Chapter 29
twenty-nine
T ucker Hammond paced in the big kitchen of the farmhouse where he’d grown up.
It was his wedding day.
A day he simultaneously thought would never come and yet had arrived all too soon. Because there he was, turning in a pair of black shiny cowboy boots, wearing a tuxedo, and fretting over everything.
“I’m so nervous,” he said, shaking his hands as he approached his father. “Were you nervous like this when you married Momma?”
Daddy chuckled. “Yes, son. How you feel is pretty normal. Come sit down.”
Tucker absolutely could not sit down. Even on a good day, when he knew exactly what to expect, Tuck had a hard time sitting still. He certainly couldn’t do it on a gorgeous autumn day like today—when he’d been told to stay in the farmhouse and not come out until Hunter came to get him.
“Shouldn’t he be here by now?” Tuck paused behind the chair kitty-corner from Daddy and leaned both hands on the back of it. “Doesn’t the wedding start at ten?”
“Sure does,” Daddy said, completely unconcerned that the clock read nine fifty-eight and no one had come to get him.
Bobbie Jo had planned the wedding with her momma and his—both of them helping long distance. Molly, Jane, and Opal had gone with Bobbie Jo for her dress fittings, the catering appointments, and to rent all the physical facilities they needed.
She’d wanted to get married on his family farm, since it was the central hub for all Hammonds and where they’d met.
Tuck hadn’t complained about the venue. He loved his family farm in autumn, and Mother Nature had played nicely this year. The trees still had their gloriously golden leaves, the bright reds, the oranges, and the burnt rusts.
They’d staged the wedding over in the family picnic area, which had a wide lawn, a couple of pavilions, and two grills. Tuck hadn’t helped with any setup; Bobbie Jo had hired someone for that.
He looked toward the front door, then the back. He had no idea which way Hunter would enter. He just wanted him to come. Now.
Right now!
The words screamed in Tucker’s head, and he pushed away from the chair and resumed his pacing when Hunter didn’t come through either door.
Deacon sat at the table with Daddy, as did Cord and Mike.
Tarr sat over on the couch with Keith and Mission.
Along with Tag, they comprised Tucker’s groomsmen, and he sighed as he looked over to Opal’s husband in the kitchen.
He held a can of Diet Coke, finished it, and tossed it in the recycling bin.
“Hunt’s coming across the back deck now,” he said.
Tucker straightened, every nerve in his body suddenly on fire.
Sure enough, Hunter pulled open the sliding back door and poked his head in. “We’re ready for you guys.” He stepped inside and closed the door behind him—which was the wrong thing to do if they were ready.
“Do you want to do a prayer, son?” Daddy asked.
Tucker’s gaze flew to his father. “Yes,” he said, the word choked.
Oh, how he hoped he wouldn’t sound like that when he said I do to Bobbie Jo.
He wanted the day to be nothing but magical for her.
She cared a lot more about what their wedding looked like and felt like than he did, and he’d promised he’d be on his best behavior.
If it were up to him, he’d have married her on the side of the road with just the two of them. When he’d told her that a couple of weeks ago, she’d laughed, shaken her head, and said, “Silly cowboy, we can’t do that.”
And so, there he stood, watching as Tarr, Mission, and Keith got to their feet. Everyone came over and gathered around the dining room table. Hunter stepped between Tucker and Tag and took Tuck’s hand.
“Will you do it, Daddy?” Tuck asked, finding his father’s hand and gripping it tightly.
“Absolutely,” his father said.
Daddy had aged a lot in the past couple of years, and as Tuck pulled down his cowboy hat and bowed his head, he silently thanked God that his father was still alive.
“Dear Lord,” Daddy said. “We gather before Thee as Thy sons on this sacred and hallowed day where Tucker and Bobbie Jo have chosen to get married.”
Tucker’s emotions wavered and flooded his body, pricking at him and testifying to him that this was indeed a sacred, holy moment.
“Lord, we ask Thee for patience—with each other, and with Thee.
We ask Thee to bless Tuck, that he can be patient with Bobbie Jo, and that she will be patient with him.
We ask Thee to bless them with an abundance of love and compassion, not only for each other, but for those around them.
They are both good people doing a lot of good things, and we ask Thee to please use them as instruments in Thy hand to bless and serve Thy children wherever they are.
“We’re grateful that we get to make commitments to each other and to Thee, and ask that all of us here at the wedding will be able to reflect on those sacred commitments and covenants we have individually made, set right any wrongs in our lives, and continue on the path of faith Thou hast chosen for us. ”
Someone at the table sniffed, and Tucker almost burst into tears.
Thankfully, Daddy kept going. “We love Thee, Lord, and ask for any other blessings Thou hast in store for us at this time. Amen.”
“Amen,” echoed around the kitchen in the deep rumble of male voices.
Tucker barely had time to put his cowboy hat back on before Hunter drew him into a hug. “This is the best day of your life, brother,” Hunter said with pure joy in his voice.
Tuck clearly remembered Hunter’s wedding. He’d been nine years old, and his father and uncles had danced down the aisle to rock music.
His older half-brother had always been his idol, so Tuck gripped him hard and said, “I love you.”
“Love you too, Tuck,” Hunter said.
He went around the circle, hugging everyone, and then they lined up in order.
He expected Tag and Opal, Cord and Jane, Keith and Lindsay, and Mike and Gerty to walk together.
Deacon was taking one of Bobbie Jo’s roommates, Cara, down the aisle, and Mission would escort the other.
He’d told him he could walk with Kristie, but Mission had said it was fine.
Kristie didn’t know Tuck and Bobbie Jo all that well, and it was a thirty-second walk down an aisle.
Momma and Daddy would already be seated for the ceremony.
Tarr would have Briar on his arm. Tucker prayed for her every day, morning and night.
