Chapter 20
TWENTY
The beer Rob handed him was refreshingly cold for his hot, dry throat.
But it was the solid whack on his back that had a part of him relaxing despite the muscle ache and fatigue. They’d gotten it done, and under one helluva deadline. Their buddies were sweaty and dirty like they were, but they were all smiling as they looked at the newly sodded area, not a trace of mud anywhere. Dax let himself feel the satisfaction of getting the job done, focusing on Ariel getting her house and his buddy being happy, despite the reality that Rob would soon be marrying a natural catastrophe.
“You sons of bitches!” Rob lifted his beer to their group. “The best group of friends a guy could ever imagine having.”
They all took another drink, although no one had known Rob was going to toast. Dude was getting sentimental.
“Manual labor definitely wasn’t in the plan.” Carson put his hand to his back and arched with a wince. “I haven’t been this sore since basic training days.”
“You’re a bunch of wimps.” Perry stomped one of the pieces of sod in further with his shoes. “I used to mow lawns for extra money in high school. Made me miss the old days.”
Dax snagged him with an arm around his neck as Gunner and Frank hooted. “You’ve plumb lost your mind. I’d mow any lawn over digging out mud. Slides on you like a bitch.”
“Yeah, but we’re done.” Rob tucked his beer in the crook of his arm and pulled out his phone. “Let me text my bride and let her know.”
Dax eyed the time on the phone. It was 5:15. The rehearsal started at six in the lodge. “We’d better get our butts to the showers and change.”
“In a sec.” Rob was grinning as he closed his text. “Tiff’s going to be so happy when she sees this. Jesus, I never thought it would happen.”
“Me either.” Dax spotted Ariel amidst a group of dressed-up women coming their way and smiled. “We have Ariel to thank for pushing the resort. I think they were going to default.”
Carson slapped him on the back. “Your girl knows how to get shit done. If you screw things up with her, I’m going to jump in. She’s not only cute as hell, but she’s a sweetheart. And then there’s her dog.”
“Sherlock rocks.” Frank’s deep voice carried. “Makes me want a dog.”
“Me too,” Dax admitted. “One of my first tasks when I get my full discharge.”
Carson grabbed him and punched him in the shoulder. “You’re going to end up with some purse dog, aren’t you?”
His buddies snickered. Even Rob. He flipped them a discreet bird because there were ladies on the scene. Turning, he watched Ariel’s face transform from radiant to stern as Tiffany waved a hand in their direction. Whatever she was saying didn’t please Ariel. No surprise there. Then Ariel was crossing the grass toward them. Rob must have noticed because his mouth twisted before he took a deep draw from the bottle.
“Why do I have a bad feeling all of a sudden?” Gunner muttered. “If they ask us to pick up a shovel one more time, I’m going to whimper.”
“You always were a wimp.” Perry snorted, setting his weight. “It’s like when I was mowing lawns. There’s always someone who wants to find fault with a job well done.”
They all turned to watch Ariel walk toward them. Noticing their regard, she pasted a smile on her face. Dax got that pit in his stomach too.
When she arrived, he called out, “What’s wrong?”
She hurried the rest of the way until she was standing among them, looking like a slice of fresh lemon pie in her yellow dress with a white shawl. “Don’t kill the messenger. I told Tiffany I would confirm that there’s nothing to be done about the sod lines.”
Sod lines?
“You’ve got to be kidding!” Dax muttered before clamping his mouth shut in response to Rob’s narrowing gaze.
“You mean besides the grass needing to fill in and grow?” Carson asked sarcastically. “We can’t make that happen. She knows that’s Mother Nature’s job, doesn’t she?”
She sighed heavily, her mouth twisting. “I know that, and I told her. She’s concerned you’ll be able to see them in the photos and videos…”
Rob swore under his breath and drained his beer. “I’ll talk to her. You guys get changed.”
They watched him run off. Dax wished he could slip his arm around Ariel, but he was filthy. “Let him handle it. If she can’t see what a goddamn miracle we’ve delivered here, then she’s?—”
He broke off, anger churning.
“The biggest bitch this side of Biloxi?” Carson suggested, raising a brow. “Or is Biloxi your territory alone, Dax?”
“At this point, I don’t care, and now I’m reeling it back in.”
Gunner took another drink. “Probably best, although I feel ya.”
Perry and Frank both nodded. Yeah. No one was happy about Rob’s choice. Tiffany just couldn’t give them a reason they should be fully behind Rob marrying her, could she? After all that work, was it too much to ask for a simple thank you?
He told himself to focus. Ariel was getting what she wanted, and while it seemed crazy to Dax, so was Rob.
Ariel was chewing on her bottom lip. “I’m sorry. I know it’s beyond unreasonable. I personally think all of you are awesome. If I needed anyone to help out at a disaster site, I’d call you guys in a heartbeat.”
“We’d be there, sweetie,” Carson answered before Dax gave him a playful shove. “Ooh, somebody’s jealous. Ariel, I told him that if he messes up, I’m going to make a play. Fair warning.”
“Jeez, Carson, lay it on thick.” Perry grabbed him around the shoulders and started perp-walking him toward their cottage, Frank taking the other side. “We’ll see you two later.”
“I mean it, Ariel!” Carson called as Gunner whacked him in the back of the head. “My feelings can’t be denied.”
Ariel was laughing as she regarded Dax. He rolled his eyes. “Carson’s a funny guy.”
“I like him. All your buddies. They’re polite and serious and hardworking as well as good-natured. Exactly what I’d expect in your friends.”
