Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
NAT
I had traveled around the world with only my camera as my one constant companion. I’d photographed landscapes and people alike, loving them both equally, but one thing I’d never done was a wedding. This month, I’d taken photos at two.
It was Will’s big day—t-minus forty-five minutes until my sister was going to walk down a petal-strewn aisle at an outdoor ceremony. Along with my sisters, Momma, and Gran, as well as Will’s best friend, Avery, I was holed up in the dressing room stationed in the upper loft of the barn we’d rented for the weekend.
Much like Havenbrook in general, this space had also changed drastically in the time I’d been gone, and I couldn’t believe the transformation.
“I still can’t get over the fact that they turned the Pritchetts’ old decrepit barn into this ,” I said, a note of awe in my voice as I glanced around.
The loft dressing room was large and open, white couches and chairs scattered throughout and a vanity in the far corner, perfect for hair and makeup. On the east wall, French doors opened up to a balcony that overlooked the barn below, where rows of long wooden tables were set up for the reception later tonight and thousands of white lights were strung from the beams. It certainly was a far cry from the rubble Asher, Nash, and I used to wade through just to find someplace private to sneak a couple beers.
“Yeah, well, that’s Rory’s hard work for you,” Will said from where she was seated in front of the vanity, eyes closed as Avery swept eye shadow across her lids. “This was, what, your fifth job together?”
Rory nodded. “Something like that. It’s definitely the biggest one we’ve ever tackled. This place was a mess . Nash was mad as all get-out I’d even taken it on—always worried about me comin’ in here because of how dangerous it was. He started leavin’ hard hats everywhere, just in case I forgot mine.”
I huffed out a laugh and shook my head. The man Rory was in love with was a far cry from the troublemaker I had grown up with. The one who’d dared me to walk from one beam to another in this very barn, with nothing but air below me. “He never made me wear a hard hat when we came around.”
“Probably thought your head was hard enough,” Gran said.
“Probably,” I echoed. “Y’all remember when me and the guys used to sneak out here all the time?”
“I remember havin’ to drag your sorry butts home more than once,” Mac said with an eye roll. “The last time was the summer before I started college. You remember that? Hudson was with me ’cause Will bailed.”
“Hey,” Will said. “I just wanted to spend time with my friends before goin’ back to school.”
Mac shrugged. “Doesn’t change that you bailed.”
“Wait a minute,” Momma said, pinning me with a glare even as she fastened Will’s necklace. “I distinctly remember forbidding you from settin’ foot here sometime around Memorial Day that year.”
Rory snorted, smoothing a wayward strand of hair back from Will’s face. “Momma, since when has forbidding Nat from anything done any good?”
“She’s got a point,” Will said, even as Avery applied lipstick. “You probably only made it that much more enticin’ to her.”
“Rude.” I raised my camera to my face and captured Momma making sure Will’s necklace was sitting just so as Avery applied Will’s lipstick. “True, but rude.”
My mom expelled a put-out sigh. “Honestly, Nat, is it any wonder your daddy’s got a head full of gray hair, all of ’em courtesy of you?”
Laughing, I adjusted my camera’s settings as I focused on Will’s dress hanging in the window, the light pouring in around it. “Sorry, Momma, but that’s why I left Havenbrook so quick. Me and rules don’t work so well together.”
“Speakin’ of leavin’…” Gran said from her perch on a love seat, her eyes on the crossword puzzle she’d been working through. “How’ve you been handlin’ bein’ here? Gotta say, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine you’d be back in Havenbrook.” She lifted her eyes, her gaze studying me. “And settlin’ down, no less.”
Settling down…right. God, I hated lying to everyone. Hated that I couldn’t just be honest with them. Though, really, what would that honesty look like now? The basis of my marriage with Asher may have been false, a means to an end, but the more time we spent in the same house…in the same bed…was starting to make things between us feel awfully damn real.
“It’s weird but good, Gran.”
“And how about Asher?” Momma asked. “It looks like he’s been handlin’ things all right, but is he really? This must be so stressful for him. Losin’ his sister and now fightin’ for those kids.”
“I’m sure Nat’s been helpin’ him take the edge off,” Gran said, winking.
“Gran!” I said on a laugh. “You perverted old woman. What’s the matter with you?”
She shrugged, completely unrepentant. “I was once a newlywed, too, you know.”
“Well, I’m not sure I need to hear all that,” Momma said. “From either of you. But I would like to hear how y’all’ve been doin’. How’re things?”
“They’re…” I trailed off, shaking my head. It felt wrong saying everything was fine when the custody was still up in the air, June was about to start therapy, and Asher still didn’t have a job. Not to mention our entire relationship was a farce. “Things are hard, but we’re figurin’ them out.”
“I have no doubt you two are.” Momma smiled and swept my hair behind my shoulder. “Y’all always were so good together. I know you and Nash have been friends longer, but you and Asher…” She shook her head. “Well, y’all just had a spark, you know? I’ve always thought so.”
