Harry sat on the couch in a beautiful family room in the Silver Sage Mountain Lodge. This beautiful property sat a few miles north of Dog Valley in the foothills of the Teton Mountains, with plenty of state forest surrounding them. Harry and Belle had chosen it for their wedding as they had a gate that could close and cameras everywhere to alert them if people came onto the property.
The upscale facility boasted robust accommodations for guests doing events there, from conferences to concerts—to the wedding that he was about to participate in.
“Smile,” Bryce said, and Harry looked up at his cousin. Bryce snapped a picture and then sank on the couch next to him. “You seem pretty chill for your wedding day.”
“I’m a mess inside,” Harry told him with a grin.
He glanced down at the tiny infant in his arms—six-week-old Matthew—who snoozed peacefully as if nothing was happening around them. “He’s helping a lot.”
“He’s the best,” Bryce said, plenty of fatherly love and fondness in his voice. “You think you and Belle will have kids right away?”
“I don’t know,” Harry said. “She’s a little bit older than me, but I think it’ll take us a little bit to figure out how to just get along with each other.” He chuckled at the same time Bryce said, “Oh brother, you guys get along great.”
Harry and Belle did get along great, and he loved her with his whole heart and soul. They’d stayed at Silver Sage Mountain Lodge last night, and he’d asked all of his family to be there by noon for a three o’clock wedding. That way, the lodge could clear the area, make sure the media wasn’t there, and close the gate.
Harry had deliberately kept the date, time, and location of his and Belle’s nuptials off social media, but internet sleuths and those who really wanted to know could find out almost anything.
In the family room, there was a foosball table and a pool table and a giant big-screen TV—enough to entertain kids for a while, which Harry and various aunts and uncles had been doing for the past couple of hours.
Belle’s family consisted of her daddy and a couple of brothers and sisters-in-law, and they’d stuck together over in one corner of the room, probably cowed by the pure size of the Youngs.
He hadn’t seen Ev or Belle’s mom in the room at all, and he didn’t expect to. Aunt Hilde and the other aunts hadbeen in and out, all of them exclaiming about Belle’s dress this or Belle’s hair that. A pit opened in Harry’s stomach, and yes, he couldn’t wait to see her come down the aisle toward him.
The bridal suite sat on the second floor, and she would come down a magnificently carved staircase to the aisle and then toward him. She wasn’t an extravagant woman, but as she’d planned the wedding, he’d learned that she did like nice things. He didn’t care how much anything cost, because his money was just rotting in the bank anyway, and he wanted her to have whatever would make her happy.
Someone stepped in front of him, and Harry glanced up to look at his daddy. “Uh oh,” he said, seeing the look on his father’s face. “What’s that look for?”
Daddy’s jaw jumped, his teeth tight together, and his eyebrows had drawn down into an angry V. “Your mother is at the front gate,” he said. “And she can’t get in.”
“I’ll take him,” Bryce said quickly, and Harry transferred the sleeping baby to his cousin’s arms. He stood up and went with his dad, his own displeasure coursing through him.
“She didn’t even tell me she was coming,” he said.
“No?” Daddy asked.
Harry shook his head. They left the family room and found Boston standing there. “Hey, Harry,” he said. “I’ve got your mom on the line.”
He took Harry into an office, all the while with Harry wondering what in the world was going on. “She calledyou?” he asked.
“No,” Boston said, cutting a look out of the side of hiseye. “But there was a slight problem with the catering that I was handling, and so when the call came in, the secretary grabbed me real quick.”
“Problem with the catering?” He looked over to his father, who shrugged one shoulder.
“It’s handled,” Boston said, and Harry swung his attention back to his cousin.
“Yes, but why areyouhandling it?”
Boston swallowed and said, “I happened to be right there, and I knew what to do. If I overstepped?—”
“No, no,” Harry said, waving his hand. “I didn’t mean that.” He grinned at Boston. “You’re a good man, brother. Thanks for taking care of me and Belle.”
He looked at the secretary, who nodded to the landline. Harry hadn’t used one of those in forever, but he picked up the black receiver and held it to his mouth and ear. “Mom?” he asked.
“Oh, thank goodness,” his mother said in her rich, model voice, now slightly frustrated. “They are refusing to open this gate.”
“Yes,” he said. “Because you had to be here by noon. The whole facility is locked down for the wedding today. We bought it out, and we have every room, every event space.”
He didn’t want anyone on-site but those he had personally invited—and could be here by noon.
