“Oh, yeah.” She pressed closer to him and tiptoed for another kiss.
“Hey, now.” Sugar came from the bathroom.
Jolene stepped away from Tucker. “You and Uncle Jasper repeating your wedding vows is so special, and I’m glad you’re doing it here rather than at the church.”
“Seems like the perfect place, since we got married in the Magnolia. But, honey, I feel like Miss Piggy in a corset. I can’t wait to get this show on the road and the whole thing over with, so I can come out of this. I never should have let you talk me into such a slim-fitting dress,” Sugar fussed, but she turned this way and that to catch all the angles in the floor-length mirror. “You two should’ve gotten married here instead of going to the courthouse.”
“You told me that you always wished you and Uncle Jasper had had a big wedding—well, here it is. Now bend down just a little so I can get this circlet of flowers on your hair, which looks amazing today,” Jolene said. “Five minutes until the music starts. We’ve got to put on our shoes and then we’re ready to go. Are you nervous?”
“Not as much as I was the first time I went down those steps on my father’s arm.” She smiled.
Tucker backed out of the room. “I’m going back across the hall. Jasper and I’ll meet y’all at the front of the wedding room. Every chair is filled.”
Jolene raised the hem of Sugar’s pale-blue lace dress and helped her aunt with her shoes before she slipped her feet into her own. “I’ll be glad to get out of all this and back into my jeans and T-shirt, but it is kind of fun to get all dressed up. And thank you for asking me to be your matron of honor.”
“It’s my way of apologizing for throwing that fit over y’all going to the courthouse. I always wanted to give you a big wedding,” Sugar said.
Tucker and Jasper came out of the groom’s room with Jasper in the lead. As if he could feel her watching him, Tucker turned around at the top of the stairs and blew her a kiss. She stuck her hand out the door, pretended to grab it, and held her hand to her heart.
Jolene scattered a few rose petals as she walked down the center aisle and stopped in front of an archway covered with ivy and red roses. She turned and winked at Dotty, who was sitting on the front row of chairs, along with Flossie and Lucy. Then Sugar appeared at the back of the room with her arm looped in Jasper’s.
Everyone stood up, and it took only a couple of minutes for her to make her way to the front of the arch and hand off her rose bouquet to Jolene.
“You may be seated,” the preacher said and began the ceremony.
Tucker tried to listen to the preacher, but his eyes kept shifting from his beautiful wife to his baby daughter. The Magnolia had been the best thing that ever happened to him. Within these walls he’d come to grips with his grief, given up the bottle, and learned to love again. And now he and Jolene had a beautiful little black-haired daughter with big blue eyes.
“The ring,” the preacher said.
Tucker reached into his pocket and handed it to him. Maggie continued to fuss. Dotty tried giving her a pacifier, but that didn’t work. The preacher kept talking about the significance of the wedding ring, but Tucker’s daddy instinct was on high alert. Finally, he could stand it no longer. He took a couple of steps and reached for his daughter. Dotty handed her over, and Maggie immediately settled down.
The ceremony ended, and the bride and groom quickly made their way to the office. Pictures would be done in a few minutes, but all the guests were invited to the reception in the Tipsy Gator.
Jolene looped her arm into his. “Aren’t you glad we didn’t do it this way?”
“Amen, darlin’.”
With his wife on one arm and his baby nestled in the other, there was no place on earth that Tucker would rather be than at the Magnolia Inn.
Acknowledgments
Dear Reader,
Fate does have a way of showing up at the most unusual times.
On the way home from a big family Christmas vacation in Florida last year, Mr. B and I made a loop through Texas to find new sites for my upcoming books. When we reached the outskirts of San Antonio, it started to snow, and the weatherman said that there was bad weather to the west. That made us decide to go east instead, and we wound up going all the way to Jefferson, Texas, which isn’t far from the Louisiana border.
We covered the whole little town, block by block, and I wasn’t inspired. So we started back to Marshall, a few miles down the road, to our hotel. And that’s when I saw the Magnolia Inn. A two-story house nestled in tall pine trees and set back off the road, it even had a big front porch. Instantly, I could visualize Jolene and Tucker meeting for the first time right there. The basis for the story came in bits and pieces over the next couple of days as we traveled from there back to our home in southern Oklahoma. If it hadn’t been snowing west of San Antonio, if I’d found a spot I could live with right in Jefferson, if we’d driven east, west, or north out of town instead of back south? Yep, fate knew where to take us for sure.
Now you hold the story in your hands, thanks to Madam Fate sending us in the right direction. Speaking of the finished book, I want to thank Krista Stroever and Megan Mulder, my amazing editors, for helping me to bring out every emotion in all the characters. I’m so blessed to have them working with me. Thanks also to my publisher, Amazon/Montlake Romance, for continuing to believe in me. And to my awesome agent, Erin Niumata—we’ve been working together for almost twenty years. Without her I could never accomplish what I do. Also my thanks to Mr. B—the marriage that was only supposed to last six weeks has made it fifty-two years now. He’s my best friend and soul mate, and he’s always ready to drop whatever he’s doing to read through a manuscript for me or to go on a road trip to make sure I have the details just right. And last, though not least, to all my fans for reading my books, for writing reviews, and for sending fan mail. I love you all!
As I write “The End,” I’m leaving behind good friends that I’ve made with these characters. I hope that when you finish reading it these folks are your friends, also!
Sending all of you hugs until next time,
Carolyn Brown
About the Author
Photo © 2015 Charles Brown
Carolyn Brown is a New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author and a RITA finalist with more than ninety published books, which include women’s fiction and historical, contemporary, and cowboys-and-country-music romance. She and her husband live in the small town of Davis, Oklahoma, where everyone knows everyone else and knows what they’re doing and when. And they read the local newspaper on Wednesday to see who got caught. They have three grown children and enough grandchildren to keep them young. Visit Carolyn at www.carolynbrownbooks.com.
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