by Liza Kendall
The two men locked eyes.
Nash nodded. “Sure is.” Then he did something that knocked the wind out of Jake.
He reached out and put his arms around him. Patted him on the shoulder. “I’ve been a right ’rageous asshole to you, boy. But I want you to know . . . you are like a grandson to me.”
Jake sat frozen, unable to breathe.
Then he hugged the bony old bugger right back, his elbow settling right into the stew.
Grandma Babe seemed to laugh from her photograph as he pulled away to clean up the mess. And she also issued a challenge to him: Don’t ruin a bride’s wedding day. No matter what she’s done, that’s cruel. You promised to stand up for Will as best man, and I raised all my boys to be men of their word. That includes you, Jake Braddock.
He cursed silently as he rolled his soiled sleeve above the elbow and supervised Kingston while the old fart ate his stew. He rewarded him by bringing him a Lone Star beer to complement his vanilla pudding dessert, and repressed a smile when it brought on a burp. He turned on the TV for him, dropped a hand on Nash’s shoulder before he left, and told him he’d call to check on him later.
Then Jake looked once more at Babe’s photograph. She seemed to be waiting for an answer.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said aloud.
He could have sworn she blew him a kiss.
Chapter 28
Firemen’s ball.
If Charlie was going to pull this off, she didn’t have a moment to lose.
And it was the only way she could think of to make things up to Jake.
She’d spoken with half of Bridezilla’s vendors already: Kristina, Amelie, Maggie . . . they were all on board. Maggie had even lent Charlie her old Cutlass—along with a pair of socks and a handful of superhero Band-Aids—since Progress was still at the ranch.
All the Braddocks were probably still there, too. Had the family had enough bonding time?
Charlie searched for her phone so she could call Lila. She couldn’t find it anywhere in her bag—it must still be in Lila’s Suburban, where everything had fallen out of her purse. Charlie sighed and turned the key in Maggie’s car.
As she pulled out of the parking spot in front of Petal Pushers, she witnessed Big Red drive by at a leisurely pace, Jake behind the wheel. It was followed by the two other Silverlake Fire and Rescue vehicles.
Charlie drove back yet again to Silverlake Ranch. She squealed through the gate and down the drive, relieved to see the Suburban sitting where she’d left it.
Grouchy came galloping up, as usual, barking a welcome and wagging his tail.
She jumped out, scratched him behind the ears, and then banged on the front door.
Deck answered it, looking drained. As if he could barely muster the energy for surprise at seeing her there again. “Charlie?”
“I have an idea,” she said quickly. “Is Lila still here?”
“To be honest, this isn’t a great time for company—”
Ouch. “Deck, I know I’m not your favorite person right now, but this is important. By the way, Mick took your cat to the vet. I wasn’t sure you’d heard, with all that’s been going on. A spark lit his tail on fire, but he’s being taken care of now.”
“What?” For Deck, the emotional reaction was extreme. He followed that up with a more measured, “Thanks for letting me know. Don’t know if you heard this one. Will’s wedding just got called off. That crazy—”
“I know.”
“You know? How? Oh,” he said. “Right. You drove Felicity back to the hotel.”
“Yes. So you wouldn’t have to deal with her, on top of everything else. But the wedding—that’s what I want to talk with you guys about.”
He didn’t move. “There is no wedding.”
“Well, no, but all the stuff for it has been ordered, so let’s turn it into something else.”
“Listen, Charlie,” he began in a shut-it-all-down tone.
“Lila!” she yelled past him. “Lila! I need to talk to you.”
“Haven’t you and your grandfather and the rest of the Nashes done enough damage?” Deck asked. He was quiet enough, but he was also gritting his teeth. “Can’t you let Jake have his sister back? Don’t make it worse for them.”
“This is for Jake. This thing. This redo of the wedding. I want to turn it into a—” She tried to rush by him, but he clamped his hands on either side of the doorway.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Lila!” she shouted.
“What?” Her friend finally came around the corner and into the hallway. “What’s going on?”
