“What’s this?” Beatrice Coldwell asked after joining them.
“Ellery wants to buy the gallery,” Mr. Coldwell told his mother.
“What a wonderful idea. But I can’t allow her to buy it. However, she can be the first recipient of the Mimi Hollis Art Foundation grant. It’s only fair after what she went through at the hands of our family.”
“Oh, I couldn’t—”
“Hush, Ellery,” Elijah had told her. “I think that’s a marvelous idea, Bea. What do you have in mind?”
“A grant of the property in full.”
Ellery had gasped. Elijah had nodded, and Mr. Coldwell had called his sister over. “We have a majority of the foundation board, let’s vote on it.”
And just like that, Ellery had been granted the property. She knew it was their way of paying her off for attempted murder, but as Elijah told her, it gave them a way to say they were sorry and her a way to feel closure. So she’d taken it and used some of her savings to renovate.
Ellery looked around. The opening was the next day. She’d painted the exposed brick walls white and refinished the wood floors. She’d ripped down the curtain divider and put up French doors and installed all new doors and lighting. She’d also torn down some of the walls in the back and created an art studio for grant recipients of the Mimi Hollis Art Foundation. They also had a featured spot in the studio.
Beatrice Coldwell had been a fairy godmother to the gallery and to her. She’d never verbally apologized, but she’d done so by extending her friendship and her loyalty to Ellery and the gallery. Charleston society had noticed. Atherton had too. He’d begged her to come back to him, but Ellery had slipped her hand into Gavin’s and told him she was in love, and he better grow up or he’d turn into a lonely old man who thought he was a playboy when, in fact, everyone laughed at him. It worked. Atherton was working his way up his father’s company and living off the salary he’d been given.
“Everything looks perfect,” Gavin said as he came up behind her. “But . . .”
Ellery spun around. “But what?” She looked at the beautiful artwork hanging on the walls. The gallery was fresh, bright, and filled with color. It was perfect.
“You forgot a painting,” Gavin said as he tapped his finger on the back of a canvas that rested on the ground.
“I don’t think so.” Ellery had been so busy. Had she forgotten something? “Is this one of Tinsley’s?”
“It’s a Faulkner, yes,” Gavin said, holding up the painting for her to take.
Ellery took it, turned it around and then cocked her head. It was ugly. Actually, it was hideous. The strokes were a disaster and the colors were horrendous. Her eye went to the bottom and sure enough it was a Faulkner, but it wasn’t Tinsley’s name there. It was Gavin’s.
“You painted something for me to sell?” Ellery asked with fake cheer. It was dreadful. In fact, she wasn’t really sure what it was.
“Here,” he said, taking it and hanging it on the last open spot—the spot where she was about to hang a simply stunning work by a local artist. Gavin hung it up and then stepped back to where she cocked her head and examined it.
There were blues, greens, browns, grays, golds, and silvers. She stepped forward and squinted. “Is that the ocean?”
“Yes,” Gavin said excitedly from behind her. “Do you like it?”
“Umm,” she said, squinting more. “Is that brownish thing the ground in the middle of the ocean?”
“It’s a dock.”
“Oh!” Ellery exclaimed as she stepped closer and stared. What in tarnation was this? Okay, so there was a dock going out into the water. That meant the gray things were probably clouds. Did that make the gold hoop and silver ball at the end of the dock a basketball goal and ball? But silver rays were shooting upward from the ball and why was it on top of the hoop? No, maybe a ball and chain that lightning was trying to break?
“Gavin, what is—?” Ellery turned around and found Gavin on one knee with a diamond ring.
“Ellery, you’ve had my heart since that stormy night, and I would be the proudest, happiest man alive if you will do me the honor of marrying me.”
“It’s the ring!” She gasped.
Gavin smiled a little uncertainly. “Yes, it’s an engagement ring.”
Ellery looked back at the painting and laughed. It was the most beautiful painting she’d ever seen. It was of a large engagement ring on the dock they’d first met at during the storm. “The painting! It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
She leaned down and kissed him as he kept the ring held out. “Is that a yes?” he asked against her lips.
