Bartender's Beauty (Culpepper Cowboys Book 11) (7 page)

Together they slowly walked to the front of the church, her eyes locking with Austin’s almost immediately. She was vaguely aware that every pew in the church was full, and there were people standing at the back. She couldn’t believe Austin had pulled off a Monday morning wedding with that many people on less than twenty-four hours’ notice.

She didn’t recognize everyone, but there were a lot of people she knew from school. Teachers, other students, and even the principal, who she would soon be working for.

It seemed like barely a moment and forever all at once until she reached the front and her hand was placed in Austin’s.

Brother Anthony smiled at her, and then began speaking. “Dearly beloved, we’re once again gathered here for a ridiculously rushed wedding. These two fine young people have known each other for over twenty years, but they still had to plan a whole wedding in less than twenty-four hours. I would sure like to know what’s wrong with the fine people of Culpepper, Wyoming that they all feel the need to drop whatever they’re doing and get married at a moment’s notice. Am I the only person who thinks this is a strange new custom everyone in town seems to have banded together to start? Well, let me tell you something—.”

Lovie shook her head, clearing her throat. “Save it for a sermon, Tony! Back to the wedding.”

Dallas bit her lip, sneaking a glance at Austin who looked equally amused. She focused all her attention on Brother Anthony, hoping he’d get on with the ceremony.

Brother Anthony muttered under his breath for a moment again, and then continued. “As I was saying, we’re gathered here today to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony. Austin? You’ve loved this girl since you were a boy. I remember you coming to me one Sunday after church and asking me if it was legal for you to marry Dallas and live with her under the monkey bars at the school, because you didn’t have a job and had no way to support her.” He shook his head. “Do you remember coming to me about that?”

Austin grinned. “I sure do. I knew even way back then I wanted her as my wife.”

“That’s sure a long time for you to wait on a woman. I feel like I’m asking a question that everyone here already knows the answer to, but that’s kind of how it goes with a wedding ceremony, isn’t it? Austin, will you take your fellow Texas city, Dallas here to be your lawfully wedded wife? To love her and have babies and yell and make up?”

Austin looked down into the smiling face beside his, knowing he was doing the smartest thing he’d ever done in his life. “I do.”

“And do you, Dallas, promise to spend the rest of your life with the man beside you, not running off to Cheyenne, and raising kids with him?”

Dallas chuckled softly. “I think I can do that, Brother Anthony.”

“Well, then I hereby pronounce you two as married as married can be. Would you kiss already?”

Austin turned toward her, his arms winding around her as he pulled her into his arms. His lips on hers were gentle yet insistent, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging to him as she kissed him back. She forgot all the people who were watching, and all the people who had made fun of her. Today was about Austin, and she was going to love him with everything inside of her.

When Austin finally raised his head, looking down at her with a grin, he whispered, “I told you that you were mine. It’s about time I told the whole town, huh?”

She laughed softly. “Seems to me like you told the whole town twenty years ago!”

Chapter Seven

When Dallas turned and saw the sheer number of people that were gathered for her wedding, she was overwhelmed. She’d had only a vague awareness of them as she walked toward the front of the church. Looking at Austin, she asked, “How on earth did you arrange all this? You were at my house until eight last night!”

He shrugged. “It only took a few phone calls to very choice people.” His arm around her, he led her toward the fellowship hall, where he knew the food would be waiting. “Have I mentioned how gorgeous you look in that dress yet? I’ve never seen anything that took my breath away like you did walking down the aisle on Roy’s arm.”

“Did you ask him to offer to give me away?” she asked, still stunned the older man had done it.

He shook his head adamantly. “Nope. I heard Linda asked him, but I had nothing to do with it.”

“Did you ask Felicity to be my matron of honor?” she asked.

He laughed, shaking his head again. “Nope. I did call and ask Allen to be my best man, and she took it from there. The girl is special.”

“She is that. And I can’t believe I had a flower girl. It never would have even occurred to me to ask anyone, and there they were, offering their services.” She dashed away a tear. “It was a perfect wedding, and I’d been expecting a quiet ceremony with just two or three people.”

“All I did was get the Quinlans and Culpeppers involved.” He stepped into the fellowship hall, and she looked around her, completely floored by the food there. The wedding cake had a place of honor on a table by itself, and there were women standing everywhere, ready to help serve. “This is the Culpepper I know and love,” he said softly. “I want you to love it here as much as I do.”

People swarmed them, telling them how happy they were for them. Dallas was hugged over and over, sometimes by people she knew, sometimes by new people who told her their names mid-hug. One girl she knew she’d remember was Joy Culpepper, who was getting thick around the middle.

“I’m Joy,” she said, hugging Dallas tightly. “I’m Kolby’s wife.”

