Western Spark

Flowers in the Forest

Flowers in the Forest

This scene is from Chapter 34  of Western Connection - cut for length. A sweet scene the day before Liz and Jake's wedding, with some flirty and fun interaction between Brady and Caitlin, plus more of Gordon, and Liana. I loved the scene, but decided ultimately that it was pure filler, and developed Gordon more than I wanted for the sake of this book. The impact of the wedding scenes were lessened with this more detailed scene of the setup, and we'd already established some of that earlier when the tent was brought in and the crew were unloading, and some descriptions after the ceremony at the reception.

Enjoy!

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There were flowers everywhere. Brady hefted a bucket out of the back of the delivery truck, and Caitlin swung by, took it out of his hands with a smile, and hurried back into the tent. He picked up another one and walked in with it. He was sore from the past two days of wrenching on a disc plow that had gone completely out of alignment, and the bucket of blooms was surprisingly heavy, twinging his muscles. His shoulders needed a break.

Long tables with checkerboard pattern tablecloths spanned the length of the tent, a buffet set along one edge, and a dance floor at one end greeted him. Twinkly lights strung from the top, flowers on every table gave the place a festive vibe, and Brady liked it. Given how much fussing Peony had done, he had expected fancy and formal, but this was perfect. Jake had adopted a less formal way of life since living here that he was thriving in, and Liz was the furthest thing from fancy that a woman could be. Crystal glasses and polished silverware just wasn't "them".

It was a hive of preparation. He looked around him and set the bucket on a table with about seven others, noticing vases and clear glass pebbles everywhere. Liz was frowning, eyeballing a paper over her mother's shoulder. Caitlin and Liana were stuffing vases with flowers with some of Liz's friends, laughing. Music was playing somewhere in the background, and some of the tent company workers were restringing support ropes.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow Jake and Liz would be married. It seemed like the past year had been a non-stop tilt-a-whirl ride, ending with this. He spied Jake popping his head in from a side entrance to the tent, and he waved and strode over.

"How's it going?" Jake asked and beckoned him outside the tent. "Get out before they see you and you have to do flower arranging."

Brady ducked through and a beer was thrust into his hand by Jake's friend Gordon. Gordon had arrived two days ago, and had made himself at home. The first night, he and Jake had cooked for everyone, and they ate right in the kitchen. Even Keith had begrudgingly tried some of the more high-end fare they'd pumped out. By the end of dinner everyone's stomach hurt from the amount of food they'd eaten, and the laughter that was non-stop.

"Going to be hot tomorrow," Gordon remarked. He wiped his hands on the towel hung from his apron strings and smiled. He'd rented a fancy outdoor kitchen tent, and set it up right out the back of the main tent, complete with a small refrigerated truck for all the food. Jake had been hiding out with him all morning, going over the menu, helping with some of the prep.

Apparently last night Gordon and Jake had been up until two making corn bread, and there was a very large amount of cabbage currently being shredded into big bins.

"Sure will be," Jake replied and clinked the neck of his bottle on Brady's. "It was hot the day I arrived here too. I was sweating my balls off in a rental car the size of a shoebox, I remember."

"I remember that. Peony made a gallon of iced tea for you. Horrible stuff," Brady said and he and Jake laughed. Brady took a swig of his beer. It was refreshingly good. He had more work to get back to, and wanted to finish it up today so he had no worries. He was doing double duty at the moment, getting his work done for the day-to-day on the ranch, and helping here, plus helping Caitlin get settled at the ranch.