"I'm leaving an empty chair beside my daddy
for her today."
"I bet she'd love that." Sabrina squeezed
her shoulders.
"Have I told you how much I appreciate you
being here today?"
"A thousand times...now stop. You're gonna
make
me
tear up."
Cassie forced a bright smile, and looked at
her, "How did last night go?"
Sabrina dropped her hands from Cassie's
shoulders and then stood up. "Not good," she said then grabbed a
bow out of the box and walked to the next chair.
Remorse filled Cassie, because she'd forced
Sabrina to go last night. She'd kept after her until she agreed to
go to the bar to check up on Cole and Luke...make sure they weren't
overdoing it. And she'd hoped that Cole would take the opportunity
to apologize to her. Obviously that didn't happen. Anger rushed
through her and she wanted to strangle Luke's best friend for being
so stubborn.
"Cole didn't apologize?" she asked to make
sure.
Sabrina snorted then said, "If sticking his
tongue down a hot blonde's throat all night is an apology, then yes
he did."
Cassie's anger turned to molten lava in her
veins and she threw the bow she'd just picked up back in the box
and put her hands on her hips. "He did
what
?"
Sabrina shrugged and said, "He hooked up
with a blonde and danced her feet off when he wasn't trying to
screw her on the dance floor."
"Luke didn't say anything to him?" Cassie
would be just as mad at Luke if he hadn't at least tried to talk
some sense into the big lug.
"It wasn't Luke's place to do that, Cassie.
Cole did what he wanted to do, and so did I."
Cassie grinned at the mischievous note in
her friend's tone. "Oh, yeah? What did you do?"
"Danced my feet off with a nice looking
cowboy."
"Good for you, Bri," she hooted then said,
"I bet Cole was fit to be tied."
"Nah, he just played tonsil hockey with the
blonde, and I wound up having to break the cowboy's nose outside
the bar."
Cassie's eyebrows flew up to her hairline
and she gasped, "Really?"
"Really..." Sabrina laughed then said, "I
think he gets the meaning of
'no
' now."
"Wow girl, you're my hero."
"I'm no hero...that guy was drunk and all
over me..." she waved her hand dismissively then finished."
"Well, it makes me happy to see a woman take
care of herself. You'll have to show me some of those moves after
the wedding," Cassie told her with a chuckle.
"You got it...now let's get these bows
done."
Cassie hurried to pick up another bow and
tie it on the next chair. They needed to quit dawdling, but she was
having fun working with Sabrina. By the time they finished with the
gazebo, she could smell the pork and beef simmering on the spit.
The catering crew had arrived at the break of dawn to start
cooking. It smelled delicious and her stomach rumbled.
"Let's go grab some lunch, then we can take
turns in the shower and start getting dressed. I have Betty Lou
from the Cut Up Corral in town coming out to do our hair and
makeup. She's old school and will have us looking like Texas belles
in no time.
Sabrina groaned then said, "Oh god,
Cassie...don't tell me I have to have big hair."
"You got it, sugar. No Texas bride, or
bridesmaid would be without it...you'll look great," she assured
her friend and looped her arm through Sabrina's and led her toward
the house.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Four hours later, Cassie and Sabrina sat in
Cassie's bedroom letting Betty Lou put the final coat of shellac,
also know as hairspray to non-southerners, on Cassie and Sabrina's
hair, and then one more coat of mascara to make sure their lashes
were long and lush.
"One more coat of that stuff and I think my
smile will be frozen on my face for life like the Joker in
Batman."
"My eyelashes are about stuck to my
eyebrows," Cassie hooted then said, "But damn, we sure do look
good." She turned her head left and right admiring the beautiful
style Betty Lou had teased and worked her hair into. She'd drawn up
the curls in a loose ponytail at her nape and pulled loose tendrils
to frame her face. Although her eyes were smoky and dramatic, the
rest of her makeup was muted, except for her deep rose colored
lips. They were the perfect shade, and Betty had glossed them up so
they looked plump and full.
