Her Unexpected Family

“When the highway department can keep the old police chief and the new police chief’s office happy, then everybody’s happy,” Grant told her. He nodded toward Drew, the newly appointed chief of police. “This guy’s got some pretty big shoes to fill, because your father did one solid job as chief. But so far, so good.” He winked at Drew as he shook Kimberly’s hand.

“Feeling’s mutual.” Drew clapped him on the back. “You did a great job facilitating that meeting of the town leaders the other day. I appreciated it.”

“I forgot that you two will actually have to work together on some things now.” Emily made a face. “My bad.”

“Grant, I know this is short notice, but if you can sneak away for a few hours next week, come to our wedding.” Drew took a seat at the big round oak table and motioned Grant to sit down. “We’ve got plenty of room and food. We’d love to have you there.”

Grant grimaced. “I’d like to, but I’m walking around with way too much guilt for leaving Tim and Dolly as much as I do already. It seems like I’m not home nearly as much as I’d like to be.”

“Bring them along,” Kimberly said. Grant gave her a blank stare.

“You didn’t just say that. Did you?”

“I did, and I meant it. It’s not a huge affair. We actually like kids, and I’d rather have you come and bring the kids than not come,” Kimberly told him. “Call it good town relations or whatever, but I think the kids will have fun, there will be all kinds of people there to spoil them and how can that be a bad thing?”

It wasn’t a bad thing, but Grant’s hesitation indicated he might not agree.

“I know they’re little,” Emily offered. “And they probably get overwhelmed easily, but if you’d like to bring them, there’s a whole crew of Gallaghers who will be happy to help with them.”

“Dolly actually has a bunch of cute dresses she’s never worn because we don’t do fancy all that often,” he admitted.

“Nothing like a wedding to put on the dog,” Drew drawled, as if getting dressed up for anything—even his own wedding—was cruel and unusual punishment.

“Think about it.” Kimberly reached out a hand to Drew and tugged. “I expect you and Emily have things to talk about, so I’m going to drag my fiancé out to the front room and we’re going to give the to-do list one last look.”

“It’s beyond crazy how even a small family wedding can need this much attention.” Rory tipped her glasses down and peered up at Kimberly from her spot across the room. “Although in this case it might be because we have experts running their own show.”

“Hush.” Kimberly leaned down and gazed hard into Rory’s laughing eyes. “You don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you. And this is a somewhat important day in my life, brat.”

“Good point.”

Rory grinned and ducked back to her laptop, while Emily pulled her chair a little closer to Grant’s and brought up the online contracts. “I know you need to get home, so if we can go over the major points here, I’ll print things up and we’re good to go. Unless you’d rather have me email it to you so you can examine the details back at your place.”

“Here’s good. Ditches and roads are my forte, not party planning. Which is why I came to the best.”

When he said it, he looked straight at Emily, as if assured she could do the job without her mother or big sister looking over her shoulder. His vote of confidence felt good, if a bit surprising after his initial reaction to her. “I’ll contact Christa about the other things. Dress, attendants, flowers. Whatever else she has in mind, I’ll be happy to run interference for her.”

“You don’t mind?”

“Not in the least. That’s my favorite part of the process.” She tapped a few keys as she spoke, filled in a few more spots and hit Print. “I’m happy to do it. Let’s not forget that Kate & Company managed to put together a star-studded wedding for the president’s daughter, while her whole family was stomping the campaign trail two months ago. Ninety percent of that was in absentia.”

“And it was amazing,” Drew called from the other room. “Not that I’m listening to you guys or anything.”

Drew’s words seemed to bolster Grant. “If you could talk to Christa, and make everything flow for her, I don’t think there’s enough money in the world to show my thanks. She asked me to stand with her, so that’s a little weird already.”

“As her witness? What a perfectly lovely thing to do, brother and sister, standing before God together.”

He made a face. “I’d have been okay with just walking the bride down the aisle and maintaining a low profile for the remainder of the day.”

