by Diana Palmer
“I did. And nobody knew a thing about it until they were on their honeymoon,” she added smugly. “That’s why your future husband hired me. I’m the soul of discretion. Now, tell me what colors you like and we’ll get to work!”
They ended up with a color scheme of pink and yellow and white. Sassy had planned a simple white gown, until Mary Garnett showed her a couture gown with the three pastels embroidered in silk into the bodice and echoed in the lace over the skirt, and in the veil. It was the most beautiful gown Sassy had ever seen in her life. “But you could buy a house for that!” Sassy exclaimed when she heard the price.
John, walking through the living room at the Peale house, paused in the doorway. “We’re only getting married once,” he reminded Sassy.
“But it’s so expensive,” she wailed.
He walked to the sofa and peered over her shoulder at the color photograph of the gown. His breath caught. “Buy it,” he told Mary.
Sassy opened her mouth. He bent and kissed it shut. He walked out again.
Mary just grinned.
He had another surprise for her as well, tied up in a small box, as an early wedding present. He’d discovered that she’d had to pawn her grandfather’s watch and pistol to pay bills and he’d gotten them out of hock. She cried like a baby. Which meant that he got to kiss the tears away. He was, she thought as she hugged him, the most thoughtful man in the whole world.
Sassy insisted on keeping her job, regardless of John’s protests. She wanted to help more with the wedding, and felt guilty that she hadn’t, but Mary had everything organized. Invitations were going out, flower arrangements were being made. A minister was engaged. A small orchestra was hired to play at the reception.
The wedding was being held at the family ranch in Medicine Ridge, to ensure privacy. Gil had already said that he was putting on more security for the event than the president of the United States had. Nobody was crashing this wedding. They’d even outfoxed aerial surveillance by putting the entire reception inside and having blinds on every window.
Nobody, he told John and Sassy, was getting in without an invitation and a photo ID.
“Is that really necessary?” Sassy asked John when they were alone.
“You don’t know how well-known our parents are,” he sighed. “They’ll be coming, too, and our father can’t keep his mouth shut. He’s heard about you from Gil and Kasie, and he’s bragging to anybody who’ll listen about his newest daughter-in-law.”
“Me?” She was stunned. “But I don’t have any special skills and I’m not even beautiful.”
John smiled down at her. “You have the biggest heart of any woman I’ve ever known,” he said softly. “It isn’t what you do or what you have that makes you special, Sassy. It’s what you are.”
She flushed. “What about your mother?”
He kissed her on the tip of her nose. “She’s so happy to have access to her grandchildren, that she never raises a fuss about anything. But she’s happy to have somebody in the family who can knit.”
“How did you know I can knit?”
“You think I hadn’t noticed all the afghans and chair covers and doilies all over your house?”
“Mama could have made them.”
“But she didn’t. She said you can even knit sweaters. Our mother would love to learn how. She wants you to teach her.”
She caught her breath. “But, it’s easy! Of course, I’ll show her. She doesn’t mind—neither of them minds—that I’m poor? They don’t think I’m marrying you for your money?”
He laughed until his eyes teared up. “Sassy,” he said, catching his breath, “you didn’t know I had money until after I proposed.”
“Oh.”
“They know that, too.”
She sighed. “Okay, then.”
He bent and kissed her. “Only a few more days to go,” he murmured. “I can hardly wait.”
“Me, too,” she said. “It’s exciting. But it’s a lot of work.”
“Mary’s doing the work so you don’t have to. Well, except for getting the right dresses for your mother and Selene.”
“That’s not work,” she laughed. “They love to shop. I’m so glad Mama’s getting over the chemo. She’s better every day. I was worried that she’d be too weak to come to the wedding, but she says she wouldn’t miss it for anything.”
“We’ll have a nurse practitioner at the wedding,” he assured her. “Just in case. Don’t worry.”
“I’ll do my best,” she promised.
