Ring for Murder (Lighthouse Inn Finale) (3 page)

“Hey, I’m one of the good guys, remember?
What is it? Between the two of us, we’ll fix it.”

“I’m sure the cake will be fine, if I want
to be a widow as soon as I’m a bride.”

“What do you mean?” Alex asked.

“The batter she used was coconut. You’re
allergic.”

“Trust me, I’m not about to forget.” He
thought about it, and then shrugged. “I can’t eat it, but that
doesn’t mean everyone else can’t enjoy it.”

“Alex Winston, if you think for one second
that we’re going to have a wedding cake that my new husband can’t
eat, you’ve lost your mind.”

“So, she can make us another one.” It seemed
simple enough to Alex.

“In one day? It’s impossible.”

He wrapped her up in another hug. “Nothing
else matters except saying ‘I do’ to you.”

She bit her lower lip, and then said,
“You’re right. I just wanted everything to be perfect.”

He held her tightly, and then said, “It is.
‘I do’, remember?”

She laughed at him. “You’re right. It’s not
that big a deal. She can make another cake. It won’t be as nice as
the one I ordered, but at least it won’t kill you.”

“I’m all for that,” Alex said with a grin.
“Has anything else gone wrong today yet?”

She smiled at him. “No, I don’t have any
more problems scheduled until after lunch.”

“Sounds good to me,” he said.

“Then let’s eat. I’m starving.”

“
Is this when I say ‘I do’?”
Alex asked the preacher as he and Elise stood on the lighthouse
steps late in the afternoon.

“Yes, but save it for later,” Kyle said. “We
don’t want to jump the gun, do we?”

Alex answered without thinking, “Speak for
yourself, John Alden.”

Everyone gathered there laughed, including
Elise. She squeezed his hand, and as they finished the rehearsal,
Alex couldn’t keep the broad grin off of his face. He looked over
at Elise’s parents, and was still taken aback when they’d quietly
asked him before the rehearsal to call them Mom and Dad after the
ceremony. Alex had lost his own parents long ago, and that touching
gesture had nearly made him cry.

Alex turned to the crowd, including his
brother, who was standing quite a bit away from the lighthouse, and
called out, “We’re meeting at Monet’s Garden for dinner, so if you
need a ride, find somebody here. We’ll see you all there.”

Alex steered Elise toward his truck. “Do you
mind riding with me in this?”

“I’m happy to,” Elise said. As he held the
door for her, she slid across the seat and was waiting for him when
he got in. As Elise belted in beside him, she put her head on his
shoulder. “I’ve been waiting all day for this.”

“What, a ride in my rusty old chariot?” he
asked with a grin. She was wearing a pale green dress that showed
off her figure, and her chestnut hair was put up and arranged in
some kind of fancy styling that made her look like a princess to
him, not that he didn’t feel that way about her all of the time.
His suit was uncomfortable, but then again, it would have been hard
to beat his blue jeans and one of his faded old flannel shirts that
he loved wearing. If he were being honest about it, it was what he
preferred to see Elise in as well. Dressed like this, with her hair
done and makeup skillfully applied, she looked unattainable to him,
somehow. It was only in blue jeans and one of his old shirts that
he realized just how lucky he was.

Elise touched his cheek lightly. “What are
you thinking about, Alex?”

“How much I love you in jeans,” he answered
without thinking about it. “Not that you aren’t beautiful now,
because you are. I don’t know what I’m trying to say. Forgive
me.”

She laughed out loud, with no reserve. “Are
you kidding? That’s one of the things I love most about you. Peter
always insisted that I get dressed up to go to the grocery store.
He hated seeing me in blue jeans.”

“Then that’s just one more way the man was a
fool for letting you go,” Alex said.

In a meek voice, Elise said, “He called the
inn today.”

“What?” Alex asked, shocked at the news.
Peter had followed Elise to North Carolina when she’d taken the job
at Hatteras West, but that was a long time ago. “What did he
want?”

“He said he wanted to congratulate me on our
wedding,” Elise said.

Alex grunted. “The idiot should be
congratulating me, not you.”

“Why’s that?”

“You aren’t the one getting the prize,” Alex
said.

