plan a big wedding. The groom wasn’t to see the bride on the day of the wedding and nothing was going to change her mind.
The woman looking back at Sage looked happy, but was it for real? Was she really, really getting married just three weeks after meeting Creed?
He’d proposed and she’d said yes without even thinking about things. Then Grand and Aunt Essie came home from the cemetery and everything went into high gear.
“When is the wedding?” Grand had asked.
“We thought we’d go over to the courthouse this afternoon or maybe sometime next week,” Sage had answered.
But that wouldn’t do. No, sir! If they were getting married that quickly then they could do it on Sunday before Grand and Essie flew out. Sage had argued that it couldn’t be arranged in that length of time.
“What are you thinking about?” April asked.
“How tiny this bathroom is.”
“You don’t lie too good, Sage. You’re worried that you are going too fast and that you’ll have regrets later. If you wanted a big wedding with all the trimmings you should have put your foot down,” April said.
“I didn’t even want this much. I wanted to go to the courthouse.”
“Not me. I want the whole ten yards. That’s even more than the nine yards thing. I’m having the big white dress with a train that reaches from the top of the stairs all the way to the bottom and a reception out on the ranch lawn after the wedding in the ballroom.”
“I just wanted to dash into the courthouse and come out married, but Grand wanted something else and I let her have her way.” Sage straightened up.
“Well God bless Grand! I’d rather be a bridesmaid and flirt with Creed’s handsome brothers than yawn through a sermon today.”
Sage looked at the clock above the vanity. “Five minutes.”
“Nervous?” April asked.
“You’ll never know.”
* * *
The preacher nodded at his wife who played the piano that morning and her fingers went to the keys. Creed and his brother marched down the center aisle and took their places at the front of the church.
Creed could hardly believe that a wedding could be arranged in forty-eight hours, but then he’d never known anyone like Ada, Essie, and Hilda. Ada had sent him and Sage to the courthouse on Friday afternoon to purchase a marriage license. And she’d given them strict orders that if they came home already married she’d never come back to the canyon to visit them again.
On the way back home, he’d called his brother Ace and asked him if he could drop everything and be his best man for the wedding. Evidently the ball got to rolling pretty fast in Ringgold too, because more than half of one side of the church was filled with his family and friends. They had arrived late the previous evening, checked into a hotel in Amarillo, and then come straight to the Rockin’ C.
Women gathered around Sage, and surprisingly enough, she didn’t let his mother or any of them intimidate her. And the ranchers wanted a tour of his new ranch. Now they were all in their Sunday best, supporting him on his wedding day.
* * *
“I hear the music,” April said.
“What do they really think of me? Do they think I married him so I could keep the ranch?” she whispered.
“Honey, a blind man could see how much Creed loves you. And his sisters-in-law and mother were very nice.”
Ada pushed inside the tiny bathroom. “Your momma would have loved this day, and she would have really liked the idea that you are wearing her wedding dress.”
“See you at the front.” April slipped out the door before Ada asked her any questions.
“It doesn’t look too old hippie does it?” Sage laughed.
“It was beautiful on her and it’s even more beautiful on you. I don’t think she would have even minded that you cut it off. There’s our cue and I hear people standing up. It’s our turn.” Ada grabbed her granddaughter’s hand and together they stepped out of the bathroom.
Sage’s dress had been white when her mother had worn it but it hadn’t been stored in one of those nonyellowing containers so the satin was a rich ecru color. However, the illusion covering the satin and billowing out from the skirt that ended right above her knee was still snowy white. The scoop-neck bodice was covered in white beads and sequins that had also escaped the aging process. Long fitted sleeves ended in points and had one dozen buttons each