There were three vehicles parked in the driveway. The car belonged to Reese’s mother, the blacked-out Cadillac Escalade to RT and Z, and the truck was Brantley’s dad’s.
“Did you know they were comin’ over?” Reese asked.
“Nope.”
They slowed to a walk, and before they reached the house, another vehicle came down the driveway. This one Baz’s.
“Is this an intervention?” Brantley asked as people began pouring out of their vehicles.
“That’s what I asked,” Z said as he headed toward his mother’s car, opening the rear passenger door.
“We brought breakfast,” Cindy explained.
“And the to-do list!” JJ called as she came toward them, her iPad in hand. “I wanted one last meeting before we’re all too busy to breathe, much less talk.”
“If you stress too much, you’re gonna pop, young lady,” Iris told JJ. “Why don’t you let me carry that?”
Brantley’s mother took the iPad from her hand and headed for the front door.
JJ looked at Brantley, her eyes wide. She mouthed, “Seriously?” It was followed by a giggle.
Well, the good news was that JJ didn’t appear to be stressed. Not yet, anyway. Of course, that would change as soon as she learned that their rings were missing. Or once he admitted he hadn’t yet written his vows. He figured for sure she was going to ask about one or both of those things, and he knew it would be wise to come up with a plausible excuse—or a flat-out lie would work too—before she did.
Brantley followed everyone up the steps and into the house. Reese looked back at him, his eyes intent.
“I won’t say anything about the rings,” he promised.
Although now would probably be a good time. There were enough people around to stop JJ from kicking both their asses. Probably. Then again, Iris and Cindy were also there, so he figured the ass-kicking might commence anyway.
***
“I know you’re all rollin’ your eyesbecause you’re invited to another meeting that probably should’ve been an email,” JJ told the group as she got comfortable on Brantley’s couch.
“We’re not complainin’, honey,” Iris said, passing JJ her iPad. “You can have a dozen more and—”
“Don’t encourage her, Mom,” Brantley interrupted. “Let’s get this one outta the way before we sign up for any more.”
JJ grinned. She was surprised by how relaxed she was this morning. She thought for sure she would be falling to pieces at this point, but the truth was, she’d spent a lot of time and effort on putting this wedding together, and she’d been careful not to miss a detail. Aside from getting the grooms to the altar, it was pretty much ready to go.
Or it would be tomorrow morning when the crew of people she’d wrangled went down to the lake to get everything set up. Maybe she should’ve been worried about that, but she wasn’t. More so because she knew that Brantley and Reese didn’t care. And she meant that in a good way. They would deal with whatever was thrown their way and make it work. She envied that they could rely on one another for their happiness. She liked to think she’d found that with Baz.
“Y’all grab food, and I’ll run down the list,” JJ told them.
For the next half hour, she did exactly that.
JJ explained how the vendors would deliver various things tomorrow morning—chairs, decorations, etc.—and that they would meet at the lake to get everything set up. She’d even assigned who would do what, and to ensure nothing was missed, she had a backup for each person.
She had Baz pass out a timeline to each person. It walked them through every step, from waking up to the grooms getting dressed to them proclaiming their undying love for one another in front of God and everyone.
Once they all agreed on that, she gave them the finalized seating chart, which Cindy and Iris had put together. Everyone looked it over, and thankfully, there were no issues. She figured there might be a few hiccups tomorrow, but nothing they wouldn’t be able to handle easily.
Rather than give them a list of all the payments made to vendors, JJ read off the remaining items they needed to pay for and explained her plan to take care of those before the wedding.
It wasn’t surprising that no one had any questions about anything. JJ had kept everyone apprised of what was going on for the past few months to avoid surprises.
She set her iPad down and shifted to look at all the faces around her. “The rehearsal dinner is tonight, and I’m happy to say that Rex called me last night and said he’s all set to have it at the B and B.”
“Not at Moonshiners,” Baz said, his forehead creased.
