Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Cara
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I ask Hayden for the third or fourth time. I’m not sure if it’s for his benefit or mine, but I keep hoping he’ll change his mind. I’ve been so hopeful he’d back out, in fact, I didn’t tell my mother we were coming.
Now that we’re standing outside the flower shop, I wish I had.
Not so she’d be prepared when Hayden walks through the door, but so she could have told Sherry she couldn’t make it in today at all.
I’m sure that’s what she would have done because she hasn’t said another word about him or the wedding to me, and I think she’s hoping if she ignores it, it’ll all go away.
Denial isn’t going to work on Hayden any better than it does a dying water heater.
“Of course we’re going to do this.” His hand is on the door now. “We need flowers for our wedding, sweetheart.”
My teeth clench, and I have to make a conscious effort to relax my jaw as he steps aside and gestures for me to go first. I hear the soft chime as I step through, and then I have to blink at the transition from bright sun to Sherry’s cool, softly lit flower shop.
I hear my mother’s sharp intake of breath before I even realize it’s her behind the counter and not Sherry.
“Hi, Mom,” I say because I can’t think of anything else.
“Hello, Gin,” Hayden says from beside me, and then his hand is on the small of my back. It’s even harder to think once he’s touching me, but I realize he’s trying to gently nudge me forward, away from the door, so he can get in. “It’s good to see you again.”
My mother’s mouth is pinched and her eyes narrow at the casual use of her first name, but she’s not yelling or throwing the vase of flowers by the cash register at him. That’s a small win, but I’ll take it.
“Welcome,” Sherry says in a bright voice as she emerges from the back room. “I heard the happy news. Congratulations to both of you!”
“Thank you,” Hayden and I say in unison.
Gin still hasn’t said a word.
She’s taking turns, staring at each of us, and every time her gaze lands on me, it feels a few degrees hotter in the room.
Maybe that setting people on fire with her eyeballs thing is starting to work for her.
Then I see her mentally gather herself, blow out a hard breath, and paste a very fake smile on her face.
“Yes, congratulations,” she says finally. “It’s good to see you, too, Hayden. I guess you’ll be needing floral arrangements for the wedding.”
Relief saps the tension out of my muscles, and Hayden must feel it because his hand makes two small circles on my back.
I know I should probably take the lead in this endeavor, but my mind is suddenly blank.
I need a bouquet, at the very least, but I don’t know what I want. Some flowers with a ribbon, I guess.
Hayden comes to my rescue again. “We’re not really sure what we want, so if you have any ideas, we’d love to have your input.”
I watch Gin thaw slightly, which seems like a miracle, and then she nods. “Let me run out back and grab a few things to show you.”
She’s gone before Sherry can say a word, but I don’t kid myself.
It’s not a sudden enthusiasm for her daughter’s wedding planning.
She needs a few minutes to process and get her head on straight, and then she’ll be back.
Hopefully with some flower ideas, because I still don’t have any.
I like flowers in a general sense, but I don’t know a lot about them.
Hopefully she won’t emerge with Harry 8.0. Sherry keeps the Harry lookalikes in the back room in case Mel’s dad wanders in, and a prickly cactus as a Reilly wedding arrangement might amuse her enough to try the joke.
Hayden glances at the display on his smartwatch and frowns before sliding his phone out of his pocket. “I’m sorry, but I need to step out and take this.”
I nod, and as soon as the door closes behind him, Sherry leans across the counter. She looks like she’s going to tell me a secret, but there’s nobody else in the shop and Mom’s out back, so the closeness feels unnecessary. “What’s going on, Cara?”
“He gets a lot of business calls. I don’t think he’ll be very long.”
She blows out an annoyed breath. “Like I care about his phone calls. The last time I saw you—which was maybe last week—you weren’t dating anybody and now you’re in here picking out a bouquet to hold while you walk down the aisle with a Reilly?”
“We reconnected online and have been talking for a while,” I say, wishing I didn’t have to lie to this woman, who’d been an honorary aunt for most of my life. At least repeating the lie multiple times is making it roll a little more smoothly off my tongue. “It’s not as sudden as it appears.”
She makes a sound that’s a little bit of agreement mixed with a whole lot of skepticism. The way she’s staring at me makes me squirm, but I can’t look away and I just hope my cheeks don’t look as warm as they feel.
Then she laughs. “Honestly? I don’t care one way or the other, as long as you know what you’re doing and whatever that is gets her out of that overblown money pit.”
The words stun me, and the realization I’m not alone in knowing my mother needs to be set free of the house she’s lived in since her marriage almost brings tears to my eyes. Even though I can’t tell her the truth, I appreciate having an ally in Gin’s best friend.
She goes on, seemingly oblivious to my reaction. “I keep telling her there’s a house right up the road from me coming up for sale soon, and it would be perfect for her. And your future husband has the means to repair your house, so it’s a win for everybody.”
Sherry moved into the fairly new 55+ community on the outskirts of Sumac Falls after her divorce. The houses are small, but cute, and the idea of having a property management company doing all the groundskeeping and maintenance for my mother that I’m currently struggling with makes my knees weak.
“I don’t know how many times I’ve told her she’d be so much happier there,” I say.
“Mmhmm. But her excuse is that she can’t sell the only home you’ve ever known out from under you.”
I’d bang my head against the counter, but it’s glass and I can’t afford to replace it. “She actually says that out loud?”
