The driveway was already packed with cars, and it brought with it the familiar crawl of anxiety that I wasn’t controlling the scene here. It made me itchy.
Opening the door for Sage, I helped her out, giving her a little look over. She looked beautiful, but tense from all the excitement of the afternoon. It made me want to ask Ellis if something had happened that I should know about. There was a distant look in her eyes that had me asking, “You okay?”
Opal was already unbuckling and squirming out of the truck, sprinting for the door, talking about cake for Cheese, while I watched Sage try to lie and say she was fine.
“Yeah. Just processing.” She gave my hand a little squeeze. “Let’s go help these yahoos.” The smile came back on full force. “We’ve got good food and good company. It’s going to be a killer afternoon.”
“Sounds like a date,” I murmured, watching her go.
The yard between the porch and the greenhouse was already becoming party central. We had cranked up the speakers so the music wafted through the air, and everything looked phenomenal, from the clusters of chairs Sage and her sisters had set up to the bouquets of flowers everywhere.
By the time Kipp and Hattie showed up, rumpled and smiling from what I’d guessed was a quickie on the way here, wehad trays of barbecue: ribs, smoked brisket, chicken, and sides galore. My mouth was watering just looking at what the Holy Pig had delivered. I’d already caught Wade and East sneaking food like they were starved.
“Wow! I thought this was casual.” Kipp’s eyes were dancing as he took in the spread, his arms looped around Hattie protectively.
“This is us casual.” Wade shrugged. “Everyone needs to eat and shit. Gigantor, here decided catering was the way to go.”
“Gigantor? Man, eat a dick.” I knocked into him, making him spill his beer.
Hattie snickered at us before wiggling out of his arms. “I’m off to find the girls and mingle.”
“Trouble.” The nickname was almost a whine, and I’d tease Kipp about how he held out his hand to her, but I couldn’t because there was a lump in my throat watching them.
“Happiness looks good on you,” Cole was saying. The fire chief had brought his little girl, Elvie. She was currently playing with Opal on the swings under Maggie’s watchful eye. “You’re lucky as fuck. Hattie’s too good for you.”
“Don’t I know it,” Kipp agreed easily with a smile, watching Hattie as she gushed over the wedding cake. “Damn, Phiny and Lila went all out. That thing is a monster.”
“You know them.” East gave his wife a fond smile. “Lila said Hattie needed a wedding cake, and once they started talking about wedding cakes, they decided it didn’t need to be small.” He gave Kipp a sly smile. “There’s a coconut layer with that lime curd you like. Lila let me have a sample piece.”
“Well, we do need to eat.” He gave a longing look at the cake. “Doesn’t mean we should have all the things. Barbeque and wedding cake seem like the best celebration food ever.”
We settled in to enjoy the afternoon, and I chatted easily with Wade while we watched the small crowd until finally Sage called Kipp and Hattie for their first dance. Apparently, a dance floor wasn’t a requirement.
“Alright, newlyweds. Time for that first dance!” Sage called from where she stood beside Phiny. She nudged Hattie, and the group cheered, raising their glasses as Kipp corralled Hattie from where she was chatting with a local.
I moved over to Sage’s side, where she leaned against the porch, watching Kipp twirl Hattie across the grass in some crazy two-step as Hattie laughed. To his credit, he wasn’t wincing at her terrible dancing. She wasn’t as bad when it was slow, which was good, because when it was line dancing, she resembled a giraffe on crack.
“Can I fix you a plate?” Brushing the hair from her cheek where it had gotten tangled in her sunglasses, I bent in for a light kiss. “I’m going to make one for Opal.”
“Sure.” She linked her pinky with mine for a second. “Extra mac and cheese.”
“You got it.” Giving her one more peck on the cheek, I kept an eye on her as she mingled with Phiny and chatted with a woman whose name I couldn’t remember. I filled two plates, trying to find things Opal would eat. She was at the stage where she wanted all her food not to touch, and she didn’t like meat on the bone, so the ribs were out.
“Boss, did Sage talk to you?” Ellis had edged up next to me at the tables, his own plate filled nearly to overflowing. “I’m taking this back to the gate so I can let people in. I figured she hadn’t yet. It’s been kind of busy with the wedding. That Cedric dude in her shop?”
My teeth ground together. “Spit it the fuck out.” Carefully, I cubed chicken for Opal, trying to picture it as ‘that Cedric dude’.
“He was getting way too close to her.” Ellis shifted on his feet before picking up the potato salad spoon and serving himself a hefty helping. Apparently, he didn’t care if his food touched.
“What the hell am I paying you for?” I grumbled. “Nobody is supposed to get close to her.”
Viola, the woman from the police department, glanced my way with eyes wide in alarm.
“Not that close,” he corrected. “And he made some comments that were off. My gut says red flag.”
I’d checked his background months ago, and it had come up clean. Maybe it was too clean. My brain went into overdrive. He was someone Sage hardly talked about in any meaningful way, except to mention whether he was going to cover her hours or open the shop. He seemed like a reliable employee. Even now, nothing stood out to me. If memory served, he was in his late thirties and had moved here from California.
Ellis was rarely wrong, though, and his instincts were spot on. That was why I’d asked him to handle the close protection detail in the first place. If he was picking up something weird, then we needed to take another look.