“Yes!” she cried as Gavin placed the ring on her finger. “I love you so much!”
“I love you too, future bride.”
The French doors opened, and his family and their friends spilled in with bottles of champagne, whiskey, and Gator with a six-pack of the cheapest beer he could find. Tibbie looked horrified as he held it up. “Sonny, I think I’ll pour the first toast.” Tibbie handed him the bottle of champagne. “Can you open this for me, dear?”
“Yes ma’am,” Gator said as he pulled out his knife, and with a slice faster than Tibbie’s gasp, popped the cork.
“Now that was neat. The girls at the Magnolia Brunch would love that.”
Ellery had never seen Gator blush before, but he did as he adjusted his twenty-year-old Cocks hat. “Anytime, ma’am.”
Ellery caught Ryker standing behind the crowd, smiling as his shoulders shook. Wade and Harper began pouring drinks and passing them around. “To my brother and his beautiful fiancée!” Harper said with her glass lifted in the air.
The rest of the evening was a blur of laughter, joy, and love. It was the perfect way to start her happily ever after.
Epilogue
Gavin looked into the eyes of his bride. She was radiant in her white dress. Her hair was swept up with tendrils of blonde framing her face in a beachy look that went with the small blue forget-me-not flowers woven into her hair.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife!” Reverend Winston cheered as the congregation stood, clapping and whistling.
Gavin took his wife’s hand in his as Walker Greene, his best friend since childhood, gave him a slap on the back. His cousins, who were also groomsmen, cheered as Harper handed Ellery her bouquet. Tinsley and some of Ellery’s friends he’d gotten to know over the last year followed behind Harper as they walked hand in hand down the aisle.
Gavin smiled at his family, both from Shadows Landing and from Keeneston, who sat together clapping and talking. Walker’s sister, Edie, was with them. Not only as part of his Shadows Landing’s friends, but Keeneston had adopted her as well since Walker married Gavin’s Kentucky cousin, Layne Davies.
Gavin turned to look at the other side and saw Tibbie’s and Elijah’s eyes glistening as they sat with Beatrice Coldwell, the matriarch of the Coldwell family. He’d heard Miss Bea tell Ellery over and over again that Ellery’s compassion, forgiveness, and inclusion in the gallery had given her a second lease on life. And they weren’t the only ones on her side. She’d ended up having more friends than she knew about. Artists, art collectors, and members of the art community had been behind her since she came forward with her story.
The wedding was filled with love, and they pushed open the doors, ran down the stairs, and into the horse drawn carriage Skeeter used for ghost tours. The crowd gathered outside the church and bubbles were blown as the happy couple waved to their friends and family. The Bells had insisted the reception take place at their plantation. As the carriage pulled away from the church, the people they loved had smiles as large as Gavin’s and Ellery’s.
“So, Mrs. Faulkner, are you ready to start your next adventure?”
“As long as it starts with a kiss and not CPR, I’ll go anywhere with you.”
Much to the delight of their friends and family, as the carriage drew away, Gavin kissed his wife with all the love and happiness of their fu
ture.
* * *
Wade Faulkner had been to his fair share of Davies weddings in Kentucky. Now it was his turn to introduce his cousins to Shadows Landing. The married ones were already talking to many of the town’s couples along with Edie, Miss Winnie, and Miss Ruby, who they’d met at pre-wedding events. But now was the fun part.
“Hey, Greer,” he called out to his cousin who was Ryan’s little sister. Well, she was in her twenties, so she wasn’t that little.
“These fancy folk aren’t going to have anything to talk to me about,” Gator whispered nervously. What he didn’t realize was while his cousins were fancy when they wanted to be, they weren’t what they appeared.
