Sunrise (29 page)

“Which means we have exactly one day to pack.” Ashley paced a few steps toward the garage. “I better get the suitcases.”

Landon looked at the front window. “Katy said the press are in town, right?”

“Yes.” Ashley frowned. “They could be watching now.” She peered out the window too. “If they are outside, we can’t let them see us packing. We have to keep everything secret until the plane takes off.”

By the next evening, Ashley had talked to her sisters and Katy. Everyone felt the same way—that three days on the Mayan Riviera would make for a dream wedding and a vacation at the same time.

It was time to celebrate. The brother they’d never known wasn’t only found—he was getting married! And the sweet theater director who had become Ashley’s friend was about to become something far more lasting.

Her sister.

At the last minute, Jenny and Jim decided to take Cody Coleman to Dayne and Katy’s wedding in Mexico. Originally he wasn’t going, but he’d developed a strong attachment to the Flanigans since Thanksgiving. The time away would be good for him, a reward for his dedication to his classes and his growing faith.

By three o’clock Thursday morning, the Flanigans were awake and racing through the house.

“I’m bringing my stuffed dolphin.” Shawn held it over his head as he ran down the stairs. “That’s okay, right, Mom? Justin says I can’t bring it ’cause there’s no room in the suitcase, but I sleep with that dolphin every night, so it’s okay, right?”

Jenny could barely keep the lists in her head straight. She waved her hand in Justin’s direction. “Let him bring it. The dolphin’s squishy. It doesn’t take up much room.” She raised her voice. “Bailey, get your suitcase down here. You’re always last.”

“I’ll help her if she needs it.” Cody was up, his duffel bag already sitting by the door.

For the first time Jenny heard it, sensed it in Cody’s voice. Over the past couple of months, she’d seen Cody and Bailey getting closer, and she’d believed it to be nothing but a friendship. A brother-sister relationship. But here, in the midst of a crazy predawn morning, she had no doubts. Cody was developing feelings for Bailey, feelings she doubted he would act on any time before he left for the army.

Jenny hid her surprise with a smile. “Thanks, but she has to get her things together by herself. Otherwise she can’t go.”

“Hurry up, Bailey.” Connor moved to the bottom of the stairs. “Mom says you can’t go if you don’t get down here.”

“I’m coming. . . .” Her frantic voice came from her bedroom. “I can’t find my curling iron.”

Cody chuckled and turned his attention back to his bowl of cereal. “It’s weird eating this early.”

“Not for me.” Ricky was the best eater in the family. He was finishing his second bowl of Cheerios. “Mom says we won’t eat again till we get to Mexico.”

Jenny smiled to herself. “Cody, why don’t you check the boys’ suitcase—all four little ones are sharing one big bag. Make sure they each have a bathing suit and flip-flops and their wedding clothes.”

“Will do.” Cody took a final bite of cereal and moved his bowl to the kitchen sink. He rinsed it and put it in the dishwasher. “Okay, boys . . . let’s take a look at your suitcase.”

Jenny’s thoughts jumbled in her mind, and she pressed her fingers to her brow. “Vitamins . . . sunscreen . . . allergy medicine for BJ . . . nylons . . . hair spray.” She muttered the list under her breath. “Bailey, do you have the hair spray?”

“Yes. Coming, Mom . . . really!”

Jim waltzed into the kitchen with a small suitcase. He lined it up next to Connor’s and Cody’s. “Everyone ready to roll?”

The chaos continued, but finally, they were loaded into the Flanigans’ Suburban complete with six suitcases, three backpacks, vitamins, sunscreen, and plenty of hair spray. Even so, Jenny felt restless. “I keep thinking I forgot something.”

“Not me, Mom.” Ricky waved from the backseat. “You know, like
Home Alone
. You didn’t forget any kids.”

“
This
time.” Jim gave her a wary look. “There was the trip to Cedar Point.”

“Ugh.” Jenny let her face fall into her hands. “What a nightmare.” They had been four miles from home when they realized BJ must’ve gone back inside to the bathroom. Because he was definitely missing. By the time they got back, he was sitting on the front porch with tears in his eyes.

“It’s more fun in the movies,” he’d told them. “I never wanna be home alone for real.”

But that wasn’t it this time. Suddenly she gasped. “My camera! I forgot my camera!”

“Nope.” Bailey was sitting between Cody and Connor in the middle seat. “I remembered it for you.” She patted her purse. “It’s in here.”

“Along with most of her bathroom.” Connor laughed. “The thing’s bursting at the seams.”

Jenny allowed herself to relax. “I can’t believe this.”

“A wedding in Cancún?” Jim grinned. “I remember when the quarterback of one of my pro teams did something like this. Chartered a jet and took all the guests to Hawaii. I heard everyone had a blast.”

“I can’t imagine how excited Katy must be.” She leaned back in the seat and set her purse on the floor. “I mean, did you really think this would happen? that she and Dayne would find a way to work things out?”

“No.” Jim didn’t hesitate. “God’s moved mountains for this one.”

A smile tugged at Jenny’s lips. She was tired and mentally drained from the effort of packing the family and getting out the door in time. But that didn’t matter. They were on their way to Mexico with the Baxters and CKT families, on their way to witness Katy pledge her life and love to Dayne Matthews.

Nothing was greater proof of God’s love than that.

Katy couldn’t believe it was really happening.

Wilma Waters was in charge of checking in the guests at the counter for private air travel in the terminal adjacent to Indianapolis International Airport. Katy and Dayne personally greeted each family and offered them coffee and doughnuts.

Wilma asked the same questions of everyone. “Anyone follow you? Anyone ask you about today? Any photographers in the parking lot as you came inside?”

