by Tina Leonard
Her small hand stroked dangerously close, an obvious invitation to please him. John picked up her hand, kissed it. “I don’t think I can concentrate.”
“I bet I could get you to concentrate,” she teased.
He felt like a thousand wires were short-circuiting his brain. “Daisy, I could be a father any day now. You and I could be parents. Literally any second.”
“Does that scare you?”
“Hell, yes!” He thought about that for a second. “And no. But mostly yes. There’s so much to do!”
“And speaking of doing things, you’ll never guess what I’ve got scheduled for next week.” Daisy looked proud of herself. “You are looking at a woman who has the first phase of matchmaking apprenticeship well in hand.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve set up a Bridesmaids Creek swim for next week!”
“Wait a minute, Daze,” John began, then reminded himself he needed to be supportive. This was a big step for her. Besides which, their marriage would start off on a good footing if Daisy felt that she had made up for past transgressions in BC. “I mean, that’s great, babe. Really awesome. It’s not too much excitement for you? Considering the IV you’re getting tomorrow?”
“Well, obviously I didn’t know about the IV when I set this up. But it’s going to be fabulous!” She pretty much glowed as she sat up, getting more excited as she relayed her big news. “I’ve got all five of my gang swimming!”
“Swimming for brides?” He wondered if any of Daisy’s gang had truly given up the idea of catching her for themselves.
“I have wonderful local girls participating. There was more interest than I thought there’d be.”
“You didn’t expect your gang to be a draw for the ladies?”
She smiled at him. “I wasn’t sure. They haven’t done a whole lot of dating over the years.”
He kissed her hand, enjoying the closeness. “But you think that now you’re off the market, they may be more open to looking around for wives.”
She nodded. “And the local beauties are definitely excited!”
Nothing could go wrong with this plan, could it? He had a funny feeling there was a hook in here somewhere, a hook with his name on it. “So, back to our own special vows, Daisy.”
“Yes?” She smiled, and he took a deep breath.
“How about if I give Sam a shout to come over and do his thing?”
Her expression turned serious. “It’s so sudden.”
“Tomorrow you’ll have an IV,” he reminded her.
“That’s true.” She swallowed hard. “I don’t have a veil. Or anything.”
“We could have a more elaborate wedding ceremony in the summer.”
“True.” She carefully considered that, nodding. “All right. See if Sam can come over.”
Her face caught his attention, stopping him in mid-dial. “You don’t want to do this, do you?”
“No, it’s fine.” Daisy nodded. “I’m ready, I really am.”
She didn’t sound ready. In fact, she might have sounded reluctant.
Of course it was no woman’s idea of a big day. But he had to get her to say I do, before his babies were born.
He’d fix everything else later.
Chapter Fourteen
Daisy and John were married the day before the big race was set to happen. John could tell his bride was nervous about the huge event she’d organized—more nervous than getting married, more nervous than the nurse coming to give her the new medication.
But they were married now, thanks to Sam, with Barclay as a witness, and Robert giving his daughter away. John felt he was the luckiest man in the world.
“Thank you,” he told Daisy, because that was the first thing that popped out of his mouth, and because it was truly how he felt now that she was his bride. Grateful was the first word that came to mind, as well as relieved.
She smiled. “Thank you?”
“Yes, thank you very much, Mrs. Mathison, for becoming my wife and making me the happiest man on the planet.”
“I still say you could have done better,” Sam said woefully to Daisy, “like me.”
They all laughed because the last person to ever say I do would be Sam Barr. Sam was many things but a marrying man wasn’t one of them.
“Welcome to the family, son,” Robert said, shaking John’s hand. “For a wedding gift, I hope you’ll accept half ownership of this house, and an office building in Australia.”
John coughed, finding himself suddenly out of breath.
“Thank you, Daddy,” Daisy said, hugging her father from her perch on the sofa.
John couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Hang on a second, Daze, babe,” he began, but Sam grabbed his arm, steering him toward the punch bowl Barclay had set up in the den.