“We have a chance to do something really great here—change the wedding into a firemen’s ball! To raise money for Jake and the guys. There’s food, booze, flowers, linens, tables, and chairs—but we have to get the word out. We have to . . .” Charlie let her voice trail off in surrender as Lila just stared at her.
But then her friend flashed a huge smile, ducked under her brother’s arm, and rushed Charlie, wrapping her in a bear hug. “Brilliant. That’s just . . . brilliant!” She hugged her, and Lila and Charlie jumped up and down, like little kids.
Deck dropped his hands and took two steps backward. “Women are nuts,” he said to nobody in particular. “Totally nuts.”
“There’s so much to do.” Charlie’s voice faltered.
“We’ll work all night if we have to. You can stay with me and Amelie when we’re done, and then we can all get ready together tomorrow,” Lila said.
Charlie bit her lip, searching for ideas.
“I can talk to Mayor Fisk and get a mass e-mail out,” Declan said. The girls turned and stared at him. “Maybe we can get the cheer squad to start a telephone blitz to older people,” he added. Into the silence, he said with a shrug, “Jake deserves this.”
Lila let out a whoosh of breath. “Thanks, Deck.”
He gave her a curt nod.
“So, here’s what we’re going to do about the Old Barn,” Lila said. “We’ll simply set up behind it. There’s a huge tent coming tomorrow anyway. It’s the perfect backdrop, because it will reinforce the need for the fire department! But . . . what if people have plans?”
Charlie squared her shoulders. “They can cancel them. This is too important. Stress that. We can have a hospital and a fire department, but we have to raise the money—and everyone has to help. It’s their town, their responsibility. And it’s also a way of saying a big thank-you . . . to Old George, Jake and Mick, and Grady, Tommy, Hunter, and Rafael for being there all these years. And for all the extras they do.”
Deck nodded slowly, thoughtfully.
“So you’ll get Mayor Fisk’s office to help?” Charlie asked Declan.
“Yeah. And I’ll bet First Presbyterian’s women’s auxiliary will step up to the plate for the phone calls, since the Fire and Rescue guys put their new roof on . . .”
“Perfect,” Lila said. “Charlie, let’s go down to the Old Barn and take inventory on what got damaged, what we have, and what’s still coming. Now, how can we get an entire town to keep a secret?”
* * *
Charlie and Lila stepped gingerly through the wreckage of the blackened, sooty Old Barn. Horrified, Charlie stayed silent.
“Oh no. Oh no . . .” Tears sprang to Lila’s eyes and ran down her cheeks. “Poor Declan. He worked so hard on it all.”
Charlie hugged her, rubbing her back. “So did you. I know you did. On the interior.”
Lila shrugged that off; she just mopped at her eyes with her sleeve.
The whole place smelled awful, of burned electrical wiring, melted plastic, exploded chemicals, and smoked cedar combined.
Most of the roof was gone. Most of the windows were intact, though a few had blown out, due to the heat and expanding gases.
They picked their way through the
filthy, wet debris, without much hope of salvaging anything. The furniture was history, even though most of it was still standing. It was soaked from the fire hoses, and the burned smell would never come out of the stuffing or fabric. Same went for the rugs. The framed black-and-white photographs on the walls were trashed.
The kitchen was in decent shape, which was good news. The fire hadn’t reached it. But a check of the storage closet revealed devastation: puddles of melted candles and white chocolate; broken porcelain and glass; and gelatinous red tatters on wire hangers.
“It looks like someone hung bacon in here,” Lila muttered.
“What is . . . ?!” Charlie pointed and dissolved into giggles. “It’s the horrible Vegas hooker bridesmaid dresses, with their matching gloves!”
Lila stared for a moment and then shrieked with laughter. “Wait, where’s my phone . . . I have to get pictures of this.”
“I honestly cannot think of a more fitting fate for them. Can you?”
“Nope.” Snap, snap, snap. Lila documented the ghoulish remnants of the gowns.
“You should send the pictures to Amelie. It’ll make her day.”
