Wedding Mints and Witnesses

by Kelsey Browning

  Desi leaned in closer to look at the picture again. “You two look just alike. If his name is James Thomas and he doesn’t have red hair, why does everyone call him Red?”

  “Guess you don’t know much about pro baseball from the ’80s.”

  “Don’t know much about baseball at all.”

  “He got that nickname as a rookie when he hit three consecutive homers to the same seat on gold level in the Astrodome.”

  Desi laughed. “Makes perfect sense then.”

  “Sports nicknames are complicated,” Jenny said. “The seat was the same one where Doug Rader hit the first gold-level home run in the Dome. And Rader’s nickname was the Red Rooster.”

  “So gold level equals Red being called Red.” With a slow shake of her head, Desi said, “In all my life, I would’ve never figured that one out.”

  “My mom used to tell me the story about how Red Jensen was the hottest rookie in the MLB back in the day.” Jenny smiled, remembering. “Little did I know what she was talking about had nothing to do with his fastball. Can’t believe I never put two and two together. I was named after him.”

  “Jennifer and Jensen. It’s not that obvious,” Desi said.

  “I’m not a Jennifer. My name is Jensen Elaine Cady.” Maybe Mom had wanted her to figure it out all along.

  A stack of envelopes were rubber-banded together with an old press badge. She opened the last letter in the bunch. “It’s a love letter.” She glanced at the date. Seven months before she was born. She read each word, feeling the bond between them. “By splitting up, they were doing what they thought had to be done.” She read silently and rubbed away the tears wetting her cheeks. “Red didn’t want to leave her, and he didn’t know anything about me.” Red and her mom had had a deep love. Like hers with Teague.

  Desi said, “Look. Ticket stubs to the Astros games. When were you born?”

  “1982.”

  “These games would’ve been while your mom was pregnant with you. And here’s an article she wrote about him way before you were born. There’s one thing I can say about you Cady girls. Y’all know how to rock a love story.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  A part of Jenny’s heart softened at Desi’s words, and the rest of it went mushy at the sight of all the pieces of her mom’s life—of her life—scattered in front of her.

  “How about I leave you alone to think all this over?” Desi gave Jenny a quick hug, then disappeared into the back of the bakery.

  Thank goodness Icing On The Cake was closed because Jenny didn’t need the entire town seeing her ugly cry and chow down on éclairs.

  The way things were going, this baby would either love chocolate and cream filling or never touch the stuff a day in her life. Jenny’s own stomach had been protesting for a quarter-hour, but still she licked a smear of chocolate off her knuckle.

  A tentative tap came at the bakery’s front door, and Jenny looked around, hoping Desi would get rid of whoever it was, but she must not have heard that she had company. Besides, the bakery had closed an hour ago,

  Jenny would shoo the person off herself. After all, her red-rimmed eyes would scare away the boldest customer. But when she shuffled to the door, she saw Red on the other side. A part of her wanted to turn away, pretend she hadn’t seen him and return to drowning her pain in pastries. But his smile was as hesitant as his knock had been.

  She had a soft spot for men who knew they were in the doghouse. So she unlocked the glass door and opened it a crack.

  “Can I come in?” he asked.

  “Desi is closed.”

  “I didn’t come here for cake.”

  Which meant he’d come here for her. A small part of her—the Abby Ruth Cady part—wanted to slam the door in his face. But honestly, she was too tired and sad to be mad anymore.

  And she liked Red, really liked him. She’d believed her mom might’ve finally met the perfect man for her. She’d smiled over the idea of her mom and him together before she knew they’d already been together.

  Now, she felt like a fool for not knowing about their past. Heck, she was their past.

  She pushed the door open a few more inches and he didn’t hesitate, pulling it wide and stepping inside quickly, probably afraid she’d change her mind. When she turned back to the little table she’d been occupying for a while, she realized flaky crumbs were strewn all over the place. Not only had she eaten éclairs, but she’d also massacred them beforehand.

