One Hot Cowboy Wedding (24 page)

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Lucy said.

“Why?”

“You did what?” Liz yelled from the living room.

“She gave al her maternity clothes to the church rummage sale,” Lucy answered.

“Every single one. You didn’t even keep the one you wore to the hospital the night the twins were born?” Bridget asked.

Pearl shook her head.

Bridget shook her head seriously.

“Why?” Pearl asked again.

OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 206

10/5/11 10:40 AM

One Hot Cowboy Wedding

207

“Give all your maternity clothes away and you’ll be pregnant again real soon,” Bridget explained.

“What?” Pearl blanched.

“Old wives’ tale, but I’ve seen it work too many times to chance it. I’ll keep one thing in the closet forever if I ever have kids,” Lucy said.

Jasmine pulled a folder from her purse and laid it on the table. “Don’t let them worry you. It’s superstition.” Pearl picked up her phone and called Tess. “Momma, you still got my maternity clothes at your house?” A pause.

“Keep it. Don’t let anyone talk you out of it.” Another short pause.

“You knew and you didn’t tel me! I may fire you from being a grandmother,” Pearl said. “You better hang on to that one last shirt or you are in big trouble.” Jasmine patted her on the arm. “You’re safe now.” Pearl wiped her forehead. “It’d just be my luck to have twins again. And besides, it’s your turn.”

“Not mine. Liz got married before me!” Jasmine said.

“I’m almost ready so save that one shirt for me,” Liz said. “I promise I’ll give it back when I’m done with it.”

“Okay, here we go,” Jasmine said. “Dresses.” She spread out copies of the dresses that she’d printed off that morning in Ace’s office. Four colors: gold, pewter, silver, and bronze. All in Grecian style like her wedding dress but without rhinestone straps or a train.

“You are changing the subject pretty fast. Come to think of it, this was a speedy wedding. You got something you haven’t told me?” Pearl asked Jasmine.

“I’m not pregnant,” she said.

And
other
than
that, yes there is something I didn’t
OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 207

10/5/11 10:40 AM

Carolyn Brown

208

tel you but I can’t. I’m not sure what the statute of
limitations is on lying to your best friend, but that has to
play out before I tell you.

Pearl laughed. “Well, that answers that question.

Now show me the dresses. Do I get to really wear gold?”

“Yes, you do. There’s two each of the bronze and silver, and three of the pewter. Pick your color and write your size on the sheet so Momma can get them ordered,” Jasmine said.

“I want bronze,” Lucy said.

“Me too,” Gemma said.

Liz pointed to the silver. “That’s mine.”

“I’ll go with Liz,” Bridget said.

“Guess that leaves pewter for me and Colleen,” Austin said.

“I’d wear turtle shit green to get to be in the wedding.

That’s why I didn’t pick first because it don’t matter to me so if anyone wants to change it’s fine by me,” Bridget beamed.

Jasmine tossed another printed sheet out on the table.

“Flowers. One calla lily with the colors of all the dresses in satin streamers? Or a nosegay of white roses with the same steamers?”

“What are you carryin’?” Bridget asked.

Jasmine laid a picture on the table. “Momma says it’s magnolia blossoms in a bed of soft fern with long white streamers. The florist says the bouquet wil have to be kept in the refrigerator until the minute the wedding starts so the magnolias won’t turn brown.”

“Then it should be the calla lily,” Pearl said.

“Everyone in agreement?” Jasmine asked.

“What would you carry?” Lucy teased Bridget.

OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 208

10/5/11 10:40 AM

One Hot Cowboy Wedding

209

“Honey, I’d sashay down the aisle in my turtle shit green dress carryin’ a bouquet of stinkweed to get to be in the wedding,” Bridget said.

“Jewelry?” Pearl asked.

“Momma says no one is to wear jewelry. My present to each of you will be your jewelry that day and you will get it at the brunch, which will be held in the church kitchen at ten o’clock that morning. We will eat. Gemma will do our hair. Then we’ll go back to the kitchen for a finger foods lunch. After that we’ll get dressed and the photographer will do a million pictures of us.”

“That sounds like so much fun,” Bridget said.

“I’m glad you think so. Pearl, how are you going to manage with the twins?” Liz asked.

“Momma is coming with me, bless her heart. She and Daddy said they’d help with the boys,” Pearl said.

