NEW YEAR’S EVE was a bust.
Nelson had been looking forward to a night of fun with his friends. He had a rare night where he planned to not be on call. Mariah had gone to New York again not long before Christmas, and was staying through the New Year, helping with her grandfather’s company and its many events.
He’d been relieved that he could enjoy the holidays without her. Somehow, he was thinking about her even when she wasn’t around.
Worrying about what she might do to his friends. That was all. But for the night, he could push thoughts of her aside.
Then, just as he was heading out the door, he’d gotten a call from the answering service.
A dog, hit by a car. The family was in tears. There wasn’t time to get the vet from Oak Hill.
He quickly changed to scrubs and raced to the clinic.
The damage to the golden retriever was extensive. There was massive internal bleeding. The owners insisted he do anything he could.
He called in Judy, apologizing for disturbing her New Year’s. She shook her head. She loved all animals and was as determined to save this one as he was.
They tried. The surgery lasted four hours. He knew it was still touch and go. He offered to let Judy leave, but she wouldn’t go till she knew if the dog would survive.
The dog didn’t make it.
Nelson hated it. Hated that a beautiful animal was dead. Hated that he’d exhausted himself and Judy and hadn’t been able to save him. Hated having to tell the news to the family.
It was a crappy New Year’s.
By the time he’d wrapped up at the clinic, the ball had dropped in New York City, everyone had kissed whoever they were kissing and, while there was still partying going on, Nelson was heading home.
He was in no mood to party. He had a glass of whiskey on his own at home, as a salute to a lovely dog who’d no longer be a loving part of his family.
Then he went to bed and did his best to forget the whole evening.
A week later Dave told him they were having a do-over on Nelson’s ruined New Year’s Eve.
“A do-over,” Nelson repeated, voice flat.
“Yep. You deserve a night to have a good time. Jaycee and the women are planning that party still, so we, the guys, are going out to the Goat and Barley and getting drunk and celebrating.”
“What are we celebrating?” Nelson didn’t have a lot to celebrate right now.
“A new year, good things coming. I know you had a crappy night, but that doesn’t mean the whole year is going to suck.”
Nelson managed not to promise. He didn’t often let himself loose. He was the only vet in town.
When the family of the golden retriever he couldn’t save reached out to ask for time to cover their bill, the one he had to send because, unfortunately, he had a business and had to pay for Judy’s time and the materials he’d used, he agreed, and cut back the bill. Then he texted Dave to tell him he’d be coming.
He needed a break. He wasn’t worried about the rest of the New Year. He just wanted to forget the now.
NELSON WAS DRUNK. He hadn’t been this drunk in a long time. Words were coming out of his mouth before he had time to censor them.
This was a really bad idea in a small town, where he had a reputation to uphold, and where his grandmother always found out everything that was going on. Tonight, however, he just didn’t care. He needed to forget about the dog and the family, and alcohol was the only weapon he had for that right now.
Yeah, he was drunk. And so was Dave. Otherwise, Dave wouldn’t be telling him about his problems with his engagement party. Using large gestures.
“Hey, I like to skate. I mean, regular skate. Like, hockey skate. Ya know?”
Nelson nodded, his head feeling loose on his neck.
“Fairly nights. I mean, fairy lights. Yeah. Those things. I said no problem. Hot chocolate, good.”
“You like hot cholate,” Nelson agreed. He had a sense that was the wrong word, but it didn’t matter, because Dave kept going.
“I know. You’re a good friend, Nelz’n.”
Nelson reached out to slap Dave’s arm, but got his head instead.
“Sorry, man.”
Dave giggled. “It’s okay. It’s all okay. Except for the dancin’.”
Nelson pointed his finger in Dave’s general direction. “You don’t like dancin’ now? You did in high school.”
Dave grabbed at Nelson’s finger. “Don’t point at me. Not nice.”
“Sorry, dude. I’m drunk.”
Dave stared at him. “You’re a genius. A frickin’ genius. That’s how they’ll get me to dance on skates. They’ll have to make me drunk. I just have to stop drinking and I’m safe.” Dave was nodding and didn’t stop.
It seemed like a good plan to Nelson. But one part didn’t make sense.
“Why are you dancing on skates? You play hockey on skates.”
“Ezactly. Zactly. Right.”
“We don’t dance when we play hockey. ʼLess we score. Then we cel’brate. But you don’t dance.”
“I know. But Jaycee wants me to dance on skates. At the party. Like they dance at weddings. But this isn’t the wedding. It’s the party. The skating party. So we have to dance on skates. It’s all part of the plan.”
