Always the Baker, Finally the Bride (37 page)

“I’m there in spirit, princess,” Gavin vowed. “You know I am.”

“You’re sure you’re all right?” Emma asked, tears welling in her eyes as Sherilyn tiptoed toward her, kissed her fingertip and touched it to the top of Emma’s head. “I’m really worried about you.”

“No need. I’m a tough old geezer, you know that. Look how long I’ve stuck with your mother.”

Emma giggled, drying her tears at the same time. “You’re impossible.”

“This is what I’m telling you. I’m not going anywhere. But I’m sorry to say . . . it looks like I’m going to miss your special day. I’m very sorry about that, and I hope you’ll forgive me.”

Sherilyn handed her a tissue, and Emma dabbed at her nose with it. “Please don’t apologize, Daddy. Just feel better, okay?”

“I have to go, Emmy. The doctor is here now, and he’s going to talk to me about these fun little pills they want me to place under my tongue.”

“Well, listen to him carefully,” she instructed. “Don’t make jokes. Really listen to what he tells you.”

“Have a beautiful wedding, Emmy.”

“I love you so much.”

“I love you more.”

She disconnected the call before bursting into tears and nearly choking on the sob she’d been holding back during her conversation with her father.

“Emma Rae,” her mother said in a scolding tone. “He’ll be fine.”

“How do you know that?” she sniffed. “You don’t know that, Mother.”

“He’s a tough old geezer,” she soothed, tickling Emma’s hair with her fingertips.

She laughed. “He said that, too.”

“I’m going back to the hospital for a couple of hours,” Avery told her. “Then I’ll go home and change, and I’ll see you at the end of the aisle. All right?”

Emma nodded, and she blew her nose.

“You two take care of her,” she told Sherilyn and Fee before heading out the door.

Emma blew her nose again and wiped her eyes with tissues that Sherilyn handed her one at a time. “I had a bad feeling this morning,” she told them with a sniff. “I just knew something wasn’t right.”

“Your mother seems certain he’s going to be okay,” Sherilyn reminded her.

“But how can I get married without my father there?” she whimpered, and the tears began again. “Who’s going to . . . 
give me away
?”

“Em, you don’t need anyone to give you to Jackson. The two of you have belonged to each other for ages.”

“And without my aunt Sophie . . . or Audrey . . . or Russell . . . or Pearl . . .”

“Emma Rae Travis,” Sherilyn said as she grabbed several tissues from the box in Fee’s hands and dabbed at Emma’s eyes and nose. “You and Jackson don’t need anyone there with you. We’re all just spectators to what’s happening between the two of you. We’re lucky to be invited along, but it’s not about who is there and who is not. It’s about the lifetime of happiness you’re about to begin.”

Emma gazed at Sherilyn for a long moment before glancing at Fee and grinning through her tears. “She’s good at this.”

Fee peered down at her over the top of her glasses and nodded. “She really is.”

“Now I want you to dry those tears,” Sherilyn said, handing over a few extra tissues for good measure, “while I brew up a nice pot of tea. I’ve got Sheila coming over from The Ah Spa any minute, and she’s giving us all facials and mani-pedis . . .”

“Some of us,” Fee corrected. “I don’t do group mani-pedis.”

“Fiona, if the bride wants you to have a mani-pedi with her, you’re having a mani-pedi.”

Emma got up from the chair and headed toward the sofa. Fee grabbed her arm as she passed, her eyes ablaze with a “help me” fire, but before Emma could reply, Sherilyn continued.

“Then we’ve got Bruce from All Tressed Up coming at four to do your hair, and Millicent from Make Me Over for your makeup . . .”

Emma patted Fee’s hand and whispered, “I release you from the mani-pedi ordinance.”

“Bless you,” Fee mouthed back to her.

“. . . and I’ve ordered a very light snack for everyone that will be delivered around four thirty so that your blood sugar stays on track through the ceremony . . .”

Emma folded her legs underneath her and leaned back into the sofa cushions, watching her friend, the fierce wedding-planner tornado, with a grin.

“Oh! And Kat is taking care of things downstairs, but she’ll stop by to have a bite with us before she receives the flowers at five o’clock . . .”

Emma Rae Travis
and
Jackson Drake

cordially invite you
to join them
as they exchange the vows of marriage
on
Saturday, April 6th,
at
The Tanglewood Inn
Roswell, Georgia

The wedding ceremony will be held
in the hotel courtyard at 7 p.m
.

Please join guests afterward
for an intimate celebration.
Dinner, wine, and dancing
to the music of Ben Colson
in
The Desiree Room
at 8 p.m
.

“Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm;
for love is as strong as death.”
Song of Solomon 8:6

Emma peered at the reflection in the mirror, not entirely convinced that it was hers. Fee pinned the sheer lace veil into her wavy hair as Sherilyn expertly wielded a buttonhook, fastening the twenty-six rhinestone buttons down the back of her gown. When they were through, Sherilyn picked up the sparkly headband from its velvet case on the dressing table and gingerly set it into place on Emma’s head, careful to cover each of the veil pins.

“You’re more beautiful than I’ve ever seen you,” Sherilyn told her, her turquoise eyes glistening with moist emotion.

“Really?”