“Me, too,” Gran said. “And that’s certainly something that can’t be faked.”
I snapped my gaze to Gran, where our eyes locked. I studied my grandma, trying to suss out if I was reading more into it than I should, because it’d felt an awful lot like my gran had picked those exact words for a reason.
“Me three,” Avery said, sorting through a makeup carrier that rivaled my camera bag. “I thought you guys were together for the longest time. Figured Will just wasn’t in on it when she told me it wasn’t true.”
I glanced down, busying myself with swapping out my lenses. “Yeah, well…”
Will cleared her throat. “I, um, I hope my askin’ him to play today didn’t add any stress.”
Relieved that I didn’t have to wade any further into that, I met my sister’s gaze and shook my head. “No, not at all. He’s playin’ y’all something new he just wrote.”
“Oh, he’s still been writin’?” Will asked, her brows raised.
“He’s been sneakin’ in a bit of it when he can. Why do you sound surprised?”
“I didn’t realize he was still doin’ that, is all.”
“’Course he is. Why wouldn’t he be?”
“Well, I just…” Will glanced at everyone else before meeting my gaze again. “I guess I just assumed with the kids and all that he’d have to find something a little more practical.”
Funny how it sounded so different coming from my sister’s mouth than it had coming from my daddy’s. I knew Will was just looking out for us. Experience told me Daddy was just trying to control us.
Ever since that day we’d gone to my parents’, the whole practicality thing had been weighing on Asher a hell of a lot, which meant it had been weighing on me. He loved music like I loved photography, and I couldn’t imagine what kind of life I’d have if I had to give it up. His guitar was as much an extension of himself as my camera was to me. But the facts didn’t look great for pursuing a music career in a town with a population a fraction of one of the stadiums Asher had played on tour.
Mac cleared her throat and tipped her chin toward the camera clutched in my hand. “You know we’ve got somebody to do that, right?”
I blinked and glanced down, snapping myself out of my thoughts and the worries that would most definitely still be there to greet me tomorrow. With a shrug, I said, “Somebody who’s not gonna do it as well as I am.”
Rory rolled her eyes. “Maybe instead of worryin’ about makin’ sure we’re gonna get the perfect pictures, you should focus on gettin’ dressed so you don’t walk down the aisle in that.”
I glanced down at myself and then met my sister’s gaze with a raised eyebrow. “What, you don’t like my shorts and tank top? Are they not appropriate wedding attire?”
“Why do you insist on bein’ such a pain in my butt all the time? Would it kill you to be ready early so you don’t get Will all anxious for nothing?”
“Seems to me Will isn’t the one gettin’ all worked up,” I said from the balcony, snapping an overhead shot of the reception site set up below. “And relax. All I need to do is slip the dress over my head. Considerin’ you still need to pull the stick out of your ass before you walk down the aisle, I figure I’ll be ready ahead of you anyway.”
Mac huffed a laugh at the same time our momma said, “Aurora and Natalie, that’s enough. As if your sister doesn’t have enough to worry about today, now she’s got you two squabblin’ in her ear.”
Will waved her off and met our gazes in the mirror. “Honestly, Momma, I’ve tuned them out…haven’t heard a word they’ve said.” She closed her eyes and blew out a slow breath. “Can’t focus on them when it feels like I’m gonna throw up.”
“Throw up? Are you pregnant?” I asked sarcastically, since every woman of a certain age—read fifteen to fifty—couldn’t say she wasn’t feeling well without being accused of pregnancy.
“Would you shut up?” Mac said, slapping my arm. “She’s not pregnant. She’s just nervous.”
“Actually,” Will said, her hands pressed to her stomach as she looked at each of us in turn. “I don’t know if it’s nerves or the pregnancy. It could be either.”
There was a moment of shocked silence before everyone erupted at once, swarming around Will where she still sat at the vanity. It was a chaos of hugs and happy tears, everyone working hard not to ruin the makeup we’d spent hours applying.
“You brat,” Rory said. “When Daddy asked Finn the other week at Sunday supper, he said y’all use protection!”
“Yeah, and condoms are only ninety-eight percent effective, genius.” Mac rolled her eyes.
“Oh, sweetheart, this is wonderful.” Our mom hugged Will from behind, her eyes shiny with tears.
“Gettin’ in a little good trouble, I see,” Gran said as she squeezed Will’s hand.
“Not intentionally,” Will said. “But maybe that’s the best kind.”
“What’d Finn say when you told him?” Mac asked.
I raised my brows. “ Have you told him?”
“Yeah. He’s…” Will glanced down, a small smile on her face. “He’s already ordered onesies with The Willow Tree logo on them.”
My sister was always beautiful, but right then, she was stunning. Especially with all the women in our family surrounding her…supporting her. I held up my camera, needing to document the moment, despite that I wasn’t in it. That was the whole reason I’d gotten into photography in the first place. Wanting to capture those pockets of time that slipped past all too quickly. Ones we could never get back.
