Chapter 19
Hayes
“Ladies and gentlemen, for the second time ever, Mr. and Mrs. Wilder!”
Catherine’s smile was unmatched as we made our way into the white tent, hand in hand. There had been no need for a rehearsal for the ceremony. Walk down the aisle. Hold hands. Repeat after me. Done and done. The reception was a bit more of a circus.
Like we had planned, the music swelled when Catherine and I stopped in the middle of the wood floor that temporarily covered the grass. I held her hand and pulled her into my frame as the two of us began a respectable first dance.
“Quite the turnout,” I said as we swayed.
Catherine’s smile was soft. “It is a Wilder wedding, after all. I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
I spun her under my arm, then pulled her back into me. “Hanging in there?”
“I should be asking you that,” she said as she looked up. The string lights overhead danced in her eyes.
My god, my wife is beautiful.
Catherine cocked her head. “You alright?”
I couldn’t look away from those eyes, soft like the ridgeline in the morning mist. “Can I kiss you again?” I asked as I moved my hand from her waist to her cheek.
Catherine’s laugh was light. “This is our wedding. You don’t have to ask.”
“Yeah, I do,” I said as I brushed her lips in a chaste kiss. Our guests all joined together in a chorus of “aww”s.
When we broke the kiss, Catherine avoided my eyes as she swallowed. “This is getting complicated, isn’t it?” she said softly.
“Just today,” I murmured. “It’ll get easier once it’s just us again.”
We danced the rest of the song in silence, but I didn’t miss the way Catherine pressed closer to me. I held her tight with no intention of letting her go.
But once the last note of the music faded, I had to.
The guests clapped and cheered as we made our way to the table that had been set for two.
“I’m starving,” Catherine whispered as plates were placed in front of us. Servers appeared in droves, quickly serving the rest of the guests. “I was too nervous to eat earlier, and that sucked because I really love Hallie’s cherry coffee cake.”
“Just wait until apples are in season and she makes apple coffee cake instead of cherry. It’ll change your life.”
Catherine groaned in delight. “Think I can bribe her to make it out of season?”
I chuckled. “Probably.”
Before either of us could take a bite, the clinking started. Longtime friends of the Wilder family and professional connections from high places tapped their wineglasses in an incessant symphony.
Catherine blushed. “We’re supposed to kiss whenever they do that.”
I grimaced in disgust. “What kind of god-awful tradition is that? Pretty sure they just scared away every bird in the mountains.”
She looked up at me. “Might as well get them to stop.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice. I kissed her, a little deeper than when we had been dancing. I cradled her throat, my thumb gently stroking the graceful tendons. Each time felt like the first, but she had also become a familiar taste that I craved.
That craving was just growing stronger.
The clinking stopped as we broke apart. Catherine laughed and raised her wineglass in a toast to the guests. “Hopefully, they’ll let us eat now, or my mood will take a swift dive if I don’t consume some calories soon.” She spoke behind her pageant smile like a ventriloquist.
I chuckled and speared a roasted potato. “If they keep it up, I’ll take our plates into the kitchen and we can eat in there.”
“If they keep it up, I’ll have to put on more lipstick,” she said with a sheepish smile before digging into her meal.
Thankfully, we made it through most of the food before the clinking started again. The sound of cutlery on crystal was going to train me like Pavlov’s dog. The second I heard that piercing sound, my heart leaped into my chest because it meant I got to kiss her again.
“I’m going to slip into the house and change my dress,” Catherine whispered when we broke apart.
“Do you need—”
I was about to ask if she needed a hand when Savannah Scott snatched her up and whisked her out of the tent.
Weren’t weddings supposed to be attended using the buddy system? No one swims, hikes, or navigates a somewhat fake but mostly real marriage alone.
“Well, well, well.” Lewis’s sneer cut through the din of guests. “I guess you won.”
I glanced up from my plate as he sauntered over. “I didn’t win anything, Lewis. I kept what Granddad wanted for me, just like you got what he wanted for you. Or are you forgetting that you’re at the helm of a multimillion-dollar nonprofit?”
He huffed. “Don’t even pretend it’s anywhere close to fair.” He jabbed a thick finger too close to my face for comfort. “And don’t think that this is anywhere close to over.”
Lewis lunged forward, bracing his sweaty palms on the edge of the small table. “As soon as I figure out how the hell you pulled this off, it’s over for you. The estate is mine.”
“You’d have to be married for that to happen,” I said calmly as I sipped my water.
