Story of Love (Josh & Riley's Wedding Novella): Love in Bloom: The Bradens

by Melissa Foster

  “Apparently Charlotte told her we’d understand each landmark when we got there.” He shrugged. “We have a lot to get done. I suggest we split up.”

  “Rex,” Hal said, his deep voice commanding all of their attention. “Why don’t you come with me and Josh to the woodshed. Dane and Hugh, string the lights. Treat and Jack, you’re on railing duty. Check the railings on all the terraces, not just this one. Always leave a place better than you found it. And when we get back, we can get started building the frame for the canopy and try to figure out what the heck is involved with baby-proofing the terrace.”

  Treat nodded toward the others. “You heard the man. Let’s go.” He patted their father on the back. “You sure you’re okay trekking through the woods?”

  It was no secret that Hal was still desperately in love with, Adriana, or that he believed he communicated with her through Hope. A few years ago he’d been hospitalized with heart-attack-like symptoms and had been diagnosed with broken heart syndrome, the symptoms of which mirrored those of a heart attack. They’d been as relieved as they were distressed by his diagnosis and had watched him a little closer ever since.

  “Son, your mother and I spent so much time in these woods together I could navigate them blindfolded. When the day comes that I can no longer walk a trail, then you’ll be putting me six feet under. Until then, have faith that your old man can handle just about anything.”

  “Hold up a sec,” Rex said with a pinched look on his face. “If you know the property that well, then you know how to get to the woodshed. Why didn’t you say something?”

  Hal laughed. “Because your mother always loved watching you boys run in circles.” He strode forward and motioned for Rex and Josh to follow. “Let’s go, before the women come out here wondering why we’re slacking off.”

  The scent of pine hung in the air as Josh followed his father through the woods, weaving around tall trees and spiny bushes. Twigs crunched beneath their feet, reminding him of his youth, when he and his siblings traipsed all over their family’s property.

  Rex elbowed Josh and hiked a thumb over his shoulder just as Hope’s big body ambled around a tree. They both laughed. Hope had a way of sneaking up on them.

  “You sure you don’t want to put her in the pasture by the barn?” Josh suggested.

  His brother lifted his chin toward their father’s broad back. “He said she knows these parts as well as he does.” He arched a thick black brow. “Guess he was right.” They walked in silence for a beat, and then Rex asked, “You nervous?”

  “About getting married? Not really. I just want everything to go smoothly so Riley gets the wedding day she’s always dreamed of. It’s bad enough that we have to hide out to get it.”

  “She won’t,” Rex said with a serious tone. “No one gets a perfect wedding, except maybe Treat. I swear that man has the luck of the Irish. Hell, Jade and I got married in a hospital. There’s no way you’ll beat that. You’ll either get married on the terrace or inside a gorgeous resort. It won’t matter either way, because Riley will become your wife, and the moment that happens, it’ll outshine anything that goes wrong.”

  Hope neighed, causing them both to smile.

  Hal was quiet as they made their way through the long grass. They followed him around a large grouping of rocks to a steep hillside.

  “Whoa, girl.” Rex reached his arm out behind them, stopping Hope from getting too close to the edge.

  Hope stopped walking and pushed her head against the center of his chest. He stroked a hand over her cheek. “That’s a girl.”

  Josh joined his father by the craggy outcropping. A bushy formation of gnarled and twisted trunks of a limber pine tree grew at an impressive angle, as if powerful winds were blowing it over the edge and it refused to fall. Branches stretched like knobby, aged hands tipped with spiky green needles.

  Hal squinted against the sun, gazing out over the valley below. “This was one of your mother’s favorite spots.”

  Rex stepped beside Josh, keeping one eye on Hope, who appeared happy to hang back beneath the cover of the trees. “It sure is beautiful.”

  “So was your mother.” Hal lifted his chin toward the limber pine, a mannerism that Rex had honed so well, Josh saw his brother in the motion.

