Chapter 44
CHAPTER
FORTY-FOUR
Harry sat on the couch in a beautiful family room in the Silver Sage Mountain Lodge.
This beautiful property sat a few miles north of Dog Valley in the foothills of the Teton Mountains, with plenty of state forest surrounding them.
Harry and Belle had chosen it for their wedding as they had a gate that could close and cameras everywhere to alert them if people came onto the property.
The upscale facility boasted robust accommodations for guests doing events there, from conferences to concerts—to the wedding that he was about to participate in.
“Smile,” Bryce said, and Harry looked up at his cousin. Bryce snapped a picture and then sank on the couch next to him. “You seem pretty chill for your wedding day.”
“I’m a mess inside,” Harry told him with a grin.
He glanced down at the tiny infant in his arms—six-week-old Matthew—who snoozed peacefully as if nothing was happening around them. “He’s helping a lot.”
“He’s the best,” Bryce said, plenty of fatherly love and fondness in his voice. “You think you and Belle will have kids right away?”
“I don’t know,” Harry said. “She’s a little bit older than me, but I think it’ll take us a little bit to figure out how to just get along with each other.” He chuckled at the same time Bryce said, “Oh brother, you guys get along great.”
Harry and Belle did get along great, and he loved her with his whole heart and soul.
They’d stayed at Silver Sage Mountain Lodge last night, and he’d asked all of his family to be there by noon for a three o’clock wedding.
That way, the lodge could clear the area, make sure the media wasn’t there, and close the gate.
Harry had deliberately kept the date, time, and location of his and Belle’s nuptials off social media, but internet sleuths and those who really wanted to know could find out almost anything.
In the family room, there was a foosball table and a pool table and a giant big-screen TV—enough to entertain kids for a while, which Harry and various aunts and uncles had been doing for the past couple of hours.
Belle’s family consisted of her daddy and a couple of brothers and sisters-in-law, and they’d stuck together over in one corner of the room, probably cowed by the pure size of the Youngs.
He hadn’t seen Ev or Belle’s mom in the room at all, and he didn’t expect to.
Aunt Hilde and the other aunts had been in and out, all of them exclaiming about Belle’s dress this or Belle’s hair that.
A pit opened in Harry’s stomach, and yes, he couldn’t wait to see her come down the aisle toward him.
The bridal suite sat on the second floor, and she would come down a magnificently carved staircase to the aisle and then toward him.
She wasn’t an extravagant woman, but as she’d planned the wedding, he’d learned that she did like nice things.
He didn’t care how much anything cost, because his money was just rotting in the bank anyway, and he wanted her to have whatever would make her happy.
Someone stepped in front of him, and Harry glanced up to look at his daddy. “Uh oh,” he said, seeing the look on his father’s face. “What’s that look for?”
Daddy’s jaw jumped, his teeth tight together, and his eyebrows had drawn down into an angry V. “Your mother is at the front gate,” he said. “And she can’t get in.”
“I’ll take him,” Bryce said quickly, and Harry transferred the sleeping baby to his cousin’s arms. He stood up and went with his dad, his own displeasure coursing through him.
“She didn’t even tell me she was coming,” he said.
“No?” Daddy asked.
Harry shook his head. They left the family room and found Boston standing there. “Hey, Harry,” he said. “I’ve got your mom on the line.”
He took Harry into an office, all the while with Harry wondering what in the world was going on. “She called you?” he asked.
“No,” Boston said, cutting a look out of the side of his eye. “But there was a slight problem with the catering that I was handling, and so when the call came in, the secretary grabbed me real quick.”
“Problem with the catering?” He looked over to his father, who shrugged one shoulder.
“It’s handled,” Boston said, and Harry swung his attention back to his cousin.
“Yes, but why are you handling it?”
Boston swallowed and said, “I happened to be right there, and I knew what to do. If I overstepped—”
“No, no,” Harry said, waving his hand. “I didn’t mean that.” He grinned at Boston. “You’re a good man, brother. Thanks for taking care of me and Belle.”
He looked at the secretary, who nodded to the landline. Harry hadn’t used one of those in forever, but he picked up the black receiver and held it to his mouth and ear. “Mom?” he asked.