Wilma was pretty certain the paparazzi from Bloomington would figure something was up. They might even get as close as the airport. But they couldn’t get into the private terminal without identification, so that would be that. They would know that Dayne and Katy’s wedding guests were boarding a private jet, but they wouldn’t have any idea where they were going.

Already Wilma had required a signed affidavit promising secrecy for the flight plans of the company’s private jet. If anyone from the air travel company leaked information to the press—anyone at all—Wilma promised a lawsuit and said she wouldn’t do business with the company again. It was a threat the company took seriously. Wilma didn’t expect any trouble from the flight crew or people back at the corporate offices of the leasing company.

There wasn’t a sign of trouble until John Baxter arrived. “We were followed,” he told Wilma the moment he and Elaine joined the others inside the terminal. “Someone was waiting at the end of my driveway. They must’ve figured the wedding was coming soon.”

“That’s okay.” Wilma checked her watch. “We’ll be off the ground before anyone else figures it out.”

Katy’s nerves rattled. She found Dayne and clung to his arm. “A photographer followed your dad.”

He touched her cheek. “We could be flying anywhere. If this is the first they know about it, they’re too late.” He slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her close. “You know what? God hasn’t brought us this far just to see the wedding crashed by a bunch of photographers.” He kissed her. “We’ll be fine.”

She nodded. He was right. They would be better than fine; they’d be perfect. Her private wedding was actually going to take place.

Katy and Dayne boarded the plane last, and as they did, the plane full of people erupted into applause ripe with excitement. She stopped, struck by the sight. Looking back at them were the faces of people she’d laughed and cried with—the Flanigans and all the CKT families she was close to. Her parents were on their way on a commercial flight from Chicago. She couldn’t wait to see them.

Katy felt her eyes dance to life. Because she couldn’t believe it. She sat next to Dayne in the second row, and within an hour most of their family and friends were sleeping. Everything about the flight and the fact that the wedding was about to happen felt surreal. When she was a little girl, she’d dreamed of being a fairy princess and marrying a prince. The way Cinderella did. And now here she was—being carried off in her jumbo-jet carriage with midnight a lifetime away.

“I keep thinking I should have glass slippers,” she whispered against Dayne’s neck. “Like someone’s going to wake me up and tell me it’s all a dream.”

Dayne looked down at her, and the love in his eyes was enough to make her heart skip a beat. “It is a dream.” He brought his lips to hers, and this time, sheltered from the watchful eyes of their guests, he kissed her slower.

By ten o’clock that morning they were on the ground with the entire party loaded into a series of buses. The planes coming from Hollywood and Chicago had landed half an hour before the one from Indianapolis, and now all the wedding guests were on their way to the Riviera.

Katy loved watching the people they’d invited, the looks of awe and excitement on their faces. Many of them had never been to Mexico, let alone the gorgeous eastern coastline of Cancún and its surrounding cities. Dayne’s siblings sat with their families at the back of the bus. Their laughter rang all the way to the front. Wilma sat in the seat next to the bus driver, going over her notes like the lead contractor in a massive building project.

With every mile, Katy felt the thrill again and again. She and Dayne were really getting married, the way she’d only dreamed possible.

The weather in Cancún was warm and clear and beautiful, with temperatures expected to be in the eighties for the next several days and low humidity. It took four buses to get all the guests to the resort, and security was at a premium from the moment they arrived at the gates.

The Riviera was the most secluded resort along the Cancún coast. Palm trees and banana plants formed a forestlike fortress on either side of the entrance, and guards at the gates checked with Wilma that all four buses were part of the Matthews wedding party.

As with the jet leasing company, the Riviera had done business with Wilma Waters before. The management and staff intended to do more business with her in the future. Because of that, they were under orders to maintain heightened secrecy regarding the identity of the wedding party taking over the resort for the next three days.

The buses parked near the front lobby, where stations were set up by last name. Guests got in the appropriate line and were given keys to their suites and a packet of instructions advising them of special dinners, showers, and meeting times.

Wilma had seen to all of it, and Katy pulled her aside once everyone had gone off to find their rooms. “I don’t know how you pulled this off.”

Where other people might look exhausted at this point, Wilma’s eyes were bright and alert. She looked exhilarated by the challenge of planning the wedding. “I think we’re really going to do it. All along my goal was to organize a big wedding without the media crashing it. We just might do it.”

At this point everyone who knew the when and where of the wedding was already here at the resort.

Katy felt more relaxed than she’d felt since they first met with Wilma. “Even if they figure it out, they won’t get past the front gate. I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief.”

“Not yet.” Wilma gave her an impulsive hug. “Not until you leave for your honeymoon.”

The honeymoon.

Plans for the wedding had been so involved that Katy hadn’t given much thought to the honeymoon. The destination was a surprise, something Dayne had planned. “Bring a bathing suit” was all he’d told her. Katy didn’t care where they went. They could stay here at the Riviera, and the honeymoon would be perfect. As long as she and Dayne were together.

Dayne had gone off with his father and brother, because at Wilma’s request, his room was near theirs. Katy’s was across the hall from the Flanigans’ and next door to her parents’—at the clear opposite side of the resort. That would give her more privacy to get ready for the wedding without any chance Dayne might see her.

Everyone had snacks waiting for them in their rooms, and after they unpacked, most people met by the pool. With only a couple hundred guests here, the resort felt wide-open—with space for people who wanted privacy and plenty of room for swimming or lying in the sun.

The Hollywood group included numerous A-list actresses and actors, all of whom found a smaller pool at the other end of the resort. Katy understood. They hardly ever had privacy, so why not take it while it was being offered?

Dinner that night was in one of the resort’s ballrooms, and Dayne emceed the evening by having volunteers from among the guests play a version of Wheel of Fortune.