Page 47 of The Viking Blues

It was also a stroke of luck that she just happened to own a house with a huge backyard and the best views in town.

“I have troops incoming with marquees, tables and seating. We can set up everything at Someday. I mean, we already cleaned up the yard for the photos anyway so we may as well put it to good use. Rafe?”

“Yes?”

“Can you call the caterers, the band and the celebrant and let them know about the change of venue? Then check on Jane and the cake?”

“On it,” he said, shoving a piece of toast in his mouth.

“Toby?”

The big man didn’t answer, just stared at her with one brow raised and a look of displeasure on his face.

“Are you sure you can’t use those?” she asked, pointing to the hot pink roses piled up on the kitchen bench.

“Positive,” he said through gritted teeth.

Mia nodded. “Then I want you and your brothers—not Crispin—to visit every resident in town who has white flowers growing in their yard and use your considerable Bennett charm to beg, borrow, steal or swap them for those pink ones. I suggest starting with Mayor Rose and working your way down from there.”

The tension eased from Toby’s features and he half-smiled as he tucked Lucy under his arm. “Yeah, we can do that.”

“And what will I be doing?” Crispin spoke up from his spot at the kitchen table.

Grinning at the handsome interior designer, she said, “You’re coming with me to Someday. I need someone with your expertise to tell my soldiers where to set up the marquees to make the most of the space and the views.”

Cris threw out a mock salute. “Lead the way.”

“Uly?”

“Yes, sweetheart?” The old flirt’s eyes practically twinkled with mischief.

“I need you to source as many boxes of white fairy lights as you can and bring them to Someday in two hours or less.”

The Bennett family patriarch smiled broadly. “I like a woman who knows what she wants. Consider it done.”

Mia nodded her thanks. “Everyone else needs to help Lucy and her bridesmaids get ready, including getting to their beauty appointments on time, starting with their mani-pedis in forty-five minutes.” She tucked her tablet under her arm. “Everyone know what they’re doing?”

Everyone just sort of murmured, shrugged and half-nodded, their lack of urgency causing Major Mia’s back to straighten, her chin to lift and her voice to snap out, “I said does everyone know what they’re doing?”

A roomful of startled people blurted out, “Yes.”

“Good. Then let’s get moving.”

A few hours later, her troops, led by a very competent corporal and guided by a very commanding Crispin, had assembled white marquees for the ceremony and dinner, dressed the chairs, set the tables, filled the trees with Ulysses’s fairy lights, and helped Toby dress the entire area with so many white and pale pink flowers that her backyard looked magical. Beautiful.

To top things off, the band had arrived on time, the smell from the caterer’s trucks was simply divine, and Jane’s solution to the wedding cake problem was perfection.

“Thank you, Mia,” Toby said quietly, giving her a hug. “You saved the day.”

“You’re very welcome,” she replied, then gasped as another pair of arms came around her, sandwiching her between them and the groom.

“I don’t know how you pulled this off, Mia, but Toby’s right,” Charlie said, the sincerity in his voice throwing her off. She still didn’t trust him not to put a frog in her handbag or something equally childish. “Thank you.”

Mia shrugged. “I worked in logistics, guys. Organising other people and telling them where to go was literally my job. Which reminds me, I had Uly put your clothes upstairs so you could shower and get dressed here.”

Both twins kissed her cheeks then disappeared up the front stairs and into the old house.

After checking her watch, Mia went over her checklist one last time then grabbed the walkie-talkie from her back pocket. “Sixty minutes and counting everyone.” After she received the appropriate responses, she handed the walkie and the tablet to the corporal. “You know what to do?”

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