“Shoes.” Jasmine spread out four different pictures on the table. “Momma says that they don’t all have to match but for each one of you to choose a style you like and put your name and size on the paper. They are all satin which will be dyed to match your dress color.” Three minutes later Jasmine gathered up all the papers. “Did I forget anything?”

“Motel? Wil and I won’t need a room. We’ll be staying at the ranch, but what about all these other folks?” Pearl asked.

“Momma has arranged rooms at the Hampton. Thanks for reminding me. She needs your name and number of people staying in your room and whether you want a room with a king- sized bed or one with two doubles.”

“Here’s a piece of paper for that.” Pearl ripped a piece out of a notebook beside the phone. It went from woman OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 209

10/5/11 10:40 AM

Carolyn Brown

210

to woman and Bridget handed it back to Jasmine. “Is that it, then?”

“I believe we’ve covered it. I’ve got printed directions to the church for each of you. Be there at four thirty on Saturday for the rehearsal. Then Momma and Daddy will lead the convoy to the restaurant where we’ll have dinner. She and Marcella are still working on that.

Anybody here vegetarian?” Jasmine asked.

Gemma laughed. “Honey, if you live in Texas and don’t like steak you are in big trouble.”

“If that’s it, I’ll take the keys to the truck, Jasmine, and go on to my other meeting,” Lucy said.

Jasmine handed them to her.

“And if that’s it, I get to hold one or both of those babies.” Liz pointed toward the two blue bassinets in the corner of the living room.

“Not if I get there first,” Gemma said. “If you had been nicer when you read my fortune last winter, I could already be married and have one of those on the way.” Liz laughed. She’d been raised in a carnival and had read fortunes for a living before she inherited her uncle’s property and traded in her wings for roots. Nowadays, Colleen, Gemma’s older sister, told fortunes in the carnival. She’d fallen in love with Blaze, the engineer for the carnival, last winter and given up her roots for a set of brand new wings.

“Patience, my dear sister- in- law.” Liz patted her on the shoulder. “When your cowboy comes along, he’s going to sweep you off your feet.”

Liz had wondered when she read the cards for Gemma’s future if the cowboy might be Ace since she’d visualized him with blond hair, but it was evident OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 210

10/5/11 10:40 AM

One Hot Cowboy Wedding

211

that Ace and Jasmine belonged together and in reality, Gemma’s cowboy could be tall, dark, and handsome instead of a blonde.

“I hope he appears wearing nothing but a Santa hat and a big smile and he is ready to be a daddy because I want a house full of these things,” Gemma said as she picked Jesse up out of his bassinette.

“Be careful what you wish for. What would you do with a naked cowboy in the middle of winter?” Liz laughed.

“I could think of a million things and none of them involve clothes,” Gemma said.

Pearl reached across the space left on the sofa when Gemma stood up and she touched Jasmine’s hand. “You okay? Is Kelly drivin’ you insane?”

“When this whole wedding thing is out of the way I will be,” Jasmine said.

“Got to remember we are only children and our mothers have looked forward to planning our weddings for years and years.”

“Be thankful Wil didn’t have six brothers and two best friends.” Jasmine sighed.

“And that we weren’t married before the wedding.” Pearl smiled.

“Think Momma will ever get over the Vegas wedding?” Jasmine asked.

“Oh, yeah. In a year no one will even remember that you got married in Las Vegas. There will be the big picture hanging above the mantel in the living room of you and Ace, and that’s the wedding everyone will remember.”

“How’d Austin get away with it?”

“I think down deep her mother still hopes she’ll come OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 211

10/5/11 10:40 AM

Carolyn Brown

212

to her senses and move back to Tulsa. No picture above the mantel. Nothing ever happened.” Pearl laughed.

“Amazing theory. Does it work when people get divorced? Take down the picture and it never happened?” Jasmine asked.

“Yep, that’s the first step. Take down the picture.

Call the lawyer. And poof! It never happened. But we don’t have to worry about that. Wil and Ace would be dead cowboys if there was ever a divorce. Our mothers wouldn’t even hire a hit man. They’d just borrow our two shovels and take care of the problem themselves.

The bodies wouldn’t ever be found. Speaking of Wil and Ace, I wonder what our husbands are doing right now.”

“Playin’ football while we slave over wedding plans!” Q

Ace was still propped up on the porch railing when more than a dozen men and boys shoved their way outside into the bright, hot, sunny day. Six brothers, two friends, and all of his nephews ranging in age from ten to sixteen.

