23. Madeleine
MADELEINE
Christmas Eve — The Wedding
Clear and cold
Supper: The Wedding Feast
The bridal room was off the main lobby of the lodge.
The room had a wide mirror, soft lighting, and several vanities, currently occupied by Ivy, Luci, and me with professionals making us look our very best for the big day.
Blake lurked, recording. At this point we hardly noticed her presence.
Even I had stopped worrying about what she captured on film.
I’d already shown my hand and my heart to everyone currently residing at Crescent Moon Ranch. There was nothing else to hide.
June and Carol had left after getting their hair and makeup done to finish dressing in their own rooms. While Ivy, Luci, and I were still in chairs, Holly arrived with sandwiches and champagne.
Ivy was in a robe with her hair half done, her hands folded in her lap and a slight smile, almost like a woman waiting for a train she was glad to be catching.
“You nervous at all?” I asked.
“Nervous?” Her brow creased. “Why would I be nervous? I’m about to say I do to the man God made for me.” She caught my eye in the mirror and grinned. “I can’t wait to become Mrs. Wilder.”
“You’re not changing your name, are you?” I asked.
“Not my stage name. But you can bet your behind I’ll be taking his name, just like my mama took my daddy’s.”
I bit my tongue, not wanting to challenge the sentiment. Not today anyway. Ivy was happy and that’s all I cared about. Apparently, being in love myself had made me soft. How easily I went down, I thought. Regardless, I couldn’t find it in myself to care.
The woman doing my face tilted my chin toward the light with two fingers, frowning at me like I was a painting she hadn’t decided about yet.
“Okay,” Blake said, pulling up a chair next to Ivy’s, camera pointing right at her. She was in jeans and a sweater for now but had brought her dress to hang with the rest of ours, as had Holly. “Ivy, tell us how you met Jack Wilder.”
“You know how I met him,” Ivy said.
“I know. The people watching won’t.” Blake’s voice went coaxing and warm. “Tell it like nobody’s heard it.”
Ivy beamed. “Well, it started with Hunter Sloan—he’s one of my dearest friends.
We wrote “Finally Home” together. Now, I’ll tell y’all a secret.
I wrote it with Jack in mind. I’d wanted to work with him for years but our schedules had never lined up.
I’d met him before, of course, at award shows and such.
Each time, I’d had this feeling like I’d known him a long time.
You know that way some people feel familiar even thought they aren’t? And yes, I had a little crush on him.”
The stylist behind Ivy paused with a pin in her mouth to listen, then remembered herself and went back to pinning.
“A little crush?” I asked, teasing. “You wrote a song for the man to sing with you.”
Ivy laughed, shrugging one petite shoulder. “Whatever it takes to find the one, right?”
“Did you know right away?” Blake asked, still filming.
“Absolutely,” Ivy said. “We met up at Sparrow Sound to record our duet. The producer asked us to actually sing together, which is unusual. Typically, we would have recorded our tracks separately and they’d put it all together during production.
Anyway, there we were, in a booth like a small closet—so close I could smell his cologne and see the small tattoo on his wrist.” She smiled, her eyes far away for a second, as if it were playing inside her mind.
“We sang the song one time and the producer said it was just right and sent us all home. Jack asked if he could make me dinner at his house. I couldn’t say yes fast enough.
He then tried to make my mama’s chicken and dumplings but I distracted him by showing up in a bikini that was R-rated and he forgot it on the stove.
But all was well because he made me the bologna quesadillas instead.
They’re remarkably good, for anyone who wants to try the recipe.
We fell in love. Real hard. I knew he was it.
He knew I was it. We haven’t spent hardly a day apart since then. ”
“Tell us about the proposal,” Blake said.
Ivy laughed again. “Oh, it was awful and wonderful at the same time. We were at Mama and Daddy’s and he took me down to my favorite place by the creek.
When we were kids, my brothers and I hung a rope up in a tree so we could jump into the water.
It’s still there, of course. Jack and I got on that swing together but, instead of jumping into the water with me, he proposed.
Right there on the swing and then we dropped the ring in the creek. ”
Blake gasped. “No.”
“Yes. We had to dive down to find it. Took us a bit. But my Jack wouldn’t have left until he found it.
That’s the way he is. You don’t leave a diamond in the creek.
Kind of like he didn’t want to leave without getting Daddy’s permission.
He’s old-fashioned. Sweet as can be. And it was my fault the darn ring slipped into the creek.