  No éclair deserved that.

  As she sat, she gestured to the boot box sitting askew on the table. “I guess you know all about that?”

  “No, but I’m betting it has something to do with your mother.”

  Jenny didn’t know what to make of that. Maybe her mom and Red hadn’t put their heads together. She slid the boot box off the table into a chair and held out a hand to invite Red to take the dainty pink-and-white chair across from her.

  He didn’t waste a second, just sat and stared at her. “Teague Castro is miserable,” he announced. “And it’s your fault.”

  A rebuttal fumed up inside her, but she stopped it before it passed her lips.

  “He’s my friend and I hate seeing him like that,” he said.

  She was miserable too, but she was an adult, and it was time she remembered that and stopped flailing around in her sadness. “It hurt me to find out that Teague didn’t tell me he knew who you were.”

  “He didn’t know. Only suspected. It hurt me to find out your mom had kept your entire existence from me for over thirty years,” he said calmly, running his palm across a two-day growth of beard. “So if you want to play a game of Hurt Feelings, I’m pretty sure I’d beat you just as handily as the Astros pounded the Padres in the 1984 World Series.”

  After being around Red for the past few months, she’d known he was a pretty straight shooter. Heck, very few men could keep up with her mom, so it was obvious he had to be. Still, she rolled her lips in at his pronouncement because the Astros had swept that series four to zero. “I don’t like to lose.”

  He smiled, and it was such a nice smile. White straight teeth and laugh lines at his eyes. Her dad was a handsome man and a charming one. “You came by that pretty honestly, Jenny. I mean, look at your parents.”

  “I lost out on you for years.”

  He reached across the table and took her hand in his, made a show of turning it over and running a thumb across her engagement ring, the one she hadn’t had the heart to take off even after she’d pushed pause on the wedding. “We’re human, which means we’re our own centers of the universe. We look at everything from our own vantage point, because it’s impossible to do otherwise. That’s why it’s important to consciously step back and consider other people’s perspectives.”

  “Of course.”

  He released her hand, and Jenny ached for the feel of her hand inside the protective warmth of his again. “Then do it. I hate like hell that I missed out on so much with you. I was angry as all get-out at your mom when I realized what she’d done. But once I calmed down, I also realized why she’d done it. From her perspective, it was the right thing to do. Did she tell you about my wife?”

  “A little, but I didn’t really want to listen at the time.” Later, she’d gotten online and devoured everything she could find about Red Jensen. “She had multiple sclerosis.”

  “Yes, and she took a real turn for the worse when your mom and I were…”

  “Together?”

  His eyes telegraphed his relief at her kindness, but he swallowed hard. “I’m an old man, and you’re a grown woman, but I’m not sure that matters. It’s hard to talk with your kid about sex.”

  That made her laugh. “Remember Grayson’s question in the van the other day about how babies are made?”

  “You looked like you’d swallowed an ostrich egg.”

  “Just saying I feel your pain.”

  “I wasn’t a cheater. And even back then, that was pretty unusual in pro sports. My wife had been sick for a
long time, but when I said for better or worse, I meant it. Nobody wants to think there’ll be a lot more worse than better. But our marriage was overshadowed by her illness.”

  “Still, you didn’t…”

  “Not until your mom.” He sat back in his chair and stared at the ceiling, clearly seeing something other than Desi’s pink chandelier. “The first time I saw Abby Ruth, it was like being struck with a bolt of summer lightning. I’m pretty sure I stood there in that locker room with my mouth hanging open.”

  “She’s been known to affect men that way.”

  “That would’ve been embarrassing enough, but then she gave me the once-over with those icy gray eyes of hers and said, “Forget your towel, Jensen?”

  A choked laugh popped out of Jenny. “You were…”

  “It was an Astros policy that all the players needed to be decent when a female reporter was in the locker room. There weren’t a lot of them back then, but I’d never slipped up before. One look at your mom, and I’d forgotten that I was standing there butt naked.”