"Where's your veil, baby girl? I want to put
it on you so you don't mess up your hair trying to do it
yourself."
Cassie got up and went to the closet and
pulled down the box with her hat and veil, then walked over and
handed it to Betty Lou. When she pulled it out, Betty Lou's hand
flew to her considerable bosom and she gasped. "Why that is the
most beautiful headpiece I've ever seen."
"Thanks," Cassie grinned at the woman's
dramatics. It was pretty, but it was just a white Stetson with a
veil attached.
"We probably should put your dress on before
we put this hat on you," she said gnawing her red lips.
"It's a little early yet..." Cassie told
her. They still had an hour before the ceremony.
"I'd wait, but I have another bride to do
after I leave here..." Betty Lou told her fingering the large beads
at her throat.
"Okay, let me get it..." Cassie wasn't
looking forward to being in the dress longer than she had to, but
she didn't want to walk down the aisle with messed up hair either.
She grabbed the garment bag off the rod and walked back into the
bedroom then laid it on the bed and unzipped it. Pulling it out she
smoothed layers of tulle then took it off the hanger and handed it
to Betty Lou.
"Okay, sugar, I'm gonna get this thing
draped on my arms and you just dive right in," she told her. Cassie
knew this drill from the times she'd had to do this for the lady at
the dress shop. She put her palms together above her head and bent
forward and aimed for the open hole in the center of the dress.
The hairdresser helped her shimmy it down
over her hips then tugged it down a few times so it sat where it
should. Sabrina came over and helped her fluffing the layers of
tulle into place and then smiled up at her.
"Don't worry about zipping it yet, I'll do
that right before I walk." At least she could halfway breathe until
then. She tugged up the top of the gown then dug inside the bodice
and tugged up the long line bra again.
"That dress is gorgeous, Cassie. You're
gonna be the prettiest bride in Texas, darlin'," Betty Lou told her
with tears welling up in her eyes. Cassie hoped she held onto those
tears, because with all that blue eye shadow and liner, they'd have
a mess if she let them go.
Cassie smiled at her then bent over to give
her a hug. "Thanks for helping me today, Betty Lou."
"I wouldn't have missed it, sugar. Your mama
would be so proud." She knew Betty Lou had known her mama and had
been friends with her, so her words meant a lot.
Cassie felt her lower lip tremble and she
sniffed a few times waving at her eyes to try and dry up the
moisture she felt there. "Stop or your gonna make me mess up your
beautiful makeup job." Cassie glanced over at Sabrina and saw her
eyes had teared up too.
Betty patted Cassie's hand and said fussily,
"Sit, sit--I need to get your hat on." After a few minutes and a
lot of bobby pins, Betty stood back to admire her work. "There you
go, darlin'. I don't think a tornado could take that hat off."
Cassie laughed then stared at herself in the
tri-fold mirror on the vanity and sighed. All her life she'd had a
picture in her mind of what she'd look like on her wedding day, and
this was it. And she was marrying the man of her dreams in less
than an hour. Betty Lou patted her shoulder and told her to get her
lots of 'pictures', then gathered up all her tools and put them
back in the big flowered bag she'd brought them in, then kissed her
cheek and left.
Cassie had just sat back on the vanity stool
when she heard thunder rumble outside. She got up and quickly
walked to the window to look out at the darkening clouds. Sabrina
was right behind her looking out too.
"Hey is that smoke over behind the barn?"
Sabrina asked reaching around Cassie to point at what she saw.
Cassie whirled around and screamed,
"
FIRE
!" at the top of her lungs, then picked up her skirt
and ran out the door and down the stairs. She stopped at the phone
and dialed 911 and hollered into the phone, "Fire at the Double
B..." then dropped the phone and ran out the door heading toward
the barn at a full out sprint.
She was halfway across the yard yelling
"
FIRE!
" every few steps when she heard Luke behind her
yelling at her to stop. She didn't break stride as she ran toward
the orange glow behind the barn, then straight into the thickening
smoke at the front.