Nelson took a moment, and then figured it out. The plan. Planning. Party planning. Wedding planning. Mariah Van frickin Delton.
That was the problem. Jaycee didn’t want Dave to dance on skates. Jaycee had never asked Dave to dance on skates. Right?
“Dave,” Nelson said. This felt like a very important question. “Have you and Jaycee ever danced on skates?”
Dave shook his head violently and grabbed at the bar when he almost fell off his chair.
“No, skates are for hockey, not dancin’. Wait, they want us to dance on skates at the party.”
“Zactly. Did Jaycee ever ask you to dance on skates before?”
“Never.” Dave banged his fist on the table.
“Then the problem is Marijah.”
Dave focused on his face with extreme effort. “Who?”
“Mahira... Marij... Wedding planner.”
“Oh, right. Her. She’s the one who wants to dance on skates?”
“She’s the one that wants you to dance on skates.”
“You sure about that? She didn’t say anything.”
Nelson frowned. “No, that’s not how they do it. She tells Jaycee, and then Jaycee tells you.”
Dave blinked owlishly. “That’s sneaky, man. Really sneaky.”
“I know. That’s what they did to me.” Nelson tried another head shake. Still loose.
Dave’s jaw had dropped. “Jaycee asked you to dance on skates, too? Wha—Are you trying to take over my party?”
Nelson concentrated and managed to put a hand on Dave’s leg. “No, not Jaycee. Not your party. My party. My weddin’.”
“Whoa, man,” Dave said. “Is that what happened? Dancing on skates? But that doesn’t make sense.”
“I’ll tell you what happened. But ssshhh. Don’t tell everyone.” He meant to put his finger on his lips, but it ended up on his nose. Weird.
Nelson had a suspicion that this wasn’t the discreet place he should be talking about this. But he had to save Dave. Dave shouldn’t lose Jaycee because of the wedding and the wedding planner. Or party planner. Whatevs.
“So I was getting married. Right?”
“That’s right,” Dave agreed.
“And then Sherry and I ruined it.”
Dave blinked. “I thought it was Zoey. Was this another wedding?”
“I was marrying Zoey. Sherry was the wedding planner.”
“Okay.” Dave nodded. “Marry Zoey, plan Sherry.”
Close enough. “And we had a big plan. Big, fancy wedding. Lots of guests. Important guests. I wanted it to be perfect.”
Nelson wasn’t sure why he was waving his arms around, but Dave was following his argument.
“Right.”
Nelson sent a message to his voice to lower. Less volume. When Dave flinched, he wondered if it didn’t happen right.
“Zoey didn’t like it. She said we should ʼlope.”
“’Lope,” Dave echoed.
“But there were all these people, right? We’d spent money, right? I mean, if we ʼloped, everyone would be mad.
“So I said, Sherry. Sherry. Sherry.”
“Sherry, Sherry, Sherry.” Dave sang it back to him.
“Sherry was my wedding planner.”
“I know. But you had a problem.”
“Right. Right. Sherry, we have a problem. Zoey wants to ʼlope. Not get married. Wait, elope married. Not a wedding. She said it was too much. Too stresssssful.”
“Just like this skating party!” Dave shouted.
“And Sherry said, not a problem. She said brides were like this. Zoey would be glad when it was over. So I said, nope.” That final p popped with a satisfying snap of his lips. “No eloping.”
“Aww.”
Nelson nodded his head. It was hard to make it stop, but he had to because he couldn’t see Dave when he was nodding.
“Sherry was wrong.”
“No.” Dave looked shocked.
Suddenly, Nelson’s head cleared as memories of that black day came back, escaping the wall he normally had solidly erected against their return.
“Zoey didn’t show up for the wedding.”
Dave lunged to hug him. “I’m sorry, man. That’s awful. I wish I coulda been there, but Austalia...Stalia...it was too far.”
Nelson closed his eyes, shoving aside the moment of clarity, welcoming the numbing confusion of the alcohol back.
“Yeah. So I gotta tell ya. Eloping is better than a big wedding. I should have eloped when she asked. Don’t let Mariah plan a big wedding. Just elope. Much better.”
Dave nodded. And nodded and started to tip out of his seat. Suddenly, the bartender was there, saying things like they’d had enough, and it was time to go.
Even the haze of alcohol couldn’t remove the gloom that settled over Nelson as he remembered that time.
He shouldn’t have gotten drunk. He needed to keep control. Keep the bad memories away. He stood, and the room swirled around him.
Yet another mistake. He wondered sometimes if he’d ever learn.
