Chapter 12
twelve
Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same.
—Helen Keller
JAIME
The wedding guests had arrived and were seated in the greenhouse, waiting patiently for the bride and groom, who were quite late. Jaime tried not to let her mind get away from her—could the bride have fled the scene once again? At the twenty-minute mark past the time the ceremony should’ve started, she pulled Liam aside. “Has she vanished?”
“Nay,” he reassured her. “No doubt they’re on their way.” But he didn’t look as confident as he sounded. “Perhaps, if she’s not here in ten minutes, we should offer the guests a bit of libation, though.”
“Good idea.” So Jaime went to Tessa’s Airstream to see if the caterer had brought extra champagne. Inside the tiny space, the caterer and two helpers were preparing trays of appetizers. As soon as the ceremony ended, the reception would begin. It was such a tight space to work in, yet the caterer Liam had found in Highlands seemed to know exactly how to maneuver small spaces. Just as she was about to ask for champagne to be brought to the patient guests, she heard Liam call her name. He was waiting for her right outside the Airstream with a big grin on his handsome face.
“The bride is nearly here. Ready?”
Just then, an old orange Volkswagen bus rumbled up the road and came to a stop in front of the pathway that Dawson had created. Jaime exchanged a look with Liam that said so much. This was the moment of truth. Had they captured the bride’s opposite vision? And if so ... would the bride’s mother throw a hissy fit?
Jaime took in a deep breath, bracing herself for whatever reaction she was about to encounter. “I’m as ready as I can be.”
“You’ve been ready for years,” he said. “It’s showtime.” With his hand on Jaime’s elbow, they walked over to greet the Volkswagen bus. Something about his warm touch on her elbow gave her a sense of reassurance. Along with a sense of longing. What would happen to them after tonight? Would Liam return to New York City and forget about her again? She shook off those stray thoughts. Not now, Jaime. Don’t start that now.
Mr. Zimmerman, a jovial man, hopped out of the driver’s side and hurried around to slide open the bus door. He smiled at Liam and Jaime, like today was the best day of his life. “Here comes the bride,” he said in a thick Bronx accent. “And the groom too.”
First out of the bus came a young man who looked like he spent his days surfing. Long, sun-streaked blond hair, deeply tanned, wearing a Tommy Bahama short-sleeved shirt, khaki shorts, and sandals. He paused when he saw the greenhouse and let out one word in a relieved exhale: “Coooool.”
Okay , Jaime thought to herself, a smile frozen on her face. Okay . The groom seemed happy with the venue. The bride’s father seemed happy that the day had arrived. Two down, two to go.
Next came the bride. It took help from both her dad and her groom to help her out of the bus, and she grimaced with each movement, batting their hands away in annoyance. Strangely enough, the irritated look on the bride’s face reminded Jaime exactly of the bride’s mother, Mrs. Zimmerman. It dawned on Jaime that as desperately as the bride tried to be everything opposite of her mother, she was becoming her mother!
But then the bride saw the luminescent greenhouse. She stopped suddenly, and her face softened, and she burst into tears. She grabbed Liam’s hands. “Thank you, thank you.”
Happy tears! Thank goodness. Jaime let out a sigh of relief. Three down. One to go.
The last one out of the VW bus was Mrs. Zimmerman. Jaime hadn’t seen her since last spring, back in New York City, as the final touches were getting decided for her daughter’s original wedding. This woman could put a chill down anyone’s spine, and today was no different. She’d been sitting in the passenger seat of the VW, grimly facing forward.
Liam stepped up and opened the door. He whispered something to her, and she whispered back in a loud voice, something about, “...and she’s wearing red cowboy boots under that wedding dress.”
Liam whispered back to her. Jaime wasn’t sure what he was saying, but she could tell it was just the right thing to soothe her. Mrs. Zimmerman’s shoulders relaxed, and she turned to him with a sheepish look, then a smile. Not a huge smile, but a smile nonetheless.
That man! He had such a way about him.
Liam helped Mrs. Zimmerman climb out of the bus in her formal dress and very high heels. When she noticed Jaime standing there, she glanced at her with a frown.
“Y’ must remember m’ colleague, Jaime Harper.”
“Must I?” Mrs. Zimmerman said sourly. But then her gaze shifted to the greenhouse, shimmering in the late afternoon light, and her whole countenance shifted. “Why, it’s a botanical garden. Just like I had planned for her last spring!”
Jaime and Liam looked at each other, shocked. The first wedding venue had been the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. As they set to work to transform the greenhouse, they’d completely forgotten the venue of the first wedding. The Opposite Wedding wasn’t really opposite at all.
Well, it was what it was. Jaime clasped her hands together. “Liam, would you mind taking Mrs. Zimmerman to her special seat?”
On cue, Liam held out his elbow for Mrs. Zimmerman, and they started down the path to the greenhouse. As soon as they were halfway down the path, Jaime rushed over to the Airstream and told the caterer, “The ceremony begins in two minutes. I’ll give you a heads-up as the vows are being exchanged so you can start the reception with champagne for the guests.”
Jaime hurried down the path to where the bride waited with her father, outside the greenhouse. She had an odd, uncomfortable look on her face as she gazed at the bridal bouquet in her hands.
Jaime sidled over to Claire to whisper, “The bouquet turned out beautifully.”
Claire whispered back, “Then why doesn’t the bride look happy?”
Honestly, Jaime didn’t know. Maybe ... it should’ve been simpler. Three or five long-stemmed sunflowers, perhaps.
The bride’s father took a few steps over to Jaime. “Can we move things along here?”
Good grief. Was he kidding? The bridal party had been twenty minutes late, which created all kinds of problems for the caterer, taxed the guests’ patience, and stressed the event planners. This family had a history of complicating weddings! But she only smiled at him and deferred to Liam, who had just returned to the wedding party after seating Mrs. Zimmerman.
“Indeed we can, Mr. Zimmerman.” He signaled a cue to the banjo player up front and turned to the bride. “Lass, yer a vision to behold.” He opened the door. “Yer groom awaits you.”
A look of relief filled the bride’s face, outshadowed only by her father’s relief. He grabbed her arm and started down the aisle, so quickly that the bride stopped in her tracks and whacked him with the beautiful bouquet Claire had made, sending petals of flowers onto the dark green center roll of carpet.
“Daddy!” she shrieked. “Hold your horses! Slow down. I can’t move that fast.”
And on that shrill note, the wedding ceremony began.