  His father’s sun-kissed cheeks had a few more deep grooves than Josh remembered. A breeze caught Hal’s thick hair, and Josh noticed it had become more silver than black. It was easy for him to see his father as the strong man he’d always been and it was painful to acknowledge the harsh reality. Despite his outward size and strength from continuing to work the ranch, his father was aging. He was glad he and Riley were considering moving back to Weston. He’d like as much time with his father as he could get.

  “This is the heart tree,” Hal said with pride in his eyes. “Your mother wanted to leave her mark everywhere we went. When Charlotte was little she used to call this the heart tree, and I guess it stuck.”

  Josh scanned the tree again, and slowly an etched heart came into focus where two of the trunks had grown together, covering the upper-right arch of the carved heart. Inside the deeply grooved symbol of his parents’ love were their initials, with a plus sign between them. After everything he’d been told about his mother, and the pictures he’d seen of his parents, it was easy for him to imagine the two of them in this very spot.

  “I wish she was here now,” Josh said honestly. “For you, Dad, as much as for me.” They’d never really talked about his mother’s passing, and the question Josh had been silencing for years rose to the surface. For the first time in his life, he didn’t try to quell the ache it carried or suppress his desire for answers.

  Rex huffed out a breath, crossed his arms, and shifted his eyes over the ridge.

  “Don’t worry, son,” his father said. “She’s always with me.”

  “Do you think she knew?” Forcing the words from his lungs was harder than he anticipated. “You always talk about how Mom was spiritual and how she’s still around. But do you think she knew her life would be cut short?”

  “Can we change the subject?” Rex grumbled.

  “Sorry, Rex. I know you don’t like to talk about this stuff, but you knew her. I never did, and I’m left…I don’t know…trying to fill in the gaps, I guess.”

  Rex ground his teeth together. “Point me in the direction of the woodshed. I’ll go get started while you two reminisce.”

  “Re—”

  Hal grabbed Josh’s arm and shook his head. “Rex, head south until the roof comes into view and then cut left around the conifers. You’ll find the way. Hope’ll get you there.”

  “Christ,” Rex said under his breath. He patted his thigh and made a clicking sound through clenched teeth, as if he were calling a dog. Hope ambled forward, and Rex mounted her. “I’ll see you two down there.”

  “I didn’t mean to make him uncomfortable,” Josh apologized.

  “You didn’t make him uncomfortable. Talking about your mother makes his mind go places he doesn’t want to be taken. That boy loves Jade and little Hal more than life itself. Thinking of your mother makes him think of losing them.” Hal put an arm around Josh’s shoulder and walked in the direction Rex had gone.

  “If this is too tough for you to talk about, we don’t have to,” Josh offered.

  “Talking about your mother is never tough. Her face is still the first thing I see when I wake up, and at the end of a long day, it’s the image I see when I close my eyes.”

  “Don’t you get lonely, Dad?” For some reason, he’d been wondering about that a lot lately.

  “Lonely?” Hal’s hearty laughter sailed around them. “I had six young ’uns to raise, and then each of you brought me a son or daughter-in-law to love like my own flesh and blood. And now we’ve been blessed with beautiful grandchildren. Son, there is no room for loneliness in my life, and that’s probably exactly what your mother had planned all along.”

  Josh looked at his father skeptically. “So you do th
ink she knew?”

  Hal shook his head. “No, Josh. She couldn’t have…” He paused, his brows knitted, as if he were thinking over his response. A long moment later he said, “All I know is that my darlin’ girl is smiling down at us happy as a lark that our family has remained so close.”

  Josh believed that with his whole heart.

  A rustic, Tudor-style cottage came into view, and sure enough, it looked just like Snow White’s cottage with duo A-line roofs that sloped nearly to the ground and an arched door made of barn wood.

  “Before we were married, your mother and I would come up to see our friends—Charlotte’s parents—and this is where we stayed. In separate rooms, of course,” he said with a smirk.

  Josh couldn’t decipher that smirk and he wasn’t about to ask. He hoped his parents had taken advantage of every second they’d had together. Just like he intended to do with Riley. And as they headed to the woodshed just beyond the house, where Rex was loading up a small trailer, Hope came into view, and Josh swore her eyes shone a little brighter.

