by Tina Leonard
John winked. “I know, beautiful. Trust me, I know. A little of my buddy goes a long way.”
“He is right, though.” She hadn’t expected to find herself off her feet so soon. “But I can’t think about getting married when I’m worried about the babies. I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared as when I woke up and found myself being carted off into an ambulance.”
“I completely understand.” He came over to sit on the bed next to her, leaned her head against his shoulder. “It’s all going to work out.”
“I hope so.”
“It is.” His voice was strong with determination. “You know what we should do?”
“Let Sam perform the ceremony his way, and do it our way later? Just to cover all the bases?”
“I was going to say get a cup of warm water and put his hand in it to see if we can make him pee himself,” John said, “but yeah, your plan works, too.”
“The warm water idea is definitely intriguing.” Daisy looked up at him. “He drove all the way here to see us, he bought the babies a bear, he claims he somehow got himself ordained just for us, and we want to put his hand in a cup of warm water. Is that wrong?”
John laughed. “It’s so right that it’s hard to believe I’m not going to do it.”
“Softy.”
“Me! You’re the one who wants to let him use his faux piece of paper so he can brag about being the one who got us married.”
“Yeah.” Daisy slowly nodded. “When you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so silly.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
They sat quietly for a few minutes, and John kissed her hand. Brushed her knuckles with his lips. Daisy looked at their sleeping lump of a friend, who was good-hearted in spite of his prankster ways, remembered that this man had served overseas with her husband.
“I just wonder if it might be good for your friendship to allow Sam to have his moment in the sun,” Daisy said.
“I don’t want you to do anything you’ll regret later. And it might be just as exciting to do the warm water trick. At least from your perspective.”
Daisy looked at Sam. “It was sweet of him to try to play Madame Matchmaker’s role.”
“Those two are in cahoots, along with Jane. Don’t feel too sentimental for him.”
Daisy looked at John. “Are you sure?”
“Sure as I’m breathing.”
She smiled. “All of you who came here for Ty are no stranger to trying to finagle your way to what you want. You, Sam, Cisco, Justin, even Ty. You’re brothers in schemes.”
“I’ll tell you a secret. We didn’t really come here to find brides. I know that’s the line in BC, but honestly, that was sort of window dressing.”
Daisy was astonished. “But that’s all any of you have done, try to march each other to the altar. You’ve competed in the Bridesmaids Creek swim and the Best Man’s Fork run, egging each other out of bachelor status!”
“I know.” He grinned. “We were okay with that rumor going around. After a while, it sort of became rural legend, and we were okay with that, too. But the truth is, we only came here to support Ty Spurlock because we could tell he needed help.”
Daisy thought back. Justin Morant had come to Bridesmaids Creek first, meeting Mackenzie Hawthorne and her four little baby girls, falling head over boots in love with all of them. Then Ty had gotten caught in his own trap and fallen for Jade Harper, which still amused all of BC, because he was supposedly shepherding his brothers-in-arms to the altar. Cisco Grant went down hard for Suz Hawthorne—and that had left John and Handsome Sam as the last bachelors standing among the group Ty had brought to town with the intention of growing Bridesmaids Creek. “What kind of help?”
“We could tell he was worried about how stuff was going around here. Frankly, at the time, your father wasn’t doing a whole lot to help out.”
“That’s true,” Daisy murmured, feeling horribly guilty about the part she’d played in all that, too.
He tightened his arms around her as if he could tell what was she thinking, absolutely wouldn’t let her have any regrets.
“So Ty felt like we could help out around the town. At the time, he talked about odd jobs and stuff. Working around both the Hanging H Ranch and the Haunted H year-round Halloween attraction. We liked the thought of being outdoors, and the town sounded cool. The idea of living in a family oriented kind of place was appealing to all of us. So, Sam, Cisco and I decided to head here, at least for a couple of months. BC grows on you, though, and now it’s been a few years.”
