jane could be states away by now, taking satisfaction in the fact that she ruined the wedding without even having to be there to do it. I just think that if we’re going to go to the trouble of a wedding, why not make it stick?” She looked at Pete.

  “Dad?” Pete’s daughter, Michelle, said. “What do you think?”

  “I’ve never cared that much for the wedding part,” he said with a shrug. He didn’t meet Sadie’s eyes, which was a good thing as she was mildly offended. “It’s the marriage that matters to me and making this a real wedding takes care of that. I agree that playacting something so important is not something I look forward to doing. I think as long as Malloy’s team is onboard and you kids will be there, this is a good solution.”

  “And hopefully Jane will stay away and everything will go smoothly,” Liam said, sharing in Breanna’s optimism. Breanna smiled at her new husband, and Sadie wondered if she and Liam were reflecting on their perfectly imperfect wedding, which had been thrown together in a matter of hours.

  Sadie knew Shawn was right that the wedding was the perfect stage for Jane to get all the attention she could want, to claim all that power. Still, all the effort of going through with a wedding ought to at least have the potential of resulting in her and Pete becoming husband and wife. Even without birdseed party favors and monogramed napkins.

  “I think it could work,” Malloy said. “I know a few ordained officers who could conduct the ceremony.”

  “Could I ask my pastor first?” Sadie asked.

  Malloy frowned. “He’s not a trained police officer.”

  “But he is my pastor, and he’s been planning to marry us. Let me at least explain the situation and see what he says. If he’s the least bit uncomfortable with it, I’ll ask you to help me find someone else.”

  Malloy didn’t seem pleased, but Sadie was beginning to think he simply hated every idea she came up with so she didn’t take it personally. And he was softer today. Ever since the showdown in Pete’s backyard, things had felt a little different between them. He looked at the clock on the wall. “It’s nearly ten,” he said. “I’d like to have any civilian guests here at the station at noon where I’ll brief them on what to expect. Does that give you enough time to inform your guests?” He looked at Pete, not Sadie, which was a reminder of whose opinion mattered to him the most, but Sadie let it go.

  “We’ll make sure it is,” Pete said. He turned to his kids, who nodded their agreement to help.

  “Alright,” Malloy said with a nod. “I need to get some approvals, but I think we can make this work. Due to the time restraints, I feel we should proceed as though it will happen while I work on getting the clearances we need. Pete, why don’t you stay here and help me get a wedding party together. We can put in a call to Fort Collins and Sterling; I’m sure they can make some officers available. Seeing as how the feds are already involved—thanks to Pete’s drug charges—it shouldn’t be hard to get some agents up here as well.”

  “And they get free lunch,” Brooke said, looking between Sadie and Pete for confirmation. “The caterers are still onboard for lunch, right?”

  “Yes,” Sadie said. “Lunch will be provided. I have a couple more people to confirm with today, but everything seems to be ready to go.”

  “I’ll confirm anything you didn’t get to yesterday,” Breanna said.

  Malloy turned to Sadie. “You’ll need to be careful for the next few hours. No taking chances.”

  “I know,” Sadie said.

  “We’ll stay with her,” Shawn said. “We’ll make sure she’s safe. No one’s going to be taking chances this close to game time.”

  Malloy nodded. “Well then, I guess we’re going to have a wedding.”

  Sadie met Pete’s eyes and smiled. He smiled back and winked, then she looked at the clock and felt the first pre-wedding jitters start funneling in. “Oh my gosh,” she said as everyone began to stand. Only a few of them heard her and turned with expectant looks. “I’m getting married today! I’ve completely forgotten to be nervous.”

  Breanna and Brooke looked at each other and laughed.

  “In, like, four hours!” she added, feeling the blood drain from her face. “How on earth am I going to get ready in time?” She hadn’t heard back from her hairdresser, but she was supposed to be there in ten minutes. And there were a hundred other things she’d need to do that hadn’t even been thought of yet.

  “Call Gayle,” Breanna suggested. “You did say she was your fairy godmother, right?”

  Sadie relaxed a little bit. Gayle could work miracles, and there was still time for Sadie to make the hair appointment. Pete and Malloy would fill the seats, and the kids would inform the guests and take care of the last few confirmations. All that was left for Sadie to do was get herself ready—Gayle would help with that, too—and be to the reception hall on time.

