Chapter 24 #2
“I had so many ideas. I wanted to make your dress, hand-write beautiful linen invitations, and have Trudy make those divine sugar roses for the cake. I was going to plan you the most beautiful wedding there ever was, but y’all decided you’d rather have potbellied Elvis at your wedding…”
Linc snort-laughed. He couldn’t help it.
“...than your own momma who spent twenty-three excruciating hours in labor bringing you into this world.”
Damn. Lacey could teach a master class on guilt trips.
“Momma.” Britt sounded so dismayed, it made his heart ache. “I said I was sorry.”
“I know you did. It’s fine.”
With that tone? It definitely wasn’t fine.
“I’m going to plan you a respectable wedding with a proper reception.” Lacey spoke like it was a foregone conclusion they’d go along with whatever she decided. “I’ll be here for the week helping with Sebastian while your brother attends his seminar, so it’s settled.”
Right. That’s why she was here. Linc remembered Britt telling him Dex was speaking at a medical seminar this week.
There was a time when he was on the fast track to being drafted into the NFL until one tackle his sophomore year in college took his knee out along with any hope of playing professionally.
He’d switched his major to sports medicine and had been working for the college as the team doctor for its football team since before Linc had met Britt.
“Momma…”
“It's settled.” Her tone left no room for argument. “I don’t care if you're already technically married. I want to see your daddy walk you down the aisle in a white dress.”
Thankfully, Linc managed to bite his tongue before his sarcasm got the better of him because he almost added he’d love to see Hank Callaway in a white dress too. That would have gone over well. Not.
Britt must’ve read his mind because she bumped his knee with her own and gave him a stern look. He should probably be scared by how well she knew him, but it was more comforting than anything
“Momma, I really can’t take any more time off from work to fly to Louisiana for a wedding. Linc has been swamped at the station and can’t take time off either.”
“Em and I do have a lot of special events we’ve been hired for,” he confirmed on cue. Well, there was at least one as of right now. That could be stretched to “a lot,” right?
“Sugar, I’m going to plan y’all the wedding you should have had. That can’t be whipped up overnight. It’ll take a good year to organize everything, so I’m certain you can clear a week in your schedule with that much notice.”
She wasn’t asking. She was telling. That was crystal clear.
“But we’re already married,” Britt protested weakly.
“Yes, and marriage is sacred, so now you’re going to do it the right way.”
Jeez, Lacey, would it kill you to pull a few punches?
“You only get married once,” Lacey told them.
The irony that she wanted them to have a second wedding wasn’t lost on him.
“You know how your daddy and I feel about divorce, but you’d never try to be the death of me like your brother, isn’t that right?”
And there it was. Passive aggressiveness at its best. Bring up Dex’s divorce and sprinkle in some preemptive psychological manipulation.
“I have no intention of letting her go.”
The pleased expression on Lacey’s face belatedly made Linc realize he’d spoken those words aloud. What threw him was the fact he meant every word.
“Then having a second ceremony won’t be a problem.”
“You’re right,” he agreed for no other reason than to end this conversation before he said something else he shouldn’t.
The pointed what-the-hell-are-you-doing glare Zana nailed him with prompted him to put an arm around her shoulders and pull her in for a side hug.
Kissing her temple, he added low enough that her mom didn’t hear, “We’ll figure it out. ”
Lacey’s smile was dazzling. It was exactly the same as Britt’s when she smiled full-on. Which definitely wasn’t now.
“Then it’s settled,” Lacey confirmed. “I’ll make a list of everything that’ll need to be done, and we can go over some details while I’m here.
Your dining table is the perfect place to lay out a dream board.
Once Dex comes home in the evenings, he can wrangle Seb, and I can come here and work on it without interruption.
I love Seb more than anything, but that boy is an eight-year-old wrecking ball wrapped in a T-shirt.
He’d never be able to stay away from it. ”
With a puzzled frown, Britt cocked her head, like a puppy who’d heard an odd sound. “So, you’d come here after Dex gets home, then go back after you work on it?”
“No, I mean I’ll work on it while I’m staying here.
” Lacey pointed at the floor. “I was going to stay with your brother, but since you’re a married woman now, I may as well stay here.
I can go over to Dex’s in the morning before he leaves for the day.
No reason to disrupt his space when your house is sitting empty. ”
“Empty?” Linc and Britt questioned at the same time.
“I don’t see any of his things here, so I’m assuming you moved in with Lincoln?” They both must have looked dumbstruck because Lacey added, “You are married now, correct?”
Britt looked up at him with wide eyes. He knew she didn’t have anyone else here as backup, but he liked to think she would have sought him out for reassurance even if there had been. He wanted to be the one she depended on.
Eyes locked on Britt’s, he gave a succinct nod. “Correct.”