“So good to meet you! If I adopt Felicity’s phrase, you’re now my friend-in-law.”

Joy laughed in a way that could only be described as, well, joyful. “Why don’t we decide to be friends instead of friend-in-laws?”

“I don’t know about that,” Dallas responded. “Felicity offered me best friend status!”

“Oh that cousin of mine is out to win you over first, isn’t she?” Joy asked with a laugh. She linked her arm through Dallas’s, dragging her off to Kolby. “Look who I found!”

Kolby grinned at Dallas, leaning down to hug her tightly. “I’m glad you came back. I haven’t seen Austin as happy as he was today since the day he caught you on the playground and kissed you.”

“Hey now!” Austin complained from right behind Dallas. “Hands off my bride, and don’t be going giving all my secrets away.”

Kolby just laughed. “You gave me permission to say whatever I wanted on the phone last week. I’ll
never
forget it.”

Austin pulled Dallas back against him, groaning loudly. “Give the man an inch…”

Kolby pulled Joy close to him. “Yeah, whatever. I see the look in your eye. I’m really happy for both of you.”

“Because I’ll never have to try to explain math problems to my kids?” Austin asked.

“There is that. I was thinking more because you two are going to be happy with each other. You need to have a baby soon, because my kiddo here is going to need a friend to tell all her secrets to.”

“Her?” Joy asked spinning to him. “You finally admit it’s a girl?”

“I admit nothing!” Kolby said, grinning at her. “I just know it’s a child and will need a secret keeper.”

Allen walked over then, grabbing Dallas from Austin and scooping her up in his arms in a huge bear hug. “How’ve you been?”

It was then that Dallas realized Austin’s two closest friends hadn’t been friends with her just for his sake. They were genuinely her friends too, and the knowledge brought tears to her eyes. “I’m okay.”

“Sorry about your dad.”

Dallas nodded. “Thanks.”

“It’s good to have you back, though. This louse has been mooning around about you for eleven years. Do you have any idea how many times I told him he should just take off and go to Cheyenne and drag you back here? He wouldn’t listen!”

Dallas shrugged, grinning at Austin. “Not sure if I was ready to be dragged back. Everything in its own time, right?”

“I guess. But all that moping around about you got old really fast.”

Dallas laughed. “It couldn’t have been that bad.”

Allen looked at Kolby, who nodded emphatically. “It was bad. I thought we were going to have to have an intervention. Someone to go kidnap you and bring you home.” His eyes laughed at Austin. “You can tell her the rest of my plan later when there aren’t so many people listening.”

“I think we’re supposed to be eating,” Dallas said, trying not to blush, but knowing it didn’t work.

Joy shook her head at Kolby. “Don’t be teasing my new best friend now.”

“New best friend?” Kolby asked, frowning. “You girls better not be ganging up against us now.”

Joy shrugged at Kolby. “I’m hungry. Time to feed the baby.”

Kolby groaned. “Hopefully there’s something baby’s hungry for in that mess of dishes.” He took Joy’s hand and led her over to the line of food, and Dallas followed, Austin right behind her.

Dallas looked up at Austin with a grin. “I think your friends have met their matches.”

“I know they have. Wanna know a little secret?” he asked softly, his lips against her ear.

“What?”

“They were always jealous of me in high school, because I knew who I’d end up with. There was never any doubt that you would be my wife. They dated different girls, always wondering if they’d find the right one.”

“Really? They didn’t think you were crazy for settling on me?”

He laughed. “They thought you were beautiful, funny, and smart. They were right, you know.”

She shook her head at that. “Only a blind man could look at me and think I’m beautiful.”

“I have twenty-twenty vision, sweetheart.”

She didn’t say anything else as they walked down the line, and she got a little bit from each of the dishes, afraid to hurt anyone’s feelings.

*****

It was two more hours before they were able to leave the church and head to the house where Austin had grown up. Dallas had been there many times over the years, although the two dads had preferred to hang out in the bar whenever possible. There had always been a good supply of booze in the house for them to share, though.

Dallas looked around, noting the subtle changes Austin had made to his living space. She turned to him with a frown. “I think I want our own house. A house that has no bad memories of either of our dads.”

Austin nodded, shrugging. “I don’t mind that at all. We can sell both of our houses and find a place that’s perfect for us. I don’t want you haunted by memories all your life.”

She took the two steps that separated them and wrapped her arms around him. “Thank you for being so wonderful to me. I wonder every day why you put up with me.”

He shook his head. “I’ve told you why over and over. You belong to me.” For some reason, he couldn’t tell her he loved her. He wasn’t sure why. He knew he did, and had since they were young, but the words didn’t come freely.

She nodded. “Brother Anthony seemed to say that today. Of course, it was so convoluted by the time he was done, it was hard to tell if that’s really what he said.”

