“I might have a little something else planned. Well, maybe a few little things.”
She poked his side. “I work really hard to make sure she has what she needs, and now she’s going to think she needs so much more.” Ugh! I sound so ungrateful. Layla stopped short of them and ran into a row of seats.
“You’re right. I should have run it by you first. I’m sorry, Bree. I’ve never done this before, and I guess I got a little overzealous.”
Oh my God. I’m a bitchy girlfriend. What am I doing? He was doing something for Layla that she might never have the opportunity to do again. Maybe being romantic and thoughtful was simply who Hugh was, even if he was over-the-top. She touched her necklace and held on to his hand.
“It’s okay. I’m sorry,” she relented.
Layla stood in the center of the aisle again, beckoning them with one hand while smelling the corsage on the other.
“I promise, from now on I’ll run everything by you.” They took two steps and he stopped again. “I’d better amend that.” His voice deepened with a serious tone. “I promise that I’ll try to run everything by you, but honestly, I know myself, and there will be times that I forget, or I’m excited, or I want to surprise you both.” He wrinkled his forehead and curled his lips into a sweet, tentative smile.
How could she deny those dimples and such a kind heart? “You kill me with honesty,” she teased. “Okay. Deal.”
LAYLA SAT BETWEEN Hugh and Brianna. She bounced her feet as Tami, Mack’s wife, entered the stage wearing jeans and a white long-sleeved shirt. Her hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, and in her arms she carried a large fake tree. She set the tree beside a chair and stood at the front of the stage. Tami?
Layla gasped. “It’s Tami! Tami’s here!” Layla jumped up to her feet and held on to the seat in front of her.
Brianna whispered to Hugh, “You brought Tami here? What story?”
“Layla wrote a story at the tavern. Remember?” Hugh winked.
Brianna knitted her brows. “What?”
Hugh took her hand in his, then put his finger to his lips and nodded toward the stage. “Watch. You’ll see.”
“This is the story of Sassy and the Bird, written by Layla Heart,” Tami began. “Once upon a time, there was a yellow cat named Sassy. She had a bell on her collar that she got from her owner, and she loved the bell.”
Kat crawled onto the stage on all fours. She wore a yellow long-sleeved shirt, yellow sweatpants, and a headband with two cat ears poking up from the top of her head. Tami shook a bell and the tinkle, tinkle sound followed Kat across the stage.
Oh my God.
“Kat! Mom, it’s Kat!” Layla laughed.
Brianna’s throat tightened. She squeezed Hugh’s hand, and he moved into Layla’s seat and put his arm around Brianna.
Tami continued. “Every morning Sassy followed her owner outside.”
Jean walked across the stage wearing a pretty blue dress. She picked up a purse from a table and pretended to open the door to leave. Kat crawled behind her, scooting out the door alongside her.
“It’s Grandma!” Layla climbed into Hugh’s lap, and Brianna felt all the pieces of her world coming together.
“Sassy climbed a big tree where she could watch two baby birds play in their nest.”
Kat climbed on top of the chair next to the tree and perched like a cat on all fours.
Mack and his daughter, Karen, entered the stage with big painted wings strapped to their arms. They sat in a big wicker basket that looked a lot like an enormous nest.
Layla laughed. “Look, Mom. Mack and Karen are birds!”
Brianna couldn’t believe that Hugh had orchestrated the entire production without her knowing—and all for Layla.
Tami continued. “One day when Sassy was in the tree, one of the baby birds fell out.
Oh my God. Hugh pulled Brianna closer and kissed the side of her head.
Karen climbed over the side of the basket and yelled, “Ouch!” She held one wing up in the air.
“Sassy climbed down the tree as fast as he could.” Tami rang the bell as Kat climbed off the chair.
Layla yelled, “I wrote that!”
Hugh put his arm around her and whispered, “You sure did.”
Kat walked across the stage in silence and stopped by Karen. She touched her neck and curved her mouth into a frown.
Tami began again. “Sassy lost the bell she loved in the tree, but she saved the bird.”
Karen climbed on Kat’s back and, Brianna, Hugh, and Layla all laughed as Kat transported her into the pretend door to the house alongside Jean.
