Page 2 of Flippin' Cowboy
Her wedding gown didn’t have pockets, so Mom had volunteered to hold her phone. She and Dad were seated in the first pew, along with Grandma Abigail, and most of Winnie’s aunts, uncles, and cousins, as well as Summer’s fiancé and Autumn’s husband and son.
On Geoff’s side of the aisle, the long front pew seated his father, stepmother, and sisters-in-law, along with his young nieces and nephews.
When Winnie’s gaze met her mom’s, Mom shook her head.No messages, then.
“He’s probably just running late, like usual,” Winnie added, hoping Edwina wasn’t about to pass out in front of everyone.
Heck, Winnie hoped that she herself wouldn’t pass out. She hadn’t been able to take a deep breath since being sewn into her dress this morning.
Geoff was notorious for losing track of time and suddenly finding last-minute important things to do whenever he and Winnie were due to leave the apartment they shared. It drove her crazy, but his chronic lateness was usually in the fifteen-to-twenty-minute range.
Not an hour, like now.
“I’ve tried contacting him, like, ten times,” Karla interjected, coming up to stand next to Edwina. “Got sent straight to voicemail. I hope to God he’s okay and didn’t get into a car accident or something.”
Oh, great. Something else to worry about, thought Winnie.
Like a lot of girls, she’d spent her teenaged years daydreaming of her wedding day. Now that she was in the middle of it, she couldn’t wait for it to be over.
She reminded herself that this circus was the price she’d agreed to pay for her dream. And that she and Geoff could make it up to each other tonight, when they’d kicked off their shoes and were relaxing with a glass of champagne in front of a crackling fire in their honeymoon suite. She’d booked a long weekend stay for them at a beautiful alpine bed-and-breakfast in the scenic, Bavarian-themed town of Leavenworth.
Assuming he wasn’t currently being extracted from a crushed vehicle by the jaws of life, that was.
Winnie sighed.I’m sure he’s fine. Just running late, as usual. Everything will be okay as soon as he finally gets here.
And if today’s events hadn’t stressed him out too much, maybe Geoff would finally be in the mood to make love tonight.
Between their struggle to complete the renovations on the Tudor Revival before the wedding, and the wedding itself, it had been weeks since either of them had done anything but fall asleep when they went to bed. They were both running ragged.
“I’m sure he just got stuck in traffic,” Autumn said reassuringly. “I heard that there was an overturned big rig on 405 North.”
“But I’ll call him now,” Winnie said in her most reassuring tone. “And see if he answers whenmycaller ID pops up.”
The sounds of conversation swelled as she gathered up her enormous draped skirts and the long, pearl-embroidered satin train that caught on everything. She took her first step down the dais stairs.
Then a cacophony of notification sounds rose from the pews.
Winnie froze. Her stomach clenched and her heart began to race.This can’t be good, she thought, watching as the wedding guests dug in their pockets and purses for their phones.
Wide-eyed with panic, Karla sprinted over to her. “OMG! Geoff’s at the courthouse right now, and he’s marryingMelanie!”
She thrust her phone at Winnie.
Geoff’s doingwhat!?Her brain buzzing with mental static, Winnie stared down at the smiling faces of her fiancé, Geoff Schaefer, and his assistant designer, Melanie Harper.
With my soulmate at the King County Courthouse,the caption read beneath the next photo of Geoff and Melanie. In this shot, their backs were to the camera as they facing a smiling judge.Surprise! Just couldn’t go through with Winnie’s wedding circus. #RestoringSeattle #WinnieGeoffWedding #HappyAtLast
Mywedding circus?Winnie thought incredulously. But I didn’t want any of this!
Never been happier, read the next photo in the sequence, which showed Geoff and Melanie kissing, their linked hands in frame displaying their wedding rings. The tags read#TrueLoveWins #WeddingDay #SchaeferDesigns
“I don’t need to see the rest of these.” Winnie didn’t recognize her own voice as she thrust the phone at her producer. “They’re happy. Yay for them.” Her voice rose. “But why thefuckcouldn’t either of them have said anything before today?”
“That asshole probably wanted to make sure he got lots of views and reactions on his announcement,” Autumn, who was a social media marketing expert, commented acidly. “I always knew you were too good for him, Winnie.”
The babble rising from the wedding guests turned into a roar. Winnie saw people laughing, sharing their phones with each other, staring at her.
I’ve been left at the altar.The truth sank into her numbed brain. Un-fricking-believable.