Lewis’s maniacal grin grew to a Cheshire smile. “You’re not the only newlywed around here.”
Wait.
What was that on his finger? That silver, shiny thing?
“You’re married?” I said in disbelief. “When? To who?”
Lewis looked over his shoulder and shouted at a woman. “Hey! What’s your name again?”
When the woman seated at Lewis’s table didn’t look up from her phone, he turned back to me. “It’s Jenny. No…Ginger? Or was it Janie?” He waved it off. “Either way, you’re fucked once I prove that all this is just a sham. I bet you don’t even have a marriage license.”
I had a marriage license, but that wasn’t the point. Lewis had done exactly what I thought he would: He actually married someone just to get the land.
And I was just like him.
Whoops and cheers rose as the steak and potatoes in my gut turned to stone. I pulled my attention away from Lewis to see Catherine reentering the tent.
Goddamn. Those legs.
She was in a short dress covered in white sequins, making her sparkle under the string lights.
She had traded heels for white cowboy boots and donned a white Stetson.
I could have spotted Savannah’s work a mile away.
Roses had been etched and burned into the leather brim with a branding pen.
A shorter veil had been attached to the back for a bridal touch.
She carried a black cowboy hat in her hands, and I had a feeling I knew exactly who it was for.
Catherine found me through the crowd. One smile and she took my fucking breath away as she dropped the branded cowboy hat onto my head.
“You wore Walt’s when we went riding last night,” she said. “You need one of your own. I may have called in a favor to make it happen since you, apparently, got me a wedding present.”
Two tables over, Savannah lifted her beer toward Catherine and me.
I took the hat off just for a moment and saw Savannah’s handiwork. “H. W.” had been branded into the brim, matching the style and placement of the mark on my granddad’s hat.
I kissed Catherine and put it back on my head as the DJ turned up the music, drawing the stuffy crowd onto the dance floor.
“You look good, cowboy,” Catherine said with a passing wink as she made a beeline to where Hallie’s son, Zach, was seated beside Mason and Levi.
“Zach!” she said with outstretched arms. “Where have you been hiding?”
Zach stiffened but accepted the hug.
Catherine dropped into Hallie’s seat, rested her elbow on the table, and plopped her chin into her hand like she was talking to the most interesting person in the world. “Are you glad you’re out of school for the summer?”
Zach shoved his floppy haircut out of his eyes and fidgeted with the cuffed sleeves of his button-up. “Yeah,” he mumbled.
“Do you have plans?” she asked, giving him her undivided attention.
He shrugged. “I dunno. Probably just gaming.”
“Awesome. Because I’m going to kick your ass. I’ve been practicing.”
His brows lifted. “Really?”
“Okay, so maybe I haven’t played since the last time we hung out while your mom went out. But I need you to teach me so we can beat him.” She cocked her head in my direction.
That brought a grin to his face. “Cool. So you’re like…living here now?”
“Yes,” she said as she elbowed him. “Which you’d know if you ever left your room.” The music changed to a peppy tune, and Catherine took Zach by the hand. “Dance with me. I think Hayes is nearing his bedtime, and he can’t keep up.”
Mason stifled a laugh as Catherine dragged Zach out of his seat and onto the dance floor. I took Zach’s seat, joining the estate crew rather than sitting alone.
“Bless her,” Hallie said as she joined the table. “Lord knows I can’t get more than two words out of him each day.”
“She’s a good influence. Brings him out of his shell,” Mason said.
I watched the two of them battle it out for the title of dorkiest dancer. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Catherine was…She was radiant.
The evening turned to dusk, then twilight. I stole Catherine away from Zach for another dance before we cut the cake. The laugh she let out when I dotted her nose with buttercream played in my memory through the rest of the night.
The DJ summoned Catherine and me for one last dance before the grand exit. We swayed to Alison Krauss’s “When You Say Nothing At All,” and I couldn’t help but think how fitting the lyrics were.
“Remember that gift I told you about this morning?” I said as the song ended.
“Yes?” she said curiously.
I rifled around in my suit jacket and pulled out the car key. “Happy wedding day, Cath.”
Her eyes widened when she spotted the logo on the key ring. “You didn’t.”
The rumble of the car engine was my answer.
Catherine’s jaw dropped. “You did.”
“I did,” I said, stealing a peck as our wedding guests lined up with sparklers for the send-off.
“Hayes…” Catherine cupped her hands over her mouth. “This is too much.”
“So, you’re saying you don’t want to drive us out of here?”
Catherine grabbed the key. “I didn’t say that.”