“That makes Christa’s gesture sweeter.” She handed him the hard-copy contract. “I’ve got Christa’s email now. Maybe she and I can arrange a Skype session at the bridal salon. And with so many possibilities online, we can come up with something absolutely beautiful for her.”

Grant withdrew his phone and pulled up a picture of a happy couple with snow-capped mountains in the background. “This was taken two years ago when they were at a ski lodge in Colorado. She’s built like you,” he told Emily. “But taller. She usually likes things kind of simple, but that’s everyday stuff.” He frowned at the picture. “When it comes to a wedding gown, who knows?”

“It’s always the ones you least expect who choose a princess gown,” Rory muttered as she closed her laptop and stood. “And the princesses pick a mermaid dress and can’t climb into the overpriced limo without help.”

“Yeah, like that,” Grant agreed. He shifted to face Emily directly again. “You don’t mind doing that part, too?”

“I’ll love it. I’ll get hold of Christa as soon as I can. We’ll set something up and I’ll keep you in the loop.”

Rory had crossed to the kitchen. She came back and set a tray of pastries in front of Grant. “Gabby sent these as a thank-you for the business we’ve been bringing her, and Kimberly made it abundantly clear that they need to disappear,” she instructed. “Something about fitting into that wedding gown next week.”

“Let’s send a few home with him,” Emily suggested. “Leave a couple for Amy, but if we send them with Grant, the twins will be beside themselves, and Tillie and Percy will love us forever.”

“Percy’s got a sweet tooth, for certain, but—”

Emily stepped closer, reaching one hand up, over his mouth. She slid her gaze toward the living room, then raised one brow. “Taking them will be an act of kindness, Grant. There’s a bride in the next room,” she whispered. “Save her from herself, and just take the pastries. Okay?”

His eyes met hers, and this time they didn’t stray. They lingered and twinkled as if he liked looking into her eyes. “Okay.”

Her heart fluttered. She moved her hand away from his face, but couldn’t draw her eyes from his.

“I’ll just put these on a double paper plate, Grant.” Rory’s movement broke the moment, and maybe Emily was wrong. Maybe it wasn’t even a moment.

But when she walked Grant to the door, he turned and held her gaze once more. Then he reached out and took her hand while raising the plate of treats. “The family will love these. Thank you.”

He squeezed her hand lightly and smiled.

Gone was the defensiveness she’d seen last week. In its place was an easy grin. She smiled back, and when he released her hand, her fingers felt downright cold and lonely as she closed the door.

She couldn’t get involved, she knew that, but for that brief moment, getting involved felt like an absolutely wonderful thing to do.

Chapter Four (#ulink_891d7af3-b42b-5143-82f1-7efcb1cc6eb2)

He shared the pastries with Tillie and Percy when he got home. The twins were in bed, and all was well.

It actually wasn’t well, but Grant didn’t know that until he went to check on the toddlers. Timmy had climbed out of bed and was sleeping on the floor of his room. Grant opened the door, bumped it into the sleeping boy and pinched his little fingers between the door and the floor.

The toddler woke with a start, shrieking in surprise and pain.

Dolly woke up in the adjacent room, not because she was in pain, but because Timmy was upset. She burst into tears of sympathy, or possibly envy because now Timmy was in Grant’s arms, garnering all the attention.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Timmers.” He kissed the boy’s hand, put ice on the fingers, then kissed it again when Timmy slapped the cold compress aside. “Daddy didn’t mean it. I’m so sorry.”

Timmy hiccupped and sobbed against his chest, but fell back asleep in quick minutes.

Not Dolly. Now that she was awake, her sixty-minute catnap offered a new lease on life. He rocked her, read to her, played with her and finally—with the clock edging toward midnight—got her back into her crib.

He crawled into bed shortly thereafter, only to have his phone alert wake him at two forty-five. He pried his eyes open, scanned the report and dispatched five truck drivers to salt the highways before people woke up and discovered nearly a quarter inch of freezing rain had fallen between midnight and two o’clock.