“Hi, Wade,” Greer called out as she joined them. She gave a pointed look to Gator who had dressed in an actual suit with alligator boots. Gator shifted nervously. Greer was as pretty as a picture with her honey brown hair and greenish-gray eyes. She was tall and fit and dressed in a beautiful light green strapless dress that stopped about two inches above her knees. “Cocks, really?”
Wade pursed his lips, trying not to laugh as it hit Gator she wasn’t glaring at him but at his South Carolina Gamecocks hat he never took off.
“Kentucky is so going to beat y’all this year,” she teased.
That was all it took for Gator and Greer to fall into conversation. And when Gator escorted her to the dance floor, Wade heard them setting a time for him to teach her how to wrestle an alligator. Oh, crap. Great-Aunt Marcy and Aunt Paige would kill him.
“Did you say, hunt an alligator?” Paige Davies Parker, Greer’s mother asked, stopping the couple. While he and Paige were technically cousins, they’d been so much more than that over time, and it seemed natural to refer to Paige and her brothers as aunts and uncles, and their children, all around Wade’s age, plus or minus ten years, were the long-lost cousins they’d grown as close to as they possibly could over the past two years. “Can I go too?”
Wade shook his head as his uncles, aunts, and a fair number of cousins joined the conversation, and soon it was decided they’d all go out tomorrow to learn how to catch and release alligators. Gator blushed red when he became the center of attention, and knowing his friend was now occupied, Wade looked around the dance floor. Granger was talking to Matt, who was the sheriff of Keeneston, and Kord was dancing with a younger Davies cousin named Cassidy. Finally, Wade turned his attention to Gavin dancing with Ellery. They only had eyes for each other.
“I know that look,” Walker said, joining Wade and handing him a drink.
“What look?” Wade asked as Walker’s father-in-law, the very intimidating Miles Davies, joined them.
“Oh, I know that look,” Uncle Miles said, stopping next to Wade.
“What look?” Wade asked again, not knowing what they were talking about.
“The I want that look,” Walker said. “I’ve seen many a man fall to that look recently.”
“What?” Wade was affronted, even though he’d been thinking the same thing. “I don’t think that will happen.”
“Think what will happen?” his great-aunt Marcy asked as she, Miss Winnie, and Miss Ruby joined them.
“Hey, Ma,” Miles said, pulling out a chair for his mother. “He has the look.”
“Oh!” Wade’s great-aunt said, perking up with a dangerous glint in her eyes.
“What look?” Miss Ruby asked.
“The ready to settle down look,” Great-Aunt Marcy explained.
“How do you know it’s that look and not the I want to tingle look?” Miss Winnie asked as Wade, Walker, and Miles suddenly found the dance floor very interesting.
“It’s in the eyes,” Marcy explained. “They soften instead of harden.”
“Oh, like they do when they look at my apple pie,” Miss Winnie said, nodding her head.
“You make apple pie?” Marcy asked. “I do too!”
“Do you use cinnamon?” Miss Winnie asked and with a shake of their heads Walker and Miles pulled Wade away from the women.
“They’ll be talking about pie for hours,” Miles said on a sigh. “And now I’m hungry.”
“Sometimes I don’t think they’re talking about pie,” Wade said with a grin.
“You’re right, they’re probably talking about every eligible woman here to set you up with,” Walker said on a laugh, but then stopped laughing. “And that better not include my sister.”
“What won’t include your sister?” Ryker asked as he joined them.
“Getting her pie,” Wade answered.
“She doesn’t make pie,” Ryker said with knit brows. “Doesn’t she make cake?”
Wade laughed as Walker teasingly shoved Ryker’s shoulder. “No one touches my sister’s pie or cake. Got it?”
“But it’s a good cake,” Ryker complained.
Wade laughed harder. “Her figurative pie.”
“Ah,” Ryker said, taking a sip of the whiskey he’d gone home to get. He wasn’t a champagne kind of guy. “Why are we talking about Edie’s pie?”
“Wade has the look, and Walker doesn’t want him to look at his sister with that look,” Miles filled in.
“What look?” Ryker asked as Trent and Ridge joined them.
