Shattered (Anderson Special Ops #4) - Melody Anne Page 0,80

and she couldn’t believe she was about to elope with him. She knew her daughter would have her head. A giggle slipped from her.

“What are you laughing about my beautiful bride?” Sherman asked.

“I feel like a teenager running away from my parents to get married,” she said, mirth still escaping her painted pink lips.

“You look like a teenager. You’re the most beautiful bride ever,” Sherman said as he pulled her into his arms.

“I can’t believe we got away with this,” she told him, the sparkle in her eyes sending warmth through Sherman. Most people didn’t get a chance at a love like theirs. Maybe everyone should wait until they were older to find true love, wait until they were through all of their adolescent crap.

He was about to say something when another voice interrupted them, one that had them both turning with stunned expressions on their blushing faces.

“You didn’t get away with this. Really? Really? I mean really?” Joseph Anderson was standing not twenty feet away from them, a stern expression on his face as he tapped his toe on the ground. “I absolutely don’t understand why people keep running off to elope instead of giving me the pleasure of watching a good old-fashioned wedding.” Joseph threw his hands in the air, and his wife Katherine, who looked absolutely stunning in her simple green gown, patted his arm.

“Oh, Joseph, we still managed to get here, and it’s pretty romantic whenever two people love each other enough to want to commit themselves for the rest of their lives,” Katherine said.

“I think it’s romantic too, my beautiful Katherine. What I don’t like is all of this sneaking off. It’s happening too much lately, and I’m dang well putting my foot down.”

“Now, Joseph, we’ve been friends for a very long time, and you know better than to put your foot down with me,” Sherman said. Bobbi had gone from stunned to laughing instantly.

“Where’s my daughter? I might as well get the lecture over with,” Bobbi said to Joseph. There was no doubt if Joseph was there, her daughter was there, too.

At those words, a huge group of people stepped around a bend and emerged on them. Both Bobbi and Sherman were stunned. How in the world had they been so busted most of the Anderson and Armstrong clan had managed to arrive at their secret wedding location?

“How in the world did you find out about this, and in enough time to crash our wedding?” Sherman asked.

“We have Brackish,” Joseph said. That was the only explanation needed. The man was an evil genius and nothing could be hidden from his magical fingers when he had a keyboard in front of him.

Sherman laughed. “I thought we were being so discreet choosing a venue we could drive to. But I still wanted my bride to have a wedding day so there was no going to the courthouse.”

“Uncle Sherman, really?” Ace asked as he moved from the back of the crowd. Sherman’s five nephews stepped forward with identical looks on their faces.

Sherman looked at his bride. “It looks like we aren’t as sneaky as we thought we were,” he said, pulling her a bit tighter.

“I guess not,” she said.

“It’s just a good thing I have friends everywhere,” Joseph said.

At that, a crew of workers stepped out next, prepared to transform their small, intimate wedding space into a lovely area where all of their friends and family could participate.

“I didn’t reserve a reception place,” Sherman said. “I was simply going to whisk my bride off for a month-long honeymoon.”

“It’s a good thing I have connections there as well. It’s all being set up now,” Joseph said.

“And . . . you and I have some last-minute preparations to do,” Avery said as she stepped out and gave her mother the same stare Bobbi had used on her when she’d been a misbehaving child.

“But our scheduled time is in ten minutes,” Bobbi said as she looked at the arch that was set up beneath a canopy of flowers.

“Not anymore. It’s been moved a few hours,” Avery said. “Now, before you complain, you just remember that I wanted to run off with Carl and elope, and you two were the reason we couldn’t. You put up a whole fuss about me needing a wedding day. You planned out my wedding. Now, you have to deal with the payback.” She smiled at the end of her words.

Bobbi’s shoulders sagged as she looked at Sherman. “She has a point there. I did put