“And no mistletoe,” Olivia said under her breath. “Just magic.”
“And meddling,” Benny murmured, looking away. He wasn’t sure he wanted to see his mom do that, but still, he felt his whole face break into a smile. Olivia giggled and held her hand out for a secret low-five.
“Operation Mistletoe Madness for the win,” she said, looking smug.
“You’re crazy,” he said.
“Oh, here he is!” Nicole called out, waving them all inside. “Red is here!”
The automatic doors opened again, and Grandma and Aunt Cindy came out pushing a wheelchair. And there was Grandpa. Pale, tired, still in his Santa pants and jacket.
“We have good news and better news!” Aunt Cindy announced, rolling him forward. “Dad is healthy and discharged and free to go home. And, not quite as important but still exciting, I just got a call that we were chosen by Aisle Files to be their featured wedding.”
A noisy cheer went up, but not from Benny, who couldn’t possibly care less about the wedding stuff. All he could do was stare at Grandpa, who lifted his hand and crooked a finger to get Benny closer.
“C’mere, Benny-bean.”
Benny bolted forward, flinging his arms around Red’s middle so hard the chair rolled back an inch. “You scared me! You scared everybody!”
Red patted the back of Benny’s head. “My ticker’s fine, just a little rebellion from the second dog you told me not to eat.”
“You should listen to me, Grandpa.” Benny straightened and looked at the face of a man he loved more than anything in the world. “I told you hot dogs are dumb.”
“Yeah, well,” Red wheezed, smiling weakly, “you can’t fix stupid.”
Everybody laughed, and it sounded like music to Benny’s ears.
Benny clung to Red’s arm all the way to the parking lot. He kept glancing up, just to make sure his great-grandpa was still breathing, still cracking jokes, stillthere.
When they finally piled into the cars and trucks to head home, Benny leaned his head against the window and looked up at the night sky. The snow had stopped. The stars were back. Red was going to be fine.
He whispered, just loud enough for himself to hear, “Thank you.”
The Aisle Files checklist was a map of sheer insanity.
Cindy stared at the unexpected email that popped upthree hours before the rehearsal dinner.
Dominique said she’d stop by today for a quick walk-through, but she never showed, texting that she’d send an email with instructions instead and try to come by “later.”
There was a later?
Cindy and Jack had done a rehearsal with Nicole and MJ, her only attendants, and Red, who was Jack’s best man. In the days since the visit to the ER, her father had been quieter than usual, but back to himself. Benny, their ringbearer, was rarely more than a foot from the old man’s side.
Jack had left for the airport to pick up his mom, and Cindy had been on her way to the empty cabin that MJ had designated as her “bridal suite” when she made the mistake of stopping in her office.
And there it was—the email from hell.
The subject line from Dominique glared at her in bold capital letters:
ABSOLUTE MUST-HAVES FOR VIRAL COVERAGE — FINAL!
Cindy groaned, letting her eyes skim the endless document. The bullet points had sub-bullets. The sub-bullets had footnotes. There were timestamps and suggested audio clips and little purple lightning bolt emojis calling out “trend moments.”
The words blurred as Cindy blinked and read out loud.
“‘Flat-lay of invitation suite with silk ribbon and vintage stamps (borrow if necessary)— include heirloom jewelry box for ‘legacy’ emotional resonance.’”
What did that even mean? Would a snow globe work? She glanced at the one on the shelf near her desk.
