by Amy Boyles
Southern Magic Wedding
Sweet Tea Witch Mysteries Book Sixteen
Amy Boyles
LADYBUGBOOKS LLC.
Contents
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
THANK Y’ALL!
Also by Amy Boyles
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Chapter 1
“Come on, let’s get everyone in the picture. Hold steady. Pepper, would you please look at the camera? I can’t see your face.”
“I am looking,” I argued.
“You’re not looking enough,” Amelia complained. “How in the heck am I supposed to record every moment leading up to the wedding if you don’t cooperate?”
I secured a blue ribbon to a spruce tree. We were outside. We, as in my cousins Cordelia and Amelia, my grandmother Betty Craple, and my two aunts, Mint and Licky.
“Does that bow look straight?” I asked Betty.
“If you’re pinning the tail on a donkey, it looks straight.”
I stared at the bow in confusion. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“She’s talking about playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey,” Amelia chirped. “Now, Pepper, would you please look in my direction?”
I exhaled a shot of air that should have clearly informed Amelia of my frustration before glancing at her and smiling widely. “Cheese!”
The camera clicked. “Finally. Why is it so hard to get one shot of you cooperating? I mean, I’m only trying to keep a record of your wedding. Something you can keep forever.” Amelia thumbed some buttons on the back of the camera.
From my distance I could tell Amelia was scrolling through the pictures she’d already taken—all one thousand of them. Okay, so it probably wasn’t one thousand, but it sure did feel like it.
Amelia made little squeaks of pleasure. “I mean, you’re only going to marry Axel once. Don’t you want to remember every moment?”
“Of course she does,” Cordelia quipped, “but she doesn’t need you demanding she pose every ten seconds.”
A hurt expression filled Amelia’s face. “I haven’t been demanding she pose every ten seconds. You’re exaggerating. I only want to make sure Pepper has all the pictures she needs. I mean, she might forget how that one blue bow she placed on that spruce was crooked. This moment”—Amelia gestured to all of us with her hands—“means something. We’re all together. All of us. Soon we’ll be splitting up.”
Now sadness filled Amelia’s voice. “Pepper will go live with Axel. She won’t be at Betty’s every night for supper. Cordelia, it’s only a matter of time before Garrick asks you to marry him. And then there’s me—Sherman doesn’t even live here, though he visits often. I’ll be stuck at the house with Betty, a couple of old maids, until I die.”
Cordelia smacked Amelia on the head.
“Oh,” Amelia said, rubbing the sore spot.
Cordelia picked through a box of decorations as she spoke. “Get over yourself. Stop having a pity party because Pepper’s getting married. Sherman comes and sees you just about every weekend. Life moves on, and you are not going to end up an old maid.”
“And for your information,” Betty said, puffing on her pipe, “I am not an old maid. An old maid is a woman who never married. I married and had kids. If anyone’s going to wind up an old maid, it’s you, Amelia.”
Amelia wailed. “But I don’t want to be an old maid!”
The whole scene was so comical I nearly started laughing, except for the fact that Amelia was actually taking all of this very, very seriously. Because of that I didn’t laugh. Not at all.
Instead I fixed the crooked bow and crossed to her, pinning my arms around her shoulders. “Amelia, thank you for recording every moment that leads up to my wedding in a few days. These last few days have gone by so quickly, and I know the next few will, too. You’re right to want to record it. Without you, I wouldn’t have the memory of Betty saying my bow looks like I was trying to pin a tail on a donkey, which might be the best insult she’s ever given me.”
Betty exhaled a plume of smoke shaped like a heart. “I’m sure I’ve given you better.”
I didn’t answer, though I agreed.
Mint secured an orange bow on a tree. “You know, I’m sure we can make an anti-old-maid potion for you.”
“Oh, I know we could,” Licky said, brushing a curtain of red hair from her face.
“In fact, I just saw a recipe for it last week,” Mint added eagerly. “It wouldn’t take but a minute for us to whip it up.”
Betty snorted. “And then what would happen? Amelia would wind up marrying a rat?”
Cordelia laughed. “I’d rather be an old maid than wind up marrying a rat.”
Amelia fisted her hands in fury. “I will not end up an old maid. Would y’all please stop saying that!”
“Ladies,” I said in warning, “let’s all be nice to one another. Why don’t we join together and take a photo once the trees are decorated?”
Everyone agreed and Amelia continued taking shots in between helping with the decorations. When we had the trees that I would walk past during the processional trimmed, we clustered together for the photo.
“Okay, on the count of three,” Amelia said. “One, two—”
“Cheese,” we said in unison.
Amelia clicked away, and I felt better, lighter. After all, it was a hectic week. I didn’t want my cousin feeling left out or even sad during it. That wouldn’t be any good.