  That must’ve been a sight to see. “If it makes you feel any better, she must’ve been impressed.”

  “She’s a hard woman to impress and an even harder woman to woo.” His smile was wistful and slightly wicked. “We did that eye contact and look away thing for over a year before I could convince her to have a private dinner with me.”

  “She knew you were married.”

  “I can’t tell you the number of times she turned me down. And when she said yes, she made it more than clear it was a dinner between friends.”

  “So you never went out in public together?”

  “Only when she was interviewing me.”

  “I found a lot of archived articles where Mom interviewed you there for a couple of years.” The attraction had obviously been more than mutual.

  “She was amazing—strong, bold, beautiful. Some of the guys thought she was a ballbuster.”

  Suddenly, Jenny got a flash of insight. “Yet you were married to a woman who always needed you.”

  “I loved my wife when I married her, and I still cared for her.”

  “Which is the reason you didn’t leave her for my mother.”

  “Your mom and I were in a no-win situation. We knew it, but we were in love and we didn’t want to face it.”

  “Until you had no choice.”

  “And I didn’t know at the time that she was pregnant with you.”

  Her mom had made a huge sacrifice for the man she loved. Right or wrong, she’d known she was strong enough to raise a child on her own and hadn’t wanted to tear Red in half between her and his wife. Back then, that kind of a scandal could’ve irreparably hurt Red’s career.

  Jenny and Teague weren’t faced with anything close to that. Yes, they’d missed too many years together, but it could’ve been worse. It could’ve been thirty years instead of ten.

  And Jenny could raise a child on her own. She’d practically done that with Grayson because Daniel had been too busy trying to make a name for himself in Boston.

  “It doesn’t have to be that way for Teague and me.” Certainty settled inside her. She had a man who loved her, and nothing was standing between them except for her hurt feelings and stubbornness.

  “Jenny, the way he looks at you… Well, if I was a poetic man, I’d say it was magic. And it’s obvious that he loves Grayson. We don’t always get to choose our family, and we sure don’t get to choose how they act. But you’d be a fool to let go of this with Teague.”

  “I know.” And she did. She was going to marry the love of her life. The rest would fall into place as she, Teague, Grayson, and this new baby began their lives together in Summer Shoals. She could see that life clearly, and she couldn’t picture it without Red or her mom in it as well.

  She eyed the last éclair sitting there in front of her, then pushed it across the table to her dad. “Maybe you’d like to share this with me.”

  The relief in his eyes and the mischief in his smile made her feel better than she had in days.

  * * *

  With a heart heavy over Jenny calling off the wedding, Lil flipped through the wedding magazines still stacked in the parlor. “I guess we’ll have to contact all the vendors to cancel the wedding even though it was past the refund date. Abby Ruth would owe them the full fees regardless, but no sense in them preparing things that will never be used. Or maybe we could donate the food to Dogwood Ridge Assisted Living.”

  “And we need to let the guests know. I guess email will be the easiest way to do it. Do we have phone numbers for everyone?”

  “I can post something in the paper stating a family emergency,” Lil offered.

  “Uh…that’s pretty old school,” Maggie said. “What about an update on Facebook?”

  “That’s so tacky!”

  “No newspaper, no social media,” Abby Ruth said, the hard edge in her voice irrefutable. “We’re simply putting the wedding vendors on hold. Those two will be married. Sooner rather than later if I have anything to say about it.”

  Possibilities formed in Lil’s mind, and she sat straight up in her chair. “Wait a minute. We’ve already passed the date to make changes now. Why not use it to our advantage? If the show doesn’t go on, we won’t be able to catch the wedding crook.”

  “She’s right,” Sera said. “All we need is a bride and groom.”

  “Don’t you think people would be freaked out when they arrive for Jenny and Teague’s wedding only to find some strangers?”

