The Marriage Agenda: The Marriage Conspiracy / The Billionaire's Baby Plan. Allison Leigh

own father told her to quit whining and have herself a little special coffee. Which cousin Callie did. And then one of Wayne’s friends, a handsome cowboy in dress jeans and fancy tooled boots, asked Callie if she would care to dance. Her attitude improved considerably after that.

      Joleen put Sam to bed upstairs in her old room at a little after nine o’clock. When she went back outside, she did some dancing herself. She danced with Uncle Stan and Bud and Burly. And with another friend of Wayne’s, a tall, broad-shouldered fellow who ran an oyster bar in Tulsa. He told her she had beautiful eyes and that she knew how to follow. He claimed there were way too many women who tried to lead when they danced. Joleen smiled sweetly up at him and wondered if he was casting some kind of aspersion on modern women as a whole.

      Then she decided she was just too suspicious. A guy called her a good dancer and she started thinking of ways to take it as an offense.

      But then again, after what had happened with Bobby Atwood two years ago and with Bobby’s father just this evening, well, was it any wonder she had trouble trusting men?

      After the oyster bar owner from Tulsa, she danced with Dekker. Thank God for Dekker. Now there was a man that a woman could trust. She was so very fortunate to have a friend like him, who came straight to her aid anytime things got tough.

      Of course, she would never take the money he insisted he would give her. But it meant the world, that he would offer—and that he always came through for her and her mama and her sisters, too.

      Anytime any one of them needed him, he was there.

      And did she ever need him now. She needed his clear mind and his steely nerves—not to mention all he knew from being first a cop and now a private investigator. Dekker saw all the angles. Yes, he was way too cynical—but right now she needed someone who looked at the world through wide-open eyes. Someone to show her how to fight Bobby’s father at his own game.

      Joleen closed her eyes and laid her head on Dekker’s broad shoulder.

      “It’s going to be all right, Jo,” he whispered against her hair.

      Something in his tone alerted her. She lifted her head and looked up at him. “You’ve thought of what to do. I can hear it in your voice.”

      “Could be.”

      She couldn’t read his expression. “What are you thinking?”

      “Later.” He guided her head back to rest on his shoulder. “After everyone’s gone home. We’ll talk about it then. About all of it.…”

      * * *

      At eleven DeDe and Wayne took off for Wayne’s house. They’d spend their wedding night there and then leave in the morning for a twelve-day honeymoon at a two-hundred-year-old inn on the Mississippi shore.

      Wayne’s new peacock-green SUV had been properly adorned for the occasion, with Just Married scrawled in shaving cream across the rear window, Here Comes the Bride on the windshield and tin cans hooked to the rear bumper by lengths of thick string.

      Joleen had the bird seed ready, wrapped in little rose-colored satin squares and tied with white bows. She passed it around and DeDe and Wayne ducked through a rain of it as they raced for the car. Then everyone stood on the sidewalk beneath the Victorian-style lamps that lined all the streets of Mesta Park, waving and calling out last-minute advice.

      “Good luck!”

      “Don’t do anything we wouldn’t do!”

      “But if you do, take pictures!”

      Wayne revved the engine and pulled away from the curb. The handsome SUV rolled off into the night, tin cans rattling behind.

      Most of the guests took their leave then, turning for their own cars, waving goodbye and making happy noises about what a great time they’d had. A few stayed on—Callie and her cowboy, one of Camilla’s admirers, Aunt LeeAnne and Uncle Foley—to enjoy another dance or two out in the lantern-lit backyard. It was after one when Camilla, Joleen and Dekker showed the last of them to the door.

      “’Bye, now. Drive with care.…” Camilla shut the door, turned off the porch light and then stretched like a sleek and very contented cat. “Oh, it has been a long and lovely day.” Her smooth brows drew together. “Now, where did Niki get off to?”

      Joleen said, “She went up to bed about half an hour ago.”

      “Our little Sammy all snuggled in?”

      “I put him down in my room.”

      “Well.” Camilla gave her oldest daughter a lazy smile. “I believe I am ready for bed myself. You and Sammy stayin’?”

      “I think so. I’d just as soon not wake him. And tomorrow I’d only be headin’ back over here to start cleaning up.”

      “Good. You’ll lock the doors when you’re through down here, then?”

      “I will. Right now, though, Dekker and I are goin’ out in back for a while, to enjoy the peace and quiet.”

      “Don’t you start in cleaning up tonight,” Camilla warned. “I mean it. It’s late. You’ve worked hard enough. We’ll take care of everything tomorrow.”

      “I won’t lift a finger, I promise.”

      Camilla was not convinced. She shook her head and clucked her tongue. “I know how you are. The only child of mine who will work instead of playin’ if given the choice. You have to learn to slow down a little, baby. Smell the flowers now and then.”

      “Mama, I’m not cleaning up a thing tonight. We’re just going to sit outside and talk some, that’s all.”

      “What do you two talk about? Always with your heads together. Thick as thieves, I swear.”

      “Nothing important, Mama.” Well, all right. That was a flat-out lie. But the truth, right then, would not have served. When the time came, Joleen would tell her mother whatever she thought her mother had to know.

      Camilla was already on her way up the stairs. She paused on the third step and cast a glance toward the door to the living room. Uncle Hubert was still in there, snoring away. They could hear the low rumblings even through the closed door. “Put a blanket over Hubert?”

      “I will. Right away. ’Night, Mama.”

      “’Night…” Camilla went on up.

      Joleen got a chenille throw from the closet under the stairs. She and Dekker spread it over Uncle Hubert, who just went on snoring, gone to the world.

      “You want a beer or something?” she asked Dekker before they went outside.

      “I wouldn’t mind some ice water.”

      That sounded good to her, too, so she fixed them two tall glasses and led him out into the night.

      Camilla had a matching pair of chaise lounges with nice, thick, floral-patterned cushions. For the wedding party, Joleen had put them near the fence, under the sweet gum in the corner of the yard. A low patio table sat between the lounges, just perfect for setting their glasses on.

      “You think it’s too dark out here?” Joleen asked. They’d unplugged the lanterns a little while before.

      “I like the dark.”

      So they went over and stretched out on the lounges and stared up through the leaves of the sweet gum at the stars. They hadn’t had a single frost yet, so cicadas serenaded them from the trees, making it seem as though it was still summer. Now and then, from the wires overhead, night birds trilled out their high, lonesome songs. The moon had gone down some time before, but as her eyes adjusted, Joleen found she could see well enough, after all. There were no clouds, and the stars were like diamonds sewn into the midnight fabric of the sky.

      Joleen set her glass down and leaned back, aware of a jittery feeling in her stomach. Anticipation. She just knew that her friend had come up with a way out of this