Chapter 4
FOUR
We walked outside, into the Winter Garden.
The air was chilly, but heaters stationed around the plants were keeping us warm.
Orchids of every size and different colors—magenta, purple, and orange—had been brought from the solarium just for the evening, and they were displayed in pots along the walkway.
Two dozen or so heads turned to us as we approached the canopy of the wide tent, and voices quieted until we could hear the sound of our footsteps tromping across the paved pathway.
The Winter Garden had been designed with foliage that could withstand the cold.
Yellow witch hazel, purple Christmas roses, and pink winter-blooming camellias provided color, and the yellow lights that had been strung through the trees and tent canopy set everything and everyone aglow.
Though I could barely make them out, I knew my Blue Ridge Mountains loomed in the distance, which was always somehow reassuring. A constant in the midst of chaos.
Seating had been stationed under the tent in circles and squares.
There was a bar with drinks at the end, and Savilla was currently pouring.
Though Lacy and Anton had planned to meet just his parents for drinks out here, I suddenly realized that Savilla must’ve shifted things last minute to include the twenty-five or so more guests. She was good.
Nearest us, at a cocktail table, was a thirty-something-year-old priest and a fifty-something woman, boldly dressed. I caught something in her eyes that matched Anton’s and realized that this must be his mother.
Lacy squeezed my hand as she noticed the same thing.
Anton cleared his throat as we approached the two of them, absorbed in one another.
Mrs. Swanson looked every inch the Texas elite in a light pink skirt that ended right above her knee and a quarter-length-sleeved jacket.
She had long acrylic nails painted the exact same shade, and her hair was big and blond, sprayed in a way that had come back to haunt us from the early nineties.
She’d obviously had some work done because her forehead was smooth and her eyebrows couldn’t quite ascend as she laughed riotously at something the priest said.
The priest was handsome, though perhaps not age-appropriate for whatever was going on between him and Anton’s mother.
He wore a collar, even though I was fairly sure he wasn’t currently on duty, but perhaps collars were an all-day, all-season fashion statement.
I cringed when I saw Anton’s mother caress his arm and then pull him closer.
Then, the priest’s hand was low on the small of her back.
Another inch, and he definitely shouldn’t have been wearing that collar.
Anton coughed lightly, and his mother jumped as if she’d been caught in the act of something forbidden.
Putting a manicured hand over her heart, she leaned forward to kiss Anton’s cheek.
“Oh, hey there, darlin’,” she drawled in a thick East Texas accent.
“You about scared me to death.” She glanced around at the crowd with the confidence of a woman used to having all eyes on her.
“If you’d been a snake, you would’ve bit me. ”
At that, the rest of the party chuckled. Anton did not.
Perhaps he would’ve laughed too if his mother hadn’t obviously been flirting with the priest before Anton’s approach—or even if the age difference between the priest and his mother hadn’t been so pronounced.
Maybe it would’ve even been fine if Anton had already been told about the two of them, but his shocked expression said that he’d been completely in the dark.
“Mrs. Swanson, so lovely to finally meet you in person,” Lacy said, generous and composed as ever, her earlier nerves seeming to have fled in the face of Anton needing her steadiness now.
“Yes, uh, Mother, good… good to see you,” Anton finally stammered, swallowing back his surprise before glancing around at the other guests, who were nodding and smiling at them.
With the greeting, some of the tension in the garden eased, and attendees returned to their separate conversations, though I did sense that more than one eye remained on us as we talked.
Lacy turned to me and lifted an eyebrow in a way only I could read. She was hoping I would jump in and act like everything was normal.
I took the cue and extended a hand, trying to keep my tone light. “Dakota Green, maid of honor and all-around gopher for this weekend.”
“Nice to meet you,” the priest said, startling me with his accent—it was far removed from the South. A New Englander, maybe. Boston, perhaps? He extended a hand even as his eyes lingered on Anton for a half-second longer. “I’m Todd.”
“Reverend Todd Anderson,” Anton’s mother clarified. The priest touched his collar as if just remembering, and Anton’s mother grinned proudly. “He’s my beau. What do you think, hon?”
Her beau? It was an antiquated word for such a modern affair. Anton was obviously speechless.
“It’s great to meet you, Reverend,” Lacy said, coming to Anton’s rescue again.
She spoke with a warm smile that deserved an Emmy nomination.
I wondered suddenly if Lacy wished she’d decided on a Vegas elopement after all.
Still, her words were kind as she continued, “I’m so glad you both could join us, Mrs. Swanson. ”
“Call me Patricia. Patty, for short,” the woman said, grabbing Lacy and pulling her close.
“Oh, come on, we’re practically family. Let me give you a hug, doll.
” After a squeeze that lasted a few seconds too long, Patty pushed Lacy away and examined her before looking back to her son.
“My goodness, you two will make pretty babies.”
Anton’s eyes widened. “All right, Mother, I think that’s enough for now.”
“Me too,” Patty said, releasing her grip from Lacy’s arm while planting a kiss on Anton’s cheek and leaving a lipstick stain behind. Someone nearby caught Patty’s eye and she motioned the person over.