  Chapter Three

  THE KITCHEN SMELLED heavenly. Riley and the girls had been baking and preparing for tomorrow’s big event all afternoon. Four layers of white wedding cake sat cooling on the counter, their sweet aroma tempting Riley with every breath as she and Brianna dipped strawberries in chocolate. The chocolate ganache was perfectly prepared (they’d tasted it several times, just to be sure), and cooling in a big bowl covered with plastic wrap. Jade was cutting vegetables for kabobs, and Savannah and Lacy were using cookie cutters to cut fruit for a decorative fruit salad. Country music and Top 40 songs streamed from Jade’s iPhone while they danced and sang their way around the kitchen with two little ones who were eager to help underfoot.

  “Please lemme stir!” Christian tugged on the hem of Max’s shirt as she mixed the homemade marinade for tomorrow’s steaks. She was using one of Josh’s mother’s recipes, which Savannah had dug out of her mother’s old recipe cards.

  “It’s my turn,” Dylan reminded him. “You stirred last time.”

  “You both may have one last turn.” Max stood between the two boys, both of whom were now climbing onto chairs beside her.

  Riley looked up from the strawberry she was dipping in chocolate and glanced out the window. “Looks like Grandpa Hal is on his way in.”

  “Yay!” Dylan and Christian exclaimed in unison as they scrambled off the chairs and scurried toward the door to greet their grandfather.

  Max laughed. “Well, I guess we know where their priorities lie.”

  Finn’s cry sounded through the baby monitor, and Lacy sighed. She’d just put him down twenty minutes earlier. “My poor boy. Doesn’t anyone have a good remedy for teething?”

  “Brandy,” Brianna offered. She dipped a strawberry in the vat of chocolate and set it on wax paper to cool. “Not that I’ve tried it, but that’s what everyone always told me.”

  “Hm.” Lacy’s blue eyes lit up. “Liquor the kid up. That sounds like a great idea…if I were a horrible mother.”

  They all laughed.

  “I think she meant you could use the brandy,” Jade suggested.

  “I have wine.” Lacy took a sip from her glass, then set it on the counter and headed for the stairs. “But I still feel bad for my little man.”

  Hal came through the door and scooped one young boy up in each arm. “Let’s go, you little rascals.”

  “Dad, you shouldn’t be carrying them,” Savannah chided him.

  “Nonsense.” He carried the giggling boys into the living room, where Brianna and Max had set out toys, markers, crayons, and the cardboard stars the girls had cut out to be strung as decorations.

  “Mommy, can Adriana and I ask Daddy to help us make the headdresses now?” Layla asked.

  “He’s working on the terrace, honey,” Brianna answered. “They’ll come get you when they’re ready.”

  “I’ll take them.” Savannah set a star-shaped piece of honeydew melon on a platter and lifted Adam from the high chair onto her hip. “We could use a little fresh air before I start gobbling down those strawberries.”

  “Start?” Riley cocked a brow. They’d each already eaten several of the sweet treats. She’d be surprised if any were left for the wedding. Her phone rang, and she wiped her hands before reaching for it.

  “Saved by the bell,” Savannah said, then turned to the girls, speaking in a conspiratorial whisper. “Come on, girls, let’s grab one more strawberry before Auntie Riley gets off the phone.”

  Giggling, they each grabbed a strawberry and hurried out the door.

  “Honey,” Riley’s mother said through the phone. “Are you there?”

  “Yes, sorry, Mom. It’s a little busy around here. Where are you? I thought you’d be here by now.” Her parents should have arrived an hour ago.

  “I’m sorry, but your father and I are running late. We’ll be there sometime after dinner.”

  “After dinner?” Her heart squeezed, and she told herself it was no big deal, but she missed her parents, and this was a big weekend for her. “I was really looking forward to spending today with you.”

  “I was, too, honey. But your father and I…” Her voice faded, and she cleared her throat. “We had some things to take care of. We didn’t expect it to take this long. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  Riley sighed. “Okay, but is everything all right?”

  “Mm-hm. Fine. Don’t worry about us. We’ll see you soon.”

