Staring at a color-coded binder.
Addie reached for the six-pack of Naked Pig Pale Ale beer. After taking a large glug from her bottle, she hesitantly lifted the binder off the table.
Give him a fire to fight, a lost hiker to find, or a destructive force of nature to contend with, and he’d jump right in, no fear. But wedding to-do lists filled with line upon line of gibberish? Well, he was about to cry for his mommy.
Time to nut up. Unfortunately, he needed to put the puppies through search and rescue training after this meeting, so he’d be getting through it sober.
Ford grabbed a non-alcoholic beer and cracked it open.
Murph flipped to the section marked tables and blinked at the contents. “Um, I guess we’ll start with…table decorations?” She glanced at him, as if he had any idea what kind of decorations would go on tables. Wasn’t that what plates and food were for? Everything else just got in the way of eating.
The leather of his couch creaked as he shifted closer and peered over Addie’s shoulder. “Sure. Those tablecloths look nice,” he said, gesturing to the rows of multicolored fabric.
Lexi frowned. “Those aren’t for tables; they’re for the chairs.”
“Chairs need tablecloths?” he asked, and Lexi sighed.
Addie nudged him with her elbow. “Yeah, didn’t you know that, Ford? That way, instead of using the tablecloth as a napkin, you’ve got one on your chair, too.”
“Smart.”
They laughed. Lexi pursed her lips.
Over the course of being one of Shep’s “groomsmen,” Addie had grown close to Lexi, but moments like this brought out how different they were. If it were up to Addie and Tucker, they’d keep the ceremony small. Around here, though, weddings were as much for family members and townsfolk as the couple, and it was easier to go with the flow than catch flack the rest of their lives.
The puppies barked as they began play fighting, yelps and growls filling the air. Pyro, Ford’s trusty black German shepherd, lifted his head from his bed by the fireplace. While his dog was over the extra company already, Pyro couldn’t help but help. It was why he was the best rescue dog in all of Alabama.
That and because Ford, who trained K-9 units for search and rescue missions, had trained Pyro himself, from the time he was a bouncy puppy.
Lexi glanced at the dogs. “I’m not denying your new litter is ridiculously cute, but we can’t plan a wedding like this. They’re so noisy.”
“Noisy” was a given in the beginning. “You’ll be amazed at how much better they are in a week or so.”
Ford hadn’t named the puppies yet, but the biggest troublemaker lifted his leg and peed on Lexi’s high-heeled shoe.
To her credit, she didn’t shriek or even scold the puppy. The arched eyebrow she shot Ford, on the other hand, made it clear he was in the doghouse. “Can I please have an hors d’oeuvre to go with my odeur d’pee? Oh, that’s right. You didn’t make any.”
To say Lexi was used to playing hostess was an understatement. Normally he’d let her have at it, but if he left the puppies alone too long, they’d destroy the house. “I brought out the tub of jerky and a six-pack of beer, didn’t I?”
“I think we just picked out the wedding meal,” Addie said. “Jerky and beer for all.”
“Hear, hear.” Ford tapped the end of his piece of jerky to Addie’s, and then they both took giant bites.
Judging from the unamused expression on Lexi’s face, they were both in the doghouse now.
“We’ll have the next meeting at your place,” he said in a placating tone.
“I know it’s overwhelming, and I’m here to help.” Lexi leaned over the coffee table and flipped to the tab marked color scheme. “Once we pick your colors and pin down other major details, the rest will fall into place.”
“All’s I care about is that it’s not crimson,” Addie said. “No offense,” she added because they’d given Shep shit about crimson being one of his wedding colors. “But I work for Auburn, and it’d be embarrassing to have the coaches at my wedding wonderin’ if I’m a traitor.”
Ford lifted his can of beer. “War Eagle!”
Lexi pinched the bridge of her nose. “Not this again. As I’ve explained, I just like red. And while I realize I said ‘pick whatever you want,’ an orange wedding would be hideous. I doubt you want your bridesmaids to look like they recently broke out of prison.”
“Considerin’ the guy next to me, it wouldn’t be a total shock,” Addie teased.
Pyro lifted his head and barked, and Ford’s spine went stick straight. From the puppies, he wouldn’t think twice, but Pyro didn’t bark unless there was a reason.
“What is it?”
Pyro jumped out of his bed and barked again, his nose aimed toward the fireplace.
“McGuire,” Addie said to him, plenty of scolding in that one word. “Didn’t we talk about turning off the scanner and being present? About how you’ve got to keep yourself from getting burned out?”
His friends got on him about how he never took a break and answered every call, no matter how big or small. Sometimes they were the next town over and he’d show up about the time things were wrapping up. He was attempting to regain more balance in his life, but so far, he’d mostly failed.
Problem was, he never wanted another “what if?” on his conscience.
When Ford heard the chirp of his beeper—not the scanner that he had turned off—he stood and retrieved it from the mantel. He hit the recall button and listened to the message.
Smoke reported at Maisy’s Bakery.
“It’s a fire.” While there were several paramedics throughout the county, there weren’t many volunteer firefighters in town. It was almost a relief he had a solid reason to take the call so he didn’t have to wonder how it’d gone all night, and Lexi and Addie both nodded their understanding.
The radio crackled as Ford clicked it on and depressed the button. “I’m responding to the situation at Maisy’s Bakery.”
“Copy that,” dispatch said. “The caller said there’s not much smoke, but she wanted to err on the side of caution. Darius is near the station and is gonna bring the truck, just in case.”
Ford’s keys jingled as he scooped them off the mantel, and Pyro stood at his side, ready to leap into action. “I’ll meet him there.”
…
I realize now what we were missing. Why I could never set a wedding date.
The explanation Benjamin had given Violet after catching him in flagrante flayed her right open, but the javelin to her exposed heart came when he explained that with Crystal, it was love at first sight.