NELSON’S HEAD WAS POUNDING. His mouth tasted like the bottom of a kennel, and his head pounded. And pounded.
When his head started to yell “Nelson” he realized it wasn’t just his head pounding. It was his door. No, someone pounding on the door.
He pulled a pillow over his head to drown out the noise, and the movement made him queasy.
The pounding and yelling didn’t stop.
After a struggle, he identified the yeller as Mariah.
He waited for her to go away, but she didn’t. And he realized she wasn’t going to.
That was some angry yelling she was doing. No one was stopping her, but the only person who could was his grandmother, and she was probably in on it.
Nelson groaned and shoved the pillow off. He pushed against the mattress and forced himself upright.
He wanted to fall back down, but the yelling was getting louder.
She probably learned to yell on a boat.
He managed to get to his feet, and finally, reluctantly, opened his eyes. He winced, even though the day was overcast, and not much light made its way into his bedroom. He reached a hand out to a wall and started to stumble to the door.
He finally got to the doorknob and twisted it. The door pushed back so quickly it hit his arm.
“Stop it,” he croaked.
Miraculously, the pounding outside his head and the yelling stopped for a moment. He turned to feel his way to the kitchen. He’d just managed to turn on the tap when the door slammed, and he closed his eyes and groaned.
The water turned off, and he found a glass of water thrust in front of him. He gulped half of it down and took a breath.
“Aspirin?”
The voice was still loud with that question, but not as painful as it had been.
He furrowed his brow, thinking through the haze in his head. “Bathroom.”
He swallowed the rest of the water and carefully placed the glass in the sink, as gently as possible. The noises from the bathroom as Mariah hopefully located the medication were still loud and echoing in his head.
Her footsteps clacked in the hallway, and she thrust a couple of pills at him.
He swallowed them dry. Then, feeling dizzy, he stumbled to his couch and half sat, half fell on it. He let his head rest on the back as he tried to will the aspirin to hurry through his system and provide some relief.
The footsteps clacked and stopped in front of him. He kept his eyes closed, hoping against hope that she’d vanish, in a puff of smoke.
Futile wishing. There was obviously something big bothering her. Big enough that she’d pounded on his door for what felt like hours.
“So I guess your excuse is that you were drunk?”
Sure. Make that his excuse. He had no idea what she was talking about, and he was in no condition to deal with it anyway.
“I don’t care if you were drunk. I don’t care if you were temporarily insane. I don’t care if it was a full moon and you were about to turn into a werewolf. You made this problem, and now you need to fix it.”
Nelson didn’t know what the problem was.
He held up his hand. “Give me time for the aspirin to work.”
She huffed, something he’d never imagined sounding so loud, and then dropped into the chair across from his seat.
What he wanted to do was crawl back into bed and sleep until his hangover was gone, but he knew enough about Mariah to know that wasn’t going to happen. She’d pounded on his door, gotten him water and aspirin, and then plunked herself down on his chair.
She wasn’t leaving.
He tried to take advantage of the temporary quiet to figure out what the problem was.
She considered his being drunk an excuse. He thought back, and yep, she’d said that. Which probably meant something had happened last night.
He and Dave...
Oh, no. He’d been talking to Dave. Talking a lot. Talking without a filter, in the way that one did when drunk.
What had he said to Dave?
He couldn’t hold back a groan when he remembered what he’d revealed. He’d told Dave, and possibly anyone else at the Goat and Barley last night, about his own aborted wedding. About Zoey asking him to elope. He’d said something about eloping being the right option.
Had Dave eloped with Jaycee? That would create a problem for Mariah. Maybe Dave had just refused to have the engagement party. There’d been something about dancing on skates, but it didn’t make a lot of sense. Why would anyone want Dave to dance...?
“What exactly did you do last night?”
Nelson opened his eyes. He took his first real look at Mariah this morning.
She was wearing jeans, hair back in a ponytail. He didn’t notice any makeup. With a flicker of pain, he figured she’d rushed over here without taking time to get ready. And still managed to look good.
He glanced at his watch, realizing he was wearing the same clothes he’d had on last night. They were wrinkled and untucked. He imagined he looked bad.
That didn’t explain the look on her face. She was angry. No, she was furious.
How to put this so she didn’t start yelling at him? The aspirin was dulling the edges of the pounding in his head, but he’d only had a few hours of sleep. He was in no shape for a fight.
“Dave and I went out.”
She interrupted, “That much I know. Why?”
“I missed New Year’s.” And he had that whole issue with the retriever...
“Fine. You had to catch up on a chance to get drunk.”
That wasn’t fair. He didn’t do this regularly. Not since Zoey—but he clamped that thought down.
