“Don’t you want to know the cost?”
“No, I don’t care. Just make sure the guy has a humane way of recapturing them all. Lacey would freak out if anything bad were to happen to those birds.”
I was amazed. It seemed like this thing was actually coming together. I might actually pull it off, with the help of my family. It was true, what I’d said earlier. I really did believe it. I know I’ve said bad things about weddings in the past, but the truth is, weddings are a miracle. They’re a complete admission, by one man and one woman, that they believe in the magic of love. They believe that something as amazing as a new family can be created just because they love each other.
I tried to go through a mental checklist of everything I still needed, which was difficult with the amount of stray thoughts flying through my head, when the phone rang again.
It was Faith’s number.
“Faith?”
“No, it’s Sam.”
“Sammy? What the hell? Shouldn’t you be at school, little man?”
“I was, but my mom pulled me out to take care of your shit.”
“Watch your language, Sam. What would your mother say if she heard you talking like that?”
“She’s not here. She’s getting the flowers with my dad.”
“I don’t want to get in trouble for teaching you to swear.”
“Okay, I’ll watch my language. Now, lets talk brass taxes.”
“Brass taxes?”
“Do you want vanilla, chocolate, cherry, or what?”
“For what?”
“For the filling, between layers on the cake?”
“Oh, man. I have no idea.”
“It’s for Lacey right?”
“Who told you that?”
“Grant. I’ve got a team of detectives working on it round the clock for me.”
I shook my head. Where’d Sam learn to be such a smart ass? Too much time with me and the brothers and his father.
“Yes, it’s for Lacey.”
“All right. I know her favorite everything.”
“Really?”
“I’ve had enough cake with her to know exactly what she’d want.”
“All right, Sam. I’m trusting you with this. You get them to make the ultimate cake. The most extravagant thing they can come up with. We need it for tomorrow.”
“I know, I know. Tomorrow, for sunset over the ocean, surrounded by flowers and doves.”
“Who told you all that?”
“Everyone knows everything, Grant. Except for Lacey of course. Just leave this to us. We’ve got your back.”
“Thanks, Sammy.”
“Any time, Uncle Grant. You’ve had my back enough times in the past. We’ve got yours on this.”
By the time I got home, no one was there. It was no wonder. They were all out arranging my dream wedding. I took the opportunity to collapse onto my bed. I slept like a log.
Chapter 46
Lacey
SOMETHING VERY WEIRD WAS GOING ON. I mean, something really weird. I couldn’t get a straight answer from anyone. Forrester was acting like a school boy who’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Grady ran out of the kitchen when I entered. Faith and Jackson weren’t answering my calls. Even Sam wasn’t answering my texts, which was a first.
I knew it was because of Grant. What had he done? Had he told everyone we’d made love again? Were they all upset with me about that? Or even worse, had they all been involved in his decision to interfere with my engagement to Rob? Had it been some sort of intervention?
I decided to find out.
Grant liked to think of himself as an expert tracker. He said he could follow a car for a hundred miles without them even suspecting he was there. Well, I gave him a taste of his own medicine.
He slept a little later than usual, showered, had some cereal in the kitchen, looked around the house, I assume for me because he went to my bedroom, and when he finally left the house in his ’67 Mustang, I was right on his tail. I followed him all the way into the city and he didn’t notice a thing.
The hunter had become the hunted. I was pretty proud of myself for not losing him and not being spotted, especially considering how heavy traffic was on the freeway into the city.