“Every time I bring it up.” Sherry shrugs. “And, of course, the promise she made to Marcus.”
“Right. That.”
“Unfortunately, she told everybody about it in the days after he died, so I think that, not only would she feel like she let Marcus down, but everybody in town would know it.” She shakes her head.
“Trust me, I’ve tried. But it doesn’t matter now because she’ll be able to sell the house to you and your husband, so it’ll stay in the family. Promise kept and problem solved.”
I’m saved from having to respond to that by the door chime going off.
Hayden’s back, and a moment later, Gin appears from the back room.
She’s carrying a few long stem roses in a variety of shades and a bunch of baby’s breath, but nothing else.
It’s not exactly original, but she might have been going for classic.
“I didn’t ask if you have a venue yet. I know you live in Boston,” she says to Hayden, somehow managing to drown the name of the city in disdain, “but I assume you’ll be getting married here in Sumac Falls since your families are here.”
“We’re getting married here, Mom,” I say tersely, because there’s no chance Gin hasn’t already heard we got the marriage license and she just wanted to take a dig at Hayden for choosing city life. “At the gazebo in the square.”
“Perfect,” Sherry says, pulling a binder out from under the counter and flipping through laminated pages before turning it to face them. “We have a standard arrangement for weddings at the town gazebo. If you like it, you can just individualize the flowers.”
I look down at the photo and a tingling sensation spreads over my body.
It’s gorgeous—splashes of colorful flowers in baskets on the three wooden steps.
A basket hanging in the center of the archway, with smaller baskets in each corner.
Flowery vines connect each of the baskets and then trail down the wooden supports.
All the way around the gazebo, there’s a basket centered between each upright with the same flowers trailing down over the white wood.
It’s beautiful and somehow seeing these very-wedding-flowers photos makes this real in a way the official document from town hall didn’t. I’m really doing this. I need a dress. And a bouquet. And Mel needs a dress.
A wedding cake.
Champagne.
Are we feeding our guests? We don’t even have a real guest list, just a list of family members who hate each other.
“Cara? Do you like them?” His hands move to my waist, holding my body against his while he rests his chin on my shoulder to look at the photo.
It probably looks to Gin and Sherry like he’s being affectionate, but I suspect he’s trying to keep me from sliding to the ground and putting my head between my knees. I nod.
“You can swap more formal—elegant, I guess—flowers in, but most people who get married at the gazebo are looking for summer joy,” Sherry says.
“We like this look.” He pauses, maybe waiting for me to say something, before forging on. “Can you make a bouquet to match?”
“Of course. And a boutonniere for you?”
“Yes. I’ll be wearing a suit, not a tux, and it’ll be pinned.” He lets go of me then, his fingers trailing over my waist for a moment, and a second later hands Sherry a credit card. “You can put this on file, for anything the bride and her mother want.”
“I think small corsages for me and—” Gin pauses just long enough for the hesitation to be noticeable. “Colleen.”
Hayden smiles. “That sounds lovely.”
It does sound lovely, but I’m going to have to reach out to Sherry privately and have her keep an eye on those corsages because the mother of the bride wearing a corsage that matches my bouquet and the mother of the groom having wilted poison ivy pinned to her dress is no way to blend a family.
Sherry hands Hayden back his credit card. “I think that’s all we need for now, then. We’ll get started on it right away because it’s right around the corner.”
“Thank you.” Then Hayden turns his considerable charm on my mother. “Gin, I’d love for our families to get together for a dinner before the wedding. It would be nice to have everybody together before the big day.”
Smart guy, I think. Hit her with the idea of sharing a meal with the enemy while she has an audience. Sure, the audience is her best friend, but she’s not going to make a scene in the flower shop.
“That sounds lovely,” she echoes back at him, sprinkling the same amount of fake sweetener over the words.
“We should go,” I say before this can get any worse.
On top of all the things I belatedly realized I need to make happen in a little over a week, the Gambles and Reillys are going to share a meal?
Finger sandwiches maybe. I’m not giving Gin and Colleen cutlery.
“Hayden has to head back to Boston for a bit.”
“We’ll get on that dinner, though,” Hayden assures Gin. “Cara can let you know the plan.”
“Lovely,” Gin says, losing the battle to not look and sound as if she just smelled something horribly disgusting.
Once we’re outside and have moved far enough down the sidewalk so we can’t be seen through the flower shop windows, I stop and lean against the cool brick wall. “I can’t believe you did that.”
“We can’t get married without flowers.”
I narrow my eyes and poke his shoulder with my finger. “You know I’m talking about the dinner.”
He grasps my wrist, gently, my pulse pounding under his curled fingers. “We have to have them in a room together before the ceremony. I’d rather have them throwing mashed potatoes at each other than our wedding cake.”
“True.” Why am I not pulling my hand away? I really should. “I was already thinking finger sandwiches so there are no knives and forks on the table.”
His fingers slide down my wrist to my fingers, and he brings my hand to his mouth. His breath is warm against my skin, and then the kiss he plants there is so hot every nerve in my body sizzles. “It’s going to be okay, Cara. Everything’s going according to plan.”
My reaction to his mouth on my skin is not part of the plan. It’s just a show for any of the citizens of Sumac Falls looking our way. He’s just a means to an end for me, and I’m absolutely not going to fall for this man again.
I mean it.
He lowers our hands, though his fingers stay tangled with mine. “Trust me.”
Trusting him is what got me into this mess in the first place.