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

by Melissa Foster

  Savannah ran her fingers over the knee-length bridesmaids’ dresses. “These are so beautiful. And since each is a little different, we can wear them again.”

  “Josh came up with the design for those.” Riley was glad to have regained control of her emotions. “They’re a modern twist on a classic dress.” She pointed out the pleated, crossover bodice and A-line skirt. “The lines are perfect for curvy girls or skinny minnies. And the subtle beading along the neckline gives a nice little sparkle, don’t you think?”

  “Definitely.” Jade turned Riley by the shoulders and gazed into her eyes with an understanding look Riley had seen for so many years, she could conjure it in her sleep. “Now, what happened with your mom?”

  “How’d you know it was her on the phone?”

  “Because everyone else who could make you look that worried is here with us.”

  “Did I miss something?” Savannah asked.

  “Not really. My mom called. She said they didn’t sleep well and they’re running late.”

  “Oh, well, that’s not bad, right?” Savannah asked.

  Riley nodded. “But something in her voice sounded off.”

  “Or maybe that’s the bride’s nerves getting the best of her.” Jade hugged her. “What do you say we get that cake ready before the kids get their hands on it?”

  Twenty minutes later, with four round layers of wedding cake in varying sizes spread across the table, a bucket of premade white fondant at the ready, and five soon-to-be sisters-in-law standing elbow to elbow, eager to see weeks of practice in action, Riley reached for the bowl of ganache.

  “What are the balls for?” Savannah pointed to a bowl of edible pearls.

  “Decorations,” Riley answered. “They’re edible, and I thought we could create waves along the bottom of each layer.”

  “Aren’t all balls edible?” Jade asked.

  Riley laughed. Of course Jade would go there.

  “Imagine how good they’ll taste with the chocolate ganache on them,” Brianna exclaimed. “That chocolate’s so good. I can’t wait to get another taste!”

  “On some balls?” Savannah tried to stifle a laugh, but it slipped out, causing the others to burst into laughter.

  Brianna’s cheeks flamed. “I didn’t mean…”

  “It’s okay, Bree,” Max said, giggling under her breath. “A little raunchiness is good for you. But you won’t catch me talking about Treat’s…pearls.”

  Riley doubled over in laughter. “Pearls! That reminds me. No pearl necklaces with the bridesmaid dresses!”

  “Ohmygod.” Max covered her face with her hands.

  “Pearls? Rexy has baseballs,” Jade said through fits of laughter. “Mm. Chocolate sexy Rexy ba—”

  “Hey! Sister over here!” Savannah complained. “I do not need to think of my brother’s—man parts.”

  Riley and Jade gulped air to try to quiet their laughter. “Sorry,” they said in unison.

  Riley busied herself unpeeling the plastic wrap and they all peered into the bowl.

  “It looks perfect,” Max declared.

  They all exchanged a mischievous look, and at the same time, they each stuck a finger in the bowl and licked the chocolate off.

  Max eyed Jade. “Don’t. You. Dare.”

  Jade’s eyes gleamed with mischief. “What?”

  “You’re going to say something about sucking or chocolate or both,” Max said. “And don’t double dip. No more fingers in the bowl.”

  “Yes, Mom,” Savannah said.

  Max rolled her eyes. “I’m just trying to keep the exchange of germs to a minimum.”

  “Whatever germs we have, we have already shared,” Riley pointed out.

  Max stuck her finger in the bowl again with a grin.

  Jade glared at her.

  “What?” Max said. “If you can’t beat them…”

  “Nothing.” Jade grabbed a spoon and filled it with ganache.

  “Hey!” Riley pulled the bowl to the side. “Leave some for the cake.” She grabbed a spatula and began spreading the ganache over the largest layer. “It’s not as easy to spread as I’d hoped.”

  “That’s what he said,” Brianna said quietly.

  Everyone fell silent, turning amused eyes on Brianna, who hardly ever made dirty comments, and they all exploded into fits of laughter again.

  “We’ll never get this thing done. It’s almost dinnertime.” Riley continued icing the layers.

  When she was done with the last layer, they washed their hands and took turns kneading the fondant with their palms. Then they rolled it flat.

