Free Daring Brides by Ava Miles Page A

sounds pretty cool,” she said. Her son’s tiny bow tie was slightly crooked, which only made it more adorable.
    “Wow!” Keith said. “Where did you get that?”
    He was pointing to her necklace, his eyes as wide as saucers.
    “Your…dad gave it to me.” She was still practicing calling him that. Each time she said it, she felt a funny pinch in her heart.
    “Cool!” he said and then ran over to give Jill and Meredith hugs.
    Tanner halted the moment he saw her. “Wow. Peggy you look incredible. Who’s responsible for the lip stuff?”
    He knew her too well.
    Jill raised her hand. “Me! Isn’t it great?”
    “ Fabulous ,” he drolled and strolled over to kiss his wife as soon as Keith let her go. “How are you ladies faring?”
    “We’re good,” Meredith told him. “How is the groom’s party doing?”
    Peggy hadn’t wanted to fret with attendants or anything. The idea of having bridesmaids walk down the aisle in gowns she’d selected was more abhorrent to her than a prison sentence. Still, she couldn’t deny she was grateful to have Meredith and Jill with her now.
    “Rhett talked Rye into singing,” Tanner told them, “so they’ve been belting out country classics for all of an hour. Mac even joined in on ‘I’ve Got Friends in Low Places.’”
    “Shut the front door,” Peggy said. “I’ve never heard him sing.” Okay, maybe a couple times in the shower, but she so wasn’t sharing that.
    “Yeah, it was so cool, Mom,” Keith said. “Rhett is so off-key he’s breaking everyone’s eardrums, but everyone else is really good.”
    Tanner ruffled his hair. “That’s what Rye said.”
    “Yeah,” Keith said in that eager high-pitched voice of his. “And Rye is the best guitar player ever. He even taught me some chords.”
    “That was nice of him,” Peggy commented. Rye and Rhett were two flavors of the same kind of trouble, all right, but somehow they always ended up making her smile. That didn’t mean she didn’t watch them like a hawk though.
    “I was told to come and get you,” Tanner said. “We’re getting close to wedding time. Keith, come here and let me straighten your bow tie.”
    Her son squirmed under her brother’s ministrations, as eager as a kid who’d just downed a whole bag of Halloween candy.
    “Okay, Mom,” he said when he finally darted away from his uncle. “Let’s go get married.”
    To Keith’s mind, they were both marrying Mac, and she had thought it was too cute to correct him. Besides, in some ways, Mac was marrying them both. And that’s why she was having Keith walk down the aisle with her. She was too old to have anyone give her away, and that tradition seemed kind of weird to her anyway. Not that she had a father to give her away.
    They all left the penthouse and took the elevator down to the main floor where they would have the wedding.
    Waiting for them in the lobby was Mac’s assistant, who was handling most of the wedding arrangements. She looked relieved to see them. “Wonderful. You’re here. Let me go grab your bouquet. Head on down the hall to the event room, and I’ll meet you there.”
    She nodded and led their group to the event room, which sounded way too official to Peggy’s ears. Simply put, it was a fancy room the hotel used for gatherings. And the location was one of a handful of decisions Peggy had been loath to make.
    Fortunately, the whole flower thing had been taken off her plate. Mac’s sister, Abbie, had made her bouquet personally, and not just because she handled all the flower arrangements at Mac’s hotel. She’d designed it with Mac’s input because Peggy had grown clammy at the mere mention of wedding colors—another wedding horror to her mind. Why they needed to pick colors she still didn’t understand, but Mac had chosen white and blush. It turned out that blush was the kind of soft pink people painted a nursery for a baby girl. Peggy was surprised by how much she didn’t dislike it. Pink was so not her