“Already done.” Lila chuckled, and then went silent again.
Nothing else was funny. The destruction was hard to take. They picked their way through the rest of the mess more soberly and then stepped out the rear door of the barn, where they made another odd discovery.
“Look: The porta-potty melted.”
“That’s nuts. Who knew it could?”
“It looks like something out of a Salvador Dalí painting—like those melting watches.”
“It’s so weird-looking . . .”
Lila’s cell phone rang while they were examining it. “Lila Braddock,” she answered with a sigh. She listened to the caller for a moment, then her eyebrows shot up. “The Barnums did what? Reversed the charges? You’ve got to be kidding me. Wait, why does this surprise me? Bridezilla had to get her freakishness from somewhere. I am so sorry.”
Charlie’s mouth fell open. Who? she mouthed.
Caterer, Lila mouthed back. To the person on the phone she said, “Wait, wait, wait. It’s not a total loss. You have the fifty percent deposit, right? That cleared? Okay, good. Well, we have a plan. Let me tell you about it. I was actually just going to call you, along with a lot of other people . . . I can at least get you a tax write-off on your loss.”
Lila explained the firemen’s ball concept. Her phone kept ringing, and she explained it to the wine/liquor vendor, the equipment rental people, and the tent people as well.
Meanwhile, Charlie called and ordered another porta-potty. It was the least she could do.
Chapter 29
On the evening of Silverlake’s first annual firemen’s ball, the sky was tinged rose as the sun set, bathing the trees in gold and giving its blessing to the event. White tablecloths fluttered in the breeze, and the tent was lit with a thousand tiny white lights. Every table held a bouquet of velvety red roses and two battery-operated candles.
If the dark silhouette of the Old Barn in the background looked a little like a haunted house, that couldn’t be helped. Charlie had vetoed Lila’s idea that they put plastic jack-o’-lanterns inside.
The band was set up under its own small awning. To Charlie’s bemusement, they struck up Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire,” playing it with gusto until Lila intervened and told them to maybe wait until after the guests had had a few drinks.
Charlie nervously smoothed the skirt of the stunning white cocktail dress that had been Bridezilla’s first choice of wedding gown. Amelie had laughed like a loon when she heard the news that the wedding was off, and had volunteered to add a panel to the back of the size four frock so that size ten Charlie could wear it. No charge.
Lila looked equally stunning in the red lace number, her dark hair pulled up under the mantilla, her lipstick siren red. She walked over to Charlie, spread Bridezilla’s fan open, and fluttered her eyelashes. “You look gorgeous.”
“Thanks. You too.” Charlie looked around and swallowed hard, pressing her fingertips together so that her hands wouldn’t shake. What if Jake didn’t come? What if nobody else showed up, either?
“Lila, I’m starting to freak out. What if we only raise nine dollars tonight for the cause?”
“Amelie’s coming, so we already have fifty dollars,” Lila said. “And so is Deck. And I’m here, and you’re here. So that’s two hundred.” She checked her watch. “Vic the plumber is coming, because I told him you’d dance with him.”
“What?”
“Get over it. He thinks you’re hot. One dance.”
“But—” Charlie subsided at Lila’s squint.
“The whole knitting circle is coming,” she continued. “Everyone off shift at Mercy is coming. Anyone remotely mobile is coming from the nursing home—the bus is bringing them. Oh, and the porta-potty guy agreed to buy a ticket and stay if I save him a dance . . . He’s almost here with the replacement you ordered. Who knew that hand sanitizer was flammable? I can’t believe that Jake never told me that.”
Charlie plucked nervously at her skirt again. “What if Jake doesn’t show?”
“He’ll show. Jake may be pissed at you, pissed at the entire Nash clan, but he would never take out his anger on an innocent bride. No matter how much of a pain in the butt or a walking fire hazard she may be.”
“What if he’s heard that the wedding’s off?”
“What if you discovered the word ‘optimism’ in the dictionary, huh?” Lila’s cell phone chirped. “That’s Kristina—she’s here with the cakes even though the Barnums stiffed her, too. I need to go help her get them in.”
