Linda’s dark blond eyebrows pinched together above her pert little nose.“You’re pretty too.”
The child was adorable.“Thank you.You’re very kind to say so.”
“Belle’s prettier, though,” Linda added.
The child was perhaps a shade more refreshing than adorable.“Who is Belle?”
Adeel poked his head into the kitchen and caught her question.“Belle is the bride.”
Malika processed the new information.So.The bride was beautiful.Her family had money.She didn’t see that Jayce had much cause to complain—assuming he was the groom.Was he the groom?She hoped not, for the bride’s sake.He lacked appropriate enthusiasm for the upcoming union, and it didn’t bode well for their household.
“I’m going to take a walk while you ladies are busy.Breakfast can wait until I return,” Adeel added.
Adeel could go for a stroll if he liked, but she’d had fittings before and this promised to be a very long morning for her, and she wasn’t going to starve herself.She swiped a roll and an orange from the basket.
“Would you like something to eat too?”she asked Linda, who selected an apple.
Once her stomach was appeased, Malika soon found herself standing on a squat stool, draped in fabric, and resembling a human pincushion.She was becoming more curious about the woman who was more beautiful than she with each passing prick of a pin and longed for a distraction.Linda was absorbed in a picture book while eating her apple, so she was no help.
“Tell me about the bride,” she said to the seamstress.“I know she’s the great-granddaughter of a very important man.And who is the groom?Why would they invite my brother to their wedding?”
“Belle is the town’s doctor,” Pearl said around a mouthful of pins.“The groom is Beau Jones.”
Beau Jones?TheBeau Jones?Malika could no longer breathe, and not only because Pearl had her waist cinched too tight.“The country music singer?The one from Diss Cord?”Shelovedthat show.She’d watched every season online with her sisters and nieces.
“That’s him,” Pearl said.She stuck another pin in the fabric, mercifully missing Malika’s delicate skin.“Ali is the reason Belle and Beau found each other.Beau came to Burning Scrub as part of your brother’s adventure.It seemed only right to invite him to their wedding.”
I love you, Adeel.He must have found out she was a fan and arranged this as a surprise to make up for her marriage to Eli Chamas.And discovering that the beautiful cowboy wasn’t the groom made her ridiculously happy for him, considering he was so dour.
“Weddings are a reason to celebrate,” she said.Unless, of course, one was to become a second wife.“Yet I got the impression that Jayce isn’t very happy about it.”
Linda glanced up from her book.“Jayce loves Belle.”
“Linda,” her mother said, frowning at her.“It’s not nice to talk about people.”
Malika and her sisters gossiped all the time, and Jayce being in love with the bride sounded very romantic and tragic, and exactly the type of gossip they adored.Except he had aging parents, and he couldn’t afford to be romantic and tragic forever.
“Jayce is an attractive man, and he owns land.Another woman equally suited to him will surely come along,” she said.
“Surely,” Pearl murmured, then bent her head over the hem of Malika’s new skirt and jammed pins into the fabric with alarming and dangerous speed.
“Beau says he’ll have a hard time finding a woman good enough for him because he’s too perfect,” Linda added, proving she might be a difficult child to silence, but she had excellent hearing and missed very little.
Was Jayce too perfect?
Malika was inclined to disagree with Beau Jones’s assessment.In American terms, the cowboy might be considered acatch, but in her opinion, something crucial was missing from him.
Pearl frowned at her daughter.“Beau likes to tease Jayce.He’s not always careful about who might be listening.”
Malika’s brain snapped its fingers.That was it.The missing piece.Jayce lacked a sense of humor.It explained why he was so bad at flirting.Even if he did find another woman more suited for him, their household would be miserable if his attitude didn’t improve.At least he had his wonderful mother to recommend him.She’d make an excellent mother-in-law.
If only he’d learn how to flirt and be fun.
Pearl jabbed a final pin into place and picked up a piece of chalk.She began marking the plackets on the bodice.“The women are having a bridal shower for Belle this evening.You’re welcome to join us, if you’d like,” she said to Malika.
The seamstress’s desire to turn the conversation could not be more obvious.A bridal shower had possibilities, though.As Malika understood it, men were excluded, and she’d be free from Adeel’s supervision.
Except, if she managed to escape him this evening, she might not get to meet Beau Jones.