The woman was a brunette with a flawless, dark complexion and green eyes, her loose curls draping down her back. Two women moved in lockstep behind her.
“You remember Bella, don’t you, darling?” Patty asked, motioning from her son to this other woman.
At first the name caught me off guard. “Bella” was the name of my beloved horse, my faithful partner who’d spent countless hours carrying me around the Blue Ridge foothills.
While I would’ve been happy to introduce any of these people to her, I pretty quickly realized that this wasn’t the creature Patty Swanson was referencing.
Anton coughed and swallowed hard, obviously surprised to see this person there.
“I’m sure he remembers all of me,” Bella said, her voice full of a double entendre. She wore an off-the-shoulder, A-line dress with a slit up the side, which was much too formal for tonight’s festivities.
It’s almost as if she’s the one celebrating her nuptials, I thought, suddenly.
Lacy’s eyes roamed from the young woman to Anton, a million questions contained in a single glance; but like a coward, Anton looked away.
Bella put out a delicate hand and waited for Lacy to take it even as her gaze remained locked on Anton’s wriggling form.
“I’m Bella Rivera, one of Anthony’s oldest…
friends.” The last word was said in a way that conveyed far more than friendship.
Bella lifted her heart-shaped face over one shoulder and then the next, introducing the ladies behind her.
“These are Anthony’s cousins, Charlotte and Myrtis Swanson. ”
Myrtis put out a limp hand, and Charlotte stepped forward, eyeing Lacy with a single raised brow.
“Nice to meet all of you,” Lacy managed.
“We wouldn’t miss this for the world,” Charlotte Swanson said.
“Not for the world,” Myrtis repeated.
I was fairly certain that the cousins had been invited as family, but Bella Rivera had obviously not been on the guest list for this weekend. As soon as Lacy touched Bella’s hand, the other woman yanked it away as if she’d been scalded.
“When Bella told me that she didn’t get an invitation, I knew it must be a mistake,” Patty crooned, putting a hand on her son’s back and pushing him toward Bella.
“You two go way back. My God, I have photos of you both in a bubble bath together when you were three years old,” Patty guffawed as if the memory of the pair of them naked together was just too funny.
“We went to that god-awful lodge in Big Bend and it rained all week. We finally gave up and let you two loose in the mud. Had to practically hose you down afterward.”
Patty cackled again, waiting for Anton to join in the hilarity, but he didn’t seem to remember—or, if he did, he certainly didn’t want to talk about it.
“Any-hoo,” she continued, all smiles, as if totally unaware of the emotional slings and arrows she was hurling at the bride and groom, “I was sure you wouldn’t want Bella to miss such an important weekend. Her invitation must’ve been lost in the mail.”
The last few words were said with an innocence that belied the smile on Patty’s face, which was beginning to appear more forced. The cousins, Charlotte and Myrtis, were hanging on every word, as if they couldn’t wait for the family drama to unfold.
I chewed at my bottom lip, nervous about the cloud I saw overtaking Lacy. If I had to guess, I was pretty certain she’d never heard of Bella Rivera, much less seen bubble-bath photos of her.
Still, I had hopes that Lacy could let it go.
She wasn’t the jealous type, never possessive or manipulative.
After she’d ended her dysfunctional high school romance with Brett Brinkley, she’d turned over a new leaf, vowing to only date high-functioning men from that day forward.
Since then, Lacy had always said that if someone chose to be with her, she might as well trust him to be with her—until he proved otherwise.
I admired her ability not to worry, particularly when I’d had to confront my own green-eyed monster when Charlie’s deputy had started working so closely with him.
I suddenly wondered if this weekend might put my friend’s mettle to the test.
“Of course. It’s good to see you, Bella,” Anton finally said, definitely on edge.
Bella lifted her cheek for him to kiss, and he hesitated long enough for all of us to know that he felt awkward and unsure of the dynamics at play.
When he finally did lean forward, Bella moved an inch to the right, so their lips almost touched.
That would’ve been the last straw for me, but Lacy’s cheeks only reddened.
She was keeping herself in control despite Anton’s family’s best attempts to destabilize her.
I was about to tell Bella where she could plant her kisses when the woman turned as if she’d heard someone call her name. “We’ll catch up later,” she said, leaning toward him absentmindedly, almost as if he was the one who’d come to see her. “Maybe after the bachelorette party tonight?”
Lacy’s eyes darted from Bella to Anton to his mother.
Patty gave Lacy a quick pat on the arm. “I knew you wouldn’t want Bella left at The Rose all night, even if it is a fancy little hotel.”
Somehow this woman was managing to insult my ancestral home as well as my best friend. I kind of hated her.
Then I thought about the alternative to having Bella join our party tonight. Having her with us was probably best. I could keep a close eye on her.
“Of course,” Lacy managed to say to Patty and Bella, clenching her jaw as she smiled.
Bella waved her long fingers, reminding me of spider’s legs, before she gave Patty and the cousins a quick wink and turned away. As Momma would have said, this lady was trouble with a capital T.