June Bride Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Keep Up With Hildred

  June Bride

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  June Bride

  A Year In Paradise #6

  Hildred Billings

  BARACHOU PRESS

  June Bride

  Copyright: Hildred Billings

  Published: June 10th, 2019

  Publisher: Barachou Press

  This is a work of fiction. Any and all similarities to any characters, settings, or situations are purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format.

  Keep up with Hildred’s latest releases by joining her mailing list! Behind the scenes, first looks, and even some free snippets!

  June Bride

  Chapter 1

  BRANDELYN

  The one thing Dr. Brandelyn Meyer guaranteed her patients was undivided attention. Whether they came in with a small tingle in their tummy, or blood gushing from one of their orifices, the only full-time GP in Paradise Valley pulled up her stool and gave everything she had until the matter was resolved.

  Or so she claimed until one month before her wedding.

  Should I spring for those last-minute lessons? Her dog Brutus was easily trainable. He could learn how to carry a pillow of rings down the aisle. Ooh, wouldn’t it be adorable? Her little Pomeranian was one of the most well-loved dogs in Paradise Valley. Brandy couldn’t take him for a walk between Florida and Arizona Streets without the neighbors popping out to say hello and offer him treats. Wouldn’t they absolutely lose it to see him in the wedding procession? Who was carrying the rings right now? Some second cousin she enlisted because he was the only boy under the age of eight in her family? The things I do for tradition…

  “Doctor?”

  Caught with her eyes glazed over, Brandelyn jerked upright on her stool and almost knocked her stethoscope off her shoulders. The clinging and clanging as she struggled to pull herself together made her patient jump, hand over heart.

  “My apologies.” Brandelyn cleared her throat and pushed her bangs out of her eyes. She always wore her long brown hair back, either in a low ponytail or a high bun that stayed out of the way. For my wedding, I’ll finally get to wear it down! She had been looking forward to debuting her gorgeous long locks ever since she realized she could wear it however she wanted on her wedding day. With half of the town invited, that would be a lot of gasps. “I suddenly remembered something important that I have to do today. I shouldn’t have been doing that, though. Now, what was it that you needed?”

  Her patient, a thirty-something woman named Joan, folded her hands in her lap while her eyes darted back and forth in her skull. Brandelyn knew enough about nervous tics to detect her patient’s lack of faith. Great. Well, at least I have a captive audience in this town. She was the only doctor for thirty miles in either direction and the first line of defense before referrals to the bigger towns and cities flew from her notepad. Most of what she saw were the usual non-emergency illnesses and injuries. Sometimes the appointment was mere formality to renew a prescription. Only once in the past year had she looked at a patient and told them to get the hell to the emergency room twenty-five miles away. Mr. Raymond Green wasn’t going to last long with that heart attack thundering through him. (And, according to his last appointment a week ago, he was doing much better.)

  “Our insurance changed this month,” Joan reminded her doctor. She clutched her stomach and pointed her chin downward, as if the answers to her plight were in her lap. “Which means I need a referral to my usual OB/GYN. I gotta do it as soon as possible, obviously.”

  “Yes.” Brandelyn looked at the test results on Joan’s chart. “Well, far be it from me to keep you from getting the expert level of care you need.” She said that with a genial smile. She had tone misconstrued before, and she would be damned if yet another patient took her demeanor to mean she was offended. “I’ll have you talk to the receptionist. She’ll take care of everything.” A few signatures later, Joan had her precious referral to a specialist on the coast.

  “Thank you so much! I wanted to come in early this month because I know you’ll be busy later.”

  Finally! A reason to genuinely grin! “I’ll be taking a couple of weeks off, all right. One week for the honeymoon, and one week to get some affairs sorted.” She couldn’t leave the paperwork up to her fiancée. Sunny was a well-meaning woman, but she was more caught up in her business than the doctor was in hers. Then again, outside of extreme emergencies, Brandy had much more constrained working hours. Sunny ran a bed and breakfast that saw a huge uptick in business during the summer months. Brandelyn wasn’t looking forward to moving furniture and housewares around by herself. Let alone the day after getting back from her honeymoon… which she had planned down to the last minute. At least the deposits were made and the payments on her credit cards handled. Now, as for some of the wedding stuff… Brandy must remember to call her wedding planner about her ideas for the ring bearer.

  “It sounds so fantastical,” Joan said with a grin. “I always wanted to have a nice little wedding, but Lorri was very adamant she couldn’t stand much more than City Hall and a nice dinner with friends. Then again, I say we ‘only’ have a domestic partnership right now. There’s still room to register a proper marriage, yes?”

  “From my understanding of it, absolutely.” Sunny had come around to the idea of full-blown, nationally-recognized marriage, but it took some convincing. At first, she wanted to get a state-only domestic partnership. “For tax reasons,” she had said. That made Brandy drag her fiancée to the tax preparer’s office for a small lesson in tax brackets and how they could totally get married without paying much more in federal taxes. Hesper Chess had looked like they touched down from another planet, but Brandy left no stone unturned on her path to the perfect wedding. You can’t have a wedding for just a domestic partnership… Once she and Sunny decided to make their long-term relationship official, a wedding was the only thing Brandy cared about. Sunny knew this. She also knew that her fiancée had been planning the perfect wedding since she was four-years-old.