Where might John have gone otherwise? He clearly had no desire to live the same way his parents and brothers did, even though their lifestyle certainly suited them. “I’m glad you came to BC.”
“It goes without saying that I am, too.”
She looked at Sam, who was snoring like crazy. “So what about Sam? Has he ever dated anyone?”
“Not that we know of. Not since we’ve known him, anyway.”
“Poor Sam!”
“Don’t feel sorry for him. He says he’s too busy. I don’t know with what, but he says he is.”
“So he just works at the Hanging H, and becomes a doting uncle to all the babies his SEAL brothers have?”
“I guess.”
Daisy took a deep breath. “We’re going to have to do it.”
“Put his hand in warm water while he’s snoring?”
“No. We’re going to have to let him officiate our wedding.”
John pulled away slightly to look at her. “Are you sure you don’t want to do the water trick instead?”
“I’m sure.” She gazed at Sam, the big bear of a man collapsed in the chair like a tired doll. “He put a lot of thought into this. We can’t let him down.”
“So you’re asking me to marry you?”
She turned to face him, stared deep into his eyes. “Yes. I am asking you to marry me. When our snoring friend awakens, would you, John Lopez ‘Squint’ Mathison, do me the great honor of becoming my sexy, handsome husband?”
Chapter Eleven
“I accept,” John stated in a hurry, before she could take her sudden proposal back. “Sam, get up off your duff! You’ve got a job to do.”
Sam blinked his eyes sleepily, then jackknifed to a sitting position. “Is there a raid? What’s happening?” He looked around wildly. John realized he was probably searching for his firearm and primed to hit the ground running.
“Easy, brother. We’re in Austin,” John said softly, and Sam relaxed as if someone had pulled the air out of him. His brown hair was stood on end, but John could almost hear his blood pressure calming. “Didn’t mean to scare the hell out of you.”
“Man, I don’t know. Guess I was dreaming.” Sam looked at Daisy, who wore the cutest expression of alarm. “Sorry, Daisy.”
“It’s fine. John should be more delicate when he disturbs you.”
Sam rose, his face returning to the teasing expression they all knew so well. Cagily, he said, “So now that I’m awake, am I performing ministerial duties?”
“Is that really all you came here for?” John demanded.
“I came to see Daisy, and to bring the impending bundles of joy their first present from Uncle Handsome Sam.”
Daisy laughed, but John scowled. “Daisy’s asked me to marry her.” He said it with pride.
“That’s awesome!” Sam laughed. “I hope you don’t regret it, beautiful. I swear I’m the better man,” he teased, going to kiss Daisy’s cheek. John pulled him back when he deemed Sam was being just a bit too attentive.
“That’s enough. Easy, Romeo.”
Sam looked at Daisy. “You don’t have to marry him, you know. I’d do the honors in a heartbeat.”
John sighed. “You don’t even want to get married.”
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br /> “No, but I can make an exception in this case.”
“That’s enough. You have a wedding to perform, and it’s not your own.”
“And perform it I will!” Sam rubbed his hands together. “We don’t have a second to spare.”
“Well, actually,” Daisy said, “we need to spare a few moments.”
John put up his hands. “You asked, I accepted, we have a willing pastor to officiate. Don’t slow us down, Daisy. We’re over the hump here.”
“And it wasn’t easy getting over that hump,” Daisy agreed. “But we can do a lot of good with our marriage, if we play our cards right.”
John sank into a chair, stared at the woman he couldn’t quite seem to catch. “Let’s skip playing cards and just get married already.”
“The thing is, we need to do this right. To do it right, we need Madame Matchmaker.”
“We’re already matched. She’s had her hands in our relationship up to her elbows. Maybe not as much as she would have liked, but enough.” John was eager to get the “I do’s” said.
“Not necessarily,” Sam said, and John frowned.
“Whose side are you on? You do realize this woman has eluded me for years? Do you really want to give her a reason to get away from me again?” John demanded.
