Barefoot in Lace (Barefoot Bay Brides Book 2) (37 page)

“So much for Mr. Soul Mate you just met, huh? I thought you were—”

“You guys!” Willow practically squawked as she barged into the room, her color high, her hair in the fat curlers Gussie had rolled, her dressing gown nearly falling off. “Where in the hell are you two? I am officially having a breakdown. I’m getting married in less than an hour.” Her voice rose and hitched. “I’m getting married in less than an hour!” she repeated, putting her hand over her mouth as tears sprang to her eyes. “I’m so happy and scared and excited and happy!”

Gussie and Ari shared a knowing look, but Willow held her arms out for a group hug.

“Now I understand!” Willow exclaimed.

“Why brides freak out?” Gussie asked.

“Yes! It’s so amazing. Isn’t it amazing? I’m marrying the man of my dreams, and I am going to spend my whole life with him, and I can’t believe this is happening for real! It’s amazing!”

Gussie laughed and tried to get them all to the door, catching Ari looking once more out the window. “Let’s go,” she insisted. “It’d be pretty sad if the wedding planners were late to one of their own weddings.”

Gussie led them all down the back hall to the bridal dressing room, Willow floating like she was a foot off the ground, where she stayed while they dressed in silk and lace, drank some bubbly, and shed a few happy tears with Willow’s colorful mom and dad.

They all followed the stone path together, stopping at the tiny bridge that crossed the sea oats and led to the wedding set, where about sixty excited people and one beaming groom waited.

Gussie was first, but before she started her walk, the three of them took a deep breath and had one last “we’re all still single” best friend hug. Already Gussie could feel the sting behind her lids, tears of pure joy and anticipation for her own moment like this.

Something told her it wasn’t far off—something like the look on Tom’s face every day since he’d been back.

“Listen,” Willow whispered. “I know we always said no weddings for us.”

“That was the wine talking,” Gussie joked.

“The voices of jaded wedding planners,” Ari agreed.

Willow shook her head. “It was fear, plain and simple.” She gave both women a squeeze. “I was scared of losing control, and when I did, it was awesome. And you.” She looked at Gussie. “You’re terrified of not being good enough, but I think that Tom has proven you wrong.”

“He sure has.”

“And you’ll find your one true love, Ari.”

Ari was peering into the crowd a few hundred feet away, but turned back to the small circle, her eyes bright. “I know,” she said quietly. “But right now, Willow? There’s a man standing up there who’s been waiting for you for ten years. Go marry him and live happily ever after.”

Willow smiled. “Sure would like you girls to join me.”

“We’re right here,” Ari said.

“That’s not what I mean.” With one last hug, Willow gave Gussie a slight nudge toward the bridge covered with white rose petals that lined the sandy aisle.

As she reached the guests, Gussie felt Tom’s presence, stealing one sideways glance and getting a wink that fried her right down to her bare toes. Holding on to that sensation, she finished the walk, and turned to watch Willow, escorted by her parents, walk the aisle to exchange vows with Nick.

The tears didn’t quite dry during the ceremony, or when the bride and groom kissed, and certainly not when they walked back down the aisle as husband and wife.

Gussie just stared as one teardrop rolled down her cheek.

“Tears of joy, Pink?”

Tom’s voice came from right behind her, followed by his strong hands on her shoulders, pulling her into his chest. She looked up, unashamed of those tears or the smile he brought to her face every time she looked at him.

“Utter joy,” she confirmed. “I predict a long and happy marriage for Mr. and Mrs. Hershey.”

“How do you know?”

“Oh, I can always tell,” she said. “After you’ve seen enough weddings, the forever couples stand out.”

He turned her in his arms to face him. Gussie still wasn’t used to his short hair, but she loved how it made his handsome features even more striking.

“How can you tell?” he asked.

“There’s…peace…in each other’s arms.” Which was exactly how she felt right this very minute.

His smile was slow. “How else can you be sure if a marriage is going to last?”

She glanced at Willow and Nick, holding hands, laughing, hugging friends and family. “There’s no friction. There’s no push or pull. They just
work
together.”

She closed her eyes and settled closer to him, feeling that last barrier taken down, the last remnants of her lonely facade melting into a…partnership. “There are no walls between them.”

“What about space? Is there space between them?”

Almost none, now. She and Tom were like one. For now, anyway.

“No.” And she hated to admit that to a man who traveled so extensively. There’d always be space between them—possibly half a world. “They’re together, like a unit.”

He brushed a hair off her face, cupping her chin. “Do they usually know each other for a long time?”

“Nick and Willow met in college, ten years ago.”

A frown pulled. “No one ever has a whirlwind romance that lasts a lifetime?”

“I won’t discount a whirlwind romance to last a lifetime if the foundation is strong.”

He nodded. “Okay, so that’s it? Peace, comfort, no barriers, no space, and newcomers can apply? No other criteria?”

“And love.” She laughed softly. “But that goes without saying.”

“Actually, it doesn’t.” He threaded his hands in her hair again, sliding his warm palms over her neck, blanketing her with an affectionate gaze. “Love should never go without saying.”

For a long moment, neither one of them spoke, but, then, sometimes they didn’t have to and they still heard each other loud and clear.

“Then let’s start with that and work backward,” he said.

“Start with what?”

“Love.” He pulled her closer. “You know, that feeling when you can’t breathe if you think you’re going to go a minute without seeing each other? When you wake and sleep and eat and work with one person on your brain and in your heart? When you only care about how they feel, what they think, and if they are happy? You know that feeling?”

She sure did. Her throat grew a little tight, so she nodded.

“That’s love,” he repeated.

Then she was in it.

“And next, you have time. There’s no law that says these successful marriages have to be grounded in a multiyear or multimonth relationship, so one that started, oh, a month ago? It could work.”