  “Okay, this is really tricky,” Riley said, moving the largest layer of cake beside the fondant.

  “I think it’s ready. It’s hard.” Max leaned closer to the cake, inspecting it more closely.

  “We like hard,” Jade joked.

  Riley touched the biggest layer and her heart sank. “Oh no. No, no, no.”

  “What? It’s not supposed to get hard?” Savannah asked.

  “No!” Riley glanced at the other layers, each glistening and hard. “The fondant needs to stick to it. This is awful. I’ve ruined the only surprise I have for Josh.”

  “Are you sure, Ri?” Jade poked the ganache. “Because I can’t imagine hard is not good.”

  Riley gave her a do-not-go-there glare. “I’m sure.” She tapped the hard chocolate with her spatula. “It’s ruined. I totally forgot the one, two, three rule!”

  “What?” Savannah arched a brow.

  Riley paced. “Molly drilled it into my head, but I was so sidetracked making the ganache perfect, I forgot. Ganache, fondant, pearls. One, two, three. One layer at a time start to finish.”

  Charlotte breezed into the kitchen. “Mm. That looks amazing!”

  “It’s ruined.” The confession sent the pit of Riley’s stomach to her knees as Jade explained to Charlotte what had happened.

  “Can’t we just keep the chocolate layer and put something over it that’s sticky?” Brianna suggested.

  Hope filled Riley’s chest. “Yes. Probably. Is there a store nearby, Charlotte?”

  “There’s nothing nearby.” Charlotte eyed the cake. “But what do you need? Will strawberry jam work?”

  “Yes, I think so,” Riley said, silently praying it would.

  “Chocolate and strawberry are delicious together,” Savannah added.

  “Then you’re in luck.” Charlotte pointed to her chest. “I am insanely addicted to Luscious Leanna’s Sweet Treats jams. I have it shipped to me by the dozen. Come on. I’ll show you.”

  As Savannah whooped and explained that her husband’s brother, Kurt Remington, was married to Leanna, the woman behind Luscious Leanna’s Sweet Treats, Riley thanked her lucky stars that fate had stepped into their lives once again. The wedding cake just might be perfect after all!

  “OKAY, LITTLE BROTHER, get your scrawny ass up that ladder and hang those curtains.” Rex gave Josh a playful shove toward the ladder and peered over the deck railing at Hope grazing in the field.

  Jack looked up from where he stood beside the table and shook his head.

  “Scrawny my butt. You might be able to kick my ass, but you’ll never look better in a tux than I do.” Having already hung the drapes on rods that would hook into the top of the canopy frame they’d built, Josh climbed the ladder. Since their wedding was taking place in the early evening, they’d hung a glass chandelier in the center. Even without the drapes, Josh could tell it would look exactly as they’d hoped, casually elegant.

  “But you do build a hell of an altar,” he said to Rex. “So I guess you’re worth keeping around.”

  “Careful up there,” Hugh hollered from where he was crouched beside the railings securing netting so they wouldn’t spend the entire wedding chasing kids’ toys that slipped through.

  Donned in a pair of cargo shorts and a Brave Foundation T-shirt, Dane climbed the ladder on the opposite side of the frame to help Josh hang the drapes. Dane was neither burly like Rex
nor lean like Josh. He hovered somewhere in the middle from years of diving. As a shark tagger, researcher, and the founder of the foundation, which strove to educate people about sharks with the goal of saving the species, Dane was always on the move. “Ready, bro?”

  “Let’s do this.” Josh was excited to see the altar come to fruition. Almost as excited as he was to stand beneath it and finally become Riley’s husband.

  Rich coral drapes lined with sparkling gold satin and adorned with intricate lace and pearls along the edges would be layered over white sheers. After putting the drapes on the rod and then re-covering them with plastic sheathing, Josh had placed them on the table beside the rod containing the white sheers. Once hung, the vibrant drapes would be tied back with floral bouquets the girls planned to make tomorrow morning, leaving just a hint of white peeking out from beneath.

  Rex and Jack reached for the drapery rod.

  “Whoa,” Josh said from his perch on the ladder. “We need the sheers first.”

  “Aw, hell. Why do you have to be so fancy?” Rex mumbled, and set the drapery rod carefully on the table.