We collected the empty boxes and magicked them back to the wedding decoration shop that they’d come from.
“I’ll go check in with the shop,” I said. “I promised I’d stop by when we were finished.”
“Hurry up,” Betty said. “We’re having warm cider and hot chocolate as soon as we get back to the house.”
I adjusted my scarf as a cold wind sliced through Magnolia Cove. “I accept your offer,” I said with a lilt in my voice. “I need to warm up. It’s awfully chilly today.”
“And someone wanted to get married in winter,” Betty said sarcastically. “I wonder who that could be.”
I rolled my eyes. “And somebody else promised to create a warm bubble over the event so that we’ll all stay nice and toasty. I wonder who that could be?”
“All right, fine. You got me, kid.” Betty smirked. “Glad to do it.” She wagged a finger at me. “But don’t you go on bragging about it. I’d hate for anyone to know I cared so much.”
I laughed. It was like a little tickle in my throat that bubbled out, spreading joy to every part of me—from my head to my fingers to my toes. “Don’t worry, Betty. Your secret is safe with me.”
She clamped her pipe between her teeth and pulled her lips back into an almost gruesome smile. “Good t
o know, kid. Good to know.”
“Erm, maybe you shouldn’t smile like that. You’ll scare the children.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What children?”
“All of them,” I replied.
Betty frowned and I wrapped my arms around her and gave her a solid squeeze. “I’m kidding.”
“Of course you are. Now scat. Get to the shop and come on back. We’ve things to discuss.”
I quirked a brow. “What things? The wedding’s in a couple of days. Like, seriously a couple of days. There’s no time to add something new to my roster of tasks or even to throw some kind of whammy my way.”
“Whammy? Who said anything about whammies?” Betty said. “All I’m saying is we need to discuss some stuff.”
I folded my arms. “And I’m saying you don’t need to be so mysterious about what it is we need to discuss.”
“And I’m saying,” Betty’s voice rose to fighting level, “that we just need to talk. You don’t need to have a hissy fit or even to get your panties in a wad about it. Just talk. That’s all. Sheesh. You’d think I was asking you to give up your fiancé to me or something.”
“Well of course you’re not asking that. You’re too old for him.”
Betty glared at me in silence. Her eyes narrowed to slitty wedges of death as she stared at me.
I pressed my lips together, embarrassed I’d said such a thing. “Okay. Well then, maybe you’re just the right age for Axel.”
Betty threw back her head and hooted with laughter. “Get out of here, kid, before you say something you actually regret.”
With that, I tucked a strand of hair behind one ear and headed over to the wedding supply shop—Magnolia Cove Magical Venues.
As I entered, the bell above the door tinkled. Simply entering the store made me happy. It was as if they pumped joy through the heating system.
Miniature trees covered with snow were sprinkled on the floor and tabletops. A Christmas sleigh sat in one corner for anyone who wanted to play Santa, while the other side of the room bloomed in springtime. Small lemon trees lined one wall and all kinds of boughs—magnolia, evergreen, ribbons, hung ready for the taking.
I crossed to the desk. From the back room I heard what sounded like a stack of boxes falling over.
“Now who in their right mind stuck all these bow boxes here?”
I cringed. That would probably have been me and my magic. When I told them to return to the store, I didn’t exactly say where; I just told them to go.
Feeling über-responsible for whoever had succumbed to my poor magical decision making, I cleared my throat and called out, “Sorry! I bet that was me.”
The curtain to the back room was whisked aside. A tall blonde wearing what could only be described as a cupid costume with a slit practically all the way to her navel appeared.
Her green eyes narrowed when she saw me. “Oh, that’s right,” she said snottily. “Della told me all about your wedding.”
Della Frost, who some of y’all might remember as CJ Hix’s love interest from way back when. Well, it was way back when. Della appeared in my life when I purchased a small cat statue that was haunted by a cat named Peaches.
Peaches’s owner had disappeared, though at the time we believed him to be dead. That was Frederick Albod, Della’s father. Turned out, Frederick had been alive. We’d found him and reunited Mr. Albod with his ghost cat, Peaches.
Della Frost was Mr. Albod’s daughter and CJ Hix’s current girlfriend.
If y’all can’t remember CJ, he always says things like, “Well, shucks, Miss Dunn,” and “It’s a mighty fine day, isn’t it, Miss Dunn?”
Yes, that’s CJ.
Anyway, Della owned the venue shop, and apparently Trixie here was her helper.
“I’m so sorry,” I cooed. “My family and I put the bows out on the trees, and I magicked the boxes back, as Della had suggested, but apparently I put them in the wrong spot.”
The woman kicked her foot, and a box flew off it. “Yes, you did,” she practically snarled.
She was a case where beauty did not necessarily make a person prettier. Not by a long shot.
