Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Then, after a quick kiss on Ava’s cheek, away she went.
Susan Spencer had eyes like a hawk, and with just that one look, she’d definitely picked up on something between Ava and Ransom.
Ava would have to be far more careful around her brothers.
Fernsby stepped out of the house and clapped his hands loudly enough to stop conversations across the entire yard. He cleared his throat. “The wedding is about to begin,” he intoned. “Please take your seats.” He seemed to have developed a new talent as a wedding planner.
Marching down the stairs, directing as he went, he told this couple to sit there and pointed that couple into those two seats. Reaching Ava, he latched on to her arm and steered her not to the row where her brothers sat, but several rows back, directing her into a chair one seat over from the aisle.
When she said, eyebrows raised, “There’s room up there next to Cammie,” Fernsby answered, “That seat is already taken.” Then, as if he thought she didn’t believe him, he tapped his temple. “I have all the seating arrangements right up here.”
Ava shook her head and stayed where she was. You couldn’t argue with Fernsby.
* * *
Fernsby tucked Susan Spencer’s hand into the crook of his elbow. “My dear lady, since your husband will be walking the bride down the aisle, may I escort you to your seat?”
She smiled at him. “Why, Fernsby, I’d be delighted. It seems as if my boys have forgotten me.”
Fernsby allowed himself a twinkle in his eye. “Never, dear lady. I orchestrated that, as I wished to have the honor.”
“Fernsby,” she said in the same formal tones, “you are a sly one.”
“I appreciate the compliment, madam.”
In only a few short months, Susan Spencer had the enviable position of making herself one of his favorite people. Her admirable spirit spoke to him. The woman had known terrible hardship, but she’d never lost her sense of duty or her ability to love with all her big heart. It couldn’t have been easy raising five boys and a baby girl with so little money in an impoverished Chicago neighborhood. But she had created a strong, loving family. A miracle, when one considered that four of those boys were not even of her own union with her beloved husband, Robert.
He felt a kinship with her, as he had taken charge of the Harringtons long ago. Even if they didn’t know it.
With most of the other guests seated, he slowly walked Susan down the grassy aisle. She was the closest thing the bride had to a mother, and she would take that exalted position as the last to be seated, Fernsby had determined, though he was sure the Mavericks had reserved it for her anyway.
Susan said in a voice too low for anyone else to hear, “I see you left the seat empty next to Ava. It seems to me that you, Fernsby, a man always with plans, have a plan for that seat too.”
He allowed an evil smile to slide across his lips. “Indeed I do, dear lady.”
There was never any artifice in Susan Spencer’s smiles. And this one was knowing. “May I assume you’re matchmaking?” Again, she added a formal cadence to her words that Fernsby appreciated.
He tapped his temple and said smoothly, “As you said, dear lady, Fernsby always has a plan.”
“You are a truly inestimable man,” she said, laughter in her voice.
Fernsby helped her into the front-row seat, the chair next to her empty for her husband to return to after giving away the bride. Leaning close, he murmured, “Enjoy the wedding, dear lady.”
Then he walked back down the aisle, heading straight for Ransom Yates.
Because Fernsby had a few fireworks to light under someone’s backside.
* * *
An instrumental version of Taylor Swift’s “Lover” had just begun when Fernsby guided Ransom into the empty seat beside her.
“What are you doing here?” Ava asked, trying not to sound sharp. “Aren’t you supposed to be doing your chef thing?”
Ransom just smiled, a sparkle in his eye. “Everything is under control. Just as you said, I have a lot of great people working with me. They can take the lead while I enjoy the wedding with you.”
With me? When did I turn into your date?
Yet there was that secret part of her heart that thrilled to have him next to her.
Ari came down the aisle first as Rosie’s bridesmaid. They had been best friends since childhood, when they were in foster care together. After that came Jorge and Noah as ring bearers, Jorge carrying his mother’s ring and Noah bearing Gideon’s.
At the front, Gideon stood tall in a tuxedo perfectly tailored to his body. He was a big man—all the Mavericks were—a handsome blond guy whose look of love for Rosie softened his features. Matt Tremont, Ari’s husband and Gideon’s brother-in-law, was his best man. Matt looked down the aisle, watching Ari approach as if they were getting married all over again.