Chapter 3
THREE
A rapid series of knocks sounded at the door to our suite, and when I opened it, Anton was standing there with a wide smile above his cleft chin.
His curly, dark red hair was gelled into a more formal look than he usually sported.
He peeked around me like a little boy who’d waited and waited for his favorite day of the year. “Is she ready?”
From the vanity, Lacy called that she was almost done and hurried to the bathroom one more time.
I moved out of the way so Anton could pass, but he stayed put. “Lacy doesn’t want us in each other’s rooms until the wedding day.”
“Ah,” I said, finding the rule silly but refraining from saying so. Whatever my friend wanted this weekend, she would get, especially with all of her feelings already on edge.
Since I’d returned to my veterinary program, Anton and I hadn’t had the opportunity to spend much time together, so we were still getting to know one another. We stood awkwardly waiting for the woman we both loved to appear.
When Anton resorted to getting his phone out of his pocket, I tried to make conversation. “Have you seen your family yet?”
Anton’s eyes flitted from his phone to me and he took a moment to refocus them, obviously running my question back through his mind. “Uh, no. Mother just texted that she’s just got to the Winter Garden.”
“Are you nervous?” I asked, before I stopped myself. I didn’t want to pry, but Anton did seem rather distracted.
Anton took a beat too long to decide, which answered the question for me. “Nervous? Um… not really. Although, my family can be”—he searched for the right word—“challenging.”
I waited for more.
Anton checked his phone one more time before looking up at me. “My parents separated a year ago, but they still live in the same house. Just in different wings.”
I squinted one eye, trying to envision how this might work while also noticing the reference to his family’s home having “wings”.
“It’s a big house,” Anton clarified.
“Like The Rose?” I asked.
“No, but…” His head bobbed as he considered. “Maybe a quarter of the size?”
That would put it at twenty-five thousand square feet, which was still pretty dang big. But still, living in the same house—even if it was ginormous—after you’d technically separated had to be a recipe for madness.
Anton held up his text messages as another one appeared on-screen.
“Looks like they didn’t travel together this time, which was probably for the best.” He hesitated, studying the message again before thinking out loud.
“Although, it is strange that my father didn’t just fly in tonight too.
Maybe business stuff came up.” His eyes jumped back to me as if he had just realized I was listening.
“I never know if my parents will be on good terms, or pecking each other to death.”
The image of parents with beaks stabbing at one another was not a pleasant one. No wonder Anton was on edge. Having grown up without a father, I had no idea about bickering parents. The closest I’d ever come was listening to Aunt DeeDee and Momma argue over which movie to watch on Friday nights.
Thankfully, at that moment, Lacy appeared, her face smooth and devoid of any tell-tale signs of worry.
“Hello, beautiful.” Anton beamed at Lacy and leaned in for a kiss. “My mother and the priest just got here. You still good to meet them in the Winter Garden?”
“Yep.” Lacy raised her eyebrows and grabbed my arm. “Especially since Dakota is coming with us.”
Anton’s face registered surprise for a split second, but then he nodded. “Sure. The more the merrier. Just remember that my parents can feel a bit overwhelming at first, especially my mother.”
I patted Lacy’s arm to remind her I was here, and Lacy pasted on a smile for Anton. “As long as this weekend ends with me married to you, I’ll try not to care about anything else— deal?”
Anton smiled and gave her a quick kiss. “Deal.”
Soon after the engagement, Lacy and I had talked for three hours one night, laying out all of the wedding possibilities.
She’d considered everything from eloping to Las Vegas or a Caribbean destination wedding to a ranch-style wedding in Texas, but when I’d finally asked her what she really wanted, down deep, she’d admitted that she’d always seen herself having a winter wedding at home, in Aubergine.
That’s when she’d decided to make it happen sooner rather than later, pulling together a wedding in eight weeks.
I hadn’t contributed much, what with finishing classes in New York and preparing my application for the fellowship across the country in San Diego. Still, I’d done what I could from afar, and I’d promised myself that this weekend would be all about Lacy.
Being on the estate now, with the holiday décor, and my friends and family coming and going, did make me wonder how I might feel about being almost three thousand miles from home in sunny California.
It was a thirty-eight-hour drive without stops, or a seven-hour flight without check-in or inevitable delays—not exactly a drop-in-for-the-weekend kind of distance.
I tamped back the thought, trying to focus on what really mattered right now: Lacy.
As we reached the main floor, a hum of anticipation was already in the air. The Rose looked different from when I’d been there two months earlier. It was brighter and sleeker, with a cool ambience that still kept the history of the estate at the forefront.
Occasionally, a laugh filtered out into the long hallway as we made our way through the Color Gallery, featuring a few of the Finch family gems that had been reclaimed, as well as more art, from the town’s collective.
Lacy halted and took a deep breath as we rounded the corner and spotted the full, tented-over garden through the windows. Thankfully, no one noticed us standing in the shadows and out of earshot. “How many people did you say we were meeting?”
Savilla’s expression as she’d left to check on final preparations came to mind, as well as her parting words: “We want everyone to be comfortable.” She must’ve thought Lacy was being her usual unfussy self, but I wished that Savilla had said what she’d already known—that a bunch of Anton’s family and friends had shown up early.
With Lacy’s nerves already on edge, she didn’t need any surprises this weekend.
Anton’s brow knit, his concern deepening into a frown. “Oh Lord.” He sighed. “It’s all of them—well, except for my father. Mother just texted and said that he’s not arriving until tomorrow.”
“All of…?” I asked on Lacy’s behalf.
“A couple dozen Swansons and a few old friends,” he breathed, obviously as shocked as Lacy by the news. He peered out the window again. “Looks like thirty or so people.”
Lacy turned to me, her eyes wide and pleading.
“You can’t run now,” I said, answering her unasked question. “It’ll be all right.”
“This is just like my mother, springing something out of the blue on us.” Anton closed his eyes for a handful of seconds as if steeling himself for an onslaught, and then took his future bride’s hand. “It’s all right. They’ll love you. They have to.”
The words, sharp and commanding, didn’t exactly settle Lacy’s nerves, but the kiss he placed gently on her brow and the look that passed between them did seem to strengthen her resolve to meet the many Swansons head on.
“Let’s do this,” Lacy muttered almost to herself, before taking my arm with her other hand and pulling me into the Winter Garden alongside her. The invasion of the Texas Swanson family at the Virginia Rose was happening, ready or not.