Wade groaned. “I don’t have a look, okay? Just drop it. And I won’t eat Edie’s pie—or anyone else’s at the moment.”
“Edie doesn’t make pie,” Ridge said, confused, and Wade groaned again.
Miles was fighting valiantly to not laugh.
“Wade wants a serious girlfriend,” Walker clarified. “And that won’t be my sister—got it?” Walker looked pointedly at each of his childhood friends who were now his cousins-in-law.
Trent held his hands up. “Got it. I’m not really that big into pie.”
“I like cake better,” Ridge said as Walker growled.
“When it comes to my sister, no pie or cake!”
“What about her?” Miles asked, using his eyes to direct Wade’s glance.
“That’s Maggie Bell. Her parents own this plantation,” Wade answered. “I’ve known her my whole life.”
“So,” Miles said with a shrug. “I’ve known my wife my whole life too.”
“Yeah, but Maggie is more . . .”
“She’s perfect for someone a little more . . . well, like us,” Walker explained. “She’s an Olympic medalist for shooting and tough as nails.”
“Really?” Miles sounded interested. “Excuse me. If you’re not interested, I know many a nephew who would be.”
“So, you’re ready to settle down?” Ridge asked after Uncle Miles left.
“I didn’t say that!” Wade said, exasperated.
“Twenty bucks he’ll be married by next year,” Walker said.
“You’d bet on something like this?” Wade asked incredulously.
Walker just grinned in response.
“I got twenty on six months,” Ryker said.
With a roll of his eyes Wade left his cousins as they placed bets on his love life. His phone vibrated in his pocket and when he pulled it out, he saw it was a Coast Guard update. There’d been a report of a boat on fire a couple miles down river from him. He was being called in to see if he could get eyes on it before the on-duty team could arrive. He set down his drink of tonic water and lime and slipped quietly out of the party. He loosened his tie as he ran down to Ryker’s dock and felt himself relax. He knew his job and he loved his job. There was one thing he didn’t know—love. He saw it in Gavin and Ellery, as well as some of their other cousins. But Wade didn’t really know what it was that made a relationship so special.
Wade entered the gate code to Ryker’s private dock and ran along the wooden planks. Ryker’s flashy speedboat wasn’t great for fishing, but it would be perfect for a rescue. Putting aside all thoughts of love, marriage, and pie, Wade went to work navigating the waters by heart. Now if only he could be as sure in his navigation of women.
* * *
“There goes Wade,” Gavin said to his bride.
“I can’t believe the Coast Guard would call him in tonight,” Ellery said as they watched him slip from the reception.
“He’s the best they have. And it must be something very important for them to call him in when he had the night off.”
“I hope he’s safe,” Ellery said as she looked away from the night’s shadows and back to her husband.
“He needs a good woman like I have to come home to,” Gavin said before placing a sweet kiss on her lips.
“I couldn’t agree more. But right now I was thinking of being a very bad woman,” Ellery said, lowering her voice.
“Oh, yeah?” Gavin grinned. He loved his wife with his whole heart. “What did you have in mind?”
“How about a taste of my pie?”
Gavin scooped up his wife and carried her from the reception. After all, what man could turn down pie?
* * *
THE END
Bluegrass Series
Bluegrass State of Mind
Risky Shot
Dead Heat
* * *
Bluegrass Brothers
Bluegrass Undercover
Rising Storm
Secret Santa: A Bluegrass Series Novella
Acquiring Trouble
Relentless Pursuit
Secrets Collide
Final Vow
* * *
Bluegrass Singles
All Hung Up
Bluegrass Dawn
The Perfect Gift
The Keeneston Roses
* * *
Forever Bluegrass Series
Forever Entangled
Forever Hidden
Forever Betrayed
Forever Driven
Forever Secret
Forever Surprised
Forever Concealed
Forever Devoted
Forever Hunted
Forever Guarded
Forever Notorious (coming in 2019)
* * *
Saving Shadows Page 22