Page 48 of Huck Frasier
“No more Ozarks missions. Ever. Let those idiots do their own fighting, for Pete's sake.
I chuckled. “Babe, the Ozarks aren’t—”
She pinched my nipple.Hard.I yelped.
“Okay! No more Ozarks. You have my word. It was stupid anyway. One side kidnapped a few of the other side's women. One of the ladies and one of the men were in love with each other. Like I said, it was stupid. Thankfully, no one died. They were shooting real bullets at each other when we arrived.”
“You’re right, they are crazy.”
“I’m staying home with you, from now on.”
She sighed contentedly, draping a leg over my thigh. “Good. Because next time you pull this, I’m bringing Lark with me.”
I kissed the top of her head, pulling her closer. “Noted.”
35
Marley
If someone had told me that planning a wedding while eight and a half months pregnant was a good idea, I would have called them delusional. But here I was — barefoot on my sister;s porch, phone in one hand, checklist in the other, barking orders at a cousin of Fraiser’s who thought “rustic charm” meant folding chairs with hay bales.
“Thomas, if you put one more hay bale near the altar, I will set it on fire myself. Now go string up the lightsstraight. Not diagonal. Straight.”
Thomas slunk away, mumbling about Pinterest bridezillas.
Behind me, Fraiser lurked like a giant guard dog, pretending to whittle down a list of RSVP no-shows while really just watching me with that look. The one that said he’d rather wrestle a bear than interfere with my wedding day plans.
I rounded on him, jabbing my pen at his clipboard. “Are the groomsmen’s suits pressed?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Are your relatives taken care of? Did they get the hotel basket with the monogrammed mugs?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And the cake tasting with Tessa? Did you—”
He stepped in, grabbed my pen, and tossed it on the table behind me. Before I could protest, he framed my face in his giant palms and kissed me until my brain short-circuited.
When he pulled back, he murmured against my lips, “Breathe, Marley.”
I blinked. “I don’t have time to breathe.”
“Then I’ll do it for you.”
A Little Later — Family Chaos
I finally escaped Fraiser’s mouth long enough to waddle into the B&B’s kitchen, where my sister fussed over flower arrangements and Axel sat at the table playing with their beautiful baby.
“Axel,” I whined, dropping into the chair next to him and resting my head in my hands. “Tell Fraiser he can’t keep stealing my checklists.”
Axel looked around at Fraiser, who leaned in the doorway looking hotter than hell, 6’4”, muscled to hell, and tattooed in places no one but me would see.
“Fraiser,” Axel drawled, “do whatever she wants. Saves you pain in the long run.”
Fraiser chuckled. “Okay, sweetheart, you win.”
Lark fussed over my hair, smoothing it back as if I were five years old. “You look radiant, Marley. Grammy would be so proud.”