She stared at me so hard my throat started to get hot from the weight of her gaze. “Well,” I said cheerily, “I just wanted to make sure you received the boxes. I guess I’ll be on my way.”
I turned to go, ready to be away from this woman and her harsh glare, when the store’s door opened.
In walked Axel.
He strode in, bringing a cloud of testosterone with him. I swear. The very air in the room electrified, becoming heavy like how ozone fills the air after a rain.
His dark hair cut across his razor-sharp jawline, and his ocean-blue eyes glinted. Everything about Axel screamed power—from his broad shoulders to the way he carried himself. Confidence oozed off him in thick, heady waves.
Or maybe that was just more testosterone.
Hard to say.
Before I could greet Axel, the woman on the other side of the counter squealed.
“Axel Reign!”
She threw her hands over her head and slithered around the counter like lightning skirting across water.
The next thing I knew, she threw her arms around Axel and kissed him hard on the mouth.
Chapter 2
The nameless woman pulled away from Axel. “Axel Reign,” she gushed, “I didn’t know you lived in this little town. Why, I just arrived last week. I can’t believe I haven’t seen you since moving here.”
Axel’s cheeks glowed red. He untangled himself from the blonde and grabbed ahold of me, pulling me to him. “Um, Drew Morris, meet Pepper Dunn, my fiancée.”
Drew’s gaze cut from Axel to me. I gave her a finger wave, but what I really wanted to do was punch her lights out. Had she used tongue when she kissed Axel? It had looked like it. Who in their right mind greets someone with a kiss?
Wait.
You’d only greet someone that way if…if you’d dated them before!
I shot Axel a scathing look before extending my hand to Drew. “And how is it that you’re acquainted with my fiancé?”
Drew’s gaze raked up and down Axel in a look so suggestive I nearly blushed. I darted in front of him, using myself as a human shield, hoping Drew would take the hint that she could stop looking at my man as if he were a tasty treat.
She fanned herself. “Oh, Axel and I go way back, don’t we, hon?”
“Well,” I snapped, “we do too.” I glanced over my shoulder at him. “Don’t we, hon?”
Axel grazed his fingers down my arm, leaving a trail of heat that flamed all the way to my fingertips. “I saw you come in and just stopped by to see if you wanted to grab a bite to eat.”
Jealousy pricked at me. I couldn’t help it. I’d never met Drew before and Axel had never mentioned her but somehow these two went waaaay back.
“Betty has hot chocolate and cider at the house.” I glanced at my watch. “In fact, I’m late for it. I said I’d get there ASAP.”
I threw my cinnamon-colored hair over one shoulder and said smartly to Drew, “Sorry about the boxes. Please thank Della for me.”
I turned on my heel, threw the door open and walked out into the cold. Within seconds Axel was beside me.
“You’re mad.”
“No, of course not,” I scoffed. “Why would I be mad? Some bimbo I’ve never met jumps into your arms and basically shoves her tongue down your throat, and then she says, after I’ve been introduced to her, that you and she go way back. Waaay back, like that has some sort of hidden meaning or something.”
Axel chuckled.
I shot him a look that could’ve melted steel. Axel grabbed my hand and turned me until I collided with him, chest first.
“Oomph!”
He took my hands and brought them to his lips. “I knew Drew a long time ago,” he said.
“You dated,” I fumed.
“Yes. But I didn’t ask her to marry me.” He smiled warmly. The corners of his eyes made little cre
ases. I loved it so much when they did that. “It didn’t last long.”
“Long enough that she welcomed you with a kiss.”
He sighed and tipped his chin up, glancing to the sky in frustration. “I didn’t kiss her back. In case you didn’t notice, I pushed her away and grabbed ahold of you.”
I folded my arms. “And what if I hadn’t been there?”
“Then I would’ve kissed her back.”
I screeched and beat his shoulder with my fist.
“I’m kidding! Pepper, come on.” He grabbed me around the waist, pinning my arms so I couldn’t attack him. “You know I’m joking. I would never, not in a thousand years do anything to jeopardize what we have. For goodness’ sake, we’re getting married in a few days. Married. Then we’ll be mated and you’ll understand that the bond we will share will be unlike anything you’ve ever experienced in your life.”
I cocked my brow. “So you say.”
“So it’s true.” His lips coiled into a sly grin. “Now. If I put you down, do you promise not to attack me?”
“No.”
He tightened his hold. “Then I’m not putting you down. And might I add that you look so cute in your winter hat.”
“It’s new,” I said stiffly.
“You look adorable in it.”
“You’re only trying to flatter me so that I won’t play dirty.”
He winked. “What if I want you to play dirty?”
I laughed at that. Axel always said the right thing to make me melt. “You are a bad boy.”
He slowly released his hold on me. I slipped lightly to the ground. “Not too bad, I hope.”
