Chuckling, Bryce said, “Guess we timed that one perfectly.” Then he called out, “We’re back, Dad!”
“Right on time,” Gray yelled over the sizzle of bacon grease.
Bryce gave me a crooked smile. “Told you.”
We both kicked off our shoes and went to the dining room table, where Aggie already sat with a cup of coffee, flipping through one of those free clothing catalogues that comes in the mail.
“See anything good?” I asked her, nodding to the booklet.
“This is more a way to pass the time than anything else,” she admitted as Gray handed me a cup of coffee. “Actually, I—” Her eyes landed on my hand, featuring the new piece of jewelry Bryce had gifted me.
“So it’s official?” she asked, a smile growing on her face. “It’s official?” she asked Bryce as he sat next to me.
Bryce wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Just a couple of weeks left for her to back out now.”
My eyes widened. “Only two more weeks?” I asked. How was that even possible?
“You helped me set the date!” he said.
Aggie watched us with an amused smile.
“I know, it’s just...” I looked down at my hand, at the way the sapphire caught the light from the fixture dangling over the table. “It’s gone by so fast.”
“Get used to it,” Gray muttered, setting a plate of bacon in the middle of the table. “Life’s like a roll of toilet paper. Goes faster the closer you get to the end.”
I stared at him, a slow smile crawling across my lips. “I’ve never heard that one before.”
The four of us sat around the table, talking about wedding plans. There was a small venue in the city we were planning to use.
“You’ll be the first brother not to get married in Cottonwood Falls,” Gray commented sadly.
I looked over at Bryce, noticing sadness flicker over his face before he said, “I didn’t know that was an option.” There was meaning behind the words that I assumed had something to do with Gray’s initial reaction to our appearance.
Gray said, “I know it’s probably too late, but I would love for you to have it here. If you haven’t told all your other guests about the other location yet.”
Bryce and I exchanged a look. He opened his mouth to speak, but I instantly said, “I’d love to have it here. All my family is gone except my grandma, so it means a lot to me to have Bryce’s family around.”
My husband-to-be looked at me, surprised. “Really? It’s a long drive for Glamma.”
“Can you send her in a limo?” I asked. “Along with some of her friends?”
He grinned and nodded.
“Then she’ll be happy,” I said.
And Bryce chuckled. Then he looked at his dad. “You sure about this?”
Gray nodded, opened his mouth to say something, but then the front door banged open, and we looked over to see a redheaded boy with short curly hair and freckles dusted across his nose running through the house. “We found a snake outside!” he cried excitedly.
Gray’s eyebrows crunched together. “It’s too cold for a snake.”
A younger girl with strawberry-blond hair ran up behind the boy, holding out her arm to show a slithering, writhing thing just a couple feet away from me. I shrieked.
“Take it outside, Vi,” a woman called as she walked in the door, matching red hair knotted above her head in a messy bun. As the girl and her brother ran out through the sliding glass back door, she said, “I’m sorry. Hayes was distracting me.”
A man walked in behind her, tattoos visible everywhere his sweater didn’t cover, all the way up to his chin. “Can’t kiss my wife without causing a panic,” he groused.
I stared between them, remembering the pictures Bryce showed me. “Della and Hayes?”
