11:37am
Zane pulled out a chair at Brock’s dining room table and sat down, giving him a considering look. “Okay, Buddy, what’s going on?”
“I need your help. Or your mom’s help, really,” he said, giving him a sheepish look.”
He raised an eyebrow at him and asked in a very serious tone, “Does this have anything to do with the rumor going around that you and Mary Ellen got married in Vegas?”
He nodded his head, a queasy feeling starting to grow in his stomach. “Where did you hear about it?”
“The gas station. I made a stop before I got here,” he grinned. “Ashley Mullins was in there chewing off Megan Wrights ear. In her defense, Miss Wright looked more bored than anything else.”
“Oh great,” he moaned, dropping his head in his hands. “I’m not going to get this fixed before her father finds out. He’s going to kill me. And the woman won’t even let me touch her until I manage to get her a real wedding ceremony.”
“I think I’m starting to see the whole picture,” Zane chuckled. “Being married to you isn’t a problem, but she wants an actual church ceremony.”
“Yeah, with Pastor Macy and friends and family. She said a rotund Elvis impersonator in a red jump suit, singing ‘Love Me Tender’ wasn’t going to cut it,” he nodded vigorously. “Not to mention, she said I had to propose right. Well, her words were, put some effort into it. The fact that I tried to stop her from dragging me to the chapel while she was drunk doesn’t seem to matter at all.”
“You married her while she was drunk?” the other man asked, with a shake of his head. “Not smart, Brock.”
“We were both drunk,” he groaned. “I’m crazy. Not stupid.
“Put some effort into it?” Zane mumbled, raising an eyebrow.
“Well, the first time I was drunk, and she was kissing me,” he swallowed. “She was more drunk than I was. The second time we were already married, and she had just told me I was going to have to actually ask her to marry me. Apparently, both of us naked and standing in the shower together wasn’t going to cut it either.”
Zane somehow managed to groan and chuckle at the same time. He put his hand out in front of him in a pleading manner. “Please, don’t say any more about showers.” He was remembering a certain shower with his own fiancée a few months ago. “I just have to get through to tomorrow night,” he mumbled under his breath.
“What?” Brock asked, giving him a confused look.
“Nothing, don’t worry about it,” he answered, shaking his head. “What exactly does she want?”
“Just a church ceremony with everyone present. She said she doesn’t have to have a big fancy wedding. Just a ceremony performed by an actual church ordained minister.”
“Okay,” the other man nodded. “You’ll have to figure out the proposal yourself, but I’ll talk to Mom. I’m sure she’ll call both, your mom and Mary Ellen’s mom, but it can be done. Do you have a day in mind?”
“Yeah, the twenty-sixth. I can’t wait any longer then that. I’m going to be pulling my hair out by then, as it is.”
Zane whistled before nodding his head. “I’m sure it can be done. It’ll be tough, but I’ve seen Mom pull off some pretty miraculous things before.”
Chapter 9
Thursday, December 25
7:25pm
“Brock, stop that,” Mary Ellen snapped, slapping his hand away from where he had slid it down over her bottom. “Keep your hands where they belong, or I’ll walk off this dance floor.”
“Mary Ellen, please, go home with me tonight,” he pleaded with those big brown eyes of his. Seriously, for a few seconds there, he did remind her of a sad little puppy. “I can be good. All I’m asking is for you to cuddle with me.”
She snorted, shaking her head. “No. All of those good intentions would be for naught, the second I crawled in bed with you, and you know it.”
“I can be good. I promise,” he grumbled, wrapping his arms around her tighter and lifting her up off the floor enough only the toes of her heels still touched.
“Really?” she grumbled. “Because I’m not sure I can.”
She should have realized the second the words were out of her mouth and that sly grin crossed his face she was in trouble. Honestly though, she just wasn’t used to being wrapped in the man’s arms the way she was, and she was a little rattled. When he leaned in and brought his mouth down on hers, she nearly blacked out from the rush of heat spreading throughout her body. She moaned, her lips parting as she sunk her fingers into his curly blonde hair.
