Page 18 of His Christmas Star
“We think it's the perfect way to end the year. What do you say?” Dawn asked.
“I say yes! Caleb wants to be married to you as soon as possible, Cece.”
She blushed, and with her red hair and fair skin, she reminded me of Little Orphan Annie. “Thank you for encouraging him.”
“Hey, if nothing else, it won’t take long to pick your wedding colors,” I pointed out to everyone’s amusement.
“That’s what I said! And I don’t have to send invitations since the entire town will be here anyway. Neither Caleb nor I have any family to invite, so that saves time figuring out lodging and everything.”
“You do have a family,” Heaven said with vigor. “We’ll all be there to watch you start your new life together.”
Cece squeezed Heaven’s hand. “I know. I meant that in a very logical sense, not an emotional sense. I’m lucky to have the women around this table. I’m blessed with family, and I know it.”
“Not to mention,” Amity said, leaning into her, “two big brothers and a dad who would do anything for you.”
Cece turned to Amity. “Do you think Ash would walk me down the aisle? Or, I guess the barn. I don’t want to ask him if he would feel awkward about it.”
Amity threw her arms around Cece and squeezed her tightly. “He’d be honored. He walked Heaven and Dawn down the aisle, and he’d be thrilled to do the same for you. We only had boys on the ranch in Texas, but we were gifted the joy of having girls here. He doesn’t want to miss out on a thing.”
“I’ll ask him then,” she said with a grateful smile.
“What are you going to do with Poppy?” Dawn asked. “Do you want me to keep her with Sammy?”
Cece bit her lip and glanced around the room. “I was hoping Ash would walk Poppy and me down together. Caleb is her tether, and she won’t be happy being left out of the ceremony.”
I pointed at Cece with my hand. “You’re right. If Caleb is in the room, she’s a magnet. She will stand up there quiet as a mouse, but leaving her out will result in much upsettedness.” They all chuckled but nodded their agreement. “Besides, I think that’s a sweet way to start your lives together as a family.”
Amity squeezed Cece’s shoulder. “Ash would love to carry Miss Poppy Rose down the aisle. You know how he is with her.” She rolled her eyes dramatically as though she weren’t just as bad. “He’s such a Paw-Paw.”
“Very true,” Cece said, wiping a tear from her cheek. “So hard to believe that when I first brought Poppy here, I was scared you were going to fire me. Now, she has this big beautiful family that has helped us succeed on the ranch in immeasurable ways. I really can’t thank you all enough for the way you take care of us.”
“That’s what a family does,” Heaven said with a wink. “And we might be a big mish-mashed mess of trauma, loss, and pain, but we’re also resilient, tough, and have made these two ranches into a legacy for our little ones. When I lost my daddy all those years ago and was trying to run this ranch alone, I never could have predicted how wonderful life would be if I just let a little love in.”
“I second that,” said Dawn. “I wish I had let Beau in sooner and hadn’t wasted four years being afraid, but that time taught me a lot too, so I have to take the good with the bad.”
They were directing their comments at me, and I had to fight not to huff at how unsubtle they were being. “Have you decided on a wedding dress?” I asked Cece to change the subject.
“That has to be done first! We can’t have a repeat of my wedding disaster with Dawn!” Heaven exclaimed.
We all chuckled because we remembered their angst trying to find a dress Dawn liked. In the end, it wasn’t that she didn’t like the dresses she tried on, but she didn’t like herself. She’d lost weight and was sad and scared with the changes at Heavenly Lane. In the end, they found a beautiful dress for her. A thought struck me. Oh, God. Were they going to make me go dress shopping with them? I can’t think of a fate worse than following four women around while they tried on dresses. I’d rather muck out all the horse stalls than do that.
Cece held up her hands. “Okay, so hear me out.”
“No, you’re not wearing a flannel shirt and jeans,” I said immediately, in case that’s where she was going with it.
Her frown had me laughing because that was so Cece. I took a bite of a biscuit and chewed, waiting for them to fill me in on what my job would be for planning a wedding with only three weeks on the clock.
“I found this super cute dress online, and I think it would be perfect, but I don’t want to take away your fun if you wanted to go dress shopping,” Cece explained.
“Show us the dress,” Amity said, pointing at her phone. “I know we all love to shop together, but I’m afraid you might not find something you like, and then you’d have to settle.”
“Agreed,” Dawn said. “If you found something online, let’s see it. Besides, there will be plenty of shopping to do for this event. If we can check the dress box off, that’s already a huge burden off our backs.”
While they looked at Cece’s dress, my mind wandered to Joe. I wondered if he would fix his relationship with Daddy Nash before it was too late. There was nothing worse than living with a decision not to offer grace to someone on their way out of this world. I just hoped Joe saw it before it was too late.
“Tobi?”
I snapped to attention and noticed all four women staring at me. “Yes, sorry,” I said, shaking my head to rid it of thoughts of Joe. “These biscuits are so good I tuned out.”