“That’s my girl.”
Finally there was a wedding! Sassy had chewed her nails to the quick worrying about things going wrong. John assured her that it would be smooth as silk, but she couldn’t relax. If only she didn’t trip over her own train and go headfirst into the minister, or do something else equally clumsy! All those important people were going to be there, and she had stage fright.
But once she was at the door of the big ballroom at the Callister mansion in Medicine Ridge where the wedding was taking place, she was less nervous. The sight of John, in his tuxedo, standing at the altar, calmed her. She waited for the music and then, clutching her bouquet firmly, her veil in place over her face, she walked calmly down the aisle. Her heart raced like crazy as John turned and smiled down at her when she reached him. He was the most handsome man she’d ever seen in her life. And he was going to marry her!
The minister smiled at both of them and began the service. It was routine until he asked if John had the rings. John started fishing in his pockets and couldn’t find them. He grimaced, stunned.
“Uncle John! Did you forget?” Jenny muttered at his side, shoving a silken pillow up toward him. “I got the rings, Uncle John!”
The audience chuckled. Sassy hid a smile.
John fumbled the rings loose from the pillow and bent and kissed his little niece on the forehead. “Thanks, squirt,” he whispered.
She giggled and went to stand beside her sister, Bess, who was holding a basket full of fresh flower petals in shades of yellow, pink, and white.
The minister finished the ceremony and invited John to kiss his bride. John lifted the beautiful embroidered veil and pushed it back over Sassy’s dark hair. His eyes searched hers. He framed her face in his big hands and bent and kissed her so tenderly that tears rolled down her cheeks, and he kissed every one away.
The music played again. Laughing, Sassy took the hand John held out and together they ran down the aisle and out the door. The reception was ready down the hall, in the big formal dining room that had been cleared of furniture for the occasion. As they ate cake and paused for photographs, to the strains of Debussy played by the orchestral ensemble, Sassy noticed movie stars, politicians, and at least two multimillionaires among the guests. She was rubbing elbows with people she’d only seen in magazines. It was fascinating.
“One more little hurdle, Mrs. Callister,” John whispered to her, “and then we’re going to Cancún for a week!”
“Sun and sand,” she began breathlessly.
“And you and me. And a bed.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
She laughed, pressing her face against him to hide her blushes.
“Well, it wasn’t a bad wedding,” came a familiar drawl from behind them.
Chief Graves was wearing a very nice suit, and nicely polished dress boots, holding a piece of cake on a plate. “But I don’t like chocolate cake,” he pointed out. “And there’s no coffee.”
“There is so coffee,” John chuckled, holding up a cup of it. “I don’t go to weddings that don’t furnish coffee.”
“Where did you get that?” he asked.
John nodded toward the far corner, where a coffee urn was half-hidden behind a bouquet of flowers.
Graves grinned. “I hope you have a long and happy life together.”
“Thanks, Chief,” Sassy told him.
“Glad you could make it,” John seconded.
“I brought you a present,” he said unexpectedly. He reached int
o his pocket and drew out a small package. “Something useful.”
“Thank you,” Sassy said, touched, as she took it from his hand.
He gave John a worldly look, chuckled, and walked off to find coffee.
“What is it, I wonder?” Sassy mused, tearing the paper open.
“Well!” John exclaimed when he saw what was inside.
She peered over his arm and smiled warmly. It was a double set of compact discs of romantic music and classical love themes.
They glanced toward the coffee urn. Graves lifted his cup and toasted them. They laughed and waved.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THEY stayed on the beach in a hotel shaped like one of the traditional Maya pyramids. Sassy lay in John’s strong arms still shivering with her first taste of intimacy, her face flushed, her eyes brilliant as they looked up into his.
“It gets better,” he whispered as his mouth moved lightly over her soft lips. “First times are usually difficult.”
“Difficult?” She propped up on one elbow. “Are we remembering the same first time? Gosh, I thought I was going to die!”
