Heart of the Hunter (81 page)

“Right then and there?”

“Yes, before she has a chance to change her mind and get mad at me again.”

“Sir, I’m not sure you’re very familiar with the way this works. There’s usually some time, like many months, between the proposal and the wedding.”

“Why?”

“Why? Lots of reasons.”

“Name them.”

“First of all, you can’t force her to marry you.”

“I won’t force her to marry me. I’ll propose. We’ll only get married if she says yes, and believe me, when she doesn’t like something I say, she has no trouble letting me know.”

“Well, secondly, women have certain ideas about their ideal wedding. Things they’ve been dreaming about since they were little girls.”

“I’ve known this woman since she was a little girl. I already know everything about her ideal wedding. She spelled it out to me. I’ve got it all arranged.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Sort of.”

“So you just need a dress?”

“Not just any dress. I need one of your dresses. The most beautiful one you’ve got. And I need it right now.”

The woman shook her head. She rose to her feet and made her way to the door. She opened the door and looked at me. “That’s a very lovely story you told me, sir, but I’m afraid what you’re asking is quite impossible.”

“Impossible?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t that what love is? Impossible? Isn’t that what weddings are? Isn’t marriage supposed to be an impossible promise? Isn’t that the point? To believe in the impossible? Isn’t that what your entire business is about?”

“My business is about sane adults getting married.”

“But what’s sane about getting married? Nothing. Trust me, I’ve given it a lot of thought. Two grown people, promising each other that from this day forward, they’re going to forget everything else about the world, and put each other first. They’re going to try and merge their two, completely unique personalities, and create something new that combines the best of both. They’re going to wager their lives against everything the world can throw at them, and promise God and everyone they love, that no matter what, they’re going to stay together, and look after each other, and cherish each other. Impossible? That’s impossible. Love is impossible. It’s supposed to be. That’s the point. Because when two people believe in something impossible together, because of love, that’s when magical things happen.”

“Magical things?”

“Think about it. A family is magical. Something that comes about where nothing existed before. That’s real magic. And that’s what love and marriage create.”

The woman looked me over.

“You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?”

“Lady, you bet your British ass I’m serious about this.”

Chapter 45

Grant

F
ORRESTER CALLED NEXT.

“Grant.”

“Forrester.”

“What the hell’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“Jackson told me I need to pick up an entire refrigerated truck’s worth of chilled, fresh roses from the dock market.”

“An entire truck’s worth?”

“Yes.”

“That must have been expensive.”

“You don’t want to know.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“Well, there’s no problem. I just need to know where to take them.”

“So you got them?”

“Yes, I did.”

I smiled. “Thank you, Forrester.”

“So, where am I taking them?”

“You know the mountain top by the valley pass, where you can watch the sun set over the ocean?”

“The one off the Pacific highway?”

“Yes. Take the flowers there. There’s a little white chapel there, built of fresh-cut pine.”

“There’s no chapel up there.”

“There is now, Forrester. I know. I built it.”

“You built it? When?”

“When no one was looking.”

“It must have taken months.”

“I started the night of Jackson and Faith’s wedding.”

“What are you planning, Grant?”

“What does it look like I’m planning, Forrester? I’m planning a wedding.”

“You’ve got some balls, brother. You know how mad Lacey is at you right now?”

“I know it,” I said, with a sigh.

“All right. I’ll take them there. And what do you want me to do with them?”

“Will the truck keep them cool over night.”

“Yeah, it will keep them at the optimal temperature for up to four days.”

“Okay, so tomorrow afternoon, before sunset, I need you to go up there and get things ready. Make the place look nice.”

“Make it look nice?”

“Faith will help you. Get the flowers set up. Scatter them around. Get that priest from Jackson’s wedding, the Spanish guy.”

“Grant, this is crazy. What if Lacey loses her shit?”

“That’s her right. Now, go, and get the priest to bring the paperwork too. And tell the others to be there. The wedding will take place at sunset. They should dress nice.”

