Bob rolled his eyes. “I don’t think so, Pa.”
Doug shook his head in silent agreement to Bob’s declaration.
Joseph shrugged. “What did I tell you?” he told her. “Boys just don’t think that far into the future.”
She giggled, even as her lips still tingled from his kiss and her heart thumped madly in her chest. Well, as a girl, she’d played out her first kiss many times in her mind, and she had to admit, the kiss he’d just given her was even better than anything she could dream up. She settled against him and realized that Ben had fallen asleep.
A man and four boys. A full house, yes. But she bet it’d be a happy one.
Chapter Six
Margaret arranged the flowers in the bouquet Jessica would hold. “I’m almost done. I want your thoughts on this.”
Her sister yawned. “I think the last two times you did that were fine.”
“Are you even looking?” Margaret glanced at the clock and sighed. The hour was late, but she couldn’t relax. She was getting married tomorrow at eleven. How was she supposed to sleep? She had a ton of things to do. “Please tell me what you think, Charlotte. Your bouquet will look the same.”
“I don’t care how my bouquet looks.”
“I just want everything to be perfect.” She’d spent years preparing for this moment. She couldn’t stop until she was done. “I’ll tell you what. If you really look at this bouquet and tell me what you think, I’ll let you go to bed.”
Her sister wearily turned her gaze to the flowers. “They’re fine.”
“A good fine or a bad fine?”
“There’s not a difference.”
“Yes there is.”
Charlotte stood up from the chair in the parlor. “I can’t keep my eyes open.”
Margaret realized that there was no way she would get a good, solid answer from her, so she waved for her to go to bed. “Alright. But please wear the blue bow tomorrow.”
She grimaced but nodded.
Once again, Margaret wished that Jessica still lived in town. Jessica had a great eye for style, and as much as Charlotte tried to help her, she wasn’t any better at making things look their best than Margaret was. But Charlotte was such a tomboy anyway. Margaret was lucky her sister would wear the bow. That agreement alone had taken Margaret a good two hours of pleading and doing all her chores. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes. It had been a long and tiring day. Who knew planning a wedding could be so hectic?
She set the bouquet on the table and studied all the flowers in the three bouquets that were neatly set out in a row. The light from the candle gave her the impression of softness. Perhaps she should have opted for an evening wedding ceremony. She did like the effect candlelight had on things. But she didn’t want to have the boys stay up past their bedtime, so she chose eleven in the morning. By then, everyone should be fed and ready to enjoy the day.
Peering out the window, she wondered if it was going to rain. The night sky was clear. Not a cloud in sight. With any luck, tomorrow would be a nice sunny day. She asked for an outside wedding. If it rained, they’d have to go inside the church. She admonished herself for assuming that just because it was her wedding day that it would rain. Everything will be fine. Nothing’s going to go wrong. Her mother was right. She had to stop finding reasons to worry.
She thought over the other tasks she had to do but couldn’t think of anything she could do that night. Everything else, like her hair and putting on her dress, would have to wait until morning.
With nothing else to do but wait, she went to bed. She closed her eyes but didn’t sleep. Instead, she played through the wedding ceremony over and over. This would be the day she’d remember for the rest of her life. And it was going to be perfect.
***
By the time ten o’clock came the next morning, Margaret was a bundle of nerves.
Jessica laughed and forced her to sit in the small room in the back of the church. “I can’t do your hair if you keep bouncing around.”
She fidgeted and leaned forward so she could look out the small window. “It’s a lovely day, don’t you think?”
Jessica pulled her back so she sat up straight. “Yes. It’s not even windy. You picked the perfect spring day to have a wedding, and I bet it didn’t even have anything to do with me.”
She chuckled and glanced over her shoulder while Jessica pulled her hair back with some pins lying on the round table beside them. “But having you here doesn’t hurt.”
Though Jessica rolled her eyes, she didn’t hide her amusement. “Yes. I made sure the clouds went away. It took a lot of work to do so I better get the slice of cake with the biggest rose on it. You know how much I love roses.”