“Careful, buddy,” Sam said, his voice low. “I know you’ve been caught off guard, but you’ll want to take a few deep breaths in order to start your married life off on the right foot.”
John felt as if all the air was being sucked out of him. “I don’t want half this house, or a building in Australia!”
“Easy, hoss.” Sam pulled out a flask and dumped a bit of extra party fun into the glass of punch he handed to John. “It’s not about what you want, it’s about what Daisy expects and what she knows is to be hers. Don’t get in the middle of family wrangling, is my advice. You’re family now, but Daisy and Ty are Robert’s flesh and blood. He’s going to do for them what he wants to, and you’ll sound ungrateful if you try to back out now. It’s Daisy’s share, if you see what I’m saying.”
“I can take care of my own wife!”
“I know you can,” Sam soothed. “But you knew what you were marrying into, buddy. This isn’t a woman who grew up in a trailer following the rodeo circuit.”
John tried to follow Sam’s rationale through the crazy, panicked haze enveloping him. “I don’t want any of that stuff.”
“You might not, but she will. Take my advice, zip your lips, dude. Smile and say thank-you.”
“He’s going to think I married his daughter for money! He all but accused me of it in the beginning!”
“Words spoken in haste continue to live on,” Sam said sternly. “Listen to your pastoral counsel, because it’s all you’ve got at the moment.”
“Helluva pastor you are,” John grumbled. He swigged some more punch, delighted to see Cosette and Jane rush into the room for the small wedding party they’d planned for after the vows. They handed Daisy gifts and hugged her, and made a big deal out of her, as if she truly was the revered daughter of the town she’d always wanted to be.
He felt a warm glow start inside him. It was all going to work out. The Bridesmaids Creek charm had been wrong: he had found a bride, and he had married her in Bridesmaids Creek, and it was great.
Phillipe and Sheriff McAdams came in, followed by Daisy’s gang. John didn’t think he’d ever get past calling them the meatheads in his own mind. They greeted him, disappointment etched pretty deeply in their faces.
Still, they were trying to man up. John nodded at them. “Thanks for the congratulations. I know I’m a lucky guy.”
“The best girl in Bridesmaids Creek,” Carson said, “and you got her.”
“I know,” John said, “I realize how fortunate I am.”
“Some might say it was just luck,” Red said.
John laughed. “I don’t think so.”
“Could have been.” Gabriel shrugged. “Not that we’re not happy for you.”
But they weren’t jumping up and down like excited Christmas elves. “It’s all right. I get it. You guys have known her all her life. She’s special. Trust me, I’ll take great care of Daisy.”
In fact he couldn’t wait to do just that. Sometimes it was hard to believe that she was having
his sons—three sons!—and now she was actually his.
“It’ll never stick,” Dig said.
John’s happy thoughts did a nosedive. “It’s going to stick. Let me get you guys a beer. You’re awfully hot under the collars.”
Their beefy lunkheads looked like they might be about to start smoking. John realized the whole room was staring at him and the gang, listening intently.
“Barclay,” John said, “I think these guys may need a beer. Or six,” he said under his breath. “Maybe with a sleeping potion in it.”
Barclay went to retrieve the beer, and John went back to join the gang. It was time to make nice.
Daisy deserved this, at least.
“So we hear you’re now the owner of half this place,” Carson said, glancing around.
“And commercial real estate in Australia,” Red said.
John wanted terribly to refute that. It sounded awful, the way they’d said it, as if he was some kind of gold-digging cowboy. And that was the way they meant it. He hadn’t won Daisy in a Bridesmaids Creek swim, the way things were done here, and yet he’d fallen into a fortune.
“Sitting in pretty tall cotton, I’d say, for a Navy SEAL who just works a farm,” Gabriel said.
“I’m not a part owner—” John began.
