Daddy's Girls (77)

“Can we tell them now?” he asked and she nodded.

“How about July? Everyone will be here then, and Caro will be too pregnant to come after that.”

As soon as they walked through the door, Thad picked up a glass and a fork, and rang for everyone’s attention.

“We have an announcement,” he said, beaming. “Kate and I are getting married in July. You’re all invited.” Everyone cheered and applauded and kissed them both, and as so often happened on the ranch, a serious occasion had become a joyful one, and now they had something to celebrate. Many things, a wedding in July, a baby in September, and Rufus and Gemma’s new show.





Chapter 19


The wedding turned out to be a lot bigger than they thought it would be. But Kate and Thad knew so many people, and so many people in the Valley liked them, that even trying to keep it small, there were two hundred guests at the ranch for their wedding day.

Caroline, Gemma, and Morgan were Kate’s attendants. Thad asked Peter and Rufus to be his, and Billy was the ring bearer. And Scarlett walked her daughter down the aisle. They were married under an arch of white flowers in a pasture they cleared and mowed specially. A dance floor was brought in. They had a dance band from Santa Barbara. Juliette had come back from France again for the wedding, and brought her brother.

The wedding was at six P.M. Dinner was served at eight with some of the best barbecue Thad said he had ever eaten. The bride and groom on the cake were on horseback, and the guests danced until three A.M., and the last stragglers left at four. Kate and Thad had agreed to a honeymoon in France and Italy in the fall, with a stop in England to see Gemma and Rufus on the way home. They were going to be away for three weeks, and the new foreman Thad had hired was going to run things in their absence.

    Rufus and Gemma sat at their table after line-dancing for an hour and he said he’d never had so much fun in his life. It was a fantastic wedding. They finally went to bed at four A.M., after hanging out with Peter and Caroline. The bride and groom had gone to bed at three. It was the perfect end to a challenging year full of surprises and changes. But they had all come through them, better than before, stronger and wiser and braver. The errors of the past had been corrected, the transgressions had been forgiven. The ranch was thriving, the family was strong, the heartbreaks of the past had been healed, and love had prevailed in the end.



* * *



—

On a Sunday night in September, Gemma’s new show debuted in the U.S. They were waiting in England to hear the ratings. The British ratings had been fantastic a month before. Thad and Kate were sitting in front of their TV in their new house. Caroline was planning to watch it with Peter and her kids. Scarlett was glued to her TV with Roberto. It was an exciting episode. One of the ones they had filmed in Africa. The others were going to be used later in the season. The show opened with a bang and a brilliant performance of Gemma’s, and Kate wanted to jump up and down when she saw it, it was so good. Gemma called the minute it finished, even though it was five A.M. in London. They had stayed up to hear what her family thought.

“What did you think? How was it?” Gemma sounded tense.

    “It was fantastic! Thad’s crying!” Kate told her.

“Don’t tell her that!” he said, embarrassed. They were leaving on their belated honeymoon in a few days.

“The show is going to be a huge hit, and you’ll be a bigger star than ever,” Kate said, excited. “Rufus is a genius!” Gemma was ecstatic that they loved it, they were hearing the same from everyone. And the critics had raved when it aired in the UK.

The next call Kate got was from Peter. She picked it up immediately.

“Wasn’t she terrific! She’s fantastic!” Kate said into the phone about Gemma.

“She certainly is! They both are! Caro just had the baby. She had her twenty minutes after we got to the hospital. We didn’t even have time to call you. She’s seven pounds, fourteen ounces, and we’re calling her Scarlette, with an ‘e’ at the end.”

“OhmyGod! Is Caro okay? She’s a week early.”

“She’s great. We missed the show. The kids were taping it for us. We’re going home tomorrow.”

“Congratulations!” Kate said, and he handed the phone to Caroline, who sounded tired but thrilled. “You’re fantastic. Is she gorgeous?” Kate said to her.

“She’s beautiful. The next one is your turn. You have to do it, Katie.” She hadn’t called her that since they were kids.

“We’ll see what happens on our honeymoon. We’re leaving it up to fate. No heroics. Just Mother Nature.”

“Good. I don’t want to be the only geriatric mother in the family.”

“Give her a kiss from me,” Kate said, and then spoke tenderly to her sister. “Dad would be proud of you, Caro. For everything.”

    “Thank you,” she said in a soft voice. “That means a lot, coming from you.”

They would always be Daddy’s Girls, all three of them, because right or wrong, for better or worse, whatever his faults, he had loved them all.