Chapter 23}

Katie watched silently as J.T. became like a regular ranch hand in the BF Ranch. It seemed like they were all banding together against the greater evil, forgetting about J.T.’s past offences against them. Mark was the bigger issue at the moment since they hadn’t even seen suspicious tracks from the rustlers in over a week.

One morning while Katie was setting breakfast on the table she heard a commotion outside that sounded like trouble. Running to the window, she looked out to see Mr. Cluck after Mark. She couldn’t resist laughing as the man ran every which way possible trying to throw the chicken off his heels. Katie shook her head as none of the hands stopped the chicken, either. She couldn’t really blame them.

She finished setting the table and the hands started filing in, all trying not to laugh. She poured them all cups of coffee.

“Try to wash down that grin before he gets in here or you’re all fired,” she warned.

The all covered their faces with the cups when Mark entered, calm and composed as if he hadn’t just had a life-threatening experience.

They all sat down and Katie decided that she would sit beside Ben this morning instead of at the other end of the table. She had a right to sit wherever she wanted, didn’t she?

“Why are you moving?” Mark asked.

Apparently not.

“Didn’t figure it’s hurt to sit somewhere else for a change” Katie shrugged.

“Beside him?” Mark nodded toward Ben.
“Oh, did you want to sit by him?” Katie asked as innocently as possible.

She heard Wade and Rawhide snicker down on the end and Ben was nearly breaking out in a sweat trying not to laugh.

Mark scowled at her but didn’t speak. All but Mark and J.T. prayed silently over the food then went on with breakfast.

**********

The McBride family did everything from hayrides to charades those next three days. When there wasn’t a game or silly tradition going on, the womenfolk were planning the wedding, making sure everything was going to be perfect for Emily’s big day.

Things were awkward between Erik and Toni for a day or so after the night of the engagement ball, but soon they put the kiss behind them and tried carry on with normal life… as normal as it was going to get, at least.

The morning of the wedding came, and Toni woke up to the sun breaking through the curtains of the bedroom window.

One more day before I head home.

She thought.

Not that she didn’t like it in Georgia, she just didn’t belong there.

Rolling over, she looked at Erik; still sound asleep in the floor across the room. He had stayed up late last night at his mother’s insistence to stand guard at Emily’s door. Mrs. McBride was scared to death that Judd would sneak into the house late at night.

Toni smiled. Erik’s family was sure a unique bunch of people.

Suddenly, a shrill squeal echoed through the halls of the upper floor. Toni jerked up into a sitting position and suddenly Erik was wide-awake. Throwing on her robe, she grabbed her 22 pistol from her suitcase and ran toward where the sound came from. A crowd had gathered around Emily’s room and frantic sounds came from inside. Erik was wide-awake and on her heels.

She pushed through the crowd of relatives to see Emily alive and well while sharing an apparently joyous moment with her mother.

“Wh-…” Toni shook her head, breathless.

Emily held up a Magnolia blossom. “Look!”

Toni stared at her strangely. “A flower?”

“This isn’t just any flower, Toni. This here’s a Magnolia blossom. It’s tradition that on the night before the wedding the groom must - in most cases - risk his life by climbing through his fiancé’s window and place a Magnolia blossom on her pillow” Emily explained.

“How did this one come about?” Toni shook her head at the silliness of such a tradition.

“Our great great grandfather started it when he delivered our great great grandmother’s favorite flower to her on the night before the wedding. He nearly got shot, but he would still tell you that it was worth it” Emily lovingly touched the petals of the flower. “It means that he’ll be there the next day and for the rest of your life.”

Hopeless romantics, this whole family!

Toni gave Erik her 22 with a slap.

“I’m going to put some decent clothes on,” she mumbled, looking down at her robe and nightgown.

Everyone was rushing here or there to get ready to go to the church. Emily was running everywhere making sure they had got all of the supplies needed.

“Where’s my dress?”

“You got the bouquet, right?”

“Oh, no! I forgot the veil!”

“Did you get the comb for my hair?”

“Careful with that trunk, Erik!”

“Make yourself useful and carry this!”

In spite of all the drama, they managed to get all loaded up and on their way to town.

**********

Toni and Mrs. McBride helped Emily get ready while the men and the aunts handled the decorations in the little white church. Emily was fussy about her appearance, and she had to have something old, new, borrowed, and blue.

“I don’t have something borrowed!” Emily panicked. “I have this old bracelet that I got for my 16th birthday, this new veil, blue flowers in my bouquet, but I don’t have anything borrowed. I knew I was missing something.”

Toni thought of things she brought that she could do without.

“Here” she took off her earrings and handed them over. “You can borrow these.”

“Oh, thank you, Toni! You’re a real hero” Emily hugged her tight and took the earrings. “They’re beautiful.”

“My cousin gave them to me before Erik and I left. She bought them to make Erik fall in love with me, but I’m proud to say she never got to use them” Toni smiled sweetly at Emily.

“Awe!” Emily squeaked.

