Meg's Best Man: A Montana Weekend Novella (11 page)

“I installed a tracking system on your Jeep,” she joked.

He looked at her like he wouldn’t put it past her. For all the years between them, they could still have been twins—same pale hair and pale gray eyes. Of course she didn’t have the “cool patch” of facial hair on her lower lip. Looking at him, she thought the distance between them in age seemed to have diminished now that he was older. “Are Mom and Dad here?” he asked.

“Yeah, they dropped by my camper this morning.”

“Africa time?”

She laughed at the old joke. They never could be sure when they would get phone calls from their parents because their access to phones was often limited. She and Mark liked to joke that they forgot the world had different time zones. “Portuguese, I think.”

He started the drive up to the cabin. He was taking his time, which didn’t seem like him at all. “Is the Jeep okay?”

He laughed at her. “I was trying not to mess up your hair. You look really nice.”

She grinned. Compliments from brothers were a rare thing, and they were almost always sincere. “So do you. Have you heard about Burma?”

“Yeah, they told me. They were a little worried about where I’d live in the fall, but I have a dorm room grant for the first semester. But after my first semester I can probably get a dorm monitor job, and that would pay for the stuff I don’t want to have to pay for.”

He had changed, grown up so much. She thought about how much older her parents, especially her mother, seemed after each of their missions. She never thought about how much more grown up their children must have seemed to them. She didn’t want that for her kids, to go away and come home to find them changed. She had a good childhood, and Catherine had filled in so many of the empty spaces in her life. But she still didn’t want that childhood for her kids.

She thought about that walk God wanted her to take and remembered that he had a different walk planned for each of his children. She hoped hers involved being there after school, day after day, year after year, until her kids were just plain sick of her. She wondered if God would let her off that easy and not make her do something like a mission to Burma.

“You’re worrying again, doof,” Mark said.

“I am not.”

“Liar.”

“Okay, I am, a little. I was thinking about Burma and—”

“Well, cut it out. It’s not your job to worry about them, and besides, it makes them happy.”

She stared at him like he had just come from Mars. “They do love it.” Somehow she’d forgotten that part. “And it isn’t my job, is it?”

“This just occurs to you? Remember the ‘each day has trouble enough’ line? You’re not supposed to take on worry that isn’t yours. Have you had a head injury lately?”

“Very funny. And I suppose you’re a Bible scholar, now.” She expected a snarky comment in return but got nothing. He hadn’t changed that much, had he? “I was just teasing, Mark,” she said.

He looked at her with one eyebrow raised. “What if I am?”

Meg wanted to know what he meant, but they had cleared the top of the road and driven straight into the heart of the party. Mark used the Jeep’s clearance to make his own parking place out of the way, and he got out of the Jeep and picked up her present. “Did you paint something for them?” he asked loudly. She looked around nervously, but no one in the wedding party was around to hear him.

“Yeah, do you think that’s dorky?”

He shook his head. “Nah. I kind of wish you’d do another painting for me. Or maybe I could just frame your book.”

She froze. “How did you know?”

“Internet search. I was thinking about reserving a domain name for you, but you have a website already. It looks awful; you need me to redo it for you. Monetize it. Add links and partner up.”

“How long have you known?”

He shrugged like a big twelve-year-old. “I dunno. When were you gonna tell me?”

“Today.”

“Why today?”

“Because I’ve decided to be brave today. I’m wearing high heels, I curled my hair, and I’m going to the party with moss on my antlers.”

Mark sighed dramatically. “And you’re supposed to be the grown-up one. Where is this present supposed to go?”

She wasn’t sure, but they both thought the cabin was the most likely place, and they headed that way. Sure enough, there was a big table on the deck full of wedding gifts, and a couple chairs to catch the overflow. She was looking for a safe place to set it and not finding one when she heard the door creak open. “Pssst! Meg!”

She turned around to see Leah peeking through a crack in the door. “Come here! Oh, hi, Mark! Go away, you can’t see me yet.”

Mark chuckled and headed off the deck, hands raised in surrender.

Meg didn’t realize she still had the painting in her hands until she tried to go through the door and had to open it wider to fit. Once she was in, she turned to Leah and tears sprang to her eyes. She set the painting down and leaned it against her own leg. “You look so beautiful,” she said. “Oh for heaven’s sake, I’m crying already. I’m hopeless.”