  Brandelyn personally showed Joan back to reception. Once she ensured everything was taken care of, Brandy escaped to her office, where she shut the door and sank into her plush leather chair. Her next appointment block was free. Plenty of time to call the wedding planner!

  She should have called Sunny first, but one of the most blessed things about planning a wedding with her? She didn’t care nearly as much as Brandy, who lived and breathed wedding planning. Hell, sometimes she joked that she had been waiting her whole life to get married!

  It started when Charles and Diana got married, hadn’t it? Four-year-old Brandelyn, future doctor and core member of her small community, parked her butt in front of her father’s Manhattan TV and beheld the royal spectacle that shook the world. Not until their son William got married a few years ago had Brandy seen anything else like it. You bet your ass I took the day off to watch that! She was also stealing plenty of glances at her phone the day that actress from “Suits” married Harry. Nobody really u
nderstood her fascination with ostentatious weddings. Especially not in Paradise Valley, where humble mentalities met complete eschewing of traditionally heterosexual practices. While it wasn’t uncommon to see lesbian couples in tux and dress – or two dresses, no less – there was nothing about it that screamed they did it because they simply had to. Brandy accepted that she was an outlier. Part of the reason she moved west after growing up in New York was to expand her horizons – and to find the kind of woman who jived with her best. A simple country girl. Simple in practice and desires. Not simple in mind. She had found that woman in Sunny Croker, a homegrown Paradise Valley gal who didn’t look a day over thirty when they met seven years ago. It took two more years for them to start going out – Brandy had been much too busy taking over the only practice in town to properly date, but she always had her eye on the lovely lady in plaid and jeans who made weekly appearances at the library, bank, supermarket, and lesbian bar. The whole reason Brandy went to that dive every Friday night was for a chance to see Sunny!

  How nobody snatched her up before me, I have no idea. Sunny claimed she hadn’t dated much. Yet she was a total pro in the sack. Uh huh. Didn’t date much. Maybe not seriously dated…

  Brandy kept her giggles to herself as she plucked her phone off her desk. One year ago, she asked Sunny to marry her, setting in motion the events that led to this month.

  I’m finally getting married. I’m finally getting the wedding of my dreams.

  The little four-year-old watching royal weddings on TV had no idea what would finally happen forty years later. Her, in a wedding dress to make Kate Middleton cry. Her gorgeous fiancée, the sweetest woman in paradise valley, in a fitted tuxedo that turned the usual groom’s cake topper on his head!

  The aesthetics were perfect. Well, almost.

  “Hello, Debbie? Great! It’s me, Brandy!” As if Debbie would ever forget Brandelyn, the woman who blew up her phone every damn day. “Listen, I had the cutest idea for the wedding. How hard do you think it would be to strap the ring pillow to Brutus and train him to walk down the aisle by himself? People would go crazy, right? Oh, he’s totally fine with a crowd. This is the boy who jumps through hoops every Fourth of July at the dog parade.”

  Debbie gave her a less than enthusiastic response. It was enough!

  Chapter 2

  SUNNY

  “You really must try this one.” Sunny climbed down her stool, but did not bother to shut the pantry doors. Her guest, the only one in the house at the time, sat at the large farmhouse table by the big paned windows overlooking the immaculately groomed acreage that made up Waterlily House. (However, there were no waterlilies to be seen on the property, outside of a few paintings and other motifs Sunny added through the years.) “You can buy these at the farmer’s market, but I get them wholesale directly from the supplier. Go on. Try the marionberry one and tell me it doesn’t melt on your tongue.”

  Fleur Rosé, a hotshot actress who recently instigated a media storm when she was caught dating a local from Paradise Valley, tittered to receive the sampling of jam. Four others already lined up before her plate of pancakes and toast. Fleur lamented that she really shouldn’t be loading up on carbs before resuming the filming of some mini-series, but how could she refuse when she was a glutton for homemade jams and jellies?

  Good thing Sunny had plenty to go around. The wares from a local farm were all the rage with her guests. Once she saw that most of the five-star reviews mentioned “the delicious local foods on hand,” she knew she had to step up her game to keep people coming back every year while referring their friends to her when they were in the area. The B&B industry wasn’t as booming in the days of people renting out their homes, but Sunny Croker knew how to combine her love of countryside hospitality with small town individuality. People who came to Paradise Valley wanted a proper experience. They loved the kitschy décor and the well-maintained grounds that allowed them to go hiking, partake in some light gardening, or use the scenery as inspiration for their next artistic endeavor. The amount of painters and writers who came to stay a few days rivaled the tourists and extended families who needed extra bedrooms to use. It helped that Waterlily House was only a mile out of town, but looked like it was completely isolated in the Oregonian woods. Most people borrowed bikes from the garage for their excursions into town.