Dax turned at the sound of raised voices. Rob stood beside Tiffany on the path. He was pointing at the grass emphatically, his face red, while Tiffany crossed her arms over her chest and yelled something back. Rob flinched and turned and stalked off. Tiffany followed, heels clacking, calling out after him.
“They don’t look very happy to me.” Dax took a sip of beer, only to find it had soured for him, likely because of the scene they’d just witnessed. “I wish I felt better about this.”
She gave a heartfelt sigh. “I know, but it’s not our decision.”
“That’s what I keep telling myself.” He looked down at himself. “Jesus, I need to get changed. I’m filthy.”
“I’ll come with you and escape the drama.”
They started back for the cottage. Marshall and Ripp and the other Lord of the Flies boys ran over.
“Did you finish?” Marshall asked, reaching them with one shoelace untied.
Dax nodded only to hear the kid mutter a pretty bad swear word. “Hey!”
“Like anyone cares,” Marshall spat back, sunburned and sweaty. “So the wedding is still on?”
Ariel leaned down and nodded. “Yeah, it’s still on. Everyone appreciated your help. You guys did a great job.”
“Like we had a choice.” Ripp took a rock out of his pocket and winged it onto the grass. “Mom didn’t make Dad help. He had to play golf. Like always.”
“I hate golf,” one of the other boys huffed out.
“It’s not my favorite game either.” Ariel gave them a thorough look. “You guys look pretty good, but you’d better stick to the sidewalk. Your moms are going to complain about dirt and water on your shoes and slacks.”
“Who cares?” Marshall called, running off.
The others gave their own version of put-out children before running after him.
Dax shook his head. “Have you ever seen a more miserable group of kids?”
“Marshall’s clearly not happy, but who can blame him? He has to move away from everything he knows with all the other changes. That’s hard as a kid. I remember being angry at his age when my parents got divorced. Suddenly my whole world was upended. I wasn’t particularly happy either.”
He bit back a retort that she couldn’t have been that disagreeable. But then he spotted Jeffrey practically dancing toward them on the path with two brown paper sacks in his hands. He’d already changed and had on something Dax could never imagine looking good in—a blue seersucker suit.
“Hey, Jeffrey!” Ariel called as they started over toward him. “You look like the cat who swallowed the canary. What’s going on?”
When they reached him, he had a twinkle in his eyes. “Come with me and you’ll see.”
“Dax needs to shower?—”
“And you’ll get there in time to wash his back, I promise. This will only take a sec. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this.”
They followed him all the way to the edge of the beach. “Jeffrey, what are you up to?”
He handed one sack to Ariel and the other to Dax. When the sack moved, Dax practically jumped out of his skin and dropped it. “What the hell?—”
“Hang on!” Jeffrey pulled out his phone and crouched down in the sand. “I’m all set. Dax, will you please empty the sack onto the sand. Carefully. No peeking.”
“Jeffrey, there had better not be a baby alligator in here,” Dax warned, opening the sack and sliding the contents onto the sand.
A large crab took a few steps before digging its claws in, as if trying to anchor itself.
“A crab?” Ariel swung and gazed down at her brother with her mouth open. “Jeffrey?—”
“Open your sack, sweetie.” He winked. “We’re about to have fun and take care of your problem.”
She opened her sack and started laughing. Dax peered over and then laughed with her. Her wig was nestled inside.
Jeffrey leaned in for a closeup. “Now, put your wig on the crab, and then you’re going to watch them both head off into the sunset—and the ocean—while I film it.”
“Oh Jeffrey!” Ariel was sputtering with laughter beside him. “You’re going to get into so much trouble.”
“I don’t care. Your mother was horrible to suggest a wig. I thought this would be a fitting way to have it disappear. Uncle Johnny didn’t bring his beagle, so your original idea wasn’t going to work. This way, I’ll have a video proving the crab simply up and walked away with your hairpiece.”
Dax was guffawing as the crab walked on the sand, the wig perched on its body. They were only some dancing starfish and calypso music away from being in an animated feature. “That’s awesome, man!”
“I thought so.” Jeffrey followed the crab’s progress, bent over at the waist. “It’s a special wedding memory that will always make you laugh. We can’t only have horrible memories of mud pits and wedding dresses not fitting! It’s time to take something back, people, and this crab is going to help us do it.”
“Power to the people,” Ariel shouted, putting her fist in the air.
Together, they watched the crab walk across the sand, the fake hair bobbing in the setting sun. When it reached the tide, they cheered. The crab practically flung itself into the ocean like its life depended on it while the wig floated out to sea.
When it started to come back in with the tide, Jeffrey stopped recording and ran toward it. “No, no, no. Go out! Shoo!”
Dax turned to Ariel, shoulders shaking with laughter. “Is your brother shooing your wig?”
Wiping tears, she nodded with a wide grin. In the waning light, she looked young and carefree and happy. Even covered in mud like he was, he felt the same way.
“He actually is. Oh God, Jeffrey’s right. This is a memory I won’t mind having about this wedding.”
She took his hand despite the mud caked on it. He decided it was only a little mud, so he squeezed hers tightly, swinging it playfully in the air. “Of course I have lots of other great memories, Elizabeth.”
Turning to her, he watched the waning sunlight highlight the precious angles of her face and the gold highlights in her hair. A lopsided smile appeared on her beautifully shaped mouth. “We both do.”
As the wig finally floated out into the ocean before disappearing from sight, Dax realized he was excited to see what was to come—even for the wedding.