I snapped several shots, feeling a little smug that if I hadn’t brought my camera, this wouldn’t have been captured, regardless of the other photographer on the payroll.
“Holy shit,” Avery said, shaking her head as she squeezed Will’s hand. “I can’t believe you’re gonna be a mom .”
Will breathed out a watery laugh, her eyes wet. “I know, right?”
“That’s enough of that now,” Rory said, blotting a tissue under Will’s eyes. “We don’t have time to redo makeup, so there’ll be no more tears.”
“You heard the sergeant.” I tucked my camera back in its bag. “No cryin’ allowed.”
“Well, this has been quite the month, hasn’t it?” Gran said. “Three of the Haven girls married, one pregnant, and one steppin’ right into a built-in family…”
The smile slipped from my lips as Gran’s words sank in. Yeah, I’d stepped into a built-in family, all right. One I wasn’t going to get to keep when this was all said and done. One I’d never wanted for my life in the first place.
So then, why did the thought of leaving when this was all over fill me with so much dread? Why did I miss them before I was even gone?
I shoved that thought down and cleared my throat. “It’s not quite a built-in family yet. We’ve gotta get custody first. The late nights and early mornings have been real, but it’s all just temporary for now.”
“Are y’all really worried about Asher gettin’ permanent custody?” Momma asked, shooting a concerned glance to Gran. “I thought you were just sparrin’ with your daddy when you mentioned it at our house.”
I lifted a single shoulder. “I don’t know if I should be, but, yeah. I am. The Haywards haven’t even called to check in on the kids, but they’ve got money. Connections. You know as well as I do exactly what that means.”
Ironic that I was facing down the one thing I’d run away from my whole life.
“Well, surely Judge Seville will do what’s best for those kids,” Momma said.
“C’mon, Momma, Seville’s a good old boy, and he and Asher have bad blood. Hell, all three of us do, except Daddy got me out of that trouble, like he did everything else. I just hope it doesn’t affect the outcome.”
Because I didn’t know what I’d do if the Haywards were granted custody. I’d always liked June and Owen, having hung around them whenever I’d been home, but in the weeks I’d spent in their presence practically twenty-four seven, I’d come to love them. And Asher…losing them after his sister would be a blow I wasn’t sure he’d come back from.
There was a knock at the door before Daddy poked his head in and froze, his eyes meeting each of us in turn. He stepped into the room and cleared his throat.
“Y’all just about ready? The minister says it’s time,” he said, his voice gruff.
“Just gotta get my dress on, Daddy,” Will said from her perch, still wrapped up in her silk robe. “And I guess Nat does, too.”
He stood there for a moment before nodding and then turning away. “Two receptions in one month is hard enough on the wallet. Sure hope I’m not payin’ by the minute for this,” he grumbled, shutting the door behind him.
“Stubborn ass can’t even say we look nice,” I said with an eye roll.
“Yeah, well, you don’t.” Mac shoved my garment bag at me. “Get dressed while we help Will, would you?”
“Still, he could’ve said something ,” I said as I draped the dress over the back of a chair.
“You know Daddy complains about money when what he really means is I love you,” Rory said, unzipping Will’s dress as Avery held it up so it didn’t drag on the floor.
Momma hummed. “He may not have said the words, but it certainly wasn’t allergies makin’ his eyes wet.”
“She’s right, you know,” Gran said. “The fool doesn’t know how to tell y’all how much he loves you, but he does.”
I couldn’t attest to that. And I certainly wouldn’t hold my breath to hear it from the man, since I never had in all my twenty-six years. Probably some daddy issues to work through there, but my docket was already full to bursting, so I’d have to save it for another time.
I stripped down and tossed my shorts and tank into my oversized purse before slipping into my bridesmaid’s dress. “See? I’m ready, and y’all are still gettin’ Will situated.”
“Thanks for your help, by the way,” Mac said with an eye roll.
“Before we go out there,” Avery said, fixing Will’s veil, “I just wanna thank you for makin’ me maid of honor so I can walk down the aisle with Drew. I truly appreciate it.”
Will laughed. “You and I both know it’s not Finn’s twin your eye’s gonna be on.”
“Oh, really ,” I asked. “And who might this other guy be?”
“I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”
“Mhmm, sure you don’t,” Will said wryly before turning around to face us.
Momma pressed a hand to her mouth and shook her head. “You look so beautiful, sweetheart.”
Everyone else murmured their agreement as we stood around the bride. Will’s dress was off the shoulder with a sweetheart neckline, a fairy princess gown made of all tulle. Lace roses trailed down the skirt, petals scattered about.
I stepped in front of my sister and handed her the bridal bouquet. “You ready to do this?”
Will accepted the flowers with a smile. “Been ready for years.”