Page 76 of Bailey

Then her eyes flew open, and she met her momma’s. “Remember, Momma,” she said. “Not too heavy on the makeup.” She looked over to Cora with volumes being spoken there before she smiled at her momma again. “I’m twenty-three, Momma, not fifty-three.”

Her mother blinked like Lark had just thrown ice water in her face. Then her very proper mother shook it away and said, “I know exactly what to do, Larky. Your only job is to hold still.”

CHAPTER

THIRTY-ONE

Cash Young didn’t need three hours to get ready for his wedding. He could put on a suit in roughly five minutes and be ready to walk down the aisle with his family in only ten—and that included Uncle Luke shining his boots, apparently something his uncle had done for all the Young family weddings in the past several years.

Cash’s nerves clashed inside him, because it was hard enough bringing together two families, and he had more like four he needed to manage. The Youngs, of course, were pretty much beyond management, but Cash knew all of his aunts and uncles and cousins loved him and his daddy, and would do everything within their control to make this day amazing.

He also had to deal with Faith’s family, and his mother’s family as well. He had a decent relationship with his mother, though she felt like a stranger most of the time. Cash had lived with her until he was nine, when his father had brought him up here to Coral Canyon. Out of all of the older cousins, he had two sets of grandparents who lived here, and he’d spent a lot of time talking to Boston about how to navigate all the expectations and personalities.

Everything felt forked and branched in his life as he stood on the back deck and watched his backyard become a wedding wonderland. He’d kept his camera app open, and he glanced down at his phone every time it made a noise. It was mostly the workers taking things back and forth, as well as his stepmom and Dani weaving flowers through the railing of the porch and stringing lights along the front of the house to the sidewalk that ran along the west side of it.

Faith had brought Celeste and Grace with her, and the little girls acted as runners back and forth from their mom to the car. Beth arrived, and she started helping too. Then finally, Cash saw his father’s truck. He suddenly felt like weeping, and he had no idea why.

He and his father had been through a lot in the past fifteen years, and Cash gathered his phone and turned to leave the backyard prep to the professionals. He strode through the house, arriving on the front porch about the time Daddy got out of the truck.

Cash came to a halt, because so did his mother. His pulse swooshed and whooshed through him, and then he got himself moving toward the woman who’d given him life.

“Hey, Momma,” he said, as he drew her into a hug. “Thanks so much for coming.”

“Of course,” his mom, Fiona, said. “I wouldn’t stay away for anything.”

Cash grinned at her, then looked across the hood of the truck to Daddy. He wore his usual dark-eyed glare, but it softened as Cash grinned at him and went toward him for his hug.

“Thanks for bringing her, Daddy,” he said.

“I’m surprised she wanted me to,” Daddy whispered back, because his mom did not like coming to Coral Canyon. She’d learned years ago that who she’d thought was her biological father was not, and that her mother had had an affair. She had felt lied to and isolated after that, and while she did her best to love and honor her mother, Cash knew his mom didn’t like her mom.

“She said she’d help wherever you needed her,” Daddy said.

Cash pulled back. “Maybe she’d like to be upstairs with Lark?” He looked over to his mom. “What do you think? Or you can ask Faith or Dani if they need any help.”

He’d ordered catering from the Silver Sage Lodge, and Boston and Cora had arranged for the kitchen staff to come a couple of hours early and use Cash’s kitchen to have their plated meal ready. Because Lark’s family was small, but Cash’s wasn’t, the guest list sat at about one hundred twenty-five, at least for the dinner part.

“Hi, Fiona,” Faith said, her voice bright and cheery, and Cash’s mother looked that way. “Are you looking for a job?” She handed a daisy chain to Celeste. “Because we have a long way to go with this flower arch.”

His mom came to stand next to him, and she smiled at Faith. “Yeah, I can help with that.”

“Great,” Faith said with a great measure of relief. “Girls, this is Fiona. She’s going to be helping us with the flower arch. You do what she says now.”

“Yes, Momma,” Grace said, and Cash let his father guide him back into the house.

“Will they be okay out there?” he asked.

“They’ll be fine,” Daddy assured him, and he led the way into the master suite where Cash had been living for the past couple of months.

“Your place looks great,” Daddy said.

“Yeah, it’s coming along.” Cash took the suit from his father and hung it on the closet door.

From there, more and more uncles started arriving, and the scent of perfectly smoked brisket and salty bacon filled his house. Finally, an alarm went off on Uncle Tex’s phone, and he said, “You better get dressed, son.”

So Cash stepped into his suit, and Uncle Luke dropped to his knees and started shining his boots. Uncle Jem started passing out cowboy hats, and Cash took his when it got handed to him. His father left the room several times and came back only a few minutes later, finally saying, “We’ve only got five minutes, boys. Let’s round up.”

Cash hadn’t been raised particularly religious, but he’d found God in the last decade or so of his life. His daddy had too, and while he still struggled to go to church sometimes, Cash never doubted his father’s beliefs or faith.