  It’s happening, she thought as she stood. It’s really happening.

  Chapter 27

  The clock in the foyer of the North Hampton Reception Center said 1:59 when Sadie put her right arm through Shawn’s and her left arm through Breanna’s. She looked between both her children and blinked back the tears that would ruin the makeup Gayle had so perfectly applied. “I hope you two know how much I love you,” she said, trying to keep her wobbly voice under control.

  Shawn gave a dramatic eye roll. “We know,” he said like a petulant child, then smiled at her and patted her hand on his arm. He looked fabulous in the suit Maggie had chosen for him online almost a month ago. It was a similar color to Pete’s, but with a pinstripe and longer coat that helped balance out his shoulders.

  Breanna, dressed in a plum-colored dress, leaned in and touched her cheek to Sadie’s. “We do know, Mom, but today is about you and Pete.”

  “And most of the Garrison police department,” Shawn said, cocking his head to the side as though deep in thought. “Some retired cops, a few from Denver and—”

  Breanna reached across Sadie and slapped Shawn’s arm. “Stop it. It’s Mom’s wedding regardless of who’s here.”

  Or why they’re here? Sadie thought. Ever since Pete’s proposal in Ketchikan, Alaska, she’d envisioned getting married in front of lifelong friends, not a room of strangers, but she wasn’t really grieving, not after all that had happened. Rather, she vacillated between hoping Jane would show up so they could put an end to the years of living beneath the threats, and hoping that Jane didn’t show up, thus keeping this day beautiful.

  Sadie had to keep reminding herself that despite all the complications, she was getting married today. Pastor Donald hadn’t hesitated to agree to perform the ceremony despite the unusual circumstances. Apparently he’d been a military chaplain before taking over the church in Garrison. He even owned his own bulletproof vest and a handgun he could wear beneath his suit jacket. Sadie was in the minority not having a weapon on her person during the event.

  The music started up on the other side of the door; the jazzy version of the wedding march had been Gayle’s idea. Sadie was grateful for the energy of it and smiled at the quick tempo. She was glad so many of her favorite people were in attendance despite the risks. Each of them had gone to the briefing at the police station and promised that if Jane showed up, they’d not be a hero and would let law enforcement do their job. To say the whole thing was unprecedented was a laughable understatement—part ploy to lure Jane in, part defense to protect the wedding party. Allen Security guards were at every door and watching closely.

  The double doors at the back of the reception hall were pulled open by the security guards acting as
ushers. Every eye inside the room turned her direction as Sadie and her children moved through the doors at a regular walk rather than the traditional step-pause-step cadence of a bride. A bride!

  The room was set up with sixty chairs divided by a wide aisle that led to a slightly raised platform where Pastor Donald waited beneath a tulle-wrapped archway. It was backlit by a frosted window that allowed the natural light of the beautiful summer day into the room. Several round tables were set around the perimeter of the room; after the ceremony, they would be moved to accommodate the luncheon. Sadie’s eyes took in every detail until they focused on the man in the dove-gray suit standing at the head of the aisle. Once she saw Pete, she had eyes for nothing else.

  This is my wedding day, Sadie said in her mind and pushed all the other thoughts and fears and tactical procedures from her mind. She was wearing the ivory dress with the flattering drape and soft lines Gayle had picked out from Coldwater Creek and the matching kitten-heel shoes that only pinched her toes a little bit. She wore her mother’s pearls around her neck and the diamond studs Neil had given her on their tenth anniversary. Her hair was perfect, her head was clear, and Pete awaited her at the threshold of their lives together. It was unreal. It was overwhelming, and Sadie took satisfaction in the knowledge that while Jane had severely complicated things for her, she hadn’t ruined this. The trained officers in the room were here to be watchful and mindful and protective, which meant Sadie could stay focused on the beauty of this day. And it was so beautiful.

  When the three of them reached the end of the aisle, Breanna and Shawn leaned in to kiss her on the cheek, before sitting in the empty chairs next to Maggie and Liam on the front row.

  Pete extended his hand, and Sadie eagerly took it. As his hand wrapped around hers, the circumstances of everything melted away a little more. They walked up the three steps of the platform hand in hand, facing Pastor Donald and ready to commit their lives to one another.