*Stevie brought the wine to the sister-a-thon, and after Pete went to bed, she poured while Tess and Felicity continued the conversation they’d started at dinner—a play-by-play of what the citizens of Holly, particularly their former classmates, had been up to over the past year.
“Speaking of classmates”—Tess gestured to Felicity with her glass—“I’ve been meaning to ask why you dodged Danny Montgomery at the Holly Festival?”
“I, too, would like an answer to that question.” Stevie raised her eyebrows at her oldest sister. “Are you getting soft in your old age?”
Felicity gave a sniff as she made a show of tucking her short blond hair behind her ear. “Maybe I’ve matured beyond a petty rivalry.”
Tess and Stevie looked at one another, then burst out laughing. “Right,” they said together.
“Didn’t you mention putting shaving cream on his windshield last summer?” Stevie asked.
“Nope.” Felicity raised her glass of wine in a mini toast. “I wouldn’t dream of doing something like that now. I was reminiscing about the time when I was sixteen and put shaving cream on his windshield.”
“As do all people do who have moved beyond petty rivalries,” Tess said.
“It’s a long trip,” Felicity said. “Made in several smaller legs.”
“Where would you say you were at?” Stevie asked. “Somewhere near the beginning? Close to the middle?”
Felicity stretched out her legs. “Danny is no longer on my radar. But our rivalry, if you want to call it that, prepared me for the infighting and petty nonsense that goes on in a workplace. Nothing surprises me.”
“And if it does, you don’t show it,” Stevie guessed. It was a strategy she also employed.
Felicity smiled and sipped her wine. “It’s best to be an enigma. Let them wonder what you’re thinking. It keeps people on their toes.” She gave Tess a pointed look. “Speaking of surprises.”
“Were we?”
“Way to reel in the crush from yesteryear.”
Tess rolled her eyes and Stevie stifled a laugh.
“If you are referring to Jason Regan, I didn’t exactly reel him in,” Tess said. “I snagged my line several times.”
“But he’s in the boat.”
“You are awful, Feliss.”
“I know. I know. It’s good to be with people I can be awful with.” She leaned back against the seat cushions. “You and Jason are perfect for one another. He’s lucky to have you.”
“I’m happy,” Tess said matter-of-factly.
Tess looked happy. And at peace. While Stevie was happy with the way she and Brant were slowly feeling their way along, she couldn’t say she was at peace. Had she ever been?
As a kid. When she hadn’t understood how the world worked or that life wasn’t always fair.
She glanced up from her wine and found both her sisters staring at her. “I don’t want to talk about boats,” she said darkly.
“Hey. At least you’re getting over your fear of water,” Tess said.
Stevie rolled her eyes, then glanced at the clock and grimaced. “I know it’s still early, but I have to go. We’re having a pre-wedding breakfast on the tree farm before we start dealing with all the last-minute stuff.”
Felicity got to her feet and took Stevie’s still half-full glass from her. “Tess and I will be there by eleven to help with hair and makeup as planned. I can’t wait to see what you’ve done with the barn.”
“We’ve accomplished a lot in a short period of time,” Stevie said as she headed to the coat rack. “More than I thought possible when we started.”
She wasn’t thinking only of the wedding preparations. She was a different person than she’d been five weeks ago, and so was Brant. No matter what happened between them, she’d look at life differently.
She gave a little laugh. “The strange thing is that I have pre-wedding jitters. I have list upon list running through my head. Things to check and then double-check.”
“You can’t put this much work into something and not be nervous about the final event,” Tess said commiseratively.
“You should see Milt,” Stevie said. “He’s a wreck.”
“Milt the wedding planner,” Tess said. “Who’d have thought?”
“He’s good at it,” Stevie admitted before zipping her parka. Then she held out her arms for the Evans sisters group hug, given only at departures and before major events. She had a little of both going on.
“We’ll see you tomorrow,” Felicity said. “Tess and I insist on helping to close up things after the reception.”
