Chapter Eighteen
“OH, HOLLY. THE FLOWERS ARE STUNNING. YOU HAVE REALLY outdone yourself.”
In one of the rooms of the church set aside for the wedding party to use, Holly looked up from tucking another flower into Lydia’s French braid to see Brittany in the doorway, her sleeping child nestled over her shoulder.
“Thank you. I’m happy with the way everything turned out.”
“Susan and Kris are thrilled. If the flowers at the reception venue are anything like these, it’s going to be a gorgeous wedding. You’ll have more business than you can handle.”
She already had more business than she could handle but she decided not to point that out.
“And look at you, Miss Lydia.” Brittany scanned the girl from the flower chain woven through her hair to the tips of her black Mary Janes. “You are the prettiest flower girl I’ve ever seen.”
Lydia hopped down from the chair and twirled around. “I look like a princess,” she declared.
“Yes, you do.”
“Can I hold Hudson?” Lydia held her arms out, clearly expecting that her almost-a-princess status came with certain perks.
Brittany gave her stepdaughter an apologetic smile. “Normally he would love to have you hold him but right now he’s sleeping. I’m afraid he gets really cranky when I wake him up.”
Lydia’s lip jutted out and she looked like she wanted to argue but Brittany gave her a one-handed hug, careful not to mess up her hair.
“After the wedding, when you’re all done being the flower girl for your Aunt Kristine, you can hold him.”
Lydia might have pressed the matter but her young cousins came into the room and exclaimed over her dress, distracting her from her disappointment.
While Lydia was busy chattering away with her cousins, Brittany sat down beside Holly. She looked striking, as usual, in a smart ice-blue dress that showed off her considerable assets.
On closer inspection, Holly saw she had smudges under her eyes and a general air of exhaustion about her.
“Are you okay?”
Brittany nodded with a smile that looked slightly strained. “Only tired. Hudson had a rough night so I didn’t get much sleep. He’s teething and isn’t happy with anything I try.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I remember those days. I imagine having his schedule upended because of travel hasn’t helped matters.”
“No, it hasn’t. I love Norm and Susan and it’s very kind of them to let us stay with them but it feels like people are constantly coming and going from their house. I’m not sure we’ve had five minutes of quiet since we arrived.”
“I’m sure things will settle down a little after today.”
“But then we have Christmas and all that chaos to deal with.”
“And joy,” Holly pointed out.
“You’re right. That’s what it’s about. But speaking of Christmas, I’m glad to have a minute to talk with you about that.”
Holly gave a surreptitious glance at her watch. The wedding was slated to start in twenty minutes. Was this really the most convenient time to discuss holiday plans?
“To speak with me about what?”
Brittany fretted with the edge of the blanket covering her sleeping son. “I was wondering, that is, Troy and I were wondering, what you might think about Lydia staying over with us on Christmas Eve at the Moores’ house.”
Holly stiffened, taken completely off guard at the request. “I thought this was all settled,” she said, keeping her voice as low as Brittany’s so the children, chattering away, didn’t overhear their conversation.
“I’m planning to take her over on Christmas morning so that she can spend the entire day with you. ”
“I know that’s what you and Troy talked about.”
Brittany somehow looked nervous and determined at the same time. “But I was thinking how wonderful it would be for Lydia and Hudson to be together when they open their presents from Santa. The photos would be so priceless.”
Her child was not a photo prop for her younger brother, the adorable girl with the sunny smile and the joyful heart, she thought again.
Holly swallowed hard against a host of denials crowding her throat. She wanted Lydia to have a relationship with her half brother, but not at the expense of her own relationship with her child.
“So you would have her all of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as well?”
“No. You could pick her up Christmas morning, around ten or eleven or so. You know. After we’ve had time for all the things. Presents, photos, breakfast.”
Holly pressed her lips together, her mind whirling with a dozen responses, all of them too heated for a conversation twenty minutes before a family wedding.
“I was just thinking,” Brittany went on, “you had her all to yourself last year for all the holidays. And the year before, too. It seems only fair that Troy could have her this year, since we’re in town.”
