Secrets in the Sand by Carolyn Brown

            And Angel smiled.

            “Works every time.” He snapped several shots, checked them on the camera, and nodded. “Let’s go over to that antique chair. You sit down, Angel. Clancy, stand behind her with your hands on her shoulders.”

            “When we get done with this one, can we have one of Angel sitting in my lap?” Clancy asked.

            “Anything you want,” Greg agreed.

            Angel’s smile was getting tired by the time Greg finished taking pictures, and her stomach was growling.

            “That’s about two hundred,” Greg said. “Thank goodness for digital cameras. There should be a good one or two for you to use.”

            “How much for a copy of every one of them?” Clancy asked.

            “I’ll make you a good deal,” Greg said as he packed up his equipment.

            “Why would you want all of them?” Angel asked.

            “Because you’re in them,” Clancy answered and kissed her on the cheek. “We’ll talk about the pictures later. Right now, let’s go eat.”

            Angel nodded. “I can sure agree with that.”

            Angel piled food on her plate and carried it over to a table. “I could eat a whole cow if someone would knock the horns off and heat it up on a charcoal grill. Who would have thought that church and posing for pictures could take so much energy?”

            “Add in what we did half the night, and it’s a wonder we have enough energy to blink our eyes,” Clancy teased.

            “That would be Angela Conrad,” a lady whispered from the next table over. “Meredith told me she was Clancy’s high school sweetheart before he started dating Melissa.”

            “Well, when he gets tired of her, he can send her over my way,” one of the older men at that table said with a chuckle.

            “Oh, Raymond, you’re too damned old to know what to do with her.” The man beside him punched him playfully on the arm. “Besides, what would someone that pretty want with an old coot like you? I heard tell she’s got an oil company and enough money to buy this whole town and plow it under for a garden if she wanted to.”

            “Gossip, gossip.” Clancy grinned.

            “But it’s nice gossip, and as long as they’re talking about us, someone else is getting a rest. That’s what my granny used to say.” Angel picked up a napkin and spread it out over her lap, then reached across the table for another one to set beside her plate. “I’m messy when I eat ribs, but I love them!”

            “Seems to me you like food, period,” Clancy said. “And I do love a woman who isn’t picky about what they eat.”

            “You would, too, if you’d lived for a whole year on pork and beans and wienies,” she said. “Besides, I’m one of those fortunate women who can eat whatever she wants and not worry about calories or fat grams. I’m so active and burn them so fast that I can eat what I want.”

            “Just another thing that I love about you.” Clancy picked up a rib with his fingers.

            “Let me have your attention.” Tom tapped the edge of his glass with his fork. “The caterers are bringing a little champagne toast around to your tables now,” he said as waitresses brought silver trays with fluted crystal glasses of champagne and set one beside each person.

            Tom raised his own glass high in the hot afternoon breeze. “I would like to propose a toast to my new bride. To my Merrie, who has made me happy at a time in my life when I thought happiness was just a dream I had lost forever. May we celebrate our fiftieth anniversary together,” Tom winked at Meredith and clinked his glass against hers. “I love you, darlin’.”

            Everyone took a sip, and then Tom raised his glass again. “I’ve got another toast,” he said. “This is to Clancy and his Angel. They were high school sweethearts, and now they’re back together again. To you two kids. May you find the same happiness Merrie and I have found.” He raised his glass high toward them and then polished off the rest of what was in it.

            “Thank you.” Clancy rose to his feet. “And a toast from me if anyone has anything left in their glasses. If not, raise your hand, and the caterers will be around to fill it again. To my mama, who’s been my friend as well as my parent. I thought my father was the most wonderful man in the whole world, and I have to admit, I didn’t think I’d ever like anyone else taking his place. But Tom has made a place of his own, both in Mama’s heart and in mine. So, to Tom, my new friend. And to Angel—my one and only.” Clancy clinked his glass with Angel’s and tossed back the rest of his champagne in one swallow.