30. Mags
30
MAGS
As soon as the men drag Red away to get ready, I turn to my girls with one thing on my mind–something I have to do for my husband-to-be.
“I need your help,” I say, immediately garnering everyone’s attention.
“Whatever you need, Mags. You’ve got it,” Dee replies.
Cora nods. “If we can do it, we will.”
Star just smiles and Charlie wraps her arm around my waist, holding me close. Love my girl .
“We can’t get Wy here,” Lee says, reading my mind without even trying. “It’s logistically and physically impossible. Believe me.”
“Firstly, you need to stop bein’ in my head because there’s no way you could know that’s what I was goin’ to ask.” Lee just smiles and taps her temple, not needing to say a thing. Maybe I should be thanking Anna instead.
" But I do think there’s a way we can have Wy here with us,” she continues.
I tilt my head. “Whatever it is, it has got to be worth a try, right? Wyatt needs to be here for Red. For me. For us . It doesn’t feel right that he’s not.”
“OK. Then we’ve got work to do because we need to talk to Wyatt and probably his captain too if we’re goin’ to try and pull off a miracle,” Lee explains. “But that’s for me to figure out, Mags.” She moves to stand in front of me, her hands coming to rest on my shoulders. “All you have to worry about is gettin’ ready for your weddin’.”
“Lucky last,” I add.
“Of course it is, you’re marryin’ your One,” Cora says, making me smile.
“Which is where I come in,” Star announces, appearing out of nowhere holding a bunch of garment bags in her hands. “Mags here is goin’ to knock Red’s socks off when she walks out into the arena.”
Char grins over at me. “I can’t believe you’re gettin’ hitched at the rodeo. Then again, I kind of can.”
“Please tell me you’re goin’ to do a Cora and wear cowboy boots with your dress too,” Dee asks.
A slow-growing smile curves my lips as warmth fills me up. "Oh yeah. Anythin' else would be a crime."
We move inside the camper Red and I have been calling home, Star going ahead of us so she can hang up the garment bags with Dee’s help.
Once I’m inside, she holds out one of them for me. “When Red messaged us yesterday callin’ for all hands on deck, I just knew this was the dress for you.”
With a lump growing in my throat and shaking fingers, I unzip the cover to reveal a stunning lace and satin dress with delicate beadwork shimmering in the soft light. Simple yet elegant.
Tears well up in my eyes as I run my fingers over the intricate details, feeling the weight of the moment settle on my shoulders. This may not be my first wedding, but it is the only one that matters. Suddenly it’s hitting me that very soon, I’ll be walking down the aisle to my best friend to say I do.
“Oh, Star,” I whisper, my voice barely above a breath. “It’s perfect.”
Star beams, her eyes glistening. “He’s goin’ to be speechless, Mags. Red won’t know what hit him when he sees you in this.”
“That’s the plan, Right?” I whisper.
After that, the camper becomes a hive of activity, all of us taking turns to clean ourselves up and get our makeup done by Cora and Lee while sipping wine they brought with them.
When it’s my turn to undress, Charlie and Star gather around me, helping me slip into the gown carefully. Star helps slide my cowboy boots onto my feet while Cora secures the veil from her own wedding in my hair.
“You look absolutely beautiful, Mags,” Lee says, her voice thick with emotion.
“It’s all the dress,” I say, unable to stop smoothing my hands over the material.
"Nuh-uh. That's all you," Star says, shaking her head. "Simple but elegant. And the boots are chef’s kiss.”
All the women nod and make sounds of agreement.
“If my veil is something borrowed, what else do we need?” Cora states.
“Your ring is somethin’ new,” Star adds.
Char giggles. “Somethin’ old could be Red.”
"Hey!" I gasp. "Respect your elders. Red's a few months younger than me, remember?"
That gets them all laughing. “OK, so that just leaves somethin’ blue, right?” Dee says, rubbing her chin.
A wicked smile curves my lips, catching everyone’s attention. “What? You look like a cat that got the cream,” Lee says, narrowing her eyes at me.
“ Well … nobody said the blue must be visible. Let’s just say that I’ve got the blue covered —so to speak,” I reply, a mischievous glint in my eye as I waggle my brows.
“OK, then. What’s left to do?” Cora asks, taking control of the situation like she’s so good at.
“Flowers?” Dee suggests.
“Ooh,” Star says excitedly. “Landry has those in the truck. We picked them up from this crazy one-stop-shop place in Rainbow Springs. The owner looked just like a gn?—”
"Gnome," I say at the same time as her.
Star’s eyes jump wide. “You met him too?”
"Met him, gave him random business advice, bought a gnome with a cowboy hat and chaps, then went and hung it on the gnome fence yesterday. We called him Jim-Bob.”
“We did that too !” Lee says, looking at Dee. “George was so lovely, and he seemed to have so much on his plate, we just had to take a gnome or three off his hands.”
"We even found a duck one--for Duck Norris, of course--and a kangaroo one to honor my homeland," Dee says with her ever-present Australian accent.
Seems like George is a better salesman than I gave him credit for.
Lee returns her attention to her cell phone, her fingers typing madly before she stops, her head snapping up to mine and a smile bigger than Bull Mountain’s twin peaks transforms her face. “He’s in,” she says.
“Who? Wy?” I say, my heart doing a flip.
“He talked to his captain who’s got four sons of his own, and he said if he was Red, of course he'd want Wy there in some capacity. So, this is what we're goin' to do…"
After hearing that we’ve somehow pulled off a miracle, I carefully sit down in my dress and pull out my phone.
Mags: I still can’t believe you put all of this together in a day.
Red: I had a LOT of help.
Mags: But you thought of everything. I need you to tell me I’m not dreaming.
Red: You’re not dreaming, darling. But I sure hope you’re living in one.
I swoon, my whole body melting against the seat. What did I do to deserve this man?
Mags: Do you ever say the wrong thing?
Red: I’m sure there’ll come a time in our next fifty years together when I’ll put my foot in my mouth, just know that I’ll always admit my wrongdoings and will never let us bed down anything but happy with one another.
Mags: See! Again, stop saying the right thing.
Red: Ha Ha. God, I love you. I can’t wait to call you Maggie Grayson.
Mags: I can’t wait to call you mine.
Red: I already am. Now, hurry up already. I want to see my One walk down the aisle to me. Imagined it so many times since I asked you to marry me the first time, now YOU are the one making MY dreams come true.
Mags: Look out for me, I’ll be the one in the white dress and cowboy boots.