  Fleur was one of many who enjoyed the isolative aspect while appreciating the easy access. As a celebrity, she needed a certain layer of security, hence her careful planning of when to come. If Sunny said nobody else was due to be a guest – although she couldn’t assure there would be no last-minute additions… without a fee, anyway – then that was fine with Fleur, who helped herself to the biggest guest room. Sunny often cooked breakfast for her guests, but admitted she liked it when there was only one, and that one really loved her jams and jellies.

  “Oh, it’s divine!” Fleur’s eyes fluttered shut as she groaned onto the piece of toast in her mouth. Sunny held back a laugh. She’s gotta be kidding me. Fleur was sweet, but she definitely played up the Hollywood angle a little too well. “I’ve had more than a few marionberry-flavored things over the years, but this is absolutely heavenly. What brand is it again?” She swallowed and picked up the jar from the table. “I love it. I wish I could be around for the farmer’s market. I’ll have to send Jalen to pick some up for me.”

  “I can call the farm and ask them to hold some. What flavors do you want?”

  “You know them?”

  “Oh, hon,” Sunny said with a chuckle. “It’s a small town and I run a hospitality business. I know everyone around here, whether they know it or not.”

  Their laughter was only interrupted by Sunny’s phone ringing on the kitchen table. She excused herself to answer, which worked in Fleur’s favor. She was more than happy to chow down on jam-covered toast.

  The smile on Sunny’s face fell when she saw the name of a certain wedding planner. “Hello?” she said, attempting to keep the serenity on her face. “What’s going on now?”

  Debbie blew a heavy breath laced in awkward chuckles. “So I’m guessing you haven’t heard what your fiancée is planning now?”

  “Do I want to know?” Sunny leaned against the counter.

  “It involves firing the current ring bearer and replacing him with Brutus.”

  “Oh my Goooood.” Sunny’s eyes rolled far back into her head. Brutus was an adorable dog that made the animal lover inside of her leap for joy, but Brandy’s cousin would be heartbroken if her son was booted from the wedding party at the last moment. For a dog, no less. “Let me guess. She saw something on Facebook and decided we’re not really married unless we do that too?”

  “She says it will make Brutus feel like a part of the family.”

  “He’s a dog.” Sunny had great respect for man’s furry friends, but she had a feeling that Brutus didn’t give his stubby tail whether or not he was “really family.” The boy got walked, fed, and belly-rubbed. He might as well have been a kid trapped in Disneyland.

  “I give it a day or two before she loses interest,” Debbie said. “You know her better than I do. Maybe remind her that her this is her favorite cousin she might be offending.”

  Sunny couldn’t help but laugh again. “You’re right, I do know her better than you do.” Once Brandy married a certain idea, she never divorced it. She was happily polyamorous with her ideas, such as telling Sunny she should continue to live at Waterlily House while simultaneously taking up permanent residence in Brandy’s on Florida Street. Which made it all the more frustrating when she changed plans at the last minute.

  “Well, consider this your warning. She might conveniently forget to tell you.”

  “Of course. Not like I’m supposed to help plan this shindig or anything.”

  “Trust me, if you were my primary contact for your wedding, I’d be on Cloud Nine.”

  “Just don’t tell me how much she’s paying you to put up with her bull.” Brandy had money to burn, but not that much. Sunny a
lways knew thousands of dollars would fall into the pit that was this wedding. She simply hoped it wouldn’t be tens of thousands. Brandy’s dress alone reportedly cost five.

  Debbie happily continued at the reminder she was getting paid for her troubles. “While I have you on the phone, here’s a friendly reminder that you have your tux fitting in Beaverton on the tenth. If you’re the type to binge eat before big events, I suggest you do so before the fitting. Things will be much more comfortable on the wedding day.”

  “Only four more weeks, right?” They were getting married on the thirtieth. Practically Fourth of July weekend, which might actually work in their favor if they wanted most of their invited guests to attend. Three hundred people. I can’t imagine it. We know three hundred people? “Then this shit is over and we can go back to normal.”

  “Nothing’s the way it used to be after you get married, dear.”

  That was Sunny’s cue to hang up.

  “I think I like the strawberry and marionberry ones the most. Maybe blueberry for Jalen.” Fleur caught Sunny’s attention by stacking three jam jars on top of each other. They looked the delightful, colorful sight on their perch. “Everything okay with the phone?”

  Were they so close now that she had no qualms asking such personal questions? Then again, Sunny was used to it. The city-folk – never mind out of touch celebrities – who came to her humble house loved to pry, like Sunny was some bumpkin of a specimen.

  “That was my wedding planner informing me that my fiancée is getting crazy ideas again.”

  “Ooh, you’re getting married? Congratulations!”

  “Thank you. Happening at the end of the month.” Couldn’t come too soon. As excited as Sunny was to marry her fiancée, she couldn’t say this whole wedding debacle gave her the same joy. This is all Brandy’s thing… She had known it would be from the moment Brandelyn popped the question. This was the woman who owned stacks of old bridal magazines and watched every wedding show on TV. She would peruse bridal shops on her days off, long before any engagement was on the table. Sunny knew this. She accepted it. Brandelyn was a traditional romantic who got off on the event as much as the person she shared it with – she must have known that Sunny was the one because she never once said anything about it.