  “Mom, are you sure? Is something wrong with Daddy? You sound funny.” She watched Jade pass by on her way into the living room.

  “No, honey. He’s fine,” her mother assured her. “We just didn’t sleep well last night, and had a hard time getting going this morning. We’ll be there in a few hours. I love you, honey. Enjoy the girls, and I can’t wait to see you.”

  They talked for a few more minutes, and by the time they hung up, Riley’s mother had almost convinced her they were fine.

  Almost.

  It wasn’t like her mother to miss such a big event. Thinking about the call, Riley wandered into the living room. Jade handed little Hal to his grandfather and gave her baby a kiss on the cheek. She looked happy and beautiful in a pair of cutoffs and cowgirl boots. She hadn’t changed one bit since she was nineteen. Except she looked even happier now, which Riley had never thought possible, because Jade was a firecracker and her spark never dimmed.

  “You sure you don’t mind?” Jade glanced at Dylan and Christian, who were coloring the stars the girls had cut out as decorations. “You’ve already got these two goofballs to look after.”

  The boys giggled.

  Hal pressed a kiss to the baby’s forehead. “Darlin’, this is half as many as I raised.”

  “Okay, well, holler if you need us.” Jade headed back the way she’d come, and when her eyes met Riley’s, her expression turned serious. “Uh-oh. What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  Jade settled her hands on her hips and scowled. “Riley Banks, you tell me what’s going on, or I swear…”

  Riley arched a brow. “Swear what?”

  “Aw, heck. I’ve got nothing.” Jade laughed and took Riley’s hand, dragging her through the living room toward the study. “Let’s check on your dress. That should bring a big smile to your pretty face.”

  Riley stumbled to keep up. “Why did you hang it down here?”

  “Well, duh. You don’t want to traipse down all those stairs, trip on your train, and fall on your ass tomorrow, do you?”

  “No! I hadn’t even considered that.”

  “You didn’t need to. I’m the matron of honor. It’s my job to make sure your nonfunctioning nervous-bride brain doesn’t have to work too hard.” Jade waved at the entrance to the study. Rich mahogany bookshelves lined the far wall, each shelf filled from end to end. A stone fireplace ran the full height of the wall to their left, flanked by two enormous windows overlooking the grounds.

  Riley stepped into the room.
Her wedding gown hung on a wooden coatrack that looked out of place in such a fine study. And just beyond, hanging from the back of a door that led to the dining room, were the girls’ bridesmaid dresses.

  Riley’s heart skipped a beat, as it had every time she set her eyes on the gorgeous gown. She and Josh had designed and redesigned the dress time and time again, until every thread of lace in the halter bodice and every inch of the layered soft tulle skirt were perfect. They’d incorporated rose appliqué over the lace, reminiscent of the roses Josh had given her the night he proposed. Remembering the long hours they’d worked on it side by side, Riley thought, not for the first time, how they made perfect partners in every sense. Her hand moved to her belly, and her throat clogged with emotions. Jade must have felt the wave crashing over her, because she squeezed Riley’s hand.

  “It’s stunning, Ri. I can feel the love you two put into the design.”

  Pressing her lips together hard to fend off another wave of emotions threatening to spill her secret, she nodded. Savannah came into the room and draped an arm over each of them.

  “Where are the girls?” Jade asked.

  “Treat is helping them make the headdresses like a pro. He said our mom showed him how.” Savannah smirked. “Boy do I wish I knew that way back when. I could have teased him something awful. Now it’s just the sweetest thing you’ve ever seen. That big man helping those adoring girls.”

  “And where’s your little man?” Riley asked.

  “He’s with my dad, who is in his heyday with four boys to take care of. He’ll have them working his ranch in no time.”

  Jade laughed. “Maybe we should let Finn and Adam sleep in his room tonight. See how much he misses it come morning, after getting up with them three times.”

  “Speaking of getting up at night, I checked on Lacy. She got Finn back to sleep, and she’s conked out right beside him on the bed. I didn’t think I should wake her.”

  “No, definitely let her sleep,” Jade said. “The poor girl is probably exhausted.”