“So Dave and I went out—”
“To the Goat and Barley. I know.”
If she knew so much, why was she here yelling at him?
Crap. Dave must have eloped, so she couldn’t find him to ask. Probably couldn’t find Jaycee, either, and if they were on a plane on their way to get married, they wouldn’t answer their phones.
How had Dave managed to get on a plane? He’d been as drunk as Nelson, and Nelson was having a hard time staying upright on the couch.
“We had some shots, talked a bit...”
“What did you talk about?” Her voice was still dialed up to much too high a volume, but he could think, a bit.
“Dave was upset about dancing. Yeah, he didn’t want to dance. It all started from that.”
Honestly, if she and Jaycee hadn’t tried to make him dance on skates, Nelson would never have ended up advising him to elope.
“Dave’s a big boy. He could have refused the dance.”
Oh. They really did want Dave to dance. He’d have to figure out why later.
“Things went from there, and I might have told him to elope.”
He looked over. Mariah had her arms crossed, but she wasn’t yelling at him. Why wasn’t she yelling at him?
“Okay, fine, we’ll deal with that later, but when did you talk to Harvey?”
Nelson felt his mouth open, and he quickly shut it. Too quickly. It hurt.
He repeated her question in his head. Still didn’t make any sense.
“Did I talk to Harvey? I was pretty sure Dave and I left together after that.”
“Pretty sure?” Now she was getting closer to that yelling volume. “Well, I’m ‘pretty sure’ that Harvey and Judy just eloped. No, not just pretty sure since Harvey left me a voice mail!”
He pressed his hands over his ears, trying to control the volume shrieking into his poor, abused brain.
“Why do you care? They love each other—do you have to corner every possible wedding within a certain radius of Carter’s Crossing?”
“I care—” His hands couldn’t block out that volume level. “I care because our third event for Valentine’s Day was Harvey’s proposal to Judy!”
“What?” This made no sense. He’d talked to Kailey. Judy hadn’t wanted to propose to Harvey... Wait, Harvey was going to propose to Judy?
“I’d convinced him to do something better than the zombie thing, but he told me he’d decided to elope to Vegas instead, thanks to you.”
Nelson couldn’t understand. He hadn’t talked to Harvey—unless Harvey had been at the bar? Would Harvey have heard them?
Yeah, they’d been a little loud. But what was the thing about zombies?
“I didn’t talk to Harvey. I mean, if he was at the bar, he might have overheard us—”
“You think? Yesterday he’s fine, we’ve got almost everything settled, and this morning he’s on a plane to Vegas, and says it’s because of you. Sounds like the explanation to me.”
“I didn’t know you were doing any proposal. Especially not with my staff.”
“It was supposed to be a surprise. Have you noticed how news flies around this town?”
That, he had.
“We have five weeks till Valentine’s Day. I told my grandfather we had three events lined up. Now you’ve cost us one. How are you going to fix that?”
He wasn’t going to be able to fix anything until he’d had a lot more sleep and his brain was working better.
“How am I supposed to fix an elopement? I’m too late to fly to Vegas to object to their wedding.”
There was silence, and he risked opening his eyes. He regretted it. The light had brightened and shot painfully through his aching head. And he didn’t like the expression on Mariah’s face.
He closed his eyes again.
“You’re going to find me another proposal.”
He almost laughed. He was the last person in town anyone would tell about a proposed proposal.
“Right.” If Mariah wanted to talk about crazy...
The next thing he heard was the slamming of the door.
He relaxed, allowing his abused body to lie down on the couch. Thank goodness she was gone.
He’d have to talk to her about this...encounter they’d had, but first, he needed sleep. And finally, he was alone and could get that.
“WE HAVE A PROBLEM.”
Mariah met with Rachel and Jaycee in the back booth of the diner. This had become their unofficial planning space. The Goat and Barley was the guys’ place, and if Jaycee and Dave were in the same vicinity, Jaycee tended to be distracted by her fiancé. They were now officially engaged, and Jaycee was showing off her ring any chance she got.
At the diner, though, Jaycee was focused and intent. The news of the engagement had not gone well at Christmas. Jaycee’s mother-in-law-to-be had been all politeness on the outside but managed to get in some digs. Dave hadn’t noticed but they had hit Jaycee. Why the rush to get married? Was there a reason?
Dave said he couldn’t wait to make Jaycee his wife. Jaycee saw her MILTB looking at her stomach, as if Jaycee had planned a pregnancy to trap her son.