She wasn’t sure how long they had been standing there, making out in the middle of the dance floor before all the guest at Zane and Amanda’s wedding started whistling and hollering. All she knew was, when he pulled back, rather than stepping out of his arms, she buried her face in his jacket, hoping to hide her embarrassment.
“Dang you, Brock,” she snapped, smacking him on the arm before turning to nearly run off the dance floor.
“Bud, I don’t think embarrassing her was the best way to try to work things out,” Mitch chuckled, slapping him on the back.
He shook his head, giving his older brother a dirty look. “I wasn’t trying to embarrass her. Lately she’s managed to catch me off guard with some of the things she says, and I end up just reacting. I only meant to give her a little kiss. I’m starting to get the feeling she’s right about my good intentions being for naught.”
“Good intentions for naught?” Zane asked, walking over. “What’s that mean?”
Mitch chuckled, shaking his head at Brock’s expression. “I have the feeling my little brother doesn’t want to tell you.”
“You know, you’re only eleven months older than me and we’re pretty much the same size now,” he grumbled, giving his older brother a sour look.
“Hey, I’m at least two inches taller than you,” Mitch grinned.
“Whatever,” he grumbled, turning to walk off the dance floor. “I need to find Mary Ellen and try to apologize for embarrassing her.”
Zane just shook his head, watching him walk away. “What did the good intentions crack mean?”
“Something about her being right about his good intentions,” the other man said, shaking his head as if he didn’t know anything more.
“Oh, it probably has something to do with her not letting him stay with her last night. He said he only asked to cuddle,” he answered, somehow managing a straight face.
Mitch just chuckled. “Yeah, right. There’s no way I’d believe that after that display,” he snorted with a shake of his head before finally following his brother off the dance floor.
8:32pm
“Hey, Brock,” Zane said, pulling out a chair to sit down beside him. “You look like the dog just ate your perfectly grilled steak.”
“If that was all it was, I’d just go buy another steak and start over,” he grumbled, laying his head back against the wall and closing his eyes. “There’s only one Mary Ellen Edwards.”
“Silverman.”
“What?” he asked, popping an eye open to glare at the grinning man beside him.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t you married?” he asked, his grin spreading wider. “Wouldn’t that make her last name Silverman now?”
“Not according to her,” he grumbled, propping his head against the wall once again and doing his best to shut out everything around him. “According to her, we have to have a church ceremony first. And she’s making me miserable.”
“Come on, Man. By this time tomorrow, you’ll have everything set to rights. Just hang in there. Surely you can take one more night on your own.”
“Anything you’ve planned isn’t going to count for anything if I can’t get her to talk to me,” he grumbled, rubbing a hand over his face. “And right now, she’s giving me the silent treatment.”
“Well, you did embarrass her,” Zane answered with a slight shrug.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “What embarrassed her is when e
veryone started whistling and clapping like a bunch of fools.”
The other man chuckled, shaking his head. “Trust me, a little bit of embarrassment over the rest of us whistling and hollering a little is preferable to what would have happened if we had kept quiet.”
“I seriously doubt that,” he snorted, sitting forward to prop his elbows on his knees.
“Yeah, he’s right, Bro,” Zach said, pulling out a chair on his other side. “There were a few things that were likely to occur, the least of which would have been her getting embarrassed.”
“Now what are you talking about?” he grumbled, giving his younger brother a dirty look.
“Well, for one, her father and all three of her brothers were about to storm the dance floor,” Zane snorted. “Her mother saved your hide, and my and Amanda’s wedding reception. I think we both owe her a big hug and an even bigger thank you.”
“Oh no,” he mumbled, feeling the panic start to rise up the back of his throat. “Do they know about our getting married in Vegas?”