  “Maybe it’s not a stranger.” Excitement bubbled inside Lil as an idea dawned on her and she turned toward Abby Ruth. “Maybe it’s you.”

  “Me?” Abby Ruth backed up a step, almost tripping over her boots. “Not happening.”

  “Doesn’t have to be a real wedding. We can have one of Sera’s actor friends play the part of the preacher. You and Red are in love. You can’t deny that.”

  “Can and will. I’m not walking down an aisle…fake or otherwise.”

  “We could let Bowzer and Ritter get married,” Sera piped in. “I went to a dog wedding in California a few years back. Can you imagine how cute Ritter will be in a little bow tie and tuxedo tails?”

  “Bowzer is not wearing a dress,” Abby Ruth insisted. “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. Let Maggie marry Bruce Shellenberger.”

  Maggie blushed. Lil had a feeling if Bruce ever did ask Maggie to marry him, she might be tempted to make that walk down the aisle. They sure had hit it off from the day they’d met while working the case at Dogwood Ridge Assisted Living. But playing with Maggie’s heart with a fake wedding was out of the question.

  Besides, this was Abby Ruth’s mess to fix. If anyone’s heart should be put on the line, it was hers. “Abby Ruth, I think you and Red owe this to Jenny and Teague. No one would be the wiser that it’s a ruse to catch a criminal. After all, we do have to close this case.”

  A one-two, one-two-three-four rap came at the front door. Red’s knock had become a regular part of their lives around here. Lil got up to let him in. “Perfect timing,” she said with a grin. He stepped inside, and Lil hooked her arm through his and led him into the parlor. “Abby Ruth has something she wants to talk with you about.”

  Abby Ruth stood there staring at Red with wide eyes.

  “Are you okay, Ru? What did you want to tell me?”

  “I…ah…um…”

  His brows pulled down over his nose, he turned to Lil. “What are you girls up to? She looks like she’s seen a ghost.”

  Lil piped up. “We’ve decided we can’t cancel the vendors or tell the guests that the wedding is off.”

  “Why not?”

  Oh, dear. This was the tricky part. Red didn’t really need to know about their side plans for the wedding.

  “If it’s about the deposits, I can cover—”

  “It’s not about the money. These three—” Abby Ruth swung an arm around, indicating Lil and the others, “—decided we need a stand-in couple.�
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  “I don’t understand. Do you think they’ll change their minds between now and wedding time? I mean, I feel like I made some headway with Jenny, but I can’t guarantee anything.”

  “Someone—” she speared Lil with a look as sharp as a rose thorn, “—thought it would be a good idea for you and me to get married so all those wedding expenses don’t go to waste.” Abby Ruth chuckled as though to laugh it off, but to Lil she sounded more like she had whooping cough.

  “Abby Ruth Cady, are you asking me to marry you?” Was that a bead of sweat running down Red’s brow?

  Abby Ruth’s pointed expression turned sour. “You could do worse.”

  “I didn’t mean…that is…I…”

  “Forget it,” she said. “It was a joke and you had to be there.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that.” Red reached for her, but she sidestepped him.

  “Not a word out of you,” Abby Ruth warned. “I guess we have to make sure Jenny and Teague do get married.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  After leaving the bakery, Jenny went back to the house to savor a hot shower and get dressed—makeup and all. Sure, her jeans were a little tight around the middle, so she’d popped open the top button, but she was wearing a pair of cowboy boots with snip-toes, which made her feel like a million bucks.

  On the short ride over to Teague’s office, her stomach swirled. Her intense emotions the past few days had exhausted her, but not allowing Teague to be there for her through it all was a mistake she needed to remedy now.

  She walked into the sheriff’s department with shoulders squared and a big smile on her face. Jenny Cady might crater every once in a while, but nothing would ever keep her down for long.

  She had too much to be thankful for and way too many good people in her life for that. Even if one of those good people drove her, and Teague, half-crazy most of the time.

  She waved at Gloria. “Teague in his office?”