“Here’s the thing,” Daisy said, ignoring the good-natured ribbing between the men. Sometimes it didn’t sound good-natured, but she knew they had a relationship that went deeper than any silly argument. That was the thing about Daisy, the more time went on, the more comfortable he felt around her. Not too comfortable, of course—he still wanted to make love to her wildly day and night, as they had in Montana. But he felt comfortable with her.
She made him smile in a way he’d once wondered if he’d ever smile again.
“Cosette, our illustrious matchmaker, believes her magic has deserted her.” Daisy looked at the men. “This is a golden opportunity to help her get her mojo back.”
“Oh, no.” John shook his head. “I’m not waiting for Cosette’s magic. I’ve got three little babies who are going to wear my name from the second their eyes open in this world. Plus, if you recall, she had your gang tie me to a tree during the last race. No, I’m not waiting on Cosette.”
“I see where you’re going with this,” Sam said to Daisy, and John wondered if telling his buddy to butt out would be a foolhardy thing to do. It was Sam and his new freestyle ordination who just about had Daisy to “I do,” so John contented himself with gazing at his lovely bride-to-be-as-soon-as-he-could-manage-it and waited for Sam’s epiphany to reveal itself.
“If Cosette believes you two are together and getting married because of her matchmaking skills, then she’ll feel like her magic hasn’t deserted her.” Sam looked pleased. “It’s two for the price of one.”
John didn’t like the sound of that. There was already one more attending this marriage proposal than necessary. Again, he reminded himself that his buddy had his back, so he kept silent.
“We get Cosette’s magic to recharge her belief in herself, and Bridesmaids Creek comes back to life.” Sam nodded wisely at Daisy. “People don’t always see your good side, Daisy Donovan, but you definitely have some angel running strong in you. Sexy angel, too,” he said with a flourish, and John said, “Hey!” as sternly as he could manage it, secretly grateful that Sam was saying nice things about Daisy because she deserved it.
“Thank you.” Daisy sounded happy, and John forgave his buddy all his interruptions and interferences on the spot. Just to hear someone else acknowledge what he himself had always seen in the brunette stunner made him realize all over again why he’d allowed Sam into his tight-knit circle of brothers in the first place.
“Thanks,” John said softly.
“No thanks needed.” Sam began scrolling through his phone. “Now, we need a bouquet, and maybe a veil?” He looked at Daisy. “Do you want to call Cosette or shall I?”
“But we haven’t decided how to do this, have we?” Daisy was so adorable as she sat in the hospital bed, looking worried about Cosette, that John fell in love with her all over again.
“One of us is going to tell Cosette that you and John can’t get married because he believes your marriage won’t last since the Bridesmaids Creek charms have failed for you. If you recall, none of your three chances at the magic ever pointed to John being the man of your dreams. The prince of your heart, as it were.” Sam looked quite pleased with his plan.
“Hell, no, we’re not telling Cosette that! Don’t stir up that BC magic nonsense,” John said.
Daisy gasped, and Sam looked chagrined. John realized he’d stepped in it big-time. “Oh, come on. It’s just superstition. You know that, right?”
“And you’ve always been superstitious as hell,” Sam said. “You know that, right?”
Daisy’s expression was still steeped in anxiety. John tried to look like a man who’d just been proposed to. “In the real world, the world outside of BC, not everybody jumps around to the tune of busybodies. Cute little busybodies, but busybodies with an agenda just the same.”
Daisy looked like she might cry.
“May I just remind you, brother, that Madame Matchmaker said, and I repeat, ‘there will be no wedding in BC for you?’, as a result of your unsuccessful attempts in the Bridesmaids Creek swim and the Best Man’s Fork run?” Sam looked disgusted. “What SEAL gets a leg cramp during arguably the most important swim of his life?”