My heart was pounding. I had the dress. I had the flowers. Things were starting to come together. I still didn’t have the girl, though. What on earth was Lacey going to say when I dropped this bomb on her? The way I saw it, it could go one of two ways, and it was a risk that I had to take. Either, she’d freak out and tell me to go to hell. It wouldn’t be the first time Lacey and I didn’t see eye to eye on something. I could take it if she got mad at me. I just couldn’t take it if I let her slip through my fingers again. I had to make her my wife. She was my destiny. She was my soulmate. I knew she was. If I didn’t make her my wife, my life would be incomplete forever, no matter what else I achieved.

The second way it could go, was that she’d say yes. She’d want me. She’d agree to marry me. And then she’d be amazed that everything she’d ever wanted for her perfect wedding was all there, waiting for her, ready to go. It was worth the risk. It was worth the chance that it might shock her. The perfect wedding, as a surprise? What girl wouldn’t want that?

My phone rang again.

“Grant, it’s Grady.”

“What is it, Grady?”

“The dove guy says he can deliver a thousand doves if you can pay for them.”

“A thousand doves?”

“You should see this place, Grant. It’s an entire flock of doves.”

“Do you think that many will be too much?”

“Honestly?”

“Yes, honestly.”

“Grant. Honestly, I think a thousand white doves, flying over the ocean into the sunset would be the most beautiful freaking thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

I laughed. “Okay, order them. Call Forrester for the details of when and where they need to be.”

“Don’t you want to know the cost?”

“No, I don’t care. Just make sure the guy has a humane way of recapturing them all. Lacey would freak out if anything bad were to happen to those birds.”

I was amazed. It seemed like this thing was actually coming together. I might actually pull it off, with the help of my family. It was true, what I’d said earlier. I really did believe it. I know I’ve said bad things about weddings in the past, but the truth is, weddings are a miracle. They’re a complete admission, by one man and one woman, that they believe in the magic of love. They believe that something as amazing as a new family can be created just because they love each other.

I tried to go through a mental checklist of everything I still needed, which was difficult with the amount of stray thoughts flying through my head, when the phone rang again.

It was Faith’s number.

“Faith?”

“No, it’s Sam.”

“Sammy? What the hell? Shouldn’t you be at school, little man?”

“I was, but my mom pulled me out to take care of your shit.”

“Watch your language, Sam. What would your mother say if she heard you talking like that?”

“She’s not here. She’s getting the flowers with my dad.”

“I don’t want to get in trouble for teaching you to swear.”

“Okay, I’ll watch my language. Now, lets talk brass taxes.”

“Brass taxes?”

“Do you want vanilla, chocolate, cherry, or what?”

“For what?”

“For the filling, between layers on the cake?”

“Oh, man. I have no idea.”

“It’s for Lacey right?”

“Who told you that?”

“Grant. I’ve got a team of detectives working on it round the clock for me.”

I shook my head. Where’d Sam learn to be such a smart ass? Too much time with me and the brothers and his father.

“Yes, it’s for Lacey.”

“All right. I know her favorite everything.”

“Really?”

“I’ve had enough cake with her to know exactly what she’d want.”

“All right, Sam. I’m trusting you with this. You get them to make the ultimate cake. The most extravagant thing they can come up with. We need it for tomorrow.”

“I know, I know. Tomorrow, for sunset over the ocean, surrounded by flowers and doves.”

“Who told you all that?”

“Everyone knows everything, Grant. Except for Lacey of course. Just leave this to us. We’ve got your back.”

“Thanks, Sammy.”

“Any time, Uncle Grant. You’ve had my back enough times in the past. We’ve got yours on this.”

By the time I got home, no one was there. It was no wonder. They were all out arranging my dream wedding. I took the opportunity to collapse onto my bed. I slept like a log.

