Falling in Love on Willow Creek by Debbie Mason

Chapter Seven

Sadie, Abby, and Mallory sat on the plush pink chairs in Blushing Bridal, sipping nonalcoholic champagne from crystal flutes. Lena, the owner, had taken one look at them when they walked in and offered them a drink. Sadie could use a shot of the real deal but didn’t think it was fair to Mallory and Abby. Michaela sat in her stroller beside her, eyeing them cautiously over the bottle of apple juice she had in her mouth.

“Everything’s okay, baby.” Sadie leaned in and kissed her daughter’s hand. “I think she picked up on the tension at the bakery. I imagine Teddy did too. Poor little guy. Sorry about that, Mal.”

“What are you apologizing for?” Mallory said. “I was the one who overreacted. I knew what Gabe meant. I felt the same way, more or less. So I don’t know why it bothered me as much as it did.”

“I’m sure Gabe understands you’re more emotional right now. It’s not like he’s a newbie at this,” Sadie said, and then sighed. “I, on the other hand, don’t have an excuse for snapping at Chase. It’s no wonder the poor guy was surprised. He’s brought up setting a date a couple of times.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it, Sadie. Chase is a smart man. I’m sure he wasn’t surprised by your reaction. Not with his grandfather trying to break you guys up,” Mallory said.

“Except he has no idea how far the judge is willing to go. But Chase was right. I let my worry about Gwen goad me into agreeing to the wedding. And that’s a terrible reason for getting married.”

Beside her, Abby sniffed, swiping at a tear that rolled down her cheek. Sadie wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t cry, sweetie. I’m sure just like Chase and Gabe, Hunter understands what set you off. Your hormones are all over the place, and you’ve had a lot on your plate.”

Abby shook her head. “No. You heard him. He doesn’t want to marry me. He said so himself.”

“No. What he said was that his aunt steamrolled you guys into setting a wedding date. But, Abs, be honest. Is it any surprise that Hunter might think you don’t want to get married? You haven’t exactly been acting like a happy bride-to-be.”

“Sadie’s right, sweetie.” Mallory looked around. It was just the three of them. “You can tell us anything, you know. Nothing you say will go further than here. Do you want to get married?”

Abby chewed on her bottom lip and then shook her head. “I love Hunter with all my heart. I just don’t want to marry him.”

“Because you don’t think he’s your one?” Sadie asked, looking for an opening to get at what Ellie sensed was the real reason that Abby didn’t want to get married.

Abby’s eyes went wide. “Oh my gosh, how can you even say that? I thank God every single day that Hunter’s in my life, that he loves me. He means everything to me, absolutely everything.” Her eyes welled with fresh tears. “I knew this was going to happen. I knew the wedding would ruin everything.”

“Abs, Hunter isn’t Chandler,” Sadie said, referring to Abby’s first husband. “He adores you. You guys are perfect together. And a wedding and a piece of paper aren’t going to change how much you love each other.”

“How can you say that? It already has. Hunter doesn’t want to marry me.”

“Take it from me, as someone who has ‘done the deed,’ as my husband says, not once but twice: the love you and Hunter have for each other doesn’t go away just because you get married. Over time and with life’s ups and downs, your love evolves. In most cases, it gets stronger. But sometimes, like with you and Chandler, you discover you weren’t meant for each other after all.”

“Chandler did the deciding, not me. Things changed between us right after the wedding. It was like I couldn’t do anything right in his eyes from that day on. The more time he spent with me, the more he realized I wasn’t what he wanted. He…he fell out of love with me. And now it’s happening again. This wedding is changing everything.”

“Unlike with Chandler, you and Hunter have been living together for more than a year. Up until you started planning the wedding, I’ve never seen you happier. The same goes for Hunter. Everyone says so,” Sadie said.

“You see, even you can tell that the wedding has ruined everything.”