“I will not turn you down.” Stevie opened the door just as Danny Montgomery pulled into the driveway of the house next door, where his mother lived. She glanced over her shoulder at Felicity. “Dad keeps his extra shave cream in the hall closet.”
“Ha. Ha,” Felicity replied. But as Stevie stepped onto the porch, she heard her oldest sister mutter, “In this weather it’d freeze before I could get a decent smear.”
*
“I think building a snowman is a great idea,” Theo said, gesturing toward the window with his coffee cup. The day was sunny and crisp, yet not too cold. The perfect weather for a winter wedding. “Milt was onto something.”
“Well,” Kara said with a half smile. “It’s a way to pass the time before the big stuff starts to happen. I kind of wish now that we’d scheduled the ceremony for early morning, so we didn’t have this long spell of anticipation.”
“A snowman it is.” Theo jumped to his feet. “The perfect occasion to wear my Tundra Tux.”
“You’ll freeze,” Kara said. “Southern boy that you are.”
“I spent several winters in Boise,” he informed her before heading down the hall.
“As if I didn’t meet him there,” Kara murmured, lifting her coffee cup to her lips. “Maybe he’ll get this furry tux thing out of his system now.”
Stevie laughed and stretched out her legs under the table. “Trevor and the food truck will be here at noon. The DJ will arrive at one to set up, then return at four for the party. Let’s see…”
“Harp made it home last night,” Brant added to her list. “And Judge Nelson texted me to say that he remembered.” He smiled as he spoke, but like his other smiles that morning, it seemed distant, as if he were preoccupied and pretending to be in the moment.
Maybe he had pre-wedding jitters, too. Stevie downed the last of her coffee and set her cup on the table. This was not only Kara and Theo’s wedding—it was the kickoff event for the tree farm venue, and even though it was friends and family only, they both wanted the wedding to go off without a hitch.
“I hate to think about what would have happened had the judge forgotten,” Stevie said.
“We would have had Trevor perform the ceremony,” Kara said, “then gotten married at the courthouse later.”
“There’s always a solution,” Brant agreed.
“Yes. Like being married by the food truck guy,” Stevie said dryly.
“Second only to Elvis, I hear.”
Stevie pulled out her phone. “I’ll just double-check with my student musicians to make sure they haven’t forgotten.”
She fired off the text and a few seconds later she got a reply from the flautist. As if.
“Covered,” she said.
Kara started to reply, then put a hand over her eyes as Theo bounded into the room wearing the furry suit jacket and pants. A few filaments of fur lifted into the air as he came to a stop.
“You look like Santa on a bad day,” Kara said, shooting her brother a dark glance before she got to her feet and crossed the room to stand in front of her groom, turning her head to silently mouth “You’ll pay” to her brother before straightening Theo’s furry lapel. Stevie noted that this time Brant’s smile was genuine.
Nerves. Just nerves.
“You want to build a snowman?” Stevie asked him.
He got to his feet and stretched. “I don’t know that I trust you around snowballs.”
Stevie laughed. “Rightly so. But if you behave, I promise to do the same.”
“Don’t promise,” Theo said to Brant from behind his hand.
“My only caveat,” Kara said, moving to stand between Stevie and Brant, “is that we are done by ten o’clock, because Tess and Felicity will be here at eleven and I want to be dry.”
“Why would you be wet?” Theo asked innocently.
“You may be asking the same question before all is said and done.” She leaned closer to Stevie to say in an undertone, “If I drench that tux, it may not make an appearance at the wedding.”
“Hint taken,” Stevie murmured back.
*
Brant honestly couldn’t remember the last time he’d made a snowman. It had to have been before losing his parents, but the basics hadn’t changed. Big ball, medium ball, small ball.
“Where do you keep your branches?” Theo asked after the head fell off the snowman and he plopped it back into place.
“I keep them there,” Brant said, pointing to the Christmas trees.
“Not those kind. Arm branches,” Theo clarified.
“I guess we’ll take them off the willows by the pond.”
“Get us some, too,” Stevie called from where she and Kara were putting together their snowman, which stood a good foot taller than his and Theo’s. And its head seemed to be more secure than theirs.
