Chapter Twenty-Eight
‘Oh God, they look awful!’ wailed Savannah, a bouquet of wilted flowers drooping sadly from her hands. ‘The heat’s killed them. I should have listened to you, Joseph. Who plans a tropical wedding with roses and peonies?’
Joseph waved away her concerns with his one good arm – the other was in a sling – while he desperately searched for a local florist on his tablet.
Ellie wasn’t sure if it would even be possible this close to the wedding. They were surrounded by private islands, for goodness’ sake. The nearest florist would be back on the mainland, surely?
Savannah began to pace, her embroidered dressing gown flapping around her ankles in the breeze from the bedroom balcony.
‘You said they wouldn’t last the journey from the mainland and you were right.
Why don’t I ever listen? I ruin everything.
’ She slumped on the bed and burst into tears.
‘I just wanted the same flowers as Mom had on her wedding day,’ she sobbed, looking at her sister – who for once seemed to have a heart, and now dropped to her knees beside her to rub her back with a soothing, ‘We’ll sort it out, don’t worry! ’
The bouquet slipped from Savannah’s hands and dropped on the plush carpet, scattering petals in its final defeat.
‘Surely they’re not all dead,’ said Jessica, sweeping them up with a desperate expression and prodding the stems gently.
‘It’s too late,’ Joseph said, as if he were a doctor delivering bad news. Sweat was dripping down his face, and he swallowed deeply, looking like he might throw up. ‘They’re all gone. We tried to save them, but it was too late.’
Ellie edged a little closer, and had to admit the same. Although they’d once been beautiful, the car accident and the bad storage in the tropical heat had made them wilt and brown, shedding some of their petals and shrivelling the foliage.
Ellie hadn’t meant to intrude, but she’d heard Caitlyn and Keira legging it down the corridor to the bride’s room, gasping something about flowers, and that had been enough to get her to follow them.
So far, she’d spent most of her morning with the other female members of the wedding party in one room or another.
Savannah had insisted she join them for the manicures, pedicures, make-up and general preening.
At first, she’d felt awkward, especially after her reality check with Alex last night.
But now, she was glad. The chaos had kept her mind off Alex and the way he’d looked last night – as if she’d broken his heart.
‘They’ll be fine,’ she said, with an authority she didn’t feel, bustling in with her Nurse Ellie confidence. She took the bouquet gently from Jessica and examined it more closely. ‘I can save them. Bit of sugar water in a cool room for a couple of hours and they’ll be perfect.’
‘Really?’ Savannah looked up with a flicker of hope in her mascara-smudged eyes. Poor thing would need her make-up doing all over again. At least that gave her time to fix the flowers, though, and no bride was ever on time to her own wedding.
‘Of course. I grew up in a flower shop. Flowers are hardier than they look.’
That wasn’t strictly true. But she wasn’t going to worry the bride any more than she needed to.
‘And I’m sure I can tidy them up with some flowers from the garden to make them look even more beautiful.
After all, it’s the blending of two families, right?
What better way to express that than with flowers? ’
Savannah leapt up from the bed and gripped her in a fierce hug. ‘Thank you!’
‘No problem.’
Joseph stood, swaying