“Oh yeah,” Zach chuckled, slapping his brother on the back. “That story had completely made the rounds by noon yesterday morning. It might have something to do with you telling Ashley Mullins you two were married.”
“Why can’t I stop myself from sticking my foot in my own mouth,” he grumbled, barely resisting the urge to give a good hard yank when he ran his hands through his hair.
“The only thing that’s saved you from them beating the crap out of you already is, they know she’s making you wait till you get her a real wedding ceremony. That, and Zane over there asked them, as a wedding present, not to beat the crap out of you until you’ve been given a chance to make things right. Considering they know how Mary Ellen feels about you, they decided to play nice. For now.”
He turned pleading eyes on the other man and begged. “Please, tell me your mom has everything worked out and all I have to do is show up for the wedding tomorrow.”
“Well…” Zane whispered, giving him a concerned look.
“What?” Brock croaked, breaking out in a sweat.
“Jenny seems to think you’re going to need to come up with a way to get Mary Ellen a bouquet of her own. That borrowing Amanda’s isn’t going to cut it. Something about her believing she’ll want to keep it as a keepsake.”
“That shouldn’t be too hard,” he said, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. “I’ll just go to see Mrs. Annie May Henderson in the morning when the flower shop opens. She may still be irritated at me, but money’s still money.”
“There’s the hitch,” Zach said, throwing a finger up in the air. “The flower shops not open tomorrow. The Henderson’s always close the shop for Christmas until after the first of the year. They always have.”
He groaned, shaking his head. “What am I going to do?”
“I don’t know,” Zane said with a shrug. “Hang in there. You’ll think of something.”
Chapter 10
Friday, December 26
9:45am
“Brock, I really don’t see how my going in there with you is going to help,” Jenny said, doing her best not to whine. She hadn’t been feeling the best and was still in bed when Brock called her at seven forty-five and begged her to go and talk to Mrs. Annie May Henderson with him. Her stomach may have settled down after the crackers and ginger tea, but she still wasn’t in the mood to try and talk the cranky Annie May into making a wedding bouquet during her Christmas holiday. Well, the lady might not be cranky when she opened the door, but she may very well be before they walk back out it.
“Come on, Jenny. You know she likes you better than me,” he answered, doing his best to look innocent.
She chuckled and shook her head at him. “I see what’s going on. She’s still mad at you over her rose bushes, isn’t she?”
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” he said, sticking his bottom lip out.
“I know that,” she chuckled. “And I’m sure Annie May does to. That doesn’t change the fact you nearly destroyed her prize antique rose bush.”
“I just backed up too far,” he pouted. “Why did she put it so close to the road, anyway?”
“Brock, she lives at the end of a dead-end road. Most of the time, she doesn’t have any thing to worry about.” She stopped, giving him a puzzled look. “Why were you down here, anyway? You don’t live or work down here. I don’t understand why you would have been on this end of town.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he mumbled, turning to head down the walkway that led to the front door of the Henderson’s house.
“Brock, were you spying on Mary Ellen?” Jenny asked, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head. It was all she could do not to laugh at the sheepish look on his face.
“I wasn’t spying,” he mumbled, his face firing up with embarrassment. “I was concerned for her well-being.”
“Over what?” she asked, finally losing the battle with her humor.
“Stewart Middleton,” he grumbled. “He was asking around about her.”
“Whose Stewart Middleton?” she asked, shaking her head. She was racking her brains, trying to think if she had ever heard the name, but was coming up with nothing.
“A little creep of a professor that lives and works in Onyx Valley,” he snorted. “He seems to think he’s hot stuff. All five feet six inches of him.”
“He really doesn’t sound like her type, at all.”
“He’s not,” he nodded in agreement. “And she shot him down, quick. But I didn’t know at the time how she was going to respond to his attention and it made me a little jumpy.”
“A little jumpy?” she chuckled. “You nearly backed fifteen feet into the Henderson’s front yard trying to turn around to get out of here when Mary Ellen seen you.”