His blue eyes twinkled. “Forgive me. I naturally assumed from all the moaning and whimpering that you were…stop that!” He laughed when she pinched him.
An enthusiastic bout of wrestling followed.
He kissed her into limp submission. “We really must do this again, so that I can get my perspective back,” he suggested. “I’ll pay attention this time.”
She laughed and kissed his broad shoulder. “See that you do,” she replied. She pushed him back into the pillows and followed him down.
“Now don’t be rough with me, I’m fragile,” he protested. “See here, take your hand off that…I’m not that sort of man!”
“Yes, you are,” she chuckled, and put her mouth squarely against his. He was obediently silent for a long time afterward. Except for various involuntary sounds.
They held hands and walked down the beach at sunrise, watching seagulls soar above the incredible shades of blue that were the Gulf of Mexico.
“I never dreamed there were places like this,” Sassy said dreamily. “The sand looks just like sugar.”
“We’ll have to take some postcards back with us. I can’t believe I forgot to pack a digital camera,” he sighed.
“We could buy one at the shop in the lobby,” she suggested. “I have to have at least one picture of you in a bathing suit to put up in our house.”
“Turnabout is fair play,” he teased.
She laughed. “Okay.”
“While we’re at it, we’ll buy presents for everybody.”
“We should get something for Chief Graves.”
“What would you suggest?”
“Something musical.”
He pursed his lips. “We’ll get him one of those wooden kazoos.”
“No! Musical.”
He drew her close. “Musical it is.”
After the honeymoon, they stopped for the weekend at the Callister ranch in Medicine Ridge, where Sassy had time to sit down and get acquainted with John’s sister-in-law, Kasie.
“I was so worried about fitting in here,” Sassy confessed as they walked around the house, where the flowers were blooming in abundance around the huge swimming pool. “I mean, this is a whole world away from anything I know.”
“I know exactly how you feel,” Kasie said. “I was born in Africa, where my parents were missionaries,” she recalled, going quiet. “They were killed right in front of us, me and my brother, Kantor. We went to live with our aunt in Arizona. Kantor grew up and married and had a little girl. He was doing a courier service by air in Africa when an attack came. He and his family were shot down in his plane and died.” She sat down on one of the benches, her eyes far away. “I never expected to end up like this,” she said, meeting the other girl’s sympathetic gaze. “Gil didn’t even like me at first,” she added, laughing. “He made my life miserable when I first came to work here.”
“He doesn’t look like that sort of man,” Sassy said. “He seems very nice.”
“He can be. But he’d lost his first wife to a riding accident and he didn’t ever want to get married again. He said I came up on his blind side. Of course, he thought I was much too young for him.”
“Just like John,” Sassy sighed. “He thought I was too young for him.” She glanced at Kasie and grinned. “And I was sure that he was much too rich for me.”
Kasie laughed. “I felt that way, too. But you know, it doesn’t have much to do with money. It has to do with feelings and things you have in common.” Her eyes had a dreamy, faraway look. “Sometimes Gil and I just sit and talk, for hours at a time. He’s my best friend, as well as my husband.”
“I feel that way with John,” Sassy said. “He just fits in with my family, as if he’s always known them.”
“Mama Luke took to Gil right away, too.” She noted the curious stare. “Oh, she’s my mother’s sister. She’s a nun.”
“Heavens!”
“My mother was pregnant with me and Kantor and a mercenary soldier saved her life,” she explained. “His name was K.C. Kantor. My twin and I were both named for him.”
“I’ve heard of him,” Sassy said hesitantly, not liking to repeat what she’d heard about the reclusive, crusty millionaire.
“Most of what you’ve heard is probably true,” Kasie laughed, seeing the words in her expression. “But I owe my life to him. He’s a kind man. He would probably have married Mama Luke, if she hadn’t felt called to a religious life.”
“Is he married?”