Emma nibbled the corner of her bottom lip as she looked at them both in the mirror.

“Really,” Sherilyn sniffed.

“Dude. You’re an MGM movie,” Fee added.

“Your mother’s earrings are your something old, the dress is something new. But this is your something borrowed,” Sherilyn told her as she clasped a two-strand diamond bracelet around her wrist. “It’s the bracelet I wore at my wedding.”

“Ahh, Sher. Thank you.”

“Do you have something blue?” Fee asked.

“Her garter,” Sherilyn said, wiggling her eyebrows until Emma laughed.

A knock at the door drew Fee away to the other room, and Emma sat down on the corner of the bed. “Just half an hour until I finally marry Jackson,” she said on a sigh.

“And look!” Sherilyn exclaimed as she pointed out the window. “Clear skies. No rain, no wind.”

“I’m so relieved that something’s gone right,” she replied with a smile. “I was starting to think—”

A gasp drew their attention to the doorway, where Audrey and Kat stood, and the expressions on their faces told Emma everything she needed to know about how she really looked in her gown.

“Audrey, you made it.”

“My flight landed an hour ago,” she told her. “I couldn’t miss seeing you in that gown. You look exquisite, Emma.”

“Thank you both.” She crossed the room toward them and took Audrey and Kat into her arms. “For the dress, for the beautiful headband . . . for your friendship.”

“You’re welcome,” Audrey cooed. “We adore you.”

“Ooh, I saw Jackson,” Kat chimed in. “He looks delicious!”

“I knew he would,” Emma said with a giggle.

Sherilyn joined the circle and placed one arm around Emma and the other around Kat. “You see, Em? I told you it was going to be fine! Everything is rounding out beautifully.”

“Did you have doubts?” Audrey asked.

“Oh!” Sherilyn exclaimed before Emma could answer. “I forgot to tell you. Pearl’s here!”

Emma lit up a little. “Really? That’s great. But Russell . . . you know. And my father is in the hospital . . .”

“No!” Kat exclaimed.

“. . . and Aunt Sophie can’t come . . .”

As if on cue, Emma’s mother sang out a greeting from the other room. “Emma Rae? Are you in there?”

“Avery, wait until you see this daughter of yours in her wedding gown,” Sherilyn called out as she headed through the doorway, but her words trailed off, replaced by a gasp.

“Emma Rae Travis,” her mother declared when she saw her. “Look at you! You’re a vision, darling.”

Emma beamed. “Thank you, Mother.”

“And she brought a surprise for you,” Sherilyn sang as she danced past the etched-glass sliding door into the bedroom. “Look who’s here!”

Emma’s spirit soared for a moment, burgeoning with hope that her father had made it after all. But she wasn’t as disappointed as she might have been when her aunt Sophie stepped into the doorway and smoothed the skirt of her beautiful pastel dress.

Emma gulped down a bubble of air as she rushed toward her. “Aunt Soph? You’re here!”

“Of course I am, child. You know I love your weddings to Jackson.”

Emma looked over her aunt’s shoulder into the loving eyes of her mother. “She felt better today than she has in days, and her nurse thought it would be all right for her to come.”

“Nothing could make me happier,” Emma told her aunt as she kissed her cheek. To just her mother, she softly added, “Almost.”

“I know.”

“At the risk of reminding you that I told you so, just one more time,” Sherilyn gloated with a broad smile, “I did tell you everything would work out, didn’t I?”

“You did,” Emma replied. “But don’t make me say out loud that you were right, okay?”

“Consider it a wedding gift,” she commented. “Now I’m going to call downstairs and ask them to bring the bouquets up here while I slip into my dress.”

“You got one for Aunt Soph?” she whispered to Sherilyn.

She nodded, and then she leaned in toward Emma, looking her squarely in the eye. “Are you feeling good?”

“Perfect,” she said on a sigh. “I feel like everything is right in the world again, and I can hardly wait to see Jackson waiting for me at the end of the aisle.”

“Help me with this, will you?”

Jackson set the ring box on the desktop and crossed his office to where Andy stood facing the full-length mirror Sherilyn had sent up. Once he’d clasped both cuff links, Jackson smacked Andy’s shoulder and grinned at him before reaching for the black tuxedo jacket on the hanger in the corner and holding it for his friend.

“I don’t know why I seem to be more nervous than you are,” Andy said as he slid into it.

Jackson slipped into his own jacket and adjusted the satin lapels before tightening the solid black tie around the self-top collar of his starched white shirt. He tugged at the hem of the black vest before fastening the single button on his jacket and standing next to Andy in front of the mirror.

“We look pretty sharp,” Andy remarked. “You ready to do this thing?”

“I was born ready.” Jackson tucked the ring box into Andy’s jacket pocket and tapped it. “Don’t lose that.”

Andy pinned a lavender rosebud to the lapel of Jackson’s jacket. Once he’d reciprocated, Jackson opened the office door
and waved Andy past. He took a few deep breaths as they waited for the elevator.

When the car doors opened, the two of them just stood there looking straight ahead at the unexpected sight before them.

“Come on in,” said the man occupying the glass elevator car, and he tugged on the neon pink leash wrapped around his hand. A short, fat pig glanced up at them and snorted. “Justin won’t bite.”