Must-Have Husband (Summer Grooms Series) (7 page)

“Don’t worry, love. No one will expect an August wedding to
go off with your recent change in plans. But the happy part is now we’re planning
for a new one. Probably not too much further away.”

“Actually, Mac and I were thinking of having a very long
engage—”

“Nonsense! The dress is already here, and we’ve gotten so
much initial planning done. It might take some tweaking here and there, but I’m
sure once we pin down a new date
—
for your new man
,” Elizabeth added with
a wink, “we’ll set everything in order.”

Connie met her gaze. “I know. But wouldn’t it be great if…
Just for this weekend? We could focus on Grandpa and his party?”

Elizabeth warmly patted her hand. “Of course, you’re right.
But before I leave you to get ready, do tell me more about Mac. I’m dying to
know how you met. And Walt…? Oh my,” she said with a serious frown. “What on
earth happened there?” She studied her daughter’s finger. “And why are you
still wearing his ring?”

Connie gulped. “Um. The one from Mac is on order. He’s
having it custom-made.”

“And he’s okay with this…substitution?”

“Oh yeah, totally fine. Mac’s what you’d call a super chill
guy.”

Ollie slid his charcoal Armani suit jacket onto Mac’s back. “It
may be a little snug in the shoulders, but you can make do.”

Mac squirmed uncomfortably, feeling as if he’d been pinned
in something akin to a straitjacket. “Thanks, Ollie. Very nice of you to do
this.”

Ollie adjusted Mac’s tie, then stepped aside so he could
view himself in the mirror. He looked okay, he supposed. He just wasn’t used to
it. The trousers fit awfully tight too and were a tad short at the ankles. Didn’t
help matters that Mac had brought only his hiking boots. Doctor’s orders.
“Keep those on the next few days,”
the
doc had said. Perfect for providing extra stability.

“Don’t suppose you brought any other shoes?” Ollie asked,
looking down.

Mac shook his head.

“No worries.” Ollie soundly slapped his shoulder. “No one
will likely even notice.”

Linda sidled up next to Connie as she sipped her champagne. “Did
you reconnect with your husband?” Connie asked, lifting an eyebrow.

Linda shot her a devilish grin. “In a manner of speaking.”

“Where is the lucky guy?”

“I sent him down the hall to introduce himself to Mac. You
know, so the poor guy would have one more person in his corner.”

Connie gasped. “You didn’t tell him?”

“About the ruse? No way. That’s just our sisters’ secret.”

Connie sighed with relief and raised her drink to her lips.
The panorama before them was dotted with party guests, all dressed in finery
and tilting champagne flutes as a Latin band played.

“Whose idea was the music?” Connie asked.

“Grandpa’s, of course.”

“I thought he’d given up salsa dancing?”

Linda turned toward her. “I wouldn’t put it past him to try
it in a wheelchair. Not if he could convince one of those pretty nurses to sit
on his lap.”

Connie giggled briefly, but then grew serious. “Do you think
Mom suspects?”

“Why would you say that?”

“I don’t know. I just get a funny feeling.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have flashed that rock the way you did.”
Linda angled her head toward Connie’s left hand.

“But you swore nobody would notice!”

“That it’s the one Walt gave you? Nobody might have! Unless
you’d put it on such proud display.”

“Well, when Dad asked—”

“Shh,” Linda cautioned quietly. “It’s Grandpa. He’s coming.”

The crowd broke into applause as the old man wheeled into
the courtyard, escorted by two lovely caretakers. One brunette and one blonde.

Just then, Mac and Beau approached the sisters, who stood
beside a potted fern.

“Connie,” Beau acknowledged with a nod of his head. “Good to
see you. You look lovely.”

And she did too. Her beauty nearly took Mac’s breath away.
She was gorgeous in a short blue dress that complemented the color of her eyes.
And the heels she was wearing did everything to accentuate the curves of her
lovely legs.

“Thanks, Beau,” she said, giving him a peck on the cheek. “Love
the tie.”

But Mac was so caught up in Connie, he couldn’t even recall
what color Beau’s tie was. Red? No. Yellow? He didn’t dare chance a look if
that meant breaking away from Connie’s gaze. She looked like a princess, regal
somehow. With that neat string of pearls around her neck and the tasteful
dangling earrings to match. This Constance Oliver was one uptown woman. And Mac
was nothing but a down-home guy, he reminded himself as his shoulder blades
twitched beneath the jacket’s tight constraints.