“Oh, thank goodness,” his mother said in her rich, model voice, now slightly frustrated. “They are refusing to open this gate.”
“Yes,” he said. “Because you had to be here by noon. The whole facility is locked down for the wedding today. We bought it out, and we have every room, every event space.”
He didn’t want anyone on-site but those he had personally invited—and could be here by noon.
“Well, my plane didn’t land until one o’clock,” she said.
“I was very clear in my invitation,” he said.
“Harry,” she chastised, and he recognized the frustration in her voice. “I am your mother.”
“Who’s with you?” he asked.
“No one,” she said. “I came myself.”
“A driver, then,” he said.
His daddy put his hand on Harry’s arm, and he looked up. He couldn’t believe he was seriously considering denying his mother the opportunity to be at the wedding. He leaned closer to his father as he whispered, “They can send someone out to get her.”
He sighed and rolled his head, stretching his neck. “All right, Momma, they’re gonna send someone out to get you.”
“I don’t see why they can’t open the gate and let my driver bring me in,” she said.
“Because I don’t want anyone here who was not invited,” Harry said crisply. “If you can’t wait for them to come get you, then you can’t come.”
He didn’t have the bandwidth for this today, and he handed the phone back to Boston. He fumbled it and then raised it to his ear as well. “Yes, yes,” he said. “They’re sending someone right now.” He nodded to the secretary, who picked up another phone to take care of this.
Harry left the office and stood out in the hall with his back pressed to the wall, taking one deep breath after another. “It’s fine,” he told his father when he joined him. “She’s one person. There’s room for her.”
Boston exited the office and said, “I can shadow her, Harry, make sure she’s not going to be a problem.”
“Where’s the wedding planner?” Harry asked. “Shouldn’t she be doing that?”
Boston grinned at him and drew him into a tight hug. “I’m kind of helping her out today,” he said, and he bustled off down the hall.
Harry watched him go. “They should hire him here,” he said. “I don’t even want to know what other problems he’s handled or what other fires he’s put out today.”
Daddy chuckled and said, “No, you probably don’t.”
“Come on, let’s get back to the family room, because it’s almost time for you to be at the altar.” In the room, Daddy closed the doors behind him, and then raised both hands above his head and whistled through his teeth. That got everyone to settle down.
“Harry has to leave in a couple of minutes, and he wanted me to say the family prayer.”
Harry stood next to Adam, who held Joey’s hand, and they all looked at his dad. Shushes and murmurs of “Uncle Trace is going to say a prayer” moved around the room, and then Daddy took off his cowboy hat.
Harry hadn’t put his on yet—and he didn’t even know where it was—but he clasped his hands in front of him and bowed his head.
“Dear God,” Daddy said. “We’re grateful to be gathered here together as family in this beautiful mountain setting, to watch two people in love unite themselves as one.
Bless both Harry and Belle to have clear minds and open hearts and to listen to the advice given to them today.
We’re grateful for the knowledge that we are Thy sons and daughters, and bless us to do good and to carry Thy name well. Amen.”
His daddy never said more than necessary, but Harry added his “Amen” to the chorus of them moving through the room. The door opened as if on cue, and the wedding planner poked her head in and said, “I need the wedding party in the hall and the groom at the altar,” in a crisp, no-nonsense voice.
Harry moved into action then, because he didn’t want Belle to have to wait for him for a single extra moment. He hugged his daddy, who clapped him on the back and said, “I’m so excited for you. Try to listen to everything.”
“I will,” Harry promised, and he took the black cowboy hat from his father and positioned it on his head.
Then he hugged his grandmother and his grandfather, and moved on to Bryce and Codi. By the time he made it out of the room, the wedding party had lined up off to the side, and he had to hug every one of them, too.
Liesl and Cash, Corinne and Eric, Cole and Rosie, Boston and Beth, Bryce and Codi, Kassie and Reggie, and finally, Adam and Joey.
He loved them both in unique ways, and as he clung to his former manager and best friend who didn’t have the last name Young, Harry silently recognized in just how many ways Adam had saved him over the years.
He pulled back and said, “Love you, brother,” before he turned and went with the wedding planner.
She took him down the hall, then jogged to the left, and they went down another side hall and then through a door that ran through a narrow passageway and emptied into the big ballroom—where he was to be married.