If Tarr wasn’t at her house taking care of her, then Bobbie Jo was.
Tucker had been over a few times himself, and Briar had healed quite well in the past three weeks.
She’d moved from walking with a crutch, to a cane, and today, Tuck expected to see her in a sturdy pair of boots and nothing more.
As he embraced Tarr, he had the distinct thought that he would be Briar’s crutch that day. Honestly, Tucker thanked God every evening when Tarr returned to the house in one piece. Briar wasn’t exactly easy to get along with, and Tarr refused to let her run him off.
Tucker knew the exact turmoil that lived inside Tarr. He’d experienced it himself when he’d watched Tarr get hit by a bull and lose consciousness before he even landed on the ground. That helplessness and pure fear—he wouldn’t wish it on his worst enemy.
Tarr hadn’t ridden in a rodeo in a while, but the man had been born with nerves of steel. He could come home at night, completely exhausted and sobbing…and four minutes later be ready to ride again.
The men left the house in a single file line, with Daddy slipping out the front since he wasn’t part of the wedding party. Hunter led them, as he’d been doing for many years now, and joined up with Molly near the fire pit area.
“Where’s Bobbie Jo?” he asked.
The family picnic area sat on the other side of a line of pine trees and down the road about one hundred yards. He had teased Bobbie Jo that they could get married on horseback and ride off into the sunset, but she’d planned a morning wedding without equines.
Or so he thought.
Everything shifted as he watched cowhands from the farm and Pony Power arrive with horses.
Molly’s fall had been almost three months ago now, but she still accepted help from Hunter and a cowboy named Rich to get into the saddle.
Hunter swung onto his horse beside her, and Tucker started to laugh as the entire wedding party mounted up.
Finally, Matt Whettstein steadied Freckles for Tucker. The moment he landed in the saddle—tuxedoed and ready to be married—Hunt said, “Tuck, you’re supposed to be up here.”
He moved Freckles to the front of the line, the only solo rider in the group. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Head to the altar,” Hunter said. “It won’t be that hard, trust me.”
Tucker swallowed and faced the road. He moved past the pine trees, the big tents immediately coming into view in front of him.
As he got closer, he realized there were two tents for guests, with a wide aisle between them and open sky above.
He knew right where to aim his horse, and he took Freckles down the aisle as the crowd stood and watched from both sides.
He would definitely be getting married on horseback, because the altar stood as tall as Freckles’s chest, and Pastor Benson climbed several steps to stand behind it as Tuck arrived.
“Hello, Pastor Benson,” he said as Bobbie Jo had asked Molly’s father to marry them.
“Good morning, Tucker,” Pastor Benson said jovially. “That’s a beautiful horse you’ve got.”
“He’s the best.” Tuck turned to watch the rest of his wedding party clip-clop down the aisle toward him. They arrived, each of them dismounting and tethering their horse to poles set up in a semicircle behind the altar.
The only person missing was Bobbie Jo.
Tuck turned his horse to watch for her. He expected to see her from farther away, so surprise bolted through him when her father stepped out from the back of the tent on his right, and her horse, carrying her, emerged on the left.
Had he ridden right past her and not seen her? Impossible.
She rode a horse, her glorious white wedding dress cascading in a waterfall of fabric over the left side of the animal. She rode side saddle, with thick straps coming up over her shoulders and a beautiful pearly white cowgirl hat perched on her head.
She looked like royalty, and for Tucker, she was certainly his queen.
Her daddy led the horse toward Tuck. When they arrived at the altar, he handed the reins to Pastor Benson.
Tucker couldn’t tear his eyes from Bobbie Jo. “You are so beautiful,” he said aloud.
She smiled at him and leaned forward. “You gotta turn around, cowboy,” she said in a much quieter voice.
A few people still laughed as Tucker quickly moved his horse into position.
Pastor Benson held out his hand. “Can I have your reins too, Tucker?”
Tucker leaned forward and passed them to him. Pastor Benson lifted both sets of reins into the air. That brought the horses closer together, their noses nearly meeting at the altar.
“Today,” he called into the crowd. “We unite the hearts, minds, and lives of Tucker Hammond and Bobbie Jo Hanks.”
He quickly looped the reins together. “We make this union symbolically with these ties, but their covenant and commitment are real and binding between them and God.”
He looped the joined reins around a handle protruding from the front of the altar that Tuck hadn’t even noticed until now.
He’d always been bored at weddings, but as Pastor Benson started in about what it meant to be married and to put another person’s cares and needs above his own, Tucker tried to stay present.
After all, this was his wedding day—and he planned to only have the one.
Pastor Benson spoke about sacrifice and compromise, and Tuck questioned so many things. He was right in the middle of rodeo season, and the moment he and Bobbie Jo came home from their honeymoon, he’d be off again. Another place. Another event.
And for what?
He didn’t need the money. He simply didn’t like standing still.
He didn’t know what the right answer was, but he’d lived the last year of his life asking God to show him the way. And Tucker felt like the Lord had; he didn’t want to keep asking for an answer he’d already received.
So he basked in the warmth of the autumn day and the pastor’s words.
When it was his turn to say I do , he did it.
“And do you, Bobbie Jo Hanks, take Tucker Allen Hammond to be your lawfully wedded husband? To love and to cherish, to serve and to build a life with?”
“I do,” Bobbie Jo said.
Tuck finally let his nervous energy get the best of him. He reached up, grabbed his cowboy hat, and threw it into the air as he whooped.
Pastor Benson laughed, as did many in the crowd. “You may kiss your bride, Tucker.”
Tuck quickly slipped from his saddle and climbed onto Bobbie Jo’s horse with her, taking her into his arms and sealing their marriage with a kiss he hoped wouldn’t be too embarrassing for her.