Page 126 of The Honorable Texan
Meredith and Rey exchanged wide glances.“What camera crews?”she asked.
“Just a few reporters,” Leo waved them away with a lean hand.“You know, CNN, Fox, the international press…got to run!”
“International press!”Meredith choked.
“We’ve just signed an important export deal with Japan, didn’t I mention it?”Leo called back.“They love organic beef, and we’ve got some.I mentioned it to our public relations people and they called the news people for us.Your father’s writing the statement we’re giving them.He’s sure got a way with words, hasn’t he?”
He waved again, climbed into his truck and sped off.
“Invitations,” Meredith said haltingly.“Clothes.Honeymoons.Reporters.”
“Now, now,” he said, pulling her into his arms.“Justthink of all the work they’ve saved you.You’ll have nothing to do but dress and say yes, and fly off to the Riviera with your brand-new husband!”
“But, but,” she blurted.
“I want to marry you right away,” he added.“You’re a qualified health professional, and I have a terrible pain that you can cure in only one night.”
She got the idea, belatedly, and hit him.
He chuckled, bending to kiss her gently.“It’s no use trying to stop them,” he said.“Besides, they’re very good at it.I used to be, too.”He scowled.“Somehow, it’s not as much fun being on the receiving end, though.”
She just shook her head.
* * *
The wedding wasbeautiful, despite her misgivings.Meredith wore the most gorgeous gown she’d ever seen, with yards and yards of exquisite lace over satin, with a long veil made of the same lace and a bouquet of pure white roses.Her father gave her away, and all four of Rey’s brothers were best men.Tess, Cag’s wife, stood with Meredith as her matron of honor.In a very short time, the two women had become close friends.
Most of Jacobsville turned out for the affair, but Meredith had eyes only for her handsome husband, who was dressed to the hilt as well.They exchanged rings and Rey lifted the veil very slowly.He’d been romantic and gentle and teasing over the days before the wedding.But when he looked at her now, his eyes were quiet and loving and very solemn.He bent and kissed her with such tenderness that she knew she’d remember the moment for the rest of her life.
They clasped hands and ran down the aisle and out of the church together, laughing gaily as they were peltedwith rice and rose petals.At the waiting limousine, Meredith turned and tossed her bouquet.Surprisingly it was caught by Janie Brewster, notorious locally for her rubber chicken dinners and trying to catch Leo Hart’s eye.She blushed vividly and clutched the bouquet, her eyes on it and not on anyone nearby.Which was as well, because Leo looked suddenly homicidal as the ranch foreman elbowed him and grinned.
The newlyweds waved and dived into the limousine, already packed and ready to take them to the airport.They’d already announced that the reception would have to go on without them, to the brothers’ shock and dismay.
“I hated for us to miss it,” Rey told her on the way to the airport, “but I know my brothers.They’d have found some way to embarrass us.”
She chuckled, snuggling close to him.“Well, we’re safe now.”
* * *
The flight toFrance was long and boring.They held hands and couldn’t sleep as the little computers above the seats marked the long trail on a map, showing the progress of the flight.When the jumbo jet finally landed, they walked like zombies into the airport to go through passport control and then on to wait for their luggage so that they could get through customs and to the waiting car that would take them to their hotel.The driver, holding a sign that read Hart Newlyweds had met them at the gate and arranged to meet them at customs.Meredith was yawning visibly when they found the driver and followed him and the wheeled luggage out the door.He and Rey exchanged comments that went right over Meredith’s head.
“I don’t speak French,” she said worriedly when they were in the car.“I took a double minor in German and Spanish.”
“No Latin?”he teased.
“There’s a special course of it for nursing students,” she replied with a smile.“Fortunately you don’t have to learn the whole language anymore, although I wouldn’t have minded.I’m so tired!”
“We’ll have a nice long rest when we get to the hotel.”He pulled her close.“I could use a little sleep myself!”
The car pulled up under the covered entrance and a bellboy came out to get the luggage.Rey paid the driver and made arrangements to contact him when they were ready to go sightseeing in a day or two.
Meredith followed Rey and the luggage to the desk clerk and waited while he got the key to their suite.
It didn’t take long.Rey unlocked the door and opened it.And the bellhop burst into helpless laughter.
There, on the bed, very obviously courtesy of the Hart boys, were two life-size blow-up dolls, a blonde female and a dark-haired male, in the midst of a garden of thornless roses of every color known to man.They were obviously engaged in a notorious newlywed ritual.
Rey tipped the bellhop and opened the door himself, waving the man out while he tried not to bend over double laughing.
