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Reese’s eyes doubled in size. “I’ll have seven cousins. Cool.”
“More than that, Reese. You also get stuck with those two.” Jake pointed at Trent and Scott before he continued. “As well as Scott’s two sisters, Trent’s brothers and sister, Callie, Sara, and me.”
If someone could pass out from excitement, her niece would be lying on the floor right now. “Awesome.”
“We’re kinda related now too, since Leah is my stepmom and she’s Curt’s sister,” Erin called out from where she sat cleaning up the goldfish one of the boys had spilled on the table.
With a smile stretching from ear to ear, Reese joined Erin and hugged her before accepting the graham cracker James offered her.
“Have I ever told you how much I love your family?” she whispered in his ear. How could she not love the people gathered around her? From day one, they’d accepted her, Reese, and Mom into their lives and made it clear they considered them family.
“They’re your family now too.”
Ten
Some women spent months and months searching for the perfect wedding gown. Not her. About two months after Curt proposed, Taylor stopped into a bridal boutique in Boston during her lunch break. She hadn’t walked in expecting to purchase anything. She’d gone in more just to get an idea of the various styles available and, at the same time, get a few ideas of what she might like Reese and the rest of the bridal party to wear. She’d spotted her gown on a mannequin and fallen in love with its simple but elegant design. The moment she slipped it on and saw her reflection, she’d known she’d found the gown. Looking at her reflection in the mirror now, she loved the wedding dress even more than the last time she’d put it on for her final fitting.
“Aunt Taylor, you look beautiful,” Reese said, putting an arm around Taylor’s waist as she joined her again now that the photographer had finished taking pictures.
When she’d asked Reese if she’d like to be a junior bridesmaid in the wedding, instead of saying yes, the first words out of her mouth had been, “Do I have to wear a dress?” While they didn’t plan to have anything as formal and elaborate as Allison, Curt’s cousin, had in June, Reese couldn’t walk down the aisle in soccer shorts and cleats either.
Rather than complain or flat-out refuse to be part of the wedding if she had to wear a dress when she found out it was required, she’d simply nodded and asked Taylor not to make her wear anything with sequins—a request that was easy to accommodate, since Taylor didn’t care for sequins either. Reese hadn’t blinked an eye when she found out she’d need to wear tights either.
Nope, the disagreement came when it came to shoes. Reese had wanted to wear her new leopard-print combat boots Curt’s mom bought her back in September for school. She’d insisted fancy dress shoes like the ones she’d worn to the party at the White House hurt her feet. Taylor had understood her niece’s sentiments. Dress shoes weren’t always the most comfortable, and the first chance she got at the reception tonight, she planned to kick off her heels. Still, combat boots didn’t go with a bridesmaid’s dress.
In the end, Reese had called in reinforcements. At first, when Curt suggested new navy blue, high-top canvas sneakers, Taylor had balked at the idea. While the same color as Reese’s dress, they weren’t much better than the boots. Then he’d reminded her how they’d both agreed they wanted Reese to enjoy herself today and that she hadn’t complained once about wearing a dress and tights. Presented with such a unified front, she’d given in, which was why Reese stood there wearing a navy blue, floor-length chiffon dress with a V-neckline and flutter sleeves as well as blue canvas high tops. Although honestly, for the most part, the full skirt hid her unique footwear.
Mom joined them in front of the mirror, dressed in a plum-colored, floor-length gown with a beaded jewel neckline and three-quarter sleeves. “I think you both look beautiful. Curt’s one lucky man.”
As far as Taylor was concerned, she and Reese were just as lucky.
“I wish your dad was here to see the two of you.” Over the past several months, Mom had made similar statements whenever they spoke about her wedding.
Yep, having Dad there would have been fantastic. But since it was impossible, Taylor refused to dwell on his absence. Instead, she concentrated on the fact two of the most important people in the world were standing next to her, and soon she’d be seeing the third.
“It’s not too late, Taylor. You can still make your escape. I can call Sara and ask her to arrange for Christopher’s plane to fly you to wherever you want. Then we can have the driver bring you to the airport instead of the church,” Leah said as she walked back into the living room.
In a perfect world, Eliza would’ve organized her bachelorette party and then acted as her maid of honor. But this wasn’t a perfect world, and her older sister had made decisions that meant she would never be a part of Taylor’s or Reese’s life again. That didn’t mean Taylor wouldn’t have a sister at the altar with her this afternoon. It just meant that the sister wouldn’t be biologically related to her.
In the beginning, Taylor had been a little uncomfortable around Curt’s sister. That had quickly changed, and now she had a better sisterly relationship with Leah than she’d ever had with Eliza.
“As tempting an offer as it is, I better pass. Your brother would be lost without me.”
Leah sighed loudly. “True. I guess that means we better go before Curt drags Reverend Shawn over here. He’s probably already tried, and Brett had to tie him to a chair to keep him from doing it again.”
An image of Brett tying his brother to a chair after Curt attempted to pull Reverend Shawn out of the church played through her head. “Do you think Brett used rope or zip ties?”
“Knowing Brett, both. He likes to do things right the first time,” Leah answered.
Eleven
When he’d rolled out of bed, his stomach contained more knots than the rigging on a sailboat. Somehow, he’d managed to drink the coffee Brett shoved his way. Eating the bacon and eggs his brother, who’d spent the night with him, cooked had been out of the question. He’d expected excitement this morning, not nervousness. After all, what did he have to be nervous about? It wasn’t like Taylor would say no rather than I do once she reached the altar. Or that she wouldn’t show up at the church.
The arrival of the photographer, his dad, Scott, and Derek, his two groomsmen, had distracted him a little. But even with the other men present, he’d done a fair amount of pacing and time checking. At one point, Dad even poured him a shot of scotch, told him he’d downed one himself right before his wedding, and then ordered him to drink it. It’d helped slightly until they reached the church. Once there, he’d spent his time either looking at his watch or out the window for any sign of Taylor’s limo and more or less driving everyone around him crazy.
When Brett put him out of his misery and told him the limo carrying the bridal party had arrived, the knots in his stomach disappeared and a sense of calm descended—not that it lasted long. The moment he saw first Reese and then Taylor escorted by Priscilla come toward him, everything from love to the need to protect assaulted him.
Except for when Jake got married, Curt had attended all of his cousins’ weddings. Although Curt would never tell any of them, he’d found them all long, tedious affairs where he spent most of the time thinking about everything from the plot of his book to whether he wanted to use oak or Brazilian cherry hardwood flooring in the dining room of whatever current house he was renovating.