“I thought you didn’t know why I was on this end of town,” he grouched, raising an eyebrow at her. It only made her laugh harder.
“Okay, so I kind of had a clue,” she shrugged. “Mary Ellen might have called and told me about it when it happened. You were still trying to apologize to Annie May when she called. I could hear her yelling at you from a cross the street.”
“It figures,” he grumbled, raising a hand to knock on the door as it opened. Thankfully he was enough taller than the elderly woman standing in the now open door, or he would have punched her right in the nose. “Oh, Mrs. Henderson. Sorry. I wasn’t trying to hit you.”
“I know you weren’t, Brock,” she snapped, giving him a sour look. “You’re often clumsy, but never mean.”
“Uh, sorry,” he whispered, dropping his eyes to the floor of the porch, causing Jenny to chuckle.
“Brock, what do I owe the pleasure of having you show up on my front porch this morning?” she grouched, seriously thinking of taking her cane to his backside.
“Well… I… I think Jenny needs to explain,” he said, looking up at the woman in question with puppy dog eyes.
Jenny sighed and rubbed her forehead, feeling truly grateful it was Mary Ellen that was going to be putting up with the guy for the next fifty or sixty years. Of course, she also knew, if it weren’t for Mary Ellen, the poor guy wouldn’t be acting like a complete screwball right now. “Mrs. Henderson…”
“Would you two, please, stop calling me Mrs. Henderson? It makes me feel old,” she grumbled, turning to walk back in the house, leaving the door open for them to follow.
“Should we tell her she’s ninety-three?” Jenny hissed low, following behind her. Brock just shook his head, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head.
“How many times do I have to explain to the young people of this town, my name is Annie May,” she continued, apparently unaware of what was going on behind her. “Come on in. It’s too cold out there to stand on the doorstep.”
She took the time to move over and sit down in one of her straight back chairs she had sitting in front of the fireplace and put her feet up on the ottoman sitting in front of it. Once she had the patchwork lap quilt, that had obviously
seen many years, over her knees, she looked back up at the two and smiled. “Now, what can I do for you, Brock? And don’t try to lay it off on Mrs. Harris again,” she stressed with a smirk.
“Alright, Annie May, I won’t call you Mrs. Henderson. I was just trying to show you the respect you are due. Like my parents taught me.”
“I know your parents taught you to respect your elders,” she nodded. “Your parents are good people. That doesn’t mean I like the formal title. It makes me feel stuffy and old. Annie May is so much more fun. And at ninety-three I have to get the fun where I can find it,” she added with a twinkle in her eyes.
Jenny chuckled and nodded her head. “Alright, you win. I’ll call you Annie May. You still have the ears of a twenty-year-old, don’t you?”
“Young Lady, I can hear better than most twenty-year-olds. I think it’s all that loud music they have these days. The music it’s self might not be so bad, if they didn’t play it so cotton-pickin’ loud. They drive up and down the roads with it blaring so loud, I can hear it in the house,” she added, throwing her arm out toward the front door in emphasis.
“I don’t understand why it has to be so loud either,” Jenny shrugged.
“Now, Young Man, what do you need? As if I don’t already know.”
He gulped, giving her a sheepish look. “A wedding bouquet for Mary Ellen?” he mumbled, turning it into a question.
“Well, you don’t sound very certain of that,” she glared.
He shrugged, his cheeks firing up red. “I don’t know how you know already.”
“The people in this town can’t keep their mouths shut for two seconds and Jamie Townsend has been all over town today, with your mother and Janie Edwards, working out the details for your surprise wedding. What will surprise me, is if it’s still a surprise to Mary Ellen when the time comes. That Ashley Mullins sure has her tail in a knot over it, that’s for sure. Not to mention, she needs to gain about thirty pounds,” she added with a little shiver. “In my day, the only reason a man would have taken a second look at her, was to ask her if she needed them to buy her a meal. They would have been concerned she wasn’t getting enough to eat.”
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