Snowflake Bay (14 page)

“I trust you'll do what's right.”

Ben groaned. “I think that's the worst thing you've ever said to me.”

Logan flashed him a fierce grin. “As long as it works, I don't care.”

“I know it's old fashioned and seriously outdated, but . . . what do you think?”

Fiona looked up from the impossible task of figuring out reception seating arrangements that wouldn't result in loss of life, only to gasp at the sight of Hannah at the top of the staircase, wearing their mother's wedding gown. She turned slowly around to show off the whole ensemble.

“Oh, Han.” Tears prickled on her eyelashes almost immediately.
Bridesmaid Rule No. 35: Whoever wears your mother's wedding dress best should wear the dress.
“It's perfect. You look . . . amazing.” The dress was gorgeous in its simplicity. A formfitting white satin sheath with a high neckline that followed the collarbone, sheer sleeves with satin cuffs at the wrists. Buttoned at the neck in the back with a single pearl button, then open below that in a slender slit to midback, it nipped in at the waist, where a sheer train was attached that spread out in a gathered spray all the way to the floor, with just a bit of length to it, trailing behind. There was a modest, calf-high slit up the back to make walking a bit easier. On Hannah's slender frame, it was a knockout.

Fiona had seen the dress pretty much every day of her life growing up, in the photograph of their parents' wedding day that sat, framed, on the fireplace mantel in the living room. She glanced over at it now, then back at Hannah. “You do it serious justice, Han. It fits you like a glove. Mom would love it, I'm sure, and so will Calder.” Neither she nor Hannah really remembered their mother, having been too young when their parents were killed in a car accident, but their grandfather had regaled them with many, many stories of their parents, and so she felt as if she knew what kind of people they had been, what they'd wanted for their children.

“You sure you're okay with me wearing it? I mean, Mom didn't really leave it to any one of us, but it was still up in the attic. When Alex was doing the renovations, she came across the big trunk.”

Fiona rose and walked over to the bottom of the stairs, looking up at her sister. “Of course I don't mind. Even if I did, there's no amount of altering in the world that would get me in that dress. Spanx can only do so much.”

Hannah smiled. “I asked Kerry, and she just laughed at me.”

Fiona grinned. “Yeah, somehow I'm not pegging Kerry for a traditional bride-in-white shindig.”

“Me, either. Still, I wanted to make sure.”

“You look amazing. Glowing. It's disgusting, really.”

Hannah laughed then. “Okay, good.”

“What about the veil?”

“I have to figure that out. Mom's wasn't in good enough condition to use again. The netting is deeply yellowed, and the mice had a bit of a go at the headpiece. I don't know why it wasn't in the trunk with the dress, but the veil, shoes, and undergarments were all in a big dress box, so they didn't fare as well.”

Fiona clapped her hands together. “Goodie! Then we still have something to shop for.”

“We have to shop for bridesmaid dresses anyway, so we can just do it then.”

“I know—it's just more fun when the bride is trying on things. Then she doesn't get too focused on making her bridesmaids wear something awful.”

Hannah laughed. “I told you, that's the last thing you need to worry about with me.” She paused, her eyes narrowing. “You promised you weren't planning anything like that for my rehearsal. Please tell me you don't have any surprises planned, I wouldn't mind, but you know Calder's family will be there and I really don't think—”

“Don't worry, Bridezilla. For one, there's not enough time to pull off anything like that, and for two, you're right. Your new in-laws aren't exactly the fun bunch.”

“Oh, come on, they're not that bad.” She paused and took in Fiona's
Seriously?
expression and added, “Okay, so they're not
all
that bad. Only a few sticks in the mud. The rest are pretty decent. His sisters-in-law I like a bunch. In fact, I'm counting on them to keep the peace between the factions during the ceremony.”

“It's not the ceremony I'm worried about,” Fiona muttered. It was the part where there would be alcohol served that had her concerned.
Bridesmaid Rule No. 36: When firearms might be present at the reception, stick with a cash bar. And make the drinks ten bucks a shot. No pun intended.