“Um, no. What I think is that you’ve been acting like it will. You’re creating a self-fulfilling prophecy, and you really have to stop that, sweetie. This isn’t good for you or the baby, or for you and Hunter.” Sadie took Abby’s champagne flute from her and put it on the table. Then she took Abby’s hands in hers. “It’s time for you to put your past with Chandler behind you. It has nothing to do with your relationship or future with Hunter. You—”

“Actually, I don’t think that’s true,” Mallory said.

“See?” Abby said. “I told you. Even Mal agrees with me.”

“No, I don’t. I think Sadie made a good point about you creating a self-fulfilling prophecy because you’re scared. But you gave Sadie and me some really good advice not that long ago.”

“I did?”

Mallory smiled. “You did. You told us that we had to go through the storm to find our rainbow. Chandler was your storm. Hunter, he’s your rainbow.”

“He is,” Abby whispered. “He really is.” She closed her eyes and bowed her head. “I’ve messed everything up, haven’t I?”

“If you have, so have we,” Sadie said. “But that’s okay. We can make things right, because we were lucky enough to fall in love with amazing men who love us too. This was just a blip.”

“You’re right.” Abby wiped her eyes. “But my blip was bigger than your blips. I need to do something special to make it up to Hunter. I’ve been acting like a crazy person these past few weeks. A witchy, hormonal crazy person.”

“So,” Sadie asked tentatively, “is the wedding still on?”

“Yes. I mean, I think so. If that’s what Hunter wants.” She looked from Sadie to Mallory. “What about you guys? I kind of steamrolled you into agreeing to get married on the twenty-third, just like Elsa did to me and Hunter.” She held up her hand. “Before you answer, I want you to know that today was the most fun I had planning the wedding. There’s nothing I’d love more than for the three of us to get married on the same day. And it has nothing to do with the number of views and subscribers for my channel going through the roof.”

“I’m sure.” Sadie laughed. “But I’m game if Chase is.”

Mallory rolled her eyes. “That’s as romantic as Gabe saying we did the deed.” She smiled. “But if Gabe is good with it, so am I.”

“Yay!” Abby pulled them in for a hug.

Michaela, who’d dozed off, jerked awake and started clapping.

“Oh my gosh, we have to get her a dress too. We’ll have to call Cutie Patootie.” Abby grinned, hugging them again. “We’re going to have a blast. Once we get Hunter, Gabe, and Chase on board, that is.”

The three of them turned as the bells over the door chimed, watching as a stream of women filed into Blushing Bridal. The majority of them were members of the Sisterhood, a group of the town’s most influential women. Sadie, Abby, and Mallory were also members.

Before they could ask what was going on, Hunter’s Aunt Elsa said, “I just got off the phone with that new reporter at the Herald. He said the wedding is canceled.”

Abby blinked. “What? Where did he hear that?”

Babs, who was not a member of the Sisterhood, said, “That’s what I asked him when he called me for a quote. I’m the Herald’s go-to person for the inside scoop, so you can imagine my surprise when he scooped me. Anyway, he said that his source was a close family member.”

“Don’t look at me,” Elsa said. “I’ve been campaigning for this wedding since the two of them moved in together. Long before I found out about the baby.”

“It wasn’t me,” Sadie’s grandmother said. “I’ve got my dress picked out, and Colin is renting a tux as we speak.” Colin and Agnes had been dating for several months and seemed to be serious.

“Since it wasn’t Chase, Hunter, or Gabe—” Sadie began.

“Remember our blip? We can’t know that for sure.” Abby slumped in her chair.

“Yes, we can. Reporters use precise language. He would have said it was one of the grooms, not a close family member,” Sadie said. “And I bet I know exactly who he got the quote from.” Just as she was about to text her cousin, Ellie rushed into the store.

Her cousin looked from the crowd of women to Sadie, Mallory, and Abby. “You already heard.”