“Granny says for you to get your hind end in the house so she can talk to you. Make it fast. We’re going to play football out in the pasture,” his nephew, Garvin, said.

“She didn’t say hind end,” Luke yelled.

Dalton threw a fake punch at Ace’s bicep. “She said your slow ass.”

Luke threw a football toward Dalton and Ace reached out over the railing and caught it. “I’m on Garvin’s side.

I’ll be right out and we’ll whoop your team, Blake.”

“Bring it on, big boy!” Blake hollered.

Boots and socks began to fly into a pile at the end of the porch. Ace tossed his over the side in with the OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 212

10/5/11 10:40 AM

One Hot Cowboy Wedding

213

rest and padded barefoot into the house. He found his mother and three sisters- in- law, Megan, Mary Sue, and Holly, all around the kitchen table with a notebook and multiple pictures strewn around.

“There you are. You’re late. I swear to God, you’ll be late for your own funeral. You are just like Grandpa Riley. He ambled around like he had all day to get somewhere and about drove poor old Granny to swearing,” Dolly fussed.

Ace chuckled. “It didn’t take much to drive Granny to swearing. She could blister the paint on a brand new pickup truck when she was mad at Gramps. Now what do I need to do before I go out there and whoop Blake and his team in football?”

“Kelly has picked out a bridal bouquet for the wedding. But that’s your job and you should pay for it. Are you okay with what she picked out?”

Ace nodded. “Whatever she wants, she gets. Send the bill over to the Double Deuce for anything I’m supposed to pay for.”

“As the groom’s parents, we are supposed to pay for the rehearsal dinner. We don’t know anything about Sherman, so I’ve asked her to pick out a restaurant and make arrangements. Do you have any input on that?” Dolly asked.

Ace shook his head. “You two make up your minds.

Us guys would like a steak house or else a damn good barbecue place. Please don’t ask us to eat Cornish hens like we had at Garrett’s dinner. No offense, Megan, but I’d rather have steak. And Momma, you and Dad don’t have to foot the bill. I’ll take care of it.” Dolly’s black eyes said as much as her words. “No OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 213

10/5/11 10:40 AM

Carolyn Brown

214

you won’t. We’ve done our part for the older three and we will for the rest of you.”

“Megan, Mary Sue, and Holly are serving at the reception and Raylen and Dewar are ushers,” Dolly said.

“Have we missed anyone who should have a part in the ceremony?”

Ace opened the refrigerator and took out a bottle of beer. “Nope, I think that covers it. I asked the guys out at the bunkhouse if they wanted to be in the wedding and for a minute I thought they were all going to quit right there on the spot. Barely got them talked into at ending it. Can I please go out and play now, Mommy?” He whined like a two- year- old.

“Oh, shut up that nonsense. I don’t have time for jokes today. One more thing; we are responsible for the groom’s table,” Dolly said.

Holly flipped her red hair back behind her ears.

“That’s the table with your cake and punch. Do you want a flat cake with your names on it? Or how about a two- tiered round German chocolate?”

“Hell, I don’t know. I liked what y’all did at Tony’s wedding when him and Holly got married. Remember that stand- up thing with tiers on it and slices of different kinds of cheesecake?”

Holly smiled. “That was my idea. We do that up in Waurika at weddings pretty often.”

“I’ll put that idea to Kelly. I expect she’ll like it fine since she’s going for elegant,” Dolly said.

“Now can I go out and play?” Ace asked.

“Yes, get out of here and don’t you come whinin’ like a little girl if the big boys take you down.” Dolly giggled.

The grass was hot on his feet as he ran out the back OneHotCowboyWedding.indd 214

10/5/11 10:40 AM

One Hot Cowboy Wedding

215

door and to the pasture where teams were already chosen. But at least it wasn’t brown and crunchy yet. That would come in August if they didn’t get the right rains.

“You ready to work up a sweat? We’re goin’ to make you work for every touchdown you get.” He joined his team: Garvin, Kyle, Rye, Raylen, Dewar, Dalton, and Justin.

Adam stood in the middle pasture with a cowbell in his hand. “Y’all are goin’ to play fair. No elbows in the eyes. No knees in the balls. Fair tackles. Keep it clean or I’ll set your ass on the sideline and your team will be a man short. You hear this cowbell, you can bet your asses there’s goin’ to be a penalty. So huddle up, boys, and let’s play some good old Sunday afternoon Riley football.”