Chapter 46

Lacey

S
OMETHING VERY WEIRD WAS GOING ON.
I mean, something really weird. I couldn’t get a straight answer from anyone. Forrester was acting like a school boy who’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Grady ran out of the kitchen when I entered. Faith and Jackson weren’t answering my calls. Even Sam wasn’t answering my texts, which was a first.

I knew it was because of Grant. What had he done? Had he told everyone we’d made love again? Were they all upset with me about that? Or even worse, had they all been involved in his decision to interfere with my engagement to Rob? Had it been some sort of intervention?

I decided to find out.

Grant liked to think of himself as an expert tracker. He said he could follow a car for a hundred miles without them even suspecting he was there. Well, I gave him a taste of his own medicine.

He slept a little later than usual, showered, had some cereal in the kitchen, looked around the house, I assume for me because he went to my bedroom, and when he finally left the house in his ’67 Mustang, I was right on his tail. I followed him all the way into the city and he didn’t notice a thing.

The hunter had become the hunted. I was pretty proud of myself for not losing him and not being spotted, especially considering how heavy traffic was on the freeway into the city.

I was surprised when he got off the highway at a residential area, then I realized it was the same area we’d gotten off at together when we went to the flower market. What was he up to?

I tailed him along numerous streets until he arrived right at the very same old house that I’d wanted to stop at last time. I parked down the street and watched him. What was going on? He got out of his car and greeted the orphan boys I’d spoken to when I was there. Then he took the For Sale sign out of the ground and threw it into the back of his car. I wanted to get out and find out what was going on, but I was torn between being discovered and maintaining my cover. I mean, technically, I was still mad at him. Although I did find it hard to stay mad at him. I had no idea what he’d said to Rob, what the circumstances of their conversation had been, or who’d initiated it, but with every passing minute, I realized more and more that he’d been right. Rob wasn’t the man for me, and if Grant had decided to do something about that, he’d probably had a good reason for it.

In fact, I was grateful. I didn’t want to marry Rob. Whatever led to him calling off the wedding was a good thing. I’d felt so free and full of relief since finding out. I knew it was only my own stubbornness that made me mad at Grant. I couldn’t admit that I’d been losing control of my life and that whatever he’d done had been a help.

I decided to swallow my pride and find out what was going on. I locked my car and walked up to the house.

“Hey,” I said to one of the boys who was on the porch. “What’s going on here?”

Grant was inside the house with the rest of the boys.

“Lacey?” the boy on the porch said.

“Yes,” I said, too startled to ask how he knew my name.

“Grant explained everything to us. Don’t worry. We’re all in school, and we’re all going to graduate. I swear it.”

“What’s your name?” I asked him.

“Arnold. I’m the one Grant put in charge. I already had the heat and power hooked up. The water is running. The internet and cable guys are coming today. We’re going to make this work.”

“Make what work?”

The boy smiled, as if he knew I was asking a rhetorical question and already knew the answer.

“Everything, Lacey. We’re going to make you real proud of us. Whatever your father did for Grant and the other brothers, we want you to do for us, and we won’t let you down. You won’t find another group of kids more committed than we are.”

It was at that moment that Grant stepped out of the front door.

“Lacey,” he said, obviously surprised to see me.

“Grant,” I said.

“What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

Grant told Arnold to go wait inside with the others. Then he came down the steps of the porch to me.

“This was supposed to be a surprise,” he said.

“For when?”

“For when you weren’t mad at me,” he said, sheepishly.

I smiled. “I’m already not mad at you.”

“Really?”

I nodded. “I don’t know what happened between you and Rob, but I’ve decided I don’t want to know. Whatever it was, it was guy stuff.”

“Well,” he said, obviously relieved, “that’s great.”

“Now, tell me what on earth are you up to here?”

“What you said, when we were here. It got me thinking,” he said. “I could tell you wanted to help these boys.”

I thought back to the last time I’d been there. It was true. I had wanted to help. “I did,” I said.

“Well, now you can. In fact, you already have. You bought this house.”

“I what?”