Gulf Coast Wedding by Maggie Miller
Chapter Thirty
Wednesday morning arrived as bright and beautiful as any day that could be hoped for. Georgia was glad about that. Sam and Levi deserved a gorgeous, blue sky kind of day to get married on.
She got the coffee going, excitement filling her with all kinds of energy. With that brewing, she fixed two dishes of canned cat food and took them into the laundry room to check on Bonnie and the babies. She was pretty sure Clyde had slept on Mia’s bed.
She turned the light on and stepped over the baby gate. “Morning, Mama. How are your little ones?”
Bonnie blinked up at her and chirped, clearly happy to see breakfast. She hopped out of the laundry basket that had become the kittens’ crib and went straight to the little mat where the dishes were.
Dolce and Gabbana, as Lilly had named them, mewed a little as the milk bar suddenly disappeared.
“Your mama needs to eat, babies.” Georgia set the new dishes down and took up the old ones, then grabbed the water bowl and rinsed it in the laundry sink before filling it with fresh water.
When she turned back around, Clyde had joined Bonnie at the bowls. “There’s no flies on you, huh, Clyde?”
She set the water bowl back in its place, then gave him a scratch on the head before going to check on the babies. They were beyond cute and so soft. She knelt down, picked them up, one in each hand and gave them a little kiss on their downy heads.
“You two don’t know this yet, but my sister is going to spoil you silly. I wouldn’t be surprised if you end up wearing diamond collars.”
With a smile, she put them back in their basket, then quickly realized the towel lining the bottom could use changing. She picked the kittens up again, put them on the floor, then grabbed a fresh towel from the stack of older ones on the far shelf and swapped it out, putting the dirty towel on top of the washer to deal with later.
Once the kittens were back in the basket, she stood up. The litter box needed cleaning, but she decided to leave that for Mia. Such were the benefits of delegating.
Laughing to herself, she took the dirty dishes back to the kitchen to get herself some coffee.
Mia was already pouring a cup.
“Morning.”
Mia looked over her shoulder. “Morning, Mom. Were you feeding the crew?”
“Yep. Those kittens are so adorable. I changed out the towel in their basket, but the litter box still needs cleaning.” She put the dirty dishes in the sink and ran water in them to soak, then got a coffee mug down. “What time are you leaving for the reverend’s house?”
“We’re aiming to be there at nine.”
Georgia filled her cup. “You want to take a thermos of coffee with you?”
Mia nodded. “That’s a great idea. I definitely want to do that. Do we have a thermos?”
“We do. There’s one in the pantry. I’ll get it for you while you shower.”
Mia sipped her coffee. “I’m not showering until I get back. No point in doing it twice and I’m sure I’ll need one when I get home.”
“Makes sense. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Not that I can think of. Just man the fort here, I guess.”
“I can do that. What about the flowers? Do you need me to pick them up?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think they’re going to be ready until this afternoon. I won’t be at the reverend’s all day. At most, two hours. Maybe three. But then I need to get back here and work on decorating.”
“You’ll have help from me, Aunt Lilly, and Denise when she gets here. Griffin, too, I think. If Kelly doesn’t call him to shoot something for the paper.”
“We’ll need it. I have no idea what new decorations Aunt Lilly is going to come back with, so I don’t want to do too much until I see what she brings us.” Mia blew out a long breath. “This is going to be a busy day. Do we have a final head count?”
Georgia nodded as she swallowed her sip of coffee. “We’re still right around twenty. But I figure we’ll set up a couple extra chairs just in case someone extra shows up. Summer might bring a date and Ellen mentioned she might bring her husband. That sort of thing.”
“Okay, that’s very manageable. And we have plenty of chairs, so we’re good there too. We just have to get them down out of the attic.” Mia glanced upwards. “I have to say, that’s not the best storage place for chairs we could be using on a regular basis.”
“No, it’s not, but I don’t know where else we’d keep them down here.” Georgia shifted her gaze toward the main part of the house. “I should ask Travis about it.”
“Weddings just weren’t a thing when Aunt Norma was running the place,” Mia said. “But since we’re planning on that being a nice bit of our business, we really need to work out a different place to keep them.”
“Agreed, but that’s not a problem we need to solve now.”
Mia looked at the time. “No, it’s not. I need to get some work clothes on and get moving. I don’t want to be late.”
“Are you driving yourself over or is Travis picking you up?”
“Driving myself. That way if I have to leave before he’s done, it won’t be a problem.”
“Makes sense. Can I fix you something for breakfast?”
Mia smiled. “I would appreciate that so much. A couple of scrambled eggs would be great.”
“You got it.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Mia took her coffee with her as she left.
Georgia went to work scrambling eggs, but she had no intention of serving them plain. She added a little Swiss cheese, some diced ham lunch meat, and a little thinly sliced spring onion left over from the big salad she’d made the night before.
When Mia returned, dressed for her big day of work, Georgia had two plates waiting in the breakfast room.
“Wow, that looks great.” Mia stood by the table. “I’m going to refill my coffee, then I’ll be right back.”
Georgia nodded. “I’ll be here.” Georgia had just topped her cup up.
Mia came back and took the seat across from her mom. “Have you seen Aunt Lill yet today? Or Griffin?”
“Neither one, but I don’t expect to see Lilly. I imagine she’ll be off on her shopping trip as soon as she can be. As for Griffin, I expect he’ll be by shortly to drop Chloe off.”
“About that…has there been any word on the custody stuff? I haven’t heard him mention it lately.”
“Nothing I’ve heard either. But Roger’s pretty good about calling when there’s an update, which means there must not be one.” Georgia thought about that. “I’m sure he’s also busy gearing up for Friday’s hearing.”
“Yeah. Because if that doesn’t go well…”
“Don’t think that way,” Georgia said. “It’s all going to work out. Don’t forget that Aunt Lilly connected Roger with some of Uncle Andre’s attorneys as consultants. Griffin literally has the best legal team money can buy.”
The front door of the inn opened, and Griffin walked in carrying Chloe, her diaper bag slung over his shoulder. “Morning.”
“Morning, honey,” Georgia called back. “How’s my favorite grandchild?”
“Fussy,” Griffin answered. “She might need to be changed.”
Georgia got up and held out her arms. “Give that child to me. Mimi will take care of you, sweet pea.” Then she looked at her son. “Why didn’t you change her before coming over?”
“Because Roger Gillum’s admin called to set up a phone call with him at 8:30 so I’ve been hustling to get everything done before then.”
Georgia looked over at the wall clock. “That’s right now.”
“Is it?” Mia said. “I need to eat faster. I still need to get some stuff out of the shed to take with me.”
“I hope one of those things is gloves,” Georgia said. “Or you’re going to end up with blisters.”
Mia nodded. “It is.”
Griffin’s phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket. “I’ll be in the dining room.” Then he answered, walking toward the front of the house as he did.
Georgia felt like holding her breath. Maybe it was just a call to make sure Griffin was ready for Friday. But maybe it wasn’t. Maybe there was news.
She didn’t have to wait long to find out.
Griffin came back into the breakfast room just a few minutes later, his face unreadable.
“Well?” Georgia was holding her breath.
“I can’t believe it.” He shook his head. “There’s not going to be a hearing after all. Olivia signed the paperwork.”