“You’d better stop that, crying is contagious!” Leah gave her a big hug. The painting tipped over and landed on the floor with a thud. Meg jumped, but she didn’t hear anything crack or tear. “Oops.”

“Is that for me?” Leah said. She sounded genuinely surprised. Meg wondered what she would do when she saw the horde of presents out front.

“You have to share with Joshua. In fact, I’m sorry to say it might be more of a present for him than you. But that’s because it has to do with you.”

“I can’t wait, Meg. I know what I hope it is, so we’ll see. And you look incredible. Did you design that dress?”

Meg had to laugh at that. “If I had, it wouldn’t have looked anything like this… maybe like a potato sack.”

“It looks like you. I’m guessing that you’ll be a little more comfortable in this than the green dress.”

“I will never say.”

From down the hall they heard the sharp snap of high heels on wood and Brie’s voice saying, “Are you sure you don’t want to try this color?” She came around the corner brandishing lipstick. She stopped when she saw Meg and gave what seemed to be a very stiff smile. “Hi, Meg. Is everything okay?”

Brie was stunning. The green dress wasn’t tight on her, it actually moved and draped. It was so much shorter on her that her long legs showed well above the knee. The dyed-to-match shoes didn’t look contrived, they looked couture on her. She wore a simple gold necklace with a gold locket on it, a gold bracelet, and—the only other accessory—her long, shining, brilliantly red hair.

Meg went from feeling lovely to dumpy in nothing flat. She pushed the thought aside. That kind of comparison was nothing but coveting, and it was wrong. It made her feel wrong. She pushed back her shoulders and smiled. “Brie, you look stunning. That’s a beautiful color on you. Now I can’t wait to see Cadence’s dress. As a matter of fact, where is she?”

“She’s in the back with Catherine,” Brie said. “She’s trying to get her mom to shorten her hem.”

“Not likely,” Meg and Leah said at the same time. Meg glanced down the other hall. Where were Joshua and Gage?

When Meg heard the door behind them open, she turned to see a thin woman wearing a red sheath dress and lots of jewelry walk in. Meg thought she looked like a woman with an important and public job, some powerful executive whose age was difficult, or even dangerous, to guess. “I had no idea there would be so many people here!” she said, fanning herself with her hand. “I can’t imagine why Joshua hasn’t put air conditioning in this place. Or toilets, of course.”

“Meg,” Leah said, “This is my mother, Brittany. Mom, this is Meg.”

Meg reached for her hand, and Brittany’s cool fingertips barely brushed her palm. “Pleasure,” she said. She looked over Meg’s shoulder to see Brie. “Look how sexy! You did such a good job of picking this dress out. You and Leah, I mean. You can wear this dress again, for sure. I know a club in Vegas that’s difficult for most girls to get into, but the moment they saw you in this, you’d be at the front of the line.”

Meg glanced at Leah and saw a stiff smile painted on her lips. She leaned a little closer. “You know, if he had any idea how to describe it, I bet your wedding dress is exactly the dress Josh would have picked for you.”

Leah snickered. “I asked him what he wanted a while back. He thought and thought and finally said that it should probably be white.”

“He’s a big help, isn’t he?” She turned to Leah’s mother. “Are you going to stay with Catherine and Jacob, or do you have someplace else to stay?”

Leah’s mom shot her daughter a sideways look. “Well, that was an option, but I hate to be a bother. I looked into renting a car and driving into Chico, but it is such a long way to go, back and forth. And then I thought, well, the last person Leah wants hanging around on her wedding night is her mother! And since tonight is the first night in our Santa Fe time-share, it seems a shame to spend it in Montana. So wouldn’t you know it, these little airports around here actually have some red-eyes. I’m flying to Salt Lake, catching a flight to Santa Fe, and I should be there no later than if I’d been out dancing all night.” She laughed lightly. “It’s the best of everything. I get to see my lovely daughter get married, and then when everyone else sneaks off to sleep, I’ll be having a nightcap in the clouds.”

“Mom, remember, there’s a service here in the morning. Josh’s Uncle Jeffrey will be presiding. I was really hoping you could stay for that,” Leah said.