“Speaking of the rehearsal dinner,” Hannah said, adroitly changing the subject. “Why don't we—?”

“Why don't you go slither out of that thing?” Fiona broke in. “Then come on down. I need to go over the reception seating chart with you.” She gave Hannah a wistful smile. “Are you sure we can't erect bunkers? And I'm thinking a tastefully decorated metal detector at the door to check for ammo?”

“Ha ha,” Hannah retorted dryly, then sighed and added, “Although . . .”

Fiona laughed and Hannah smiled ruefully.

“I'll be right down,” Hannah said. “Alex said she'd be here a little before dinnertime. Her world-famous spaghetti is in the fridge for us to heat up. She's at Eula's today, working on some hush-hush project.” She grinned conspiratorially. “I'm thinking awesome antique wedding present, but who knows.”

“I wouldn't get too excited about that,” Fiona warned. “And you have no one to blame but yourself if you don't get any cool wedding gifts. When you pull a last-minute wedding date stunt and have it coincide with the busiest holiday of the year, well, you get what you get.”

Hannah waved a hand. “I know, I know. Seriously, I'm just thrilled that you're here, and Kerry is still here, and that we love Alex like family already. It's going to be a wonderful day, Fiona. I just know it.”

Having talked with Logan earlier in the day after he'd met with Jonah Blue and Calder, Fiona maybe still had some serious reservations about that, but she wasn't going to spoil Hannah's mood. “Good,” she said. “I'm going to dive back in. I can be here through dinner; then I have to head back to town. I want to work on more of my business plan tonight.” Hopefully without Beanie “dropping by,” which she'd done again yesterday.

Hannah's smile shifted to one of concern. “I know I'm pulling you every which direction while you are trying to completely set up your life again—”

“Don't. You're setting up a life in Calais with Calder, and you're making the trek back and forth. I knew when I came back that I was going to take the winter months to get myself situated, so I'll still have plenty of time. I just need to switch gears from time to time, keep things moving forward, that's all.”

“No, no, I get it. You're right—I feel like I'm doing the same thing. Getting settled in at the horse ranch with Calder, and figuring out just what kind of law practice I want to have, and where it's best to set that up for both us and his family. His dad is doing much better, but the future for their company is changing, so—” She stopped, shrugged. “You don't want to hear all of that, but it's all going to figure itself out. And so will this. We don't need to go crazy with this ceremony, Fi. I just want to marry the man I love and he wants to marry me back. And we want to do that surrounded by the people we love.” She grinned. “The rest is just window dressing.”

“So says the woman who's never actually had to window dress a wedding,” Fiona replied, but she was smiling, too. “I'll be in the kitchen.” She turned to step down off the landing, then looked back up. “You need any help getting out of that?”

Hannah shook her head. “I'll be down shortly.”

Fiona nodded, then gathered up her notebook and file folders from the living-room coffee table and headed to the big, family-style kitchen, where the woodstove was chugging out some nice, cozy heat. Throughout the planning for Alex's wedding, she really hadn't thought at all about what she'd want for her own wedding. She'd been too busy trying to decide what she wanted to do about her business, about possibly coming back to the Cove. When she'd started in on Hannah's wedding plans, she'd still been in much the same mindset, only now it was how to set up her new business that was crowding her thoughts.

Somewhere in the past two days, that had changed. And she wasn't happy about it. It was enough to be pulling off a Christmas wedding with less than two months' notice, while simultaneously committing to a new business location and working on how she was going to set up shop. She didn't need to be distracted by thoughts of her own wedding day. That was something she'd never really been into. Which, she supposed, was surprising, given she'd known pretty early on that she wanted to do something in the field of design, and given her childhood-long crush on Ben. One would think she'd have trunks full of
MY WEDDING DAY
albums started at the tender age of twelve or thirteen, with everything already picked out and decided.

Maybe it was that wedding photo of her parents, whose own wedded bliss went on to be tragically cut far too short, or maybe it was because she'd simply never been in a relationship that made her believe there was a wedding in her immediate, or even distant, future. “And now you get one kiss from your childhood crush and suddenly it's all flowers blooming and bluebirds singing?” She snorted. “You're such a hopeless dork.”

