Falling in Love on Willow Creek by Debbie Mason

Chapter Eleven

Sadie, Abby, and Mallory learned the hard way that weddings are never perfect. Something invariably goes wrong. In their case, it wasn’t the groomzillas taking over the wedding planning, it was the weather. Fifteen minutes before they were set to walk down the aisle, the skies opened up, the storm providing a light-and-sound show they could have done without.

Luckily, their guests and the other members of the wedding party made it into the barn in time and were relatively dry. The bales of hay their grooms had substituted for chairs didn’t fare as well. Now that the storm had passed, there was a mad scramble to set up the chairs that the men had stored in the barn.

Abby had already canceled her subscribers’ online viewing of the wedding, so the big screens hadn’t been set up. She hadn’t canceled only so that Nate could participate in the wedding. She’d done it for all of them. She wanted their actual wedding day to be special and private. No one had been happier with her decision than Hunter.

Her subscribers had been pretty good sports about it. Probably because Abby had promised she’d host an After the Wedding episode with the groomzillas in attendance—something she conveniently forgot to mention to Hunter, Chase, and Gabe.

As the first strains of Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” drifted through the screen door and into the farmhouse, Abby turned to Sadie and Mallory. “I love you guys. You’ve turned a special day into an unforgettable one. I—”

“No. No more,” Sadie and Mallory said, waving their hands in front of their faces. “Don’t say anything else. You’ll make us cry,” Sadie added, close to tears. She’d already cried once today when she put on Chase’s grandmother’s dress. It was an antique-lace V-neck sheath wedding gown with three-quarter-length sleeves and a gorgeous rose sash adorned with pearls, crystals, and rhinestones. She couldn’t have envisioned a more perfect wedding dress.

Abby’s twin sisters opened the screen door, looking beautiful in their pumpkin-colored bridesmaid dresses. “Come on, Abs. It’s time.”

Abby took a deep breath and smiled. “Here we go.” Her mother and stepfather joined her on the porch, handing her Bella. Wolf was standing with Hunter, along with his brother.

As they began walking down the steps together, Mallory’s father came to stand with his daughter. “Are you ready, honey?”

Mallory, who looked stunning in a pale peach wedding gown, gave her father a watery smile and nodded. Her father surreptitiously wiped at his eyes, as emotional as his daughter. It was the first time he’d walked Mallory down the aisle.

“Look, look, here she comes!” Teddy cried as Mallory and her father walked down the steps. Snowball, the family’s tiny white dog, barked, making the five boys standing with their father laugh.

As Sadie’s grandmother and brother came to take their places on either side of her, Ellie, looking beautiful in her pumpkin-colored bridesmaid dress, handed Michaela to Sadie. In the end, it hadn’t been Sadie or Ellie who’d picked Michaela’s outfit, it had been Chase. She looked adorable in the creamy tulle dress, the sash and the bow in her hair the same plaid that Chase wore.

Finn, Nate, and Chase’s grandfather were his groomsmen. Sadie smiled, thinking back to the moment she’d dropped off Jonathan at the tailor’s. Chase had been as happy as she had known he would be. Although the judge hadn’t been as good at keeping the groomzillas in line as Sadie had hoped. Owen had delivered a wagonful of pumpkins to the farm early this morning.

As Ellie walked ahead of them down the leaf-strewn aisle, Agnes leaned in to Sadie. “Look at Nate. He can’t take his eyes off your cousin.” Sadie’s grandmother adored Nate and treated him like a grandson. She’d also been trying to set him up for the past three months so Sadie thought she’d better warn Ellie and Nate.

But then Chase turned to watch her walk down the aisle and thoughts of anyone else but him scattered. He looked beautiful in his black jacket, white shirt, and plaid bow tie that matched his kilt. But it was his smile that stole her breath. She blinked her eyes, afraid she’d cry. The last thing she needed was mascara running down her cheeks. Just when she thought she couldn’t hold the tears back any longer, Michaela saved the day. She yelled, “Dada, dada” and reached for Chase, making grabby hands.

Everyone laughed, including her grandmother and brother, who leaned in to kiss Sadie’s cheeks. “I love you, girlie.” “I love you, sis.”

“Love you too,” she said, once again struggling to contain her tears as she went to stand with Chase.

“Hi.” She smiled.

“Hi.” He grinned, bending down to kiss both her and Michaela. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered in Sadie’s ear.

“So are you,” she whispered back.

“I love you.”

“I love you more.”

“Okay, you two,” Abby called over. “The sooner the mayor marries us, the sooner we get to the fun part.”

The mayor stood in front of a wooden arch draped in peach- and cream-colored roses and rust-colored vines. The flowers looked a little worse for wear after the storm but were still beautiful and smelled divine. Sadie cast Winter an apologetic glance.

The mayor gave her a no worries smile and began the ceremony. They said their vows together. Chase interrupted them in the middle of the ring exchange. “I need a minute.” He crouched beside Finn, taking a blue box from the pocket of the plaid tux the golden retriever wore. Straightening, Chase opened the box to reveal a tiny diamond ring on a delicate chain.

“Oh, Chase,” Sadie murmured.

“I wanted Michaela to have something special to remember today.”

“She has you.” Sadie sniffed, helping him fasten the chain around Michaela’s neck and then kissing him. “It’s beautiful.”

“Thanks a lot, Chase,” Abby said. “Now you’ve made us all cry.”

“I’m not crying,” Hunter said.

“Neither am I,” Gabe added.

“You kind of are, Dad. So are you, Hunter,” Teddy said.

The judge blew his nose and then shrugged as he tucked his white hankie in his breast pocket. “There’s nothing wrong with a man shedding a tear or two on a special occasion such as this.” He winked at Sadie. “I’ve gained a granddaughter and great-granddaughter, after all.”

Chase wiped at his eyes, sharing a laugh with Sadie when Nate did the same.

“Hurry up and marry them before they flood us all out, mayor,” someone called from the back row.

They were all still laughing when Winter declared them husbands and wives. “You may now kiss your brides.”

Gabe and Mallory’s boys started groaning seconds into their kiss, Wolf started howling minutes into Hunter and Abby’s, and Nate told Sadie and Chase to get a room.

But when Sadie’s grandmother cried, “Look, look,” they all broke their kisses to follow the direction of Agnes’s pointed finger. And there, over the farmhouse, was a gorgeous double rainbow.

Standing in the circle of Chase’s arms and holding Michaela close, Sadie caught her best friends’ eyes and shared a smile. Mallory and Abby nodded, believing, like her, that it was a sign. The three of them had each gone through a storm and had come out the other side to be blessed with the men they had just married.