“There, you’re wrong,” she replied. “I’m
every bit as lucky as you are.”

“Is that all he wanted?” Alex asked, not
able to help himself. He had a sore spot when it came to the man,
and he knew it. Asheford was handsome, and rich to boot, and Alex
always felt a little less than he was when he was around him.

“He asked me if I was happy,” Elise
admitted.

“He was probably hoping you would change
your mind about marrying me,” Alex said, trying to lighten the mood
a little.

She looked at him quizzically. “Yes, that’s
it, exactly. How did you know?”

“I guessed, but it’s not that hard a leap to
make. What did you say?”

She squeezed his arm. “That for the first
time in my life, I’m truly in love, and that I wouldn’t give that
up for anything.”

“If I weren’t driving right now, I’d kiss
you.”

“If you weren’t driving, I’d encourage
it.”

They both laughed, and the tension was eased
again between them.

When Alex and Elise got to Monet’s Garden,
the parking lot was full. Alex hoped that their rehearsal dinner
wouldn’t get swallowed up whatever else was going on there, but
they’d asked for a private dining area, so hopefully it would be
all right.

As they walked in the door, they saw a great
many more folks than the wedding party and a few out of town guests
waiting for them as well.

“Surprise,” they all shouted, and Alex
looked quizzically at Elise. “Did you know about this?”

“I’m as baffled as you are,” Elise said.

Monet himself, the restaurant’s owner and
namesake, approached them. “Welcome, my friends. I haven’t
forgotten what you did for me when I first opened, and I hope you
will allow me to repay you by hosting this surprise dinner. You
approve?”

Elise squeezed Alex’s hand as she said, “Of
course we do, but you shouldn’t have gone to all of this
trouble.”

“No trouble at all. Now come, enjoy
yourselves. The restaurant is yours, and yours alone, this evening.
Consider it my wedding present to the two of you.”

Alex could only imagine what the gesture was
costing his friend, but he was resolved to graciously accept it.
“Thank you,” Alex said as he shook the man’s hand heartily.

“Thank you,” Elise echoed, and then kissed
Monet on the cheek.

Monet looked happy enough to burst. He
clapped his hands together, and then said, “Let the festivities
begin!”

Alex was suddenly awash with old friends,
and even some guests from the inn who had become a part of his
circle over the years. Evans Graile, a sprightly older man,
approached them with a present in his hands.

“It’s good to see you, Evans,” Alex
said.

“I was overjoyed to get the invitation
tonight.” He extended the present he’d been holding toward them. “I
just want to wish you both much happiness.”

“There’s a table for presents by the door,”
Emma Sturbridge said as she approached them.

“I’ll put it there, then,” Evans said. “It’s
the most wonderful single serving tea brewer and a medley of exotic
teas. I hope you like it.”

Alex tried not to laugh. Evans Graile wasn’t
devoted to much in the world, but he loved his teas, and he tried
to share that affection with the rest of the world whenever he
could.

“It’s perfect,” Elise said as she smiled at
him.

Emma led Evans away, but there was no
respite from the crowd. Next in line was Buck and his daughter,
Sally Anne, both from Buck’s Grill.

Buck, a large man who had once been a boxer,
slapped Alex on the shoulder. “Knew you’d finally get around to
pulling the trigger,” Buck said.

“Dad,” Sally Anne protested, “Everyone can
hear you.”

“I’m not ashamed of what I said,” Buck said.
“Our present’s on the pile.”

Sally Anne started to protest, but Elise
touched her hand lightly. “Thank you both so much for coming.”

“We wouldn’t have missed it,” Sally Anne
said.

There was a disturbance at the front door,
and Alex saw a shifty looking man having an argument with his
brother. He excused himself, and then walked over to them and said,
“Is there a problem?”

“No problem at all,” Tony said a little too
quickly.

“That’s a matter of interpretation,” the man
said.

“Jackson, we’ll talk later.”

“Sooner, I think,” the man said, but he
finally walked away.

“What was that all about?” Alex asked.

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Tony
answered.

Alex was about to rejoin Elise when a woman
approached Tony and slapped him hard across the face. She said, “If
you think you’re getting away with this, you’re dead wrong.”