Luke's heart stopped when he saw Cassie go
barreling into the burning barn in her wedding dress. He ran faster
than he even knew he could after her, then stopped at the door for
a second to search inside for her. He saw her at the far end of the
row of stalls to the left, opening stall doors and swatting horse's
rears to get them moving toward the front. The horses blocked his
view of her, and he heard galloping hooves coming toward him and
dove out of the way at the last minute to keep from getting
trampled. Honey was first out, followed by the roan mare that Bud
usually rode, then his big black gelding and a couple of
others.
He went to go inside, but stopped when he
heard more frantic hoof beats then saw two more horses run out then
head around the side of the barn. He stepped inside yelling
Cassie's name and with his arm bent over his nose to try and keep
the smoke from overwhelming him.
Through the thickening smoke he saw her
running to the right side of the barn where she'd put Titan and the
new mares. He ran that way to intercept her, but saw someone else
instead. James Barton stood by Titan's stall with a gas can in one
hand and a gun in the other. He had the gun pointed directly at
Cassie.
"Barton!" Luke yelled and pulled the gun he
wasn't supposed to be wearing out of the holster under his tux. The
man spun around with the gun aimed at him and pulled off a shot.
Luke dodged to the right and flattened himself against a stall,
then raised his gun and fired a shot at James' head. Somehow the
man managed to avoid being hit, so Luke fired off two more shots.
One hit him square in the forehead and the second hit him in the
chest. A shocked look came over Barton's face, then he fell face
forward into the dirt. Good riddance, Luke thought and yelled for
Cassie.
He could barely see her through the smoke
now, and he yelled her name again. She didn't respond, but one at a
time, the new mares ran past him toward the front of the barn. Luke
saw hot flames were licking at the rafters now and would reach the
hayloft momentarily. When that happened, he knew the place would go
up like matchsticks. Luke covered his mouth and eyes with his
forearm again, then ran down the aisle toward Titan's stall. He
stepped over James Barton's body, then flicked open Titan's stall
door and slid it open. The horse ran past him, and he slapped his
rump to keep him moving.
Coughing violently, Luke stumbled further
down the aisle looking for Cassie. He saw a pile of white material
sticking out from under the last mare's stall and a pair of white
cowboy boots. Panic surged through him and he ran to her and picked
her up in his arms and took off for the front of the barn.
Behind him, Luke heard timbers snapping
further back in the barn, before they crashed to the floor with a
loud boom. Cinders and ashes floated in the air around him as he
ran. Luke was lightheaded from inhaling the smoke, and his lungs
burned like they were on fire too, but he kept focused on reaching
the door of the barn. It was the only way he was going to save
Cassie and his baby.
Orange flames were licking at the left wall
now, climbing along the ceiling, so Luke knew their time for
surviving was running out. He ran faster, but his legs were getting
weak and didn't seem to want to cooperate. Finally he saw light
through the smoke and ran outside then collapsed to his knees with
Cassie in his arms. He set her down then fell down himself.
Cassie moaned as she started to come awake,
fighting at whatever was covering her nose and mouth. Her throat
burned, and her lungs felt like they were roasted, and every muscle
in her body ached. Finally able to open her eyes she looked around
at all the faces surrounding her, staring at her with worry, and
then looked at the blue-uniformed man kneeling beside her. "Are you
hurt anywhere ma'am?" he asked her then pressed his fingers to her
throat. She shook her head from side to side, but then thought
about the baby, and panicked trying to sit up. The man pressed her
back down and she yelled with tears in her eyes, "I'm
pregnant!"
"You'll have to have the baby's health
checked out at the hospital. An ambulance is on the way..."
"I'm not going to the hospital, I'll go to
my doctor..." she told him raspily, then Luke's absence by her side
hit her, "
Oh, my god,
where's Luke?" Cassie wailed and
managed to get up even though the medic was trying to keep her
lying down.