“Will do.”
Stevie tossed a snowball in the air and caught it again. Brant shook his head in a don’t-do-it gesture. She put the ball behind her back, a playful expression on her face.
How was he going to tell her he was leaving?
And when?
The link to his plane ticket had arrived that morning, and reality hit him hard. He would be in Austin within forty-eight hours, starting a new job. A dream come true that was starting to feel more like a nightmare…
A snowball sailed over his head and landed directly in the path in front of him.
He stopped and turned and saw that his sister and Stevie were busted up with laughter. Shaking his head, he turned around and started for the pond, only to be hit square in the back. He whirled around to find both women pointing at Theo, who had the worst poker face on Earth.
“Really?” Brant asked his friend.
Theo made an I-couldn’t-help-it gesture. “Dude. Opportunity beckoned.”
“There will be no branches for you,” Brant said as he scooped up a handful of snow, formed a ball, and hit the groom square in the chest.
“Do not injure the wedding party,” Stevie called sternly as she started packing a snowball.
“If you’re not going to injure the wedding party, then who is that missile intended for?” Brant yelled back, quickly forming a new snowball.
“Let’s see,” Stevie said, making a show of counting the people there, only to stop at the sound of an engine on the other side of the barn. “Truce!”
“Agree,” Brant said, letting the snowball drop from his fingers. He started for the barn, wondering which of the many entities slated to show that day had arrived.
Milt came around the side of the barn, then stopped in his tracks at the sight of snowmen. “You made them,” he said on a note of delight. “And they’re in a real good spot. The guests will be able to enjoy them.”
“And we could use some help,” Brant said. “I’m going to get branches, and we still have to figure out faces.”
Milt nodded and pulled his oversized jackknife out of his belt holster. “I’ll help you get branches. We need gnarly ones to look like fingers.”
“Then maybe the old elms instead of the willows?” Brant asked.
“Definitely.” Milt started toward the elm grove near the machine shed. “By my watch, we have about an hour to finish before we need to get moving on other stuff…”
Brant looked over his shoulder at Stevie and gave a thumbs up. She signaled back and then he turned his attention to Milt wishing that he and Stevie could have some quiet time together, but considering the day’s events, that was highly unlikely.
So he continued to assure himself that he was doing the right thing waiting until after the wedding to discuss Austin, but it was killing him. He wasn’t a secrets kind of guy.
*
“I’m not going to lie,” Kara said as she and Stevie walked to the house after Milt had finished directing the snowman construction. “I’m wondering where you stashed my brother and who this stranger is in his place.”
“He wanted fun guy lessons,” Stevie said. “I obliged.”
“He just made a snowman.”
“And glued fur to a black suit.”
“Pretty good for a stick-in-the-mud,” Kara said, but she smiled. “I haven’t seen this side of my brother since he was in high school,” she said. “You know. Before.”
“I know. And I didn’t know this side existed.”
“Funny how things work out sometimes.” Kara smiled as they approached the kitchen door. A trail of white fur indicated that Theo had beat them to the house after the snowball fight that followed snowman construction. Even Milt had taken part after getting assurances that the snowmen would not be targeted.
“So much for the tux,” Kara said on a satisfied note before glancing up at Stevie. “I think you and Brant have been good for one another. I really do. And know this—no matter happens, you both have my full support.”
“You mean if things don’t turn out so well?”
“Life happens despite our best intentions,” Kara said, sounding a lot like Felicity. “But I’m hoping for good things.”
So was she, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off with Brant. She considered asking Kara straight up, then decided this day wasn’t about her. She’d ask Brant what was going on later. After the ceremony.
Or maybe, once Brant the superplanner saw that everything was going smoothly, he’d relax and the strain lines on his face would disappear.
Yeah. That was how it would go down.
They were all a little stressed as the ceremony and reception, the culmination of all their hard work, approached.
Stevie turned to Kara. “What do you say to wine with lunch?”
“I say bring it on, sister.”