“Wow, you’re just gorgeous.” Realizing his mistake, he
turned his attention immediately on Linda. “Both of you ladies are knockouts
for sure.”

Linda smiled and said something to Beau, while Connie’s face
colored sweetly. “Thanks,” she told Mac. “You look great too.” Suddenly her gaze
dropped to the floor. “Are those hiking boots?” She looked up again.

“It’s all he had,” Ollie explained, surfacing with three flutes
of champagne, one for himself and the rest for the other two gentlemen.

The small group watched as Elizabeth and Wendell Junior
walked into the courtyard to stand proudly beside Wendell Senior’s wheelchair. “Ladies
and gentlemen,” Wendell Junior said in his best booming voice. “May I
present…the birthday boy!”

People clapped and cheered as Connie’s grandpa did a small
pirouette in his wheelchair, grinning broadly.

“I thought he was very ill?” Mac whispered to Connie.

“It comes and goes,” she whispered back.

“You’ll see what she means,” Linda added.

To Mac’s surprise, Elizabeth silenced the crowd with her
celebratory pronouncement. “And now, in keeping with the way in which
the birthday boy
likes to run his
parties, let’s all have a little cake and ice cream!”

“Granddad always has dessert before dinner on his birthday,”
Ollie explained. “He figures it’s the one day he can do what he wants.”

“Yeah, and all of the rest of us get to join him,” Beau
quipped.

Linda elbowed her husband. “Be nice. You know you enjoy
having the cake first just as much as he does. Besides, nobody’s
forced
to eat it. You can always save
yours for later.”

Before Mac knew it, a huge, tiered cake was being rolled out
onto the floor on a movable table. Rather than having candles on top, it was
adorned by dozens of dancing sparklers, hissing merrily with all their might beneath
a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday.” Grandpa Oliver’s face lit up in a big,
broad smile as he plucked a sparkler off the cake and began waving it around
like a maestro directing his orchestra, just in time to conduct the crowd in
singing “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow.”

Then, halfway through the second chorus, the old man glanced
their way, staring straight at Connie. Within seconds, he’d doubled over,
dropping his sparkler to the floor and breaking into a prolonged coughing fit.
The room fell silent as nurses scrambled to assist him. Elizabeth dug in her
purse for her smartphone, preparing to call 9-1-1. Connie and Linda were about
to rush forward when their grandpa slowly raised his right hand, bringing
himself under control.

“I’m all right,” he told his worried daughter-in-law before
glancing once again at Connie. “For now.”

Mac pulled the handkerchief that Ollie had loaned him from
his pocket to wipe his brow. And he thought there was excitement in the wild.
None of his adventures in the great outdoors had anything on this.

Linda turned toward Mac with a knowing look. “See what I
mean?” she asked.

Mac tucked away his hanky and took another sip of champagne.
“I think I’m starting to get it.”

“Come on,” Connie told him. “It’s time you met my grandfather.”

“You mean right now?”

“No time like the present,” she said, tugging him forward.

Mac didn’t know why he felt nervous about meeting the
octogenarian, but somehow the looming encounter set him slightly on edge. Maybe
it was those inward seeds of guilt about deceiving this family that had bloomed
the moment he’d stepped through the palatial front door. Or maybe it was the
scowl on the old man’s face as he lowered his dark-rimmed glasses and appraised
Mac with a frown.

“Grandpa!” Connie proclaimed, leaning down to plant a kiss
on his head while she squeezed his shoulders in a hug. “You don’t look a day
over sixty.”

He coughed once into his balled-up fist. “I wish I felt that
on the inside.”

Connie grabbed the handles of his wheelchair and pivoted him
toward Mac. “I’d like you to meet my new fiancé, Mac.”

Grandpa hacked again. “
New
fiancé?
What happened to the old one?”

Connie hung her head. “He got away,” she said softly.

“Speak up, granddaughter! Can’t hear you above the
commotion!”

The band played on as servers bustled about the room, depositing
cake and ice cream at the various place settings.

“I said, Walt left me!” she shouted louder.

Wendell Senior raised his brow. “Left you? What a dolt that
one was.” He gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “Never liked him anyway.” He
turned his eyes on Mac and studied him from the top of his hairy head all the
way down the too-tight lines of his suit and landing at his hiking boots. “Hmm,”
he said, adjusting his glasses to get a better look. “Uh-hum.” He returned his
gaze to Mac’s. “And just what is it that you do, young man?”