That’s the kind of man you want. One who’ll dive into deep water when you need him to. ”
“The question is—how did you know for sure it was him?” Luci asked.
“I just knew. You’ll see. When it happens to you.”
“What if you’re the only one who thinks he’s the right one?” Luci asked. “Like what if your family and friends disagree?”
I watched Luci in the mirror, wondering why her tone had gone sad.
One of the hairstylists turned on a curling wand. A makeup girl swapped one brush for a smaller one and returned to me.
“You have someone in mind?” I asked Luci.
Then, I knew. It was Grant. Building blocks suddenly stacked up into a nice, neat row, like it happens sometimes.
There were a few times I’d seen them exchange a loaded glance.
They’d left places together quite often too.
And he’d drawn her on stage in front of everyone.
She’d brought him up for the magic trick.
It was all happening right before our eyes, but I for one was too occupied with my own situation to give it much thought. Until now.
Luci sent a furtive glance in Ivy’s direction. Ivy, God bless her, gave her a gentle smile.
“We all know,” Ivy said.
“Know what?” Luci asked, clearly wary.
“You and Grant,” Ivy said.
“Blake, can you please turn off the camera?” Luci asked.
“Yes, of course.” Blake shut it off and sat in one of the empty chairs.
“Does Jack know?” Luci’s voice sounded like a dry, rusty nail getting pulled out of a wall.
“Jack definitely does not,” Ivy said.
“And you haven’t said anything?” Luci asked.
“I have a big mouth, but I know when to keep it shut,” Ivy said. “But you should talk to him. Tell him how you feel.”
Holly got up to pour champagne into flutes.
“I don’t know. He made a rule a long time ago—no dating boys from the band.
He doesn’t want me anywhere near musicians, which is kind of funny.
” Luci glanced down at her lap. The hairstylist continued putting waves in her long hair.
“He’s always been so protective of me. I think because we didn’t really have a dad. ”
“You’re a doctor, for heaven’s sake,” I said. “Not a fragile little girl.”
“I’m not sure Jack would agree,” Luci said.
“What happened with the guy you were dating last year?” I asked.
Luci accepted a glass of champagne from Holly’s outstretched hand and took a good swig. “He turned out not to be what I thought he would be.”
“In what way?” Holly asked.
“In the way that Jason’s a mean drunk,” Luci said.
“He hit me one time. That was all if took. It was over in an instant. We were supposed to move in together, but thankfully I figured it out beforehand. We’re talking a Jekyll and Hyde type of situation.
He seemed perfect at first. Then came the verbal insults.
Criticizing what I was wearing. How I talked.
My friends. Even the way I loaded the dishwasher.
Looking at my phone like he was suspicious, which was ridiculous.
The only place I ever spend time at is my clinic.
But that was a year ago. I’ve moved on.”
“Thank God,” Ivy said. “If Jack knew that, we might not be having a wedding.”
“Yeah, ‘cause he’d be in jail,” Holly said. “For murder.”
“Please don’t mention it to him,” Luci said. “I don’t want him to worry about someone who’s not in my life any longer.”
“Does Grant know how you feel?” I asked Luci.
She nodded, twisting her champagne flute in a circle.
“It’s been verified. But we agreed it would just be a Montana thing.
Secret. We’ve been … doing that … seeing it hidden.
” Her eyes filled. “But the more I think about the month ending, the more I don’t want it to.
However, Grant won’t even entertain the idea of telling Jack.
The boys in the band are the only family he’s ever really had.
If he lost Jack or any of the others, he’d be lost.”
“If Jack acted that way, he’d have to answer to me.” Ivy grinned. “Wife privileges. I get to tell him when he’s wrong so he can make it right.”
“I don’t know that it matters anyway,” Luci said. “We had a big fight last night, and I think it’s over.”
Grant Walker. Quiet, deeply sensitive, and loyal. The band was his whole life. Keeping something like this from Jack must be killing him.
No one said anything for a moment or two. Finally, Holly said, “Luci, when did all of this start with Grant?”
“For years, when I’d go to their shows and there would be an after-party, we always seemed to wind up talking in a corner all night,” Luci said.
“But after I’d return home, I never heard from him.
” She put up her hands. “Please, though, don’t say anything about it to the other guys.
This month’s almost over and I’ll go back to my real life. ”
“Sometimes real life isn’t what we thought it would be,” Holly said.
“Like staying in a dying town?” Luci asked, not unkindly but certainly blunt.
“Yeah, just like that,” Holly said.