Before Tony could reply, she stormed out the
door, slamming it just as a flash of lightning hit.

“Try not to wreck this for me,” Alex said to
Tony as thunder rumbled.

As he rejoined Elise, she asked, “What was
that all about?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Alex replied as
Sheriff Armstrong, his sometime nemesis when it came to solving
crimes around Elkton Falls, approached. The sheriff was in a suit,
looking oddly out of place out of uniform. He nodded to Alex and
Elise, and then said, “Congrats, you two.”

“Thanks, sheriff. Glad you could make
it.”

He shrugged. “Everybody else in town is
here. Somebody has to keep the peace.” As he said it, he glanced
over at Alex’s brother.

There was no way Alex was going to let
himself get dragged into that. There was only one way to respond to
that, and that was with humor. Alex grinned. “If a riot breaks out,
I’ll lend you a hand myself.”

Armstrong shrugged without commenting, and
then walked away.

Elise scolded Alex. “You shouldn’t have
teased him like that.”

“If I get the chance, I’m never passing it
up,” Alex said with a big grin.

Elise started to say something else, but
before she could, Doc Drake and his wife, and nurse, Madge,
approached. “What did you say to him, Alex?” his friend, the
doctor, asked.

“I offered to volunteer my services for
crowd control if he needed me,” Alex explained.

The doctor began to smile, and Madge said,
“You two are quite the pair, aren’t you?”

Alex looked at the doctor, and they both
smiled. “We like to think so.”

Madge laughed, but checked it slightly as
she looked at Elise. “Are you sure you know what you’re getting
yourself into?”

“My eyes are wide open. Trust me, I have no
delusions about the man I’m marrying.”

“Hey, I’m standing right here,” Alex
said.

As he spoke, another flash of lightning was
quickly followed by a long rumble of thunder that filled the
air.

Alex saw the concerned look on Elise’s face.
“Don’t worry. If it rains tomorrow, we can get married in the main
lobby.”

“I know, but it’s not the lighthouse, is
it?”

Madge smiled at them. “You two are the
perfect match. Alex, I don’t know how you managed to find someone
as crazy about that lighthouse as you are, but you’d better be good
to her.”

“That’s a promise I’ll have no trouble
keeping,” Alex said. The rain began in earnest then, and they could
hear it beating down on the restaurant’s roof.

Alex was determined not to let it spoil the
mood of the evening, though.

He was getting married tomorrow, and nothing
else mattered.

Or so he thought.

Chapter 4

Back at the inn, everyone was settled in for
the night, but Alex couldn’t get to sleep, no matter how hard he
tried. He’d been avoiding Tony all evening since the pair of
confrontations he’d witnessed, hoping that whatever his brother had
to say to him could wait, but when Alex walked out onto the porch,
he found his brother there, sitting in the shadows. At least the
rain had finally stopped.

“I figured you’d come out here eventually,”
Tony said.

“I was just going to bed,” Alex said.

“Alex, I hate to rain on your parade, but
you need to hear this before you get married. It’s going to affect
your life, and you need to make sure Elise knows what she’s getting
herself into.”

He had had enough of his brother. “What is
it, Tony?”

“It’s all of this,” Alex’s brother said as
he waved a hand around the air.

“What are you talking about?”

“Uncle Jase made a mistake when he wrote up
the transfer of property when we settled the estate. It’s invalid,
Alex. I had an attorney look it over, and there are issues with the
agreement that make it unenforceable.”

Alex couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“What are you talking about, Tony? Why did you have a lawyer
involved in the first place?”

“Hey, fair is fair,” Tony protested. “Family
is one thing, but legal is another.”

Alex reached down and grabbed his brother’s
shirt roughly just as someone walked out onto the porch. It was
Alex’s future father-in-law.

“Is there a problem here?” Mr. Danton asked
Alex pointedly.

Alex released his brother’s shirt. “No
problem, sir. Just two brothers having a little chat.”

Elise’s father looked skeptical, but he kept
it to himself. “I’ll just turn in, then.”

“You’re lucky he saved you,” Tony said after
Elise’s father was gone. “It would be tough getting arrested for
assault on the day before you were supposed to get married.”