“Well, sir, I—”

“He runs his own business,” Connie shared.

Mac glanced at her, then continued to address Wendell
Senior. “Yes, sir, a camping store. I mean, I did. That was before it—”

“You don’t need to bore Grandpa with the details,” Connie
chirped.

“Did he say
camping
store
?” Grandpa asked before making a show of trying to clean out his ears.
He set his steely gray eyes on Mac. “You mean you do this part-time while you’re
in school or something? A graduate program, perhaps?”

“No, sir. That’s what I do full-time. Would if—”

“He’s very good at it too,” Connie inserted proudly. “Charitable,
besides. Can you believe Mac gives ten percent of his proceeds to the indigent?”

“Is that why he dresses like them?”

“Grandpa!”

Mac felt his temperature spike. Now he didn’t know much, but
he could tell when he was being insulted. “I think I’ll just go refill our
champagne,” he said to Connie, retrieving the empty flute from her hand.

As he departed, Connie turned angry eyes on her grandfather.
“That wasn’t very nice, and you know it.”

“What’s our loveable old grandpa done now?” Linda asked,
approaching.

“He just told Mac he looked like a homeless person.”

“That wasn’t very welcoming.”

Wendell Senior motioned toward Mac as he strode away, his
clothes nearly bursting at the seams. “Well, just look at him! With that
ill-fitting outfit and that hairy monkey mug. He looks like he swings from the
trees!”

“Tried but failed,” Linda said under her breath.

Connie shot her a silencing look, then met her grandpa’s eyes.
“Mac really is a very nice man. I wish you’d give him a chance.”

“But how did all this happen? The first thing I know, you’re
engaged to that nice young attorney, Walt…”

“You were just saying you never liked him!”

“That was before.”

“Before what?”

“Before I realized you’d tossed him over for Tarzan.”

“Tarzan never had a beard,” Linda added unhelpfully.

“He is
not
Tarzan.
But Mac is a very skilled outdoorsman. He saved my life. Both of ours, in fact.
Didn’t he, Linda?”

Their granddad surveyed Linda doubtfully. Connie nudged her.

“It’s true!” Linda spouted. “That’s how he and Connie met.
We went hiking.”

“Got lost in the woods,” Connie said.

“Could have been there for days.”

“Weeks even.”

“Eaten alive by bears.”

Wendell Senior motioned across the room. “And that man over
there—spilling champagne on his hiking boots—saved you?”

“Yes,” both girls said together.

“Harrumph.” He cocked his chin sideways and appeared to be
considering something. “Didn’t you girls just get back from the wilderness?”

Linda rushed in. “Yes, but she met Mac weeks ago.”

“This last trip was our second one.”

“You’ve only seen the man twice and you’re engaged?”

“Heavens, no.” Connie gave a little giggle like that was the
most ridiculous thing she’d heard. “We’ve been dating for weeks.”

“Where?”

“There!” Linda said, overlapping with Connie’s words. “Here!
In Napa!”

Grandpa Oliver narrowed his gaze. “Here, there, and…everywhere?”

“It’s been on the computer,” Connie said, thinking quickly.

Linda didn’t miss a beat. “That’s right. Internet dating. I’m
sure you’ve heard of it. It’s really big right now.”

Wendell Senior studied both their faces. “And people get
engaged this way?”

“All the time,” Connie said.

“Well, maybe if you’d dated him in person, you could have
given him some tips on his wardrobe.”

Mac returned with their champagne just in time for Connie to
make their excuses and retreat from her grandfather. She didn’t know why he’d
been so tough on Mac. It really wasn’t fair to judge him by his occupation…or
appearance…or dress code. She sighed inwardly, knowing that was just the Oliver
way. She accepted the flute Mac handed her with a grateful smile.

“Thanks. I was just telling Grandpa we were about to take
our seats for cake and ice cream.”

“Sir,” Mac said politely. “It was very nice meeting you.”

Wendell Senior twisted his lips and remained silent until
Linda pinched him. “Ow!” He gave Linda a cursory glance, then returned his gaze
to Mac’s. “And it was a…” He seemed to be struggling with the words. “…pleasure
meeting you as well. I hope that you’ll enjoy the party.”