Jaycee was determined to prove she was going to be a great wife to Dave and had decided that the perfect engagement party would be the first step. Mariah was happy to help her. She thought Jaycee was a wonderful person, and that Dave’s mother needed to see that. But she was getting a little worried about Jaycee.
The party was supposed to be a celebration of their engagement. It was supposed to be fun. Jaycee had promised that she and Dave loved to skate. But Jaycee was getting a little lost in the details. Like this dance on skates. Mariah thought it was a fun idea, but it sounded like Dave was dragging his blades, so to speak. Jaycee was starting to clench her teeth when she talked about it.
That problem could wait for now. The anniversary party was well underway, with the committee, under Abigail’s supervision, taking care of most of the details. Mariah was overseeing that one on a much bigger picture scale.
Now she needed to see if Jaycee and Rachel could help her with the aborted proposal. She wasn’t sure how much she trusted Nelson to fix the mess he’d made.
“What’s the problem?” Jaycee asked, looking a little frantic.
Mariah put a hand on Jaycee’s. “Nothing to do with your party, so just breathe, okay?”
Jaycee took a long breath.
“Told you.” Rachel shook her head at her friend. “Mariah’s got it all under control.”
The waitress stopped by, and they placed an order.
Once the drinks arrived, Mariah filled them in.
“There was a third event lined up for Valentine’s Day—it was a surprise, so I couldn’t tell you about it. But it’s not happening now, thanks to Nelson Carter, so I was hoping you two could help me out.”
Jaycee and Rachel looked at each other. “Nelson? What did he do?”
Mariah carefully did not grind her teeth. “You know Harvey and Judy?”
They nodded.
“Harvey wanted to propose to Judy. A beautiful, romantic, surprise proposal.”
“Aww.” Rachel smiled.
Jaycee frowned. “How did Nelson mess it up?”
Mariah pursed her lips. “You know he and Dave went out last night?”
Jaycee nodded, looking worried.
“Harvey was at the bar, heard Nelson talk about weddings and something about how eloping was better, so Harvey and Judy flew to Vegas this morning.”
Rachel snorted a laugh. “Seriously?”
Jaycee appreciated the seriousness. “I guess that means the proposal is off.”
Mariah nodded. “I need a third event. I’ve told my grandfather about our plans, and he’s arranged publicity. I need to show him I can pull this off.”
“Could Judy and Harvey have a reception on Valentine’s Day instead?”
Mariah shook her head. “That’s not going to work for a few reasons. First, our other two events are already for things that happened previously, so I really wanted something that was happening on Valentine’s Day.
“If Carter’s Crossing is going to be a place where people come for romance, we should be able to have a romantic event happen on the actual Valentine’s Day. Nothing against your party, Jaycee, but I want something that isn’t a celebration where the really romantic part happened off camera, so to speak.
“Secondly, there aren’t a lot of venues in Carter’s right now. The engagement skating party is happening at the mill. It’s not ready yet, but it does have a roof and walls. The anniversary party is at St. Christopher’s reception hall. That’s the only full-size space the churches have between them.
“The proposal was supposed to take place at the bandstand in the park. I can’t have a wedding reception at the park in the middle of February. Everyone would freeze. The proposal was perfect for that space.”
Jaycee bit her lip. Rachel nodded.
“Okay, I see why that won’t work. How can we help?”
Mariah clenched her hands under the table. “Can you think of someone who might be ready to propose? It just fit so perfectly, and I’ve got everything ready to make the bandstand beautiful. I could adapt it with different flowers, or music, or whatever, but starting from scratch would be a problem.”
Rachel looked at Jaycee. “I can’t think of anyone offhand. Can you?”
Jaycee twisted up her lips. “Tanya broke up with Kevin, right?”
Rachel nodded. Jaycee shook her head. “I’ll try to think of someone, but honestly, the dating pool is a little shallow here.”
Rachel rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it.”
Jaycee blew out a breath. “Sorry, Mariah. We’d love to help, but this is a tricky one.”
Mariah sighed. “I was afraid of that. Well, I told Nelson he has to fix it, so I hope he can come up with something.”
“What about a pet wedding? That Nelson would know about.”
Mariah frowned. It was meant to be a joke, she knew. But this was serious business. Her job wasn’t a joke. And the thought of letting her grandfather down made her anxious and tense.
The lessons she’d learned growing up—don’t make a promise unless you can keep it; and if at all possible, don’t promise anything, because you might have to break your word.
She’d never used the word promise with her grandfather, but she thought he was taking it as a serious commitment. She needed to make this work.
She was an outsider, so she had a disadvantage. But Mr. Elopement Carter was not. He’d better step up.