“I can—”
“You can go to the bar and get yourself a glass of wine. Everything is in place except that damned porta-potty. You’ve worked harder than ten men, and now you need to relax. Look—” Lila pointed. “People are starting to pour in. We’ll have a good crowd here before Jake and the boys show up.”
She was right. A steady stream of cars was turning down the drive. Grouchy was having a field day, welcoming them all.
The band struck up “Peaceful Easy Feeling” by the Eagles, and Charlie headed to the bar, as ordered. She was stunned to find her cousin manning it.
“Will?” She stared at him.
He lifted an eyebrow sardonically. “Lila pressed me into service. And, hey, I’m not one to miss a party—especially one that my psycho ex’s parents have already paid for part of.”
Helplessly, Charlie began to laugh.
Will did, too.
“So . . . you’re okay?” she asked.
“I’m better than okay. I’m weirdly relieved. I was feeling a lot of stuff, a lot of emotions, as we arrived in town, but it wasn’t . . . uh . . . good stuff. My stomach was in knots. I had a headache that wouldn’t go away. I couldn’t do a damn thing right for Felicity, either. She was driving me crazy.”
“I know the feeling,” Charlie murmured. She reached across the bar and hugged him. “Still, I’m sorry. I just want you to be happy.”
“Me too. And that wasn’t going to end happy.” A shadow crossed his face, but it was quickly gone. “By the way, I know my dad can be an ass, but did you have to toss a drink in his face?”
“Yeah, Will, I kind of did. Sorry, but he was way out of line. Nobody should question Jake’s actions or motives that night. He was braver than any of us—and he still is, by the way. He will still show up this evening to help you out as a groomsman, knowing that he’ll have to face the whole damn family again.”
He searched her face, then finally nodded. “I know, Charlie. That’s why I’m here to help out. We owe him. We owe him big. So, what can I get you?”
“A glass of chardonnay, if you don’t mind.”
“Coming right up.” Will smoothly uncorked a chilled bottle of wine and deftly poured
it for her. He’d bartended in college for extra money, and he hadn’t lost the skill set. “Here you are.”
“Thanks.” Charlie accepted the glass and pressed it to her lips as she stepped aside for the line of people that had grown behind her, people who were equally surprised to see the onetime groom playing bartender.
The chardonnay was cool, sunny, and oaky on her tongue. She watched Will for signs that he was devastated underneath his easygoing surface, and saw none. The tightness around his mouth was no longer there. The anxiety etched around his eyes had vanished. He was no longer a deer in Felicity’s headlights; he was a dear behind the scenes. He tipped back his head and laughed at something someone had said. When someone else asked where the bride was, he took it in stride. “Don’t have a clue. Washing dishes to pay back her parents?”
Charlie’s hands had stopped shaking when she turned around. The entire town, it seemed, was pouring down the Braddocks’ gravel drive. There was Mayor Fisk; and Jean-Paul with a massive covered dish from his restaurant; and Dottie with her partner, Libby. There were the Adlers and the Wrights and the Ramirezes and the Giardinos. The people just kept coming.
Bridezilla’s massive four-tiered cake had been transformed for tonight: a sculpted red fireman’s hat sat on the top instead of the prototypical bride and groom. Kristina had outdone herself, adding small marzipan dalmatians and red fire hydrants and little yellow ladders here and there. And as for the groom’s cake, she must have remade it from scratch. It was shaped like a fire truck.
Kristina was a mad genius. Charlie grinned and turned to check on the caterers, but of course she didn’t need to, because Lila was in charge. The caterers were calmly setting up their buffet stations. Thank God Felicity hadn’t insisted on a sit-down dinner.
Feeling useless and on edge, Charlie took another sip of her wine and choked on it as she spied a familiar red Durango coming down the gravel drive. Instantly, she felt sick. She couldn’t face Jake. No matter how much money they ended up raising tonight, he would still never forgive her for her stint as Granddad’s proxy.