“Yes, that was very generous of Robert,” Sam inserted smoothly, coming to join them. “Completely unexpected gesture, but Robert has shown his generosity to the town quite a bit lately.”
There was no arguing with that. Daisy’s gang stood around for a moment like floor ornaments, and John decided it was now time to make his escape. “My bride—”
“Thing is,” Dig said, “it’s a shame the best girl in the town didn’t get what she deserved.”
“Ah, well,” Clint said. “We’ll all be in our own races tomorrow. Daisy’s brought in some great gals for us, though she won’t tell us who. It’s going to be a total adventure.”
John wondered if one could poke a guest in the nose at their own wedding party. Several noses, in fact, distinctly needed a poking.
“I never did quite understand how a Navy SEAL could come up with a leg cramp.” Carson’s face wore an expression of confusion. “Isn’t that what SEALs do? Swim? Stay in shape?”
“Swim, as they say, like a SEAL?” Red gibed, turning up the torture on John a notch.
“Listen—” John began.
“He swims fine, fellows,” Sam said. “Lay off the guy, huh? It’s his big night. He’ll never get married again.”
“No, but he’ll probably get divorced,” Red said, sounding happy about the possibility. “You’ll see.”
“That’s silly. I don’t believe in juju and the tales from the crypt you people spin around here,” John said, overriding Sam, who was trying to shush him.
“Tales from the crypt might be a bit harsh,” Sam said. “Come on, buddy, let’s get you some wedding cake.”
“We don’t have any wedding cake.” John stopped, catching sight of Daisy. She was staring at him, her eyes huge. Belatedly he realized she’d overheard everything—as had everyone else in the room. Suz and Mackenzie Hawthorne had come in while he wasn’t paying attention, along with their husbands Cisco and Justin. Jade and Ty Spurlock had arrived, and Jade’s mother, Betty. Everyone had witnessed his unfortunate remark. It also came to him that Daisy had no veil, and no bouquet. She’d simply worn a white caftan as her wedding gown.
He gulped. At least he’d gotten her a ring, although her hands were so swollen she’d put the ring on her pinky and said it would be lovely when it fit, after she had the babies and maybe a few months after that.
Maybe the meatheads were right. A horrible gnawing sensation settled into his stomach. What if Daisy woke up one day and realized their relationship was totally uneven? That he’d never be able to provide her with real estate around the world, that he would never be wealthy like her father. He could certainly afford a house in town, and it wouldn’t be one on wheels, but it would definitely require a thirty-year mortgage.
“Don’t let them get to you!” Sam said. “Come on, let’s get you a congratulatory cigar. Outside. Where we can get some good, bracing fresh air into you.”
“I don’t want a cigar.” He watched Daisy as she chatted with their friends, enjoying her big moment.
But it wasn’t the big moment of which she’d dreamed.
“I can hear you thinking, buddy. You need to let it all go.” Sam dragged him to a corner, poured a little more whiskey into his glass. “Listen, you and Daisy share equal blame here. She avoided you winning her.”
Perhaps that was true, and Sam had his back for saying so, but it didn’t matter. “I just don’t want Daisy to have any regrets.”
“She’ll regret you standing around looking like you’ve lost your best friend if you don’t pull up. Get a grip on yourself, man! Don’t let those dumb asses rile you. They’re trying to. Don’t let them win.”
He was already riled. In fact, he was worried.
“So it’s a swim tomorrow, is it?” John asked Daisy’s ex-gang.
“It is,” Clint said. “Lots of ladies to be won, I hear.”
“Not that you’d know what to do with one if you caught her,” John said, “but I think I’ll join you fellows.”
“Join us?” Gabriel asked, and the five men perked up, staring at him with sudden interest.
“Buddy, slow down a bit, think what you’re doing here,” Sam said, low, the way they used to talk to each other in dangerous locations. Low and encouraging—and warning.
“Yeah. I think I’ll join you.” John drew himself up. “I think I’ll win Daisy all over again.”
