“Sign is sweet too.” Jared scratched his stubbed jaw. “Minus the add-on, but hey, if the bootie fits.”
I grinned. “That was a last minute fix.”
The ornate hand-tooled sign that hung from the top had been carved from cherry wood and bore the names of the bride and groom.
Mr. Jonathan Gideon and Mrs. Macy Devereaux Gideon.
Between them was a small emblem of sorts of a ladder and a coffee cup. It had been a bitch to etch into the wood, but the finished result was charming. I hoped. Then beneath that I’d etched two more names with a heart between them.
Danielle Alicia Gideon. Hell Baby Gideon.
The hell was just a post-it note that could be pulled off. Gideon was always joking how Macy was sure their kid was going to come out with horns and a tail because of her all-day sickness situation.
If everyone was in a good mood, they should both laugh. And if they weren’t in a good mood at their wedding, well, I couldn’t help them.
The idea was they could remove the sign from the arbor and set it somewhere in their home, perhaps over a mantle.
“Wonder if you’d be willing to build us one of those things?”
Jared arched a brow and adjusted the badge on his pressed gray shirt. “If you’re looking to use that for possibly sordid means, Aug just might have time to finish it before Vee is ambulatory again after those twins.”
Only Moose, now a father of one with two on the way, would flush at a sex joke. I wasn’t quite sure what kind of sexual activities my arbor could be used for, but anything was possible with Jared’s filthy mind. “No, I was thinking for Vee’s roses.”
“How did you ever have trouble getting dates?” Jared shook his head. “I’d think women would eat you up with a spoon.”
Since a joke of my own came all too quickly to mind, I moved to the arbor and tugged at Kinleigh’s airy fabric. It draped perfectly down the sides, shifting in the growing breeze. Late December in Crescent Cove wasn’t pleasant to say the least, but we’d gotten lucky with a day without snow. I glanced up at the swiftly darkening sky with its sliver of moon and sprinkle of stars and hoped any flakes held off until the ceremony was over. Then again…
“Is snow considered romantic?”
Moose frowned. “Like in the context of a wedding?”
“Yeah.”
Jared reached up to take off his hat to smooth out his hair before putting it back on. God forbid if anyone forgot for even an instant he was sheriff. “Most people I know consider it a pain in the ass, including me. Do you have any idea how many MVAs I have to deal with from November to April?”
“We all have our crosses to bear.”
“Then again, didn’t your sister get snowed in with her Irish husband? Not that he was her husband then.”
I shut my eyes. I knew what was coming. Jared only razzed me a few times a month about asking Ivy “to cease and desist” while she was in the backseat of her car with Lucky Charms.
“I ticketed him once for double parking, and then there was the time I caught them in their vehicle at the lookout point—”
I held up a hand. “Haven’t I asked you repeatedly not to go there?”
“Too late.” Moose tugged on his tie.
I could tell he felt about as comfortable in his penguin suit as I did, though I’d gone with dark jeans and a shirt, tie, and jacket. I spent my days in T-shirts and jeans. I didn’t even own a full suit. The Ireland contingent at my sister’s fall wedding had been attired as if they were attending a royal event, while I’d worn much the same as I had on now. Lucky Charms’ mother had even worn a hat with feathers.
So far, their over the top style wasn’t rubbing off on my sister, who’d worn a simple white backless gown. I didn’t doubt some of her fashion sense was due to Kinleigh, who’d worn a long floaty dress that had only accented her willowy figure.
“What do you call that color?”
Her witchy blue eyes narrowed on mine as if she was looking for the punchline. “Soft peach.”
Peach, a color I couldn’t have precisely identified before that day yet had now been burned into my memory. She’d stood so proudly beside Ivy as my sister said her vows, her dress vivid against the flames of her hair—
I rubbed my temple. I really needed to stop working so damn late in the shop.