“That the Herald is reporting our wedding is canceled? Yes, we heard. I was just going to text you to see if the judge had talked to the reporter,” Sadie said.

Ellie wrinkled her nose and nodded. “He did. But don’t worry, he didn’t say anything about Gwen.”

When several of the women, including her grandmother, asked who Gwen was, Sadie groaned. Ellie filled them in. Much to Sadie’s surprise, all the women, with the exception of Babs, considered Gwen a nonissue. The same couldn’t be said for the judge.

“We need to get him on board,” Elsa said, and the other women agreed.

“Sadie, do you know why he has a problem with you?” asked Winter Johnson, the mayor and one of the founding members of the Sisterhood.

“I think I might be able to shed some light on that,” Ellie said. “The judge hoped that Chase would marry someone like his grandmother. He credits her for his successful career.”

“Ah, I see.” Elsa nodded. “So that’s where this Gwen person comes in. She lives in Washington and has the connections the judge believes his grandson needs.”

“Yes, and the judge believes that one day Chase will regret giving up his chance of having a high-powered career,” Ellie said.

“If you ask me, the judge should take a good long look at his life. His fancy career didn’t seem to make him a happy man. His wife and his grandson did.”

Sadie smiled at her grandmother. It was just like Agnes to get at the heart of the matter.

“All right, ladies. We have our work cut out for us and not a lot of time,” Elsa said. “The judge needs to get a life. We need to find him a place to live and some friends, and a new love interest wouldn’t hurt either.”

“Jonathan seems happy at the inn, and I’m more than happy for him to stay there. He’s company for my grandfather,” Ellie said.

And Sadie was sure her cousin could use the guaranteed income from the room rental. Ellie’s grandfather had let the inn fall into disrepair. It was a bone of contention between Ellie and her mother, who wanted to sell the inn.

“All right, we have a place for the judge to live for now, and a friend, but I think we can hunt him up some more. So now we just need a love interest. Any suggestions?” Elsa asked.

“Don’t look at me,” Sadie’s grandmother said. “I’m already taken.”

“What about Zia Maria?” Ellie suggested. “The judge loves Italian food.”

“Perfect. Now girls, pose with your champagne flutes in the air, and I’ll take a photo and send it to that reporter.” Elsa held up her phone and then lowered it. “Since the reporter’s quoting Chase’s grandfather, maybe we should get the grooms in the picture.”

“I think we’d better talk to them first,” Abby said. “We had a small…really small”—she pinched her thumb and forefinger together—“disagreement earlier at the bakery. We just need to sort a few things out.”

Several phones started pinging with incoming texts. Ellie looked up from her screen and grinned. “I think Mallory and Gabe’s disagreement is all sorted. I’ve just had a special reservation made for this evening that I should go and take care of.”

“Really?” Mallory ducked her head with a smile, her cheeks pink.

Agnes looked up from her phone. “And it looks like my little sweetheart is spending the night with me. Seems Chase has plans for you, girlie.”

Her grandmother’s news burst the bubble of worries and fears that had been growing in Sadie’s chest since they’d left the bakery. She felt like she was floating. But the smile that was spreading across her face fell when Abby, who was staring at her screen, began crying.

“What’s wrong?” Sadie and Mallory asked at almost the same time.

“Hun…Hunter canceled the cake my subscribers picked.” She held up her phone. “He picked this one instead.” She was crying so hard that it was difficult to make out what she said, but it sounded like Hunter was also going to carve the cake stand. “He…he really does want to marry me.” Abby’s phone pinged two more times, and she hiccupped on a laugh. “Chase and Gabe picked yours too.” She turned the screen to show Sadie and Mallory, and then pulled them in for a hug. “They really do want to marry us.”

“Why are the three of them carrying on like that?”

“Pregnancy hormones,” the mayor said. “I cried at the drop of a hat.”

There were murmurs of agreement, and then Babs said, “Wait a minute. Sadie isn’t pregnant, is she?”