“No!” Daisy exclaimed, her voice in a chorus with Sheriff McAdams’s, Cosette’s and Jane’s.
“No?” John looked at them. “I want to win my wife, fair and square.”
“No, John—” Daisy began, but Dig grabbed his hand, shaking it.
“We’ll save a spot for you,” Dig said. “Right up at the starting splash.”
“Yeah. See if you can live down that leg cramp problem, okay?” Red asked.
“The only cramping there’ll be tomorrow is a cramp in your miniscule brains when you realize that I’ve outswum you by a mile.”
No one in the room was smiling, except for Daisy’s gang, and they looked like their typical jack-o’-lantern-headed selves.
“Can I see you outside a moment, buddy?” Sam dragged him away and gestured him to follow him several yards from the house, where no one could overhear. “Dude, what the hell are you doing?”
“Showing my wife that we were always meant to be together. Nothing’s ever going to separate us. There’s no BC charm that I wouldn’t buy into to win Daisy. No weird BC backfire’s going to...backfire on us.”
“That’s what you don’t get. It’s a trap, John.”
“A trap?”
“Yes! And you walked right into it.” Sam looked despondent. “You dummy. Why do you always leap before you look?”
“Me?” John laughed. “I think that’s your calling card, Sam. Leaping before looking.”
“No, I’m a strategist and you’re a grab-the-ring guy.” Sam sighed. “You realize that if you don’t win tomorrow, you make everything worse?”
“How?”
“Because everyone in this town knows that the races are all-important. Daisy isn’t supposed to get another one. Three’s the charm.”
“Says who?” John growled.
“Says the legend.”
Sam seemed pretty adamant. A little more worry crept into John. “I’ve lived all across the USA and there was never any town as lost in its mind games as this one. You have to admit that, Sam.”
“It’s too late to back out and claim you don’t believe.”
“Wh
y? What will happen if I lose?”
Sam took a deep breath. “You lose Daisy. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not the next day, but eventually.”
“Bull.” He loved Daisy. They were meant to be together. No goofy town crystal ball wackiness was going to change that.
“It will happen, because she’ll know,” Sam warned. “It’s not juju, it’s who Daisy is. She’s a daughter of Bridesmaids Creek. And she believes. Think, John, all her life she’s seen the magic work. She believes it, wants it desperately for herself. But she’s not going to get it. And you weren’t even supposed to have a marriage in BC, Cosette said so. You blew it. Only somehow, because you’re crazy, I guess, you figured out a way to make it happen, anyway.”
“No, I didn’t,” John said slowly, realization dawning on him. “You did.”
Sam was silently watching him. A chill crept over John’s scalp. The thing about Sam that very few people knew was that, beneath the banter, beneath the fun and games, Sam was a helluva thinker. He was Mensa-gifted, with a brain that was always working, two gears ahead of the next guy. They’d relied on him for those gears—Ty and Cisco and John were probably alive because of Sam and his ways.
“You got yourself certified to perform weddings because you knew something would keep getting in the way for Daisy and me here in Bridesmaids Creek. So you decided to perform it outside of BC, with an online class or something that would vest you with the power. You went around BC, in effect. You countermanded the charm,” John said.
“I figured it might be something like getting married at sea. You know how if you’re so many miles out, you’re bound by different laws than when you’re on solid ground?” Sam nodded with satisfaction. “That’s what I did. I decided to perform your wedding with powers vested in me that were not of the solid ground of BC.”
“That’s a helluva thing to do for a friend.”
“A fellow SEAL,” Sam said. “You’d have done it for me. So don’t go blowing it now. I’ve put a lot of effort into this plan. I don’t need you lighting it on fire.”
“I have to do the race.” John knew this as sure as he knew his name was John Lopez Mathison. “The only way I’ll ever really have Daisy’s heart is to win it. The same way the other brides in this town were won.” He thought about the cave and the ledger, knew how long and deep the traditions were here. “The charms are important, more important than I ever realized.”