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Gina had simply grinned like she’d been presented with the largest plate of bacon and cheese French fries. “Yeah,” she’d said dryly. “Because there’s not enough muscle around here to get me out of my parents’ house.”
They’d laughed then, but Becks still felt a thread of guilt move through her. Baking at her mom’s house was hard for Gina, and even living there had been wearing on her.
“Okay, be back in a minute,” Sierra said, and she headed for the door, leaving Holly and Becks.
“Makeup,” Holly said. “Let me get the kit from the truck, and we’ll get you going.”
“You haven’t done yours yet,” Becks said, following her cousin out onto the porch, as did all of the dogs, even the elderly ones. Harold wouldn’t go down the steps without Becks carrying him, and she’d asked Luke to build a ramp off the back door for him. He had too, which proved to Becks how very much Luke loved her.
“There’s so much time,” Holly said.
“It’s almost ten-thirty,” Becks said from the porch while Holly bounded down the steps. She had so much energy all of the time, and Becks couldn’t even imagine how she functioned so late at night.
Life around the ranch would go on after this wedding, and by tonight, when Holly had to be back at the lodge to check-in with guests during dinnertime, Becks and Luke would be married and almost boarding their flight to Florida.
They’d stay there for a few days, then board a ship for their first cruise. Neither of them had ever been on a big ship before, and a touch of anxiety accompanied Becks’s thoughts. She didn’t like the idea of being trapped on the ship, even if it was huge, and she told herself once again there would be opportunities to get off at the three ports where the ship would be stopping.
“It’s fine,” Holly called over her shoulder. She drove a rickety pick-up truck when she could afford better, and she went to the lowered tailgate and retrieved her mega-massive makeup kit. Despite her not working out on the ranch lifting hay bales, Holly possessed some muscles, and she brought the huge tote toward Becks without a hitch in her step.
“Promise me you won’t let your mother do a beehive,” Becks said. “One more time.”
Holly grinned up at her from the bottom of the steps. “I promise. She’ll yield to me, I know it.”
“She hasn’t listened to much of what I’ve said.” Becks sighed as she turned to enter the house. Her dad and Uncle Max were brothers, and it had taken Aunt Sharon several years to accept Becks and her mother after the divorce from her first sister-in-law. Apparently, her dad’s first wife and Aunt Sharon were still friends, but Becks didn’t talk to her about that.
Friendships and relationships could be so complicated sometimes, and Becks didn’t want to interfere with that. However, as a result, the relationship between Becks and Aunt Sharon wasn’t super-strong, and with Becks’s mother almost invisible to her, Aunt Sharon had taken on much of the wedding.
Becks hadn’t asked her to, but her personality could be described as an ox, which only worked in some situations.
“I have the certification in aesthetics,” Holly said. “She’ll listen to me.”
“Okay,” Becks said, because if she had to put her faith in someone, Holly was a very good choice. “You want me at the kitchen table?”
“Yep,” Holly said, grunting as she took the first step up toward the porch. Becks went back inside, calling her dogs to go with her so they’d be out of the way when Holly arrived. That sort of worked, as the puppies never really followed directions.
Holly made it inside despite the canine obstacles, and within ten minutes, she had Becks’s face completely one color as more people filled the cabin. She got up to embrace her mom, thanked Todd for bringing her, and watched him smile and then fade back into himself. There was something going on there, but she wasn’t sure what, and with all the women around, she wouldn’t ask him.
She loved him as her cousin, and they’d grown closer over the past year. She raised her eyebrows, but he just shook his head, refilled his thermos, and said, “Good luck, Becks. See you over there,” before skedaddling out of the cabin quickly.
“Mom,” Holly said in a very firm voice. “No. It’s not nineteen-sixty-two. Becks isnotwearing a beehive for her wedding.”
Becks turned back to the table, where Aunt Sharon had started to get out the hair supplies. She stayed out of the way as they bickered, shooting her own mother a knowing look. The two of them smiled, and then Sierra said, “Mama, I’m doing her hair, and it’s going to be so amazing.”
She turned toward Becks and gestured her closer. “Come on now. We don’t have much time.”
Becks went back to her seat, grateful for Holly and Sierra for keeping Aunt Sharon at bay, her own excitement for her upcoming nuptials really starting to bubble and boil in her stomach.
* * *
With only a minuteuntil one o’clock, Becks and her father arrived at the end of the long aisle leading toward the altar. Up ahead of her, Luke stood with Blake and Seth, the three of them talking about something that caused them all to smile and laugh.
She had a moment to look around at all the guests who’d come to the Texas Longhorn Ranch this fine afternoon to see her and Luke get married. His parents and siblings and their families. Her parents. One of her half-brothers, Adam, had made the trip from Austin, and she mourned the loss of Jacob. He’d passed away a few years ago, and Becks thanked the Lord that Adam had forgiven her and her mother enough to come to the wedding.
She hadn’t seen him yet, but their eyes caught on one another’s, and he lowered his head in a silent greeting. She pressed her hand to her heart, her way of saying,I’m sorry. Thank you for coming, all at the same time.
Again, life could be so complicated, and she wished the human emotions weren’t so frail or so tangled.
At the same time, when her wedding music began to play, everyone turned toward the aisle where she’d been standing for almost sixty seconds. The crowd got to their feet, and all the noise could’ve been made from the sudden way her heart started leaping against her breastbone.