“Who's a hopeless dork?” Logan asked as he pushed his way through the door from the mudroom to the kitchen.

“You, you big lug,” Fiona said, dumping her armload on the dining room table so she could give him a hug. “Are you going to join us for dinner?”

“What's on the menu?” he asked, as he unstrapped his service revolver and went about removing the ammunition and putting the various elements in two different lockboxes that he kept on top of the fridge.

“Alex's spaghetti with a side of wedding reception seating chart planning.”

“And here I didn't think there was anything that wouldn't pair well with Alex's spaghetti.” He grinned as he stowed the lockboxes back on the fridge and turned to take off his badge and holster. “But, gee, I think I'll pass.”

Fiona grinned, but was serious when she asked, “Do you really think we're going to have trouble at the ceremony? Be honest with me, because I'm still in the planning stage for the reception and the rehearsal dinner. Do we need Kevlar napkins?”

“Ugh, the rehearsal dinner. I'd forgotten about that. Where are we having it?”

“Yours was a bigger group since folks from the town were at the Puffin while we celebrated, but this time I'd like to keep it all family, and since half of them don't know people here, I was kinda sorta hoping we could have it here at the house, just keep it small? Alex is game to cook and Delia said she'd help out, too. Plus, that way it keeps Calder's family out here and away from town, and since none of the Cove Blues are in the wedding, they wouldn't be at the rehearsal dinner itself anyway.”

Logan didn't look remotely enthusiastic about the idea, but he nodded. “Makes the most sense, I guess.”

She walked over and hugged him again. “Have I told you how thankful I am you married a woman who has no family whatsoever, so we can just adopt her and keep her as our very own? No Kevlar needed?”

He hugged her back and bussed her on the top of her head before letting her go. “Just doing my part to keep the family happy.”

“We are happy,” she said. “And that's a pretty great thing. I mean, sure, I wish all of Calder's family were as wonderful as he is, but thankfully with him working more on the farm and less in the family business now that his father is on the mend, it shouldn't be too bad. Hannah says she gets along great with the sisters-in-law, and the brothers aren't so bad when you get them away from work, so that's a bonus. And the nieces and nephews are all adorable, so who knows? If anyone can mediate amongst the ranks, it will be her.”

“I hope so,” he said, stepping around Fiona so he could poke around in the fridge.

“I think Alex said there's some cold fried chicken in there, too, if—” She broke off and laughed as Logan stood up with a fried chicken leg already clamped in his teeth. “Right. And there's cold beer in—” She nodded as he lifted his free hand to show her the glass bottle there. “Well then, you're all set for a night of hiding in the man cave.”

“My thoughts exactly,” he said as he finished his bite and washed it down with a sip of cold beer. “I skipped lunch to shoot a few games of basketball at the high school gym today with Ben, so I might need more than a few pieces of cold fried chicken. See if you can sneak me a plate of spaghetti later, will you?”

“Sure. So, how's Ben?” Fiona would like to think she was all casual, chatting about their old friend Ben Campbell, but the look on Logan's face when she glanced at him proved that to be an epic fail. Still, she soldiered on. “Did they get that guy down from his truck okay? I had to go over to the Puffin to coordinate times and dates for shopping and such.” And get grilled on how Ben Campbell had kissed her senseless right there in her parking lot. “So I missed how it all turned out.”

“He's good. And yes, Andrew Stollen is alive and well and still in one piece, as is Ben's flatbed.”

“I'm guessing he's no longer employed, however.”

“No, no, Ben kept him on.” At Fiona's surprised look, he added, “Seems Andrew was trying to cut corners on man power—namely his own—by just dumping the trees out of the truck instead of manually unloading them with the other guy hired to help. So Ben kept him on, but put him back at the farm, digging up the stumps of the trees that folks are cutting.”

Her eyes widened. “They sell dozens of trees a day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And the ground is solid as a rock. I thought they dug up all the stumps during mud season in the spring.”