  Jack laughed. “Maybe because fancy is what he does for a living.” He lifted the rod with the sheers, and Rex held up the other side for Dane.

  Josh and Dane secured the rod and then repeated the process on the other side of the frame. The sheers, even protected in plastic, took the canopy from a rustic wooden structure to an enticing altar.

  “Ready for the curtains?” Rex asked.

  “Drapes,” Josh corrected him.

  Rex rolled his eyes as he and Jack handed the rod up to their brothers. As they worked to secure it in place, Josh thought about the wedding gift he had in store for his beautiful wife-to-be, and the decisions about where to live after the baby was born.

  “Looking good.” Hugh pushed to his feet and wiped his hands on his jeans.

  “As long as we’ve got time to kill while we’re doing this, I wanted to ask you guys about something.” Josh secured the end of the rod onto the frame and held it in place while Dane attached his end. “What’s it like to live in more than one place? I mean with your kids and your businesses. Jack, I know you and Savannah spend a lot of time in the mountains. Does it throw Adam’s schedule off?”

  Jack wrinkled his brow. “It throws our schedules off more than his. That kid sleeps like a log, anyplace, anytime.”

  “Seriously? You’re lucky,” Dane said, struggling to attach his side of the rod. “Hey, Rex. Hand me the hammer, will ya?” Leaning down to take the hammer, Dane said, “Finn’s teething, so he has an excuse to get up a million times during the night, but even before he started getting teeth, he was a freaking night owl.” He hammered at the mechanism. “I swear the only time he sleeps well is when we’re awake. The minute our eyes close, he wakes up.”

  Rex laughed. “Guess we’re lucky. Little Hal sleeps like a champ. Nothing messes with his schedule.”

  “It all depends on the kid and the age,” Hugh added. “It’s hard on Layla, and hiring private tutors when we’re on the road is a hassle, not to mention getting used to different cities. Even when we get back to Virginia, there’s a settling-in period. It’s not a normal life, which is why I cut so far back on racing. We try to strike a balance that works for all of us. I’m glad you brought this up, though, because I have something I wanted to talk to you guys about before the wedding gets under way.”

  “Is Bree pregnant again?” Josh asked. He knew how much Riley was hoping their baby would have cousins close in age.

  Hugh laughed. “Not yet, but not for lack of trying.” He leaned against the railing, watching Josh and Dane climb down and move the ladders to the other side, only to repeat the same steps again. “We’re moving back to Weston.”

  They all stopped what they were doing and looked at him with disbelief. Hugh and Brianna owned several houses, but they’d always kept their home base near Brianna’s mother in Virginia.

  Hugh pointed to Layla and Adriana in the grass with Treat, meticulously twining together flower headdresses. Both girls were smiling. Treat said something they couldn’t hear and the girls broke into hysterics.

  “Layla misses Adriana and the other kids. And Christian loves the activity and chaos of being around everyone. And of course he’s crazy for Dylan. And they both miss Dad something awful. Layla talks about living in Weston all the time, and honestly, I’m glad to be coming back. And all that stuff we just talked about—school, schedules—that’s a big part of the reason we’re moving. Coming back home will cut the need for frequent trips from Virginia to Colorado.” Hugh’s eyes turned serious. “Nothing replaces touching base with family, and we weren’t about to give that up. We’re moving right after Kat and Eric’s wedding this winter.” Brianna’s best friend, Kat Martin, was marrying one of Hugh’s closest friends, a fellow race-car driver, Eric James. Eric had spent so much time with the Bradens, he was like family.

  “But what about Bree’s mother?” Josh asked, mentally putting another tick in favor of moving to Weston. “She’ll be devastated.” That thought made him wonder if Riley’s parents had been sad when she’d moved to New York. They’d been so wrapped up in each other and their growing business, they hadn’t spent much time worrying about her parents feeling the loss of her constant presence.

  “She’s moving, too. We found a property we loved on Rosedale Lane, but we were too late making an offer. Some asshat beat me to it.” Hugh hiked a thumb over his shoulder toward Treat. “Last week he hooked us up with a property that hadn’t yet hit the market. Thirty acres across town. There’s a guesthouse on the grounds that’s perfect for Bree’s mom. Dad’s not getting any younger. It’s time to come home.”