It definitely could.

“As for peace and comfort, I don’t know about you, Gussie, but I’ve never been more at peace or more comfortable than I am right this minute, with my arms around you.”

A shudder danced through her as she agreed with a nod.

“We kicked that barrier thing in the ass, too.”

“Walls are gone,” she confirmed. “Along with wigs.”

“Then that leaves space.” He inhaled deeply and sighed, taking Gussie’s heart on a little ride it almost couldn’t stand.

“I approved a new contract today, I’m happy to say.”

And that ride stopped…along with her heart. This would be life with him. Contracts. Assignments. Constant travel. Could she take it? “Where are you going?”

“Nowhere. That’s the new contract. Anyone hiring me will either have to bring the job to me, accommodate my family by flying us to the job site, or wait until I’m good and ready to travel.”

She blinked at him, processing all that, stuck on one word.
Family
. Well, two words.
My family
.

“I’ll work my travel schedule around Alex’s school and your weddings and our life. But, spacewise, we need a bigger house. I’ve seen a few in south Mimosa Key I think we would love. Still home to Alex, but a fresh start for all of us.”

Her knees felt weak, but she managed not to buckle with the happiness that pressed all over her. “So, do we meet the criteria for a happy marriage that lasts”—he lifted his arm, showing the new tattoo he was so damn proud of—“forever?”

“I think we do,” she whispered, not trusting her voice completely.

“Then let’s go tell Alex the good news.”

But she didn’t move. “The good news?”

“That we’re getting married.”

She laughed. “You haven’t asked yet.”

“Can’t do that without the rest of our family.” He turned and waved to Alex who, Gussie realized, had been standing about twenty feet away, watching the whole exchange.

“Now?” Alex asked.

“Now.”

They’d
talked
about it? Gussie didn’t know quite what to make of that, but she didn’t have time to think because Alex came bounding over, kicking sand under her bare feet. She held out a small box to Tom, grinning like a fool.

“Here you go.” As she held it out, Gussie recognized the container as the porcelain box Tom had bought on the streets of Nice. Gussie pressed both hands to her chest.

“Come here,” Tom said to Alex, gesturing to his side. “Like we planned.”

They’d
planned
this?

“But, Uncle Tommy, you have to—”

He quieted her with one raised hand. “I got this, kid.” Turning to Gussie, Tom slowly got down on one knee. Gussie pressed so hard on her chest, she was sure she’d crack her breastbone if her heart didn’t do it from the inside first.

“I love you, Gussie McBain.” He was so matter-of-fact that Gussie had to smile. “I love your spirit and your heart and your soul and your mind. I love your body, your beauty, and your flaws. I love who I am when I’m with you and who I’m going to be after we spend our lives together.”

Alex made a sweet little whimper that echoed the one Gussie was fighting not to let out.

“And whatever lies ahead in that great unknown,” he continued, “I know that I will never stop loving you.”

She nodded in agreement, her eyes filled to the point that he blurred.

“So will you marry me, Gussie, and make me the happiest man on earth?” He opened the box and nearly blinded her with the glint of an oval diamond.

Alex cleared her throat.

“And make Alex the happiest girl along with me?” he added.

She didn’t answer right away, because the moment was just too precious and poignant to end. Instead, she stood perfectly still, letting the setting sun warm her and the gulf breeze lift her hair and tickle her skin. She wanted to remember the salty smell in the air, the soft sand under her toes, and the joy that ricocheted through her body.

She’d never forget this.

“Um, Gussie?” Alex said, a note of worry in her voice. “Yes?”

Gussie laughed. “Yes! I would be honored to marry you, Thomas Jefferson DeMille.”

Tom stood instantly, but before he put the ring on her finger, Gussie opened her arms and pulled him and Alex close to her and made a different kind of ring, every bit as beautiful. Her family.

Don’t you wonder where Ari was when she was so late for Willow’s wedding? There’s more love on the horizon of Barefoot Bay! Read on for a sneak peek at Ari’s story,

coming soon!

Barefoot in Pearls

The Barefoot Bay Brides #3

Arielle Chandler never prayed, not in the classic head-bowed, hands-folded, beg-for-help kind of way. Raised by a Bible-thumping Oklahoma man of God and a new age healer with Native American blood coursing through her veins, Ari never really chose sides on the subject of The Powers That Be. When she wanted answers, though, she took things up with a nebulous force she thought of as “the universe” and hoped it covered all the bases.

Which was why she wasn’t in the bridal dressing room right now. She checked the sky to gauge the time, certain she had at least fifteen more minutes until she had to tear across the island and get back to Barefoot Bay for Willow’s wedding. Until then, she kept walking up the one and only hill she’d ever found on this island, making her supreme displeasure known to the universe.

“I’m happy for them,” she said out loud. “I mean, who wouldn’t be happy when best friend number one is about to say ‘I do’ and best friend number two just fell hard for the man of her dreams? Of course I say, ‘Way to go, girls.’”

The words rang hollow, and not just because this little stretch of land on the northern tip of Mimosa Key was always abandoned. Someone must have lived here once, though, because there was a dilapidated old bungalow at the bottom of the hill, missing most of its roof and all of its windows.

Nearly at the top of the hill, Ari stopped and looked out to the distant horizon. “I just want my turn,” she whispered. “I just want…”

She closed her mouth, purposely silent. The universe would laugh at her. Like her friends tried not to do when she told them that she’d been raised to believe there is
one and only one person
meant for everyone on earth.

As the years had gone by and Ari failed to meet The One, she couldn’t help wondering if the idea was merely something her God-fearing father and crystal-loving mother had cooked up to explain their bizarre, yet wildly successful, union.