“First of all,” John said, “going back to my original point, those were not the most important missions in my life. I can think of a few swims we did in very dire parts of the world, my friend, and you can, too, wherein my leg did not cramp up, nor did my shooting skills.”
Daisy’s eyes filled with tears. Sam cleared his throat.
“Oh, hell. I’m not being very romantic, am I?” John crumpled into his chair. “Daisy, I’m sorry. Sorry as heck.” He pushed his hat back, shook his head. Pointed at Sam. “You are causing trouble, buddy.”
Sam looked innocent. “Your lack of romance is not my fault!”
He snorted. “One day, Sam Barr, some little lady is going to decide she wants to pin you down, and all of us are going to eat popcorn and watch with smiles on our faces.”
Sam’s face contorted from astonished to concerned. “Dude, that’s a horrible curse to lay on a brother! It’s bad, really bad. Friends don’t put that on friends.”
“Anyway,” Daisy said, “getting back to Cosette, if you don’t want to go with the local customs, that’s a decision I leave up to you.” She looked at John, her dark eyes a little sad, and his heart felt as if it sank to his boots.
“Absolutely not. I let my pigheaded mouth get the best of me.” He manned up big-time, determined to make Daisy happy. “I’ll call Cosette myself.”
Daisy looked pleased, and Sam appeared relieved.
“Thank you,” Daisy said, and John felt better.
“I knew you’d want to do this right. Any man would want to redeem himself after the leg cramp episode,” Sam said.
“You know, I wish we had put your hand in a glass of warm water while you napped,” John groused, and Daisy laughed, and Sam postured as if he wasn’t worried but he knew very well anything was possible.
John grinned at Daisy and pulled out his phone. “Let’s get this party started. What do I tell our illustrious matchmaker?”
* * *
“I’M AFRAID I don’t know,” Cosette said when John called her a half hour later with a well-prepared script he’d been given by Daisy.
He hoped he could pull off the magic.
“You don’t know what to do?” John said, when Cosette paused.
“It’s not a matter of you and Daisy getting married,” Cosette told him. “But as far as the magic goes, I’m afraid I don’t have any pull.”
> “You don’t have any pull?” Beside him, Daisy’s face went a little pale. He had to fix this—and fast. “How can you not have any pull? You pull everyone’s strings in BC!”
“Yes, but you see, I’m divorced now. I’m on my own. If I can’t make my own match work, how can I make a match for anyone else?”
John swallowed hard. “Cosette, you know that you and Phillipe are meant to be together like salt and pepper. Marriage isn’t the only bond between you.”
“Maybe not. But to be honest, I started losing a bit of faith when Mackenzie Hawthorne’s first marriage hit the skids. Though, to be sure, her first husband was a weasel. She should never have married him.”
“So you’re saying that the magic makes mistakes?” John was trying very hard to see through the fog of superstition BC layered over itself.
“I made a mistake.” Cosette took a moment to compose her thoughts. “The magic never does. But my confidence really ebbed a little. Up until then, I had a perfect record, and Phillipe was Monsieur Unmatchmaker in name only. He had no job, except for tutoring, of course. But no matches to unmake. We never needed that service.”
John’s head swam. “It’s okay, Cosette. Ty Spurlock said that Mackenzie’s first marriage really hadn’t been prodded along by you but by him.”
“Oh, what does Ty know?” she asked huffily, but he thought he heard hope in her voice. “Anyway, what do you possibly think I can do for Daisy? No one gets more than three chances at the magic. It’s just not possible.”
“So what would happen if we get married without assistance from Bridesmaids Creek magic?”
Daisy’s eyes went huge. She’d been listening attentively this whole time, but now she looked positively stunned. John decided right then and there that nothing was going to keep him from giving her the thing she’d been dreaming of all her life.
“You’d just get married,” Cosette said. “Nothing happens at all.”
He hesitated. That didn’t sound right. Something had to happen—this was Bridesmaids Creek. Everyone was always in a stew about the magic.