She had spent the past two holiday seasons alone with her daughter because Lydia’s father hadn’t bothered to show much interest in her whatsoever until his young wife had her own child and developed a sudden desire to be more involved in Lydia’s life.
Now Lydia’s father—or at least her father’s wife—wanted to change all their careful arrangements at virtually the last minute, days before Christmas Eve.
Brittany seemed to sense the objections Holly hadn’t figured out yet how to voice.
“You don’t have to decide right now,” she said quickly.
“You and Troy could discuss it this evening, maybe. Or we could all talk about it together. I’m sure we’ll have a chance between now and Christmas Eve to go over the details. ”
Before she could come up with an answer, Kristine’s wedding planner poked her head into the room.
“We’re lining up for the processional, if you want to take your seats,” Reka Bell said with a bright smile. “Is the flower girl ready?”
“Yep!” Lydia beamed and picked up the ribbon-festooned basket of red rose petals she would be scattering down the aisle of the church.
“Oh, you are adorable,” Reka declared. “Everyone is going to love you.”
Holly managed a polite smile, though her chest tightened slightly.
She knew people meant well, but comments like that often focused solely on Lydia’s distinctive Down syndrome features, not the vibrant, determined little girl she knew—the one whose strength, joy and stubborn streak brought so much light into the world.
“I’ll stay with her while she lines up,” Holly said.
“I can do that,” Brittany said. “Why don’t you go take your seat near the front, then she can come sit next to you as soon as she’s done with her job.”
That was actually a good idea, much better than Holly trying to squeeze down the aisle toward the front while everyone in attendance looked on.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I meant to tell you I saw your handsome guy come in a few minutes before I came in here. It looked like he found a place for you and Lydia in the third row.”
“Ryan is here?” Holly told herself the little jump in her pulse was due to maternal nerves over her child’s upcoming assignment but she suspected it had more to do with knowing her date had arrived.
She hadn’t expected him yet, as she thought they had agreed he would join her after the ceremony only for the wedding dinner and reception.
Soft warmth spread through her, knowing he had come early and would be waiting for her in the chapel. He must have known somehow how grateful she would be for his presence.
What a good man he was. He would never say so but she considered him one of the kindest people she had ever met.
“Are you certain you don’t want to sit by Troy?” she asked Brittany.
The other woman inclined her head toward her sleeping baby. “It’s probably better if I slip into a seat near the back so I can take this guy out easily if he wakes up angry.”
Holly could understand the logic of that. She probably would feel the same in the other woman’s strappy heels.
“Makes sense.” She turned to Lydia. “Okay. Honey, I’ll be up near the front, like we practiced last night. Brittany will help you know when it’s your turn to go and then you can come sit by me and by Ryan.”
“I like Ryan,” Lydia informed her.
Yes. Holly did, too. Entirely too much.
After kissing her daughter’s forehead and smoothing an errant strand of hair back into place, Holly hurried to the chapel.
She spotted Ryan immediately. He stood a few rows from the front talking to Nadine and Nyla, Troy’s aunts. He looked tall and gorgeous in a charcoal suit and red power tie and her heart seemed to skip with happiness.
Aware the whole time of the man who waited for her, she made her way toward him, stopping occasionally along the way to greet extended family members of Troy, some of whom she hadn’t seen since her own wedding.
When she reached his side, Ryan gave her a devastating smile that left her breathless.
“You came to the wedding. I wasn’t expecting to see you until after.”
His shrug rippled the fabric of his suit. “I’m your plus-one for the entire event. It didn’t seem right to enjoy the food and the party without celebrating the actual ceremony.”
Oh, how was she supposed to resist him? “I’m glad you’re here,” she admitted.
“As am I. You look lovely,” he said.
She felt flustered and in disarray after rushing around for the past few hours making sure the flowers were ready and then helping Lydia into her flower girl dress and doing her hair. She did wear one of her favorite dresses, emerald green with a rose print and a matching rose bolero jacket.
“I was going to say the same thing to you. You found a suit.”
“A jacket, anyway. My dad and I are similar in size. I picked up some dress pants and borrowed a jacket of his.”
His shoulders were slightly broader than Douglas Caldwell’s, she couldn’t help but notice, his arms more muscled. The jacket was taut in a few areas but somehow it worked.