“I have sat through a lot of Brother Anthony’s weddings over the years, but that one is the one that makes all others pale. I don’t know if he was really that much funnier than usual, or if it was because it was my wedding. To you.” He sighed. “You know, I do have one complaint about our wedding day, though.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“You’re wearing altogether too many clothes.”

Dallas blushed. “Well, I do believe it’s your job to see that the clothes are removed. Wanna know why?”

He nodded. “Why?”

“Because I couldn’t get out of them on my own if you paid me to do it! There are too many buttons up and down my back. I don’t know how a bride would get dressed without someone helping her. I always thought it was just a togetherness thing when bridal parties got ready together, but it’s not! It’s so the bride can actually get ready, because wedding dresses are made very stupidly!”

“Is stupidly even a word?” he asked, frowning.

She shrugged. “It felt like a word, so I used it. You got a problem with that?”

“Hey, you’re the teacher, not me!”

She turned her back to him. “Would you please deal with all these ridiculous buttons?”

He leaned down and pressed a kiss to the back of her neck, glad her hair was all out of the way atop her head as it was. “I will gladly deal with all these buttons.”

She tilted her head forward. “I think I’m going to like being married.”

He laughed. “I know I am. Wanna know why?”

She grinned as he threw her words back at her. “Why?”

“Because I get to hold you and touch you ever night for the rest of our lives.”

“I like the sound of that.”

“Me too!” He made quick work of her buttons, although the size of them made him wonder what the designer was thinking. “Why do they put teeny tiny buttons that are too small for a man’s hands on wedding dresses? Do they think your chamber maid is going to be undressing you instead of your husband?”

“Don’t ask me! I didn’t buy the thing. I don’t even know who it belongs to.”

Austin laughed at that. “Could be anyone in Culpepper. The town really came together for our wedding, didn’t they?”

“They really did!” She shook her head. “I realized something today too.”

“What did you realize?” His hands on her shoulders turned her back around so she was facing him, and he pushed her dress off her shoulders, watching as it fell, his eyes glued to the skin he’d just uncovered.

“I thought that Allen and Kolby tolerated me, because they were your friends, but I realized today that they were my friends too. When they saw me and hugged me, they didn’t look like they were just putting up with me. They genuinely like me.”

“Yeah, they do. They always have. When we played together at recess when we were little, they weren’t doing it just because I wanted to play with you. It was because we were all friends. Things got weird in junior high because you were a girl, and we were boys, but we all always considered you one of our friends.” He frowned. “Let me amend that. They considered you a friend, and I considered you a future wife.”

She laughed, shaking her head. “It’s still hard for me to believe you had feelings for all this time.”

“You heard Brother Anthony, and you know as well as I do he was speaking off the cuff. If I’d tried to get him to say something like that he’d have messed it up so badly it wouldn’t have been comprehensible.”

She grinned. “That’s true.” She looked down, noticing the wedding dress had pooled around her waist, and she was standing in front of him in her full slip, bra, and panties. And shoes. She kicked her shoes off to get them out of her way. She wanted nothing to keep her night with Austin from being magical.

“Have I mentioned how much I love your body?” he asked, leaning down and brushing his lips across hers as his fingers stroked her bare shoulders.

She shook her head. “Not enough for me to believe you.”

He groaned. “So you think I’ve been lusting after your brain all these years and your body had nothing to do with it?”

“You’ve been lusting after me? Does Brother Anthony know this?”

He shook his head. “No, but I have a feeling God does, and He hasn’t struck me by lightning yet!”

“Lust is a sin!”

“Lusting after my neighbor’s wife is a sin. Lusting after my wife is smart and fun.” He took her hand in his and pulled her toward his bedroom and the king sized bed there. “Come along with me, my pretty,” he said in his best wicked witch voice.

She shook her head. “I don’t think you’re supposed to try to imitate a woman’s voice on your wedding night.”

He shrugged, looking at the window that had the blinds drawn. “Probably not, but it’s still daylight, so technically, it’s our wedding afternoon.”

“Oh, well I’ve always been taught that I shouldn’t be with a man until my wedding night. I guess we’ll just have to wait.” She sat down on the foot of his bed, making sure her dress fell to the floor at her feet as she did. She was surprised it had stayed up for as long as it had.

“Well, if you think it’s a sin to make love with your husband when it’s not nighttime, I’m about to introduce you to living in sin, my love.” He sat down beside her and kicked off his shoes and socks before turning to her and cupping her face in his hands. “And it all starts with a single kiss.”

She sighed, leaning toward him and stroking his shoulders through all his clothes. She quickly went to work divesting him of his suit jacket while she kissed him back, her tongue stroking his top lip. She felt him shudder against her and grinned. “You’re wearing way too many clothes.”