Jean picked up Karen and set her in a gigantic cage that seemed to appear from nowhere, but Brianna realized Mack had also disappeared. She’d been so busy watching Karen and Kat that he must have slipped out the other side of the stage.
“For lots of days,” Tami continued, “the bird was in the cage getting better. Sassy was sad that she couldn’t be with the bird inside the cage, so she watched from beside the cage.”
Kat wiped her eyes and frowned, staring longingly at Karen through the bars of the cage.
“One day, the lock on the cage broke, and the owner had to leave it open when she went to work.”
Jean opened the cage and walked out of the pretend door again.
“Look at Grandma.” Layla laughed.
Brianna looked at Hugh. He squeezed her hand and nodded toward the stage.
Tami continued. “Sassy climbed into the cage and snuggled with the bird until its wing felt better.”
Kat climbed into the cage on all fours and rubbed her body against Karen’s side.
Jean came back onto the stage.
“When the bird’s wing was better, the owner took the bird outside and set it free,” Tami said in a solemn voice.
Jean held Karen’s hand and guided her out the door. Then Karen pretended to flap around the stage, and she climbed onto the chair beside the tree. Karen used her nose to poke at the tree.
“The bird had a surprise for Sassy,” Tami said.
Layla jumped off of Hugh’s lap. “Can I go to the front?” she asked.
Brianna agreed and watched Layla run down the aisle to the railing again, where she waved at their friends on the stage.
She forced her brain to work and hoped her voice would follow. “I can’t believe…” She blinked her damp eyes and swallowed to gain control of her shaky voice. “You did all of this.”
He touched her chin. “I’d do anything for you and Layla. She was so excited about this story, and I wanted to support her interest in the arts.”
Brianna touched the locket he’d given her and wondered how she’d gotten so lucky to have been working the night he came into the tavern for the first time.
Tami smoothed her shirt, then continued. “That afternoon, the bird flew into the house when the owner came home.”
Karen flapped her arms and ran into the door beside Jean.
Layla laughed hard and loud.
Karen dropped something by Kat, and Tami rang the bell as she said, “The bird gave Sassy back her bell, and the owner left the window open every day after that so Sassy and the bird could be best friends forever.”
“And they lived happily ever after,” Tami and Layla said in unison.
Tami curtsied and clapped as Kat, Karen, Jean, and Mack stood up and bowed. Layla clapped, and Brianna’s jaw hung open, awestruck at the story her daughter had written and the man who had helped it come to life.
Hugh stood and clapped. “Bravo!”
Brianna looked up at him with damp eyes. Even blurry, he was the most handsome man she’d ever seen, but she was looking—again—beyond his facial features and broad shoulders. She saw right through to his generous, loving heart.
Hugh took her hand and led her down the aisle, where she scooped up Layla.
“That was the most beautiful story,” Brianna said.
As they mounted the stairs to the stage, Layla said, “I wrote it. Me and Hugh did.”
Halfway across the stage, Layla wriggled from Brianna’s arms and wrapped her arms around Hugh’s legs.
“That was the best play ever!” Layla gushed.
Before Brianna could pull herself together enough to thank him, and her mother, and Kat—Oh God, everyone did this for me? For Layla?—Hugh leaned in close and whispered, “What do you think of your little playwright now?”
Layla has such a kind heart. She looked at her daughter, grinning from ear to ear and jumping up and down like she was the star of the show. Which, of course, she was.
She snuggled against him. “I’m beginning to believe in fairy tales.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
THE CATERED DINNER arrived as scheduled and was swiftly set up in the reception area. Just beyond the table, Tami stood with Layla and Karen, all three of them giggling with their heads huddled together. Hugh watched Brianna, Kat, and her mother talking off to the side. Her mother shrugged, then looked at Hugh and winked, and he knew Brianna was chastising Jean for not revealing that Hugh had secretly gone to her work and introduced himself. He didn’t like to keep secrets, but the dreamy look on Brianna’s face that had remained since they’d stepped from the car was worth it.
“That was really something, Hugh.” Mack appeared by his side with a drink in hand. Without his tavern T-shirt, he looked older. Dress pants and button-down shirts tended to do that to men. He offered a drink to Hugh.