Once the bride-to-be was dressed in her perfectly white gown with its finely fitting bodice and full skirt, Mrs. McBride put on her veil and Toni stepped out to give them a moment alone. She found Judd nearby.

“Now, Judd, you’ve gotta get out of here a’ fore Emily comes out. It’s bad luck, you know” Toni shooed him off.

“Are you superstitious?” Judd asked in a teasing tone.

“No, but your wife to be is, and she kill us both if she finds out” Toni pressed.

“Okay, I’ll go find Erik” Judd started to walk off, but Toni noticed an important detail.

“You’re not even dressed!” She exclaimed.

“It won’t take me long,” Judd said.

Toni rolled her eyes. “Emily’ll be out here any second, and you’re not even dressed!”

After telling Joe to make sure the man was dressed, she saw Erik by Emily’s door.

“Is it okay for me to see her?” he asked.

Toni nodded, not trusting her voice. He looked breathtaking in the spiffy tan suit with his boots all shined and polished. Rawhide would have a conniption fit.

Erik went into the room where Emily had gotten ready and Toni heard him say a few minutes later, “I’m so proud of you.”

Toni smiled. He was a good big brother, and Emily was sure a good sister. She decided right there that she actually like the whole McBride family. Even Pete, who hadn’t even given her a second glance since the night of the engagement ball. Though still homesick, she decided that her trip to Georgia hadn’t been a complete and utter failure.

**********

Toni stood beside Emily as she and Judd exchanged their vows… much different from her own. Every once in a while she would look over at Erik, whom she always found looking right back at her. Every time she looked at him, she relived that one kiss - that one moment when everything in life was perfect. There was no past, and no future… only the present.

After they said their “I dos”, Pastor Harrison grinned from ear to ear.

“You may now kiss your bride,” he said.

Toni felt another chink in the hard armor of her hardened heart as the couple exchanged their first wedded kiss. She smiled and looked up at Erik, who was paying no heed to his little sister at all. Like her, he was probably reliving the kiss that probably should have never happened. She saw him smirk, and that only confirmed her suspicions.

“I now present to you Mr. and Mrs. Daniels” Pastor Harrison grinned.

Cheers sounded throughout the room, and the happy couple went out to their awaiting carriage, decorated with ribbons and bows. Emily threw her bouquet straight into Aunt Steffie’s arms. The sweet woman had been single all her life, and she acted like this was the first bouquet she had ever caught.

As the Daniels’ drove out of sight to the little homey shack just outside of town that they would be staying at overnight until they could catch the train tomorrow and head off to their honeymoon, Toni noticed as Erik and the rest of the cousins and uncles were walking off to the side. Erik waved her over.

“You comin’ with us? We only have a couple of hours until dark,” Erik said with a sly smile.

“For what?” Toni asked.

“The shivaree, of course. Why do you think I even went through the trouble of coming to town today?” Erik winked at her, and she knew he was teasing.

“Of course I’m coming along! Wouldn’t miss it” Toni smiled.

**********

Toni, Erik and the rest of the men in the McBride family raided Tillie’s kitchen for pots, tin bowls, and wooden spoons. Toni was the only female in the posse, but she didn’t mind. She laughed and carried on as if she were at home talking to her ranch hands, and that eased Erik’s mind. He was beginning to regret bringing her to Georgia, a place where she obviously didn’t belong.

“Won’t Tillie get mad?” Toni asked as she took the wooden spoon offered to her.

“Nah” Erik said, waving her statement off with his hand. “Even if she did, she’d be mad at me, and there’s nothing to fear there.”

“Where’d you get that?” she asked, motioning to the guitar slung over his shoulder. “It wasn’t at the church.”

“I’d hidden it here,” Erik said nonchalantly.

Toni shook her head. Erik knew he could get away with murder around Tillie.

“Joe said the sun’s nearly down now,” Pete said from his place at the doorway.

Little Marty sounded a devious laugh, and Erik smiled. He had been the expert at prancing when they were young.

“Oh, give me a home where the mosquitoes roam! Where the wasps and the bumblebees play! Where seldom is heard an encouraging word, and the it’s dreadfully humid all day!” Erik watched as Toni doubled over in laughter as he sang and the other banged on their pots outside of Emily and Judd’s temporary place of residence.

He’d made it up on the way over there, but didn’t figure it would actually go together. At least Toni was getting good laugh out of it.

At the moment, he had no regrets about kissing her, except that he knew he shouldn’t have done it. She had felt so good in his arms, and he had a hard time admitting that it wasn’t right. She didn’t even like God, let alone share his faith. So many things could go wrong in a relationship like that. Yet he had seen her concentrating in church the other day out of the corner of his eye. Maybe she was coming around, slowly but surely.

Emily and Judd were now listening to them on the front porch of the shack, smiling away. Erik had hoped that Judd would take it with a good attitude. After fall, it wasn’t their fault that this was tradition. Emily grinned and looked up at Judd, and pride swelled in Erik’s chest. He had never seen his sister glow so brightly. She was finally truly happy, and she had the man in her life that she needed. A man who would always be there to protect her, comfort her, and love her. A man who was more than he had ever been to her.