Brie stepped forward and slipped a slim arm around Leah’s waist. “Brittany, we would all love it. If you are worried about the flights, I have a travel agent friend who owes me a favor. She can work wonders, even switching airlines.”

“No, no, don’t worry yourself, I wouldn’t want to be a burden. No, you won’t even miss me, will you, Leah? I didn’t think so, honey. It’s going to be a wonderful day, isn’t it?”

Her mother hadn’t given her a chance to answer one way or the other. Meg saw Brie’s arm squeeze Leah a little closer, and she was glad once more that Brie was here. Leah still needed all the people she could get on her team.

And as Meg stood there in a small, awkward silence, she realized just how much she would rather be abandoned for orphans than for a vacation.

The silence was over in a flash. Cadence came clomping and eye-rolling down the hallway in her own green dress, Catherine came after her, and from down the other hallway she heard Gage calling, “Can we come out now?”

“No,” Catherine said firmly. “You’ll be free to mingle in a moment, but first we have to round up the bride. Leah? It’s about time for your finishing touches.”

“What finishing touches?”

“Whatever busywork will keep your nerves steady for the next ten minutes, dear. Brie, you are perfection. Cadence, get over it. Meg, you look like a 1940s movie starlet. Brittany, I have some iced lemonade hidden in the back room, would you like some?”

As the other women started to move into the bedroom, Leah turned back and took both of Meg’s hands. She looked pale. “Ten minutes.”

“And then you’ll be one of us. Muah hahaha.”

A change on Leah’s face made Meg turn around. Jacob was coming closer, shaking his head. “You look like a million bucks, Miss Leah. My son is a lucky man.” Meg stepped to the side as Jacob cleared his throat. Very softly he asked, “No chance your father will come?”

“He doesn’t really play a big part in my life, Jacob. But that’s okay. God’s gonna walk me down the aisle, anyway. He plays a
very
big part in my life.”

Jacob was not a big talker. It seemed to Meg as if his pastor brother and Meg’s own father had gotten all the talking genes, but their eldest brother had missed out on them entirely. He fidgeted and coughed and seemed like he was gearing up for a long time before he began speaking again. “Leah, I don’t know for certain, but it seems to me your Father in heaven would like you to have a real hand to hold when you walk down that aisle. I know I’m not your dad. And I’m certainly not Him. But since you will become my daughter today, I sure would be honored if you’d let me be the person holding your hand.”

It was the longest speech she’d ever heard from her uncle. “Thank you,” Leah whispered. Meg turned to Leah, who was crying, and after wiping away a tear of her own, she started laughing. “Oh, I am such a crybaby.”

Jacob did a quick nod, which was a kind of cowboy bow, and headed back down the hallway again without another word. Meg thought it might be another week before he had something else to say.

“I love you guys,” Leah said.

“Stop it. I actually have mascara on,” Meg said, trying to sop up the extra tears with her fingertips before they fell. “We love you too. I’m so glad you picked Joshua so I get to have you in my family forever.”

From down the hall, a little louder and with a trace of a whine, Gage called, “Can we come out now?”

Meg gave her a quick half hug, trying not to mess anything up, and slipped out the door as Leah went into hiding. Outside, the sun was blinding after being in the cool darkness of the log cabin. Meg spotted her brother talking to one of Joshua’s prettier friends. Now was probably not the best time to ask him about that cryptic comment he’d made about being a Bible scholar, but she would have a chance to ask him later.

She walked to the edge of the deck. Her parents were talking Uncle Jeffrey’s ears off. Jeffrey was in a suit, a real one, with a tie. He looked very official, and she wasn’t used to that. She thought of him as Uncle Jeffrey, not a pastor, and somehow he looked a little less fun to talk to this way. And what had he and Gage been talking about, anyway? She got the impression that Gage was the one who had asked to talk. She wondered if it had anything to do with Brie.

She wandered across the deck, scanning the crowd for familiar faces.

The door opening behind her made her freeze. She hadn’t gotten off the deck fast enough. The heavy sound of cowboy boots caught her attention and she turned around. All the lovely dresses and fancy suits couldn’t hold a candle to one particular Texan in the right pair of jeans, a crisp white shirt and bolo tie, and a suit jacket with a little western flair. And the hat. What was it about cowboy hats? She clamped her jaw shut, hoping he’d just walk by.