Page 67 of I'll Be There
Then, he didn’t care that Pete was sitting there, or that the guys had just pulled up in the other truck.
He kissed her. A full on,everything’s-going-to-be-okay-now, because I’m-sticking-around kiss, the kind he should have given her two days ago. She responded, softening her lips, a tiny sigh, maybe of relief, escaping. And when he leaned back, her beautiful brown eyes shone.
“I’m so glad. You needed closure,” she said, pressing her hand to his cheek. “Ready to get married?”
“So ready.”
“Good. Because we really need to find a reception venue.”
He glanced at the guys, now opening the box of donuts Liza had left on the table. “These for us?” Reuben asked, almost an afterthought.
“Sure,” Liza said, laughing.
Conner managed a feeble grin, his body still sluicing with heat, adrenaline. “You need a venue, babe? I’m on it.”
“And then, Conner, you say ‘I do.’” Pastor Dan stood in front of the altar, holding his Bible open, looking at Conner for the words.
Liza gave Conner’s hand a squeeze as if for encouragement, but he stared down at her, his blue eyes holding hers, a tiny smile on his face. He’d shaved for tonight’s rehearsal, leaving just the finest layer of golden whiskers on his chin. He’d gotten a haircut, too, short enough for his hair to curl at the edges, calling her to weave her fingers through it.
Oh, her man cleaned up well. He wore a blue button-down, a pair of dress jeans, his cowboy boots. And lined up behindhim, a cadre of other gleaming smoke jumpers, with their wide shoulders that betrayed the hours slinging an axe or a saw, trim waists, strong legs honed from miles of hiking. Pete wore his hair tatted back, also in a clean white shirt, a pair of chinos, and Converse, as if confused about his persona. But Reuben appeared pure cowboy in a snap-button, red plaid, long-sleeved shirt, black jeans, black boots. He too had trimmed his beard, gotten a cut.
And Jed. Wearing a pair of dress pants, a black shirt, the sleeves rolled up, his brown hair cut short. He stood first in line, not the best man—Conner still hadn’t chosen any of them to step in for the witness spot—but the man who’d been there at the beginning, when Liza had walked into Conner’s life, holding a box of donuts.
Sitting in the first row, Jim Micah looked on, wearing an enigmatic expression. Liza supposed he might be remembering his own wedding.
“I do,” Conner whispered. Then he leaned down, as if to kiss her.
“Not yet!” Dan said.
A smile slid up one side of Conner’s face. “Sorry. I’m a little antsy.”
I do.She wanted to scream it, but managed to simply reply when Dan gave her the same instructions.
But, yes.I do...want to move to Montana with you.The words had formed in her chest sometime after Conner had tracked her down at the donut shop, most likely as she watched him—and his team of superstars—save the day. As usual. Starting with the powwow at the Evergreen resort where Grace declared the bingo tent the only reception solution. Conner had mustered the men into action, and by noon they’d erected the massive tent in the parking lot behind Pierre’s Pizza.
Grace pulled strings—she had so many to choose from after working at Pierre’s her entire high school career and beyond—and secured permission to use the pizza kitchen where they would cook the pulled pork and store the homemade buns and a hundred freshly made cupcakes from World’s Best.
The guys hauled tables from the community center and the church and didn’t complain for a moment when Grace taught them how to set them with the burlap tablecloths. She’d somehow found more doilies, which she handed to Reuben, and instructed him to put one at each place setting. She taught Pete how to fold the dark cream linen napkins, tuck a sprig of lavender in the fold, and set each napkin on the doily. Jed added matching cream votive candles at each place setting while Mona showed Micah, Romeo, and Darek how to arrange the centerpiece vases filled with pinecones and twinkly lights. Tomorrow, they would also hold a triad of cream hydrangeas, due to arrive tonight.
With strings of wispy organza and twinkly lights spanning the ceiling, somehow Grace had turned the parking lot of a pizza place into never-never land.
Liza wanted to weep with the beauty, the magic of the day. The perfection.
And somehow, during the transformation, the thought had come to her, swept her up, wound through her. Fortified her. She loved Conner enough to return to Montana with him. To live in the beautiful home he’d built for her. To pray for his safety when he climbed into an airplane and threw himself into the furnaces of the north woods. To wait for him, casting him into God’s hands.
Herself into God’s hands.
Let my heart’s desire be Yours, Lord.
“So then I’ll pronounce you man and wife, and you’ll be able to kiss the bride,” Pastor Dan said, and Liza recognized thespark in Conner’s eye a second before he bent down and kissed her. Nothing of the kiss he’d given her this morning, but enough to stir anticipation inside her.
She closed her eyes, relishing his touch. She’d find a moment alone tonight and tell him. Her wedding gift, perhaps.
He leaned close to her ear. “Tomorrow,” he whispered.
“I’ll introduce you, and down the aisle you’ll go. Easy,” Pastor Dan said.
Conner took her hand, led her off the stage, then back up the aisle.