  Josh climbed down from the ladder thinking of his father keeping the kids occupied while Josh and the others prepared for the wedding. He imagined his father missed Layla and Christian just as much as they missed him. He had to admit that he not only missed his father, but he missed this, too. Being with his family had always rejuvenated him, and he knew how happy it made Riley to spend time with Jade and the other girls. And times like these, when they pulled together to help one another out, came too infrequently these days.

  “Why are you asking, Josh? Are you and Ri thinking about coming home?” Hugh asked.

  Dane stepped off his ladder, laughing under his breath, and put a hand on Josh’s shoulder. “Getting this guy to move from the Big Apple would be like getting me to live on dry land. It ain’t happening, right, Josh?”

  Never say never.

  The back door flew open, and Hal strode across the deck with a baby in each arm. His expression was a mixture of concern and amusement, although each determined stride told Josh that he was leaning toward the concerned side.

  Rex reached for his son. “What’s up? Tired of playing nanny?”

  Hal wrinkled his brow. “Nanny my rear end. We have a situation.”

  They followed Hal inside, where they found Dylan and Christian sitting on the leather couch in the living room with marker all over their hands and shirts, their eyes as wide and scared as if they’d seen a ghost. Hal strode past the boys directly into the study.

  Hugh stooped beside Christian. “What’s wrong, buddy?”

  Tears slid down his son’s cheeks. Lifting Christian into his arms, Hugh shot a look toward their father’s back, and Dylan’s waterworks began. Hugh mumbled something under his breath, and Jack hoisted Dylan onto his hip.

  “What’s the matter, buddy?” Jack asked.

  While Christian was all words all the time, Dylan tended to hold his tongue more often. He just buried his face in Jack’s chest.

  Rex stood at the entrance to the study, rubbing his scruff, his eyes narrow and serious. He put a hand out, thumping hard on the center of Josh’s chest, stopping him from entering the study. “Don’t overreact.”

  Josh peered around his burly brother, and his gut clenched at the sight of Riley’s wedding dress, now decorated with scribbles and stick figures in a mult
itude of colors. Anger bubbled up inside him. His hands were fisted by his sides. He wanted to punch the wall, to holler at no one in particular, but one more look at those little boys crying big tears, and he knew he wouldn’t do either.

  Hugh peered around Josh. “Holy—Christian Braden, what have I told you about touching other people’s things?” he said sternly, causing more waterworks to fall from his son’s eyes.

  Josh’s heart ached for the little boy. And for Riley. They’d worked so hard on making her wedding gown perfect, and now it had been ruined at the hands of two of the cutest vandals on earth.

  “We were decorating Aunt Riley’s dress,” Christian said through sobs. “We didn’t know it was supposed to be boring!” He looked at Dylan, his partner in crime, his dark eyes imploring the little boy to agree, which Dylan did with several overeager nods.

  Josh pulled Jack and Hugh into the room and motioned for Dane to close the doors to the study. He paced, fisting and unfisting his hands, trying to rein in his reeling emotions. As soon as the doors were closed, he said, “Lock it.”

  Dane did, and they all started speaking at once.

  “I’m sorry,” Hugh said, pacing alongside Josh.

  Josh held his hands up, bringing silence to the room, save for the sounds of the little boys crying.

  “The only thing that matters right now is that Riley does not find out about this,” he said sternly.

  “What are you talking about?” Rex said angrily. “You think she won’t notice that her wedding gown looks like a preschool drawing table?”

  “You could start a new wedding-gown trend,” Dane added.

  Josh glared at Dane, then ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath, trying to think this through, but his mind was going in ten different directions. He paced the floor as he spoke. “I’ll fix it. It looks like it’s only the skirt that’s ruined. I’ll get material sent in and I’ll stay up all night making a new skirt if I have to. I have to fix this.”

  “Son,” Hal said evenly. “The wedding is tomorrow.”

  “Not to mention, if you start ordering loads of wedding dress material, you’ll have the paparazzi on the next helicopter out here.” Dane crossed his arms. “You have to tell her.”