Kasie frowned. “You know, I heard once that he did get married, to some awful woman, and divorced her right afterward. I don’t know if it’s true. You don’t ask him those sort of questions,” she added.
“I can understand why.”
“Gil’s parents like you,” Kasie said out of the blue.
“They do?” Sassy was astonished. “But I hardly had time to say ten words to them at the wedding!”
“John said considerably more than ten words.” Kasie grinned. “He was singing your praises long before he went back to marry you. Magdalena saw that beautiful shawl you’d packed and John told her you knitted it yourself. She wants to learn how.”
“Yes, John said that, but I thought he was kidding!”
“She’s not. She’ll be in touch, I guarantee. She’ll turn up at your ranch one of these days with her knitting gear and you’ll have to chase her out with a broom.”
Sassy blushed. “I’d never do that. She’s so beautiful.”
“Yes. She and the boys didn’t even speak before I married Gil. I convinced him to meet them on our honeymoon. He was shocked. You see, they were married very young and had children so early, long before they were ready for them. John and Gil’s uncle took the boys to raise and sort of shut their parents out of their lives. It was a tragedy. They grew up thinking their parents didn’t want them. It wasn’t true. They just didn’t know how to relate to their children, after all those years.”
“I think parents and children need to be together those first few years,” Sassy said.
“I agree wholeheartedly,” Kasie said. She smiled. “Gil and I want children of our own, but we want the girls to feel secure with us first. There’s no rush. We have years and years.”
“The girls seem very happy.”
Kasie nodded. “They’re so much like my own children,” she said softly. “I love them very much. I was heartbroken when Gil sent me home from Nassau and told me not to be here when they got home.”
“What?”
Kasie laughed self-consciously. “We had a rocky romance. I’ll have to tell you all about it one day. But for now, we’d better get back inside. Your husband will get all nervous and insecure if you’re where he can’t see you.”
“He’s a very nice husband.”
“He’s nice, period, like my Gil. We got lucky, for two penniless children, didn’t we?” she asked.
Sassy linke
d her arm into Kasie’s. “Yes, we did. But we’d both live in line cabins and sew clothes by hand if they asked us to.”
“Isn’t that the truth?” Kasie laughed.
“What were you two talking about for so long?” John asked that night, as Sassy lay close in his arms in bed.
“About what wonderful men we married,” she said drowsily, reaching up to kiss him. “We did, too.”
“Did Kasie tell you about her background?”
“She did. What an amazing story. And she said Gil didn’t like her!”
“He didn’t,” he laughed. “He even fired her. But he realized his mistake in time. She was mysterious and he was determined not to risk his heart again.”
“Sort of like you?” she murmured.
He laughed. “Sort of like me.” He drew her closer and closed his eyes. “We go home tomorrow. Ready to take on a full-time husband, Mrs. Callister?”
“Ready and willing, Mr. Callister,” she murmured, and smiled as she drifted off to sleep.
Several weeks later, Sassy had settled in at the ranch and was making enough knitted and crocheted accessories to make a home of the place. Mrs. Peale had a new companion, a practical nurse named Helen who was middle-aged, sweet, and could cook as well as clean house. She had no family, so Mrs. Peale and Selene filled an empty place in her life. Her charges were very happy with her. Sassy and John found time to visit regularly. They were like lovebirds, though. People rarely saw one without the other. Sassy mused that it was like they were joined at the hip. John grinned and kissed her for that. It was, indeed, he said happily.
One afternoon, John walked in the back door with Chief Graves, who was grinning from ear to ear.
“We have company,” John told her, pausing to kiss her warmly and pull her close at his side. “He has news.”
“I thought you’d like to know that Mr. Tarleton got five years,” he said pleasantly. “They took him away last Friday. He’s appealing, of course, but it won’t help. He was recorded on DVD agreeing to the terms of the plea bargain. I told you that judge hated sexual assault cases.”