by Nathan Grant
“I know the feeling Aunt Franny, I think I told you how just seconds before he was shot, I looked up and saw him. I believe I fell in love with him at first sight. I almost died when the bullet hit him, and he tumbled into my arms after being shot and I lowered him to the ground,” he told her.
“I remember that from that truly awful nightmare, but as you’ve mentioned before, it was a hell of a way to meet; actually it sounds like a book title,” she laughed.
“I’m just glad it all worked out so well for all of us, and in a few hours from now he’ll be mine officially for the rest of our lives,” he said as his voice trailed off with deep emotion, looking down at his plate to hide his tears.
Franny reached over to touch his arm, rubbing it gently with her fingertips.
“Don’t forget about us too; we are all so delighted with our new family member and have all fallen in love with him as well, especially Gertrude. SI’m sure now that she has dug her claws into him, I’ll have to fight for his time,” she said, trying to pout but wasn’t convincing anyone.
“I doubt that, Luc just adores you and Claudia both,” he told her.
“Ditto for that, well I’ve got to run and go get ready for the wedding so Billy will be here soon to help you get dressed for the ceremony. Take care of yourself sweetie, I’m just so very proud of you,” she said hugging him, then turning away quickly so he would not see her own tears.
Chapter Ten
In what seemed like only moments later, Zain was standing behind the many rows of chairs now set out on the vast lawn at the resort. The whole area had been transformed with countless white flowers adorning the beautiful setting and the last of the guests were being seated.
Beautiful music wafted through the air as a string quartet was softly playing. A long red carpet led up to the makeshift altar where the groomsmen all with beaming smiles, awaited Zain and Luc’s arrival. Before they passed by, Zain leaned over to kiss Gertrude and Franny before Franny led her up to the front to sit next to Claudia.
As he turned back from watching them take their places, his heart almost stopped when he saw Luc walk into his view.
Wearing a 1930’s cream-colored suit and deep royal blue tie, Luc was the perfect complement to his own jet black fitted tuxedo complimented by a deep maroon tie.
Smiling radiantly at him, Luc took his hand as Zain’s parents moved each side and locked arms with Zain and Luc, leading them past the crowd of people all standing and beaming warmly at them.
When they reached the altar, Zain’s parents turned to form a circle with them, hugging them both, kissing their cheeks.
After a brief moment together, they turned and walked over to where their family was standing and took their places along side them.
During the welcoming ceremony, the next fifteen minutes were a blur of happiness as they exchanged their personally crafted vows. The moment finally came when they traded matching bands of sparkling diamonds and deeply hued Alexandrite set in circles of heavy twisted yellow gold and bright platinum intertwining rings.
As Zain slipped his ring onto Luc’s finger, his eyes were filled with happiness and intense emotion as he gazed at Luc, his new spouse and life partner, and whispered, “I will love you always.”
With bright smiles on their handsome faces, they turned, hand in hand, to walk down the aisle with everyone following in their wake to greet the newly married couple.
Closer to the sparkling creek, there were many tables for the guests. The staff had been busy readying the feast along with preparing the champagne for the wedding toasting celebration that was now underway.
As the group assembled, Billy Simon and his wife Nan stood ready flanked by Claudia, Franny, and Gertrude. Billy handed the special engraved champagne flutes to Luc and Zain and then raised his own glass, along with the guests to toast the new couple.
“To the happiness and love of my two beautiful sons, may you always cherish the love between you, and share your happiness with others. Today Zain’s mother and I along with our family proudly welcome Luc into our family as our new son. I believe I can speak for everyone here to express our love for you both. And we want to thank you Luc for being our family and for making my son Zain so incredibly happy; cheers,” he said with tears streaming down his proud face.
“Cheers,” the crowd returned unanimously, as the music again began to play and the celebration party began in earnest.
While the crowd began to mingle, Franny turned to Claudia and whispered in her ear, trying to be discrete.
“I thought Billy was never going to shut up. I’ve got to use the lady’s room before I lose it,” she laughed after squeezing her arm, and turned to head for the main building, not too far away.
“That should teach you to knock back so much champagne before the wedding, it’s a damn good thing they didn’t go for a formal Mass,” she laughed, watching the look of distress on her great-aunt’s face.
“That’s Franny for you, she can’t hold her liquor, literally,” Gertrude cackled at Franny’s expense as she hurried away.
Twenty or so minutes later, due to all the guests and greetings, Gertrude suddenly realized that Franny hadn’t returned, which seemed very odd to her.
“I’d better go see if she’s okay, this isn’t like Franny to miss a moment of a party like this,” Gertrude worried, as she whispered in Claudia’s ear and started to head off toward the lobby.
“I’ll come with you,” Claudia said, but Gertrude shook her head.
“No you stay here and mingle, I’m sure she just ran into someone and is having a long chat, God help us if it is a man. I’ll be fine and if there is a problem I’ll text you,” she told Claudia, and then went off in search of Franny.
Once inside the building, that was closed for the party, she glanced around and then headed toward the restroom, but then she noticed Olive sitting in a booth with Franny, both with grim looks on their faces.
Thinking that was truly odd considering the occasion, Gertrude walked over to them and started to speak.
“Ladies, is there something the matter here, you are missing the party and I know everyone will be looking for you soon,” she asked, and then noticed a dark haired man standing near them holding a knife.
“If you don’t want to get hurt lady, just sit down next to Olive. Franny and I here have some unfinished business and we’re soon going to take a little ride by ourselves in just a few minutes,” he said, watching her as she slid into the seat next to Olive, her eyes never leaving his face.
“And who might you be ordering us around like this? I don’t think we have met young man. And furthermore quit waving that thing around you might hurt yourself,” Gertrude asked, seeing Franny give her a look to be quiet.
“The name is Jake and this lady,” he said, pointing his knife at Franny, “and I have some valuable art to talk about. Now you just be a good little old lady and things will be fine, and don’t go getting your panties all in a twist. Just to be fair, come to think of it, Olive should join us as well. I know for a fact that she has some more goodies hidden away that I want to add to my collection,” he told her.
“Little old lady huh, panties in a twist huh, well sometime we older gals can have surprises of our own for a young man with a fucking smart ass attitude toward his elders,” she warned him.
Franny looked alarmed and leaned toward Gertrude.
“Aunt Gertrude, please don’t irritate him. This is the man that already put Olive in the hospital and hurt Zain without a second thought,” she told her; worried that Gertrude would set him off.
“Franny, mind your business. Jake you seem like a reasonable and very handsome man to me, and you know you ultimately won’t get away with this nonsense. So why don’t you just be reasonable about all this baloney and put down the knife and leave here immediately. We promise not to tell anyone until the party is over and you have time to crawl back in your hole,” Gertrude said, trying to reason with him.
“Listen Grandma, I don�
��t have any beef with you or that smart mouth you have for an old gal, but that rock on your hand looks pretty tempting, why don’t you just hand it over to me and we can just forget about the insults and be friends,” he said pointing his knife at her.
Gertrude glared at him and shook her head.
“I don’t think so Jake, that is my engagement ring from my late fiancé who was killed in the war, and I have no intention of parting with it after having it for so many years. Now are you going to be sensible or will you continue to dig yourself in deeper here until you can’t recover,” she asked softly, starting to nervously fiddle with the locking clasp on her small handbag, as Franny looked about ready to pass out.
Moving suddenly, Jake grabbed Franny by the arm and literally yanked her out of her seat, and pressed the tip of his knife against her soft neck.
“I’m not telling you again old lady, give me the fucking ring, or I’ll start carving up Franny here. Olive, get up and stand over here next to me as well,” he ordered, watching her slide around the long way out of the U shaped bench.
“You won’t get away with this Jake. Believe me my family has the resources and shall we say friends, to help us track you down and make sure you get what is coming to you,” Franny warned.
In response, his knife scratched Franny’s throat, nicking the tender skin and drawing blood, causing Gertrude to go pale at the sight of her niece’s blood.
“Okay you win Jake, no ring is worth hurting my niece. Now I need to use some hand cream to slide it off since it has never been off my hand in all these years; it will only take a moment,” she told him, quickly putting her open purse in her lap just under the visible edge of the table.
“Well hurry up bitch or your niece with have a new breathing hole soon,” he warned her, abruptly glancing over at Olive as she began to cough uncontrollably.
“What the fuck is the matter with you,” Jake began to say.
Just when he looked at her, there was a loud explosion, after Gertrude pulled the small pistol out of her purse and shot Jake in the knee.
Screaming in pain, Jake dropped his knife as he fell to the floor in agony, while Franny moved over to kick the knife away.
Within seconds, pandemonium ensued as people ran in to see what was happening followed by security guards.
Olive bent down with a towel and tried to stop the bleeding as the police and ambulance were called to the scene.
Claudia rushed into the room followed by her parents along with Luc and Zain, who hurried over to Gertrude to make sure she was okay.
“Of course I’m fine, that little bastard tried to hurt my little girl and I wasn’t having any of it. He even tried to take my engagement ring, that lowlife scum. He should just be glad I didn’t blow his damn nuts off for him,” she raged.
“Aunt Gertrude, please there are guests here you know, and besides you’d have to be a good shot to hit a small target,” Claudia commented, glancing over at Jake as he writhed in pain, giving him a sarcastic smile.
“I’d help you aim Aunt Gertrude, but I’d probably blow his brains out,” Luc said, looking deadly as he glowered at Jake.
“Bitch,” was all he managed to say, before Olive gave his knee an extra hard squeeze, causing him to groan in agony.
Within moments, they heard the sound of sirens and soon the resort was swarming with police and medical personnel. Even though the situation took some time to sort out, the celebration was able to continue and soon the family rejoined the others.
Jake was rushed to the hospital under guard, and after the police took statements, Billy had explained the bare details to the wedding guests. The celebration then resumed in spite of the dramatic events.
As the evening wore on, Franny could not repeat the story enough, of how her Great-aunt Gertrude had single handedly saved her life and brought down a potential murderer.
“Oh heavens Franny, let’s not exaggerate. He was just a very foolish young man that made some mistakes and will now pay for them. I see no point in making a mountain out of a mole hill,” she said, however secretly enjoying her notoriety.
Chapter Eleven
Luc and Zain postponed their honeymoon trip for a few days to make sure everything was taken care of, and to spend more time with their out of town guests.
After Jake was stabilized, questioning revealed that he’d stashed the stolen art from Olive’s home, under an assumed name, in a storage unit near Flagstaff.
He also indicated that John Barrett was involved and had been the one who struck Olive as she ran from the house. He then glimpsed Zain on the way to check on Olive, and raced over to the bushes along the path and struck him from behind.
Together Jake and John had planned the robbery, and it was Jake who changed the security code as they had suspected.
Originally, they planned to take the rest of the paintings in Olive’s house during the wedding celebration.
When they found that the code had been changed by Rudy, they altered their plans and were going to abduct Franny for ransom, but didn’t plan on Olive or Gertrude being involved and foiling their plans.
“Such a waste of a very handsome man, and even though he had it coming, I feel badly that I had to shoot him, but not really,” Gertrude said, sounding at first very concerned, but then remembering how he had treated Franny.
“It was a good thing you did Aunt Gertrude, I sure didn’t appreciate having my neck marked up. Besides when you shot the gun it scared John Barrett off, who was apprehended out near the Petrified Forest, trying to get to New Mexico,” Claudia told her.
“I’m happy that Rudy took Olive away from here for a few days, to get over all this shock involving her family. And speaking of shock,” Zain began, looking over at the fireplace, “what about that incredible painting she gave us for a wedding present? It seems her late husband had the Cathedral rock painting that she’d mentioned, stashed away and securely wrapped up with the others. So when she found it, she had it cleaned before she gifted it to us,” Zain said.
“You could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw it; I too remembered it from when you kids were small, but it was always kind of dull and didn’t look like anything special,” Billy said.
“I’m just pleased my family is safe and Luc and Zain have each other,” Nan said as she looked lovingly over at the newly married couple.
“You can say that again, I remember way back when Zain told me about the wild Simon family, but I sure had no idea just how wild he was talking about,” Luc kidded, leaning over to kiss Zain’s cheek.
“I told you so, and even I didn’t realize what a crack shot my Great-great-great-aunt Gertrude is with a pistol,” he laughed.
“Well while we are all sitting here patting ourselves on the back, I’m getting thirsty; how about another toast to the new couple,” Claudia said, heading for the bar.
“I thought you’d never ask, target practice is hot work,” Gertrude quipped, causing everyone to laugh.
“I guess we all should have known that everything can’t be perfect; after all, Weddings are a Bitch,” Franny said, smiling as she accepted the tall icy flute of champagne.
About Nathan Grant
I live in the Southwest United States and have two dogs that love to help me write. A lot of my inspiration for my books comes from personal experience and places I have visited.
Contact Nathan at: http://nathangrant.wordpress.com/about/
Books by Nathan Grant
An Autumn by the Russian River
A Contractor From Palm Springs
A Garden in the Desert
A Ghost by the Eel River
A Haunting in Mendocino
A Hell of a Way to Meet
A Man in Yosemite Valley
A Man on Summerland Beach
A Monsoon Cowboy
A Psychic Man From Sedona
Murder at the Resort
Reflections on a Romance
Sometimes It Takes a Cowboy
Tangled Up in
Napa
The Night I captured a Cowboy
Weddings are a Bitch
Well Hung in Old Santa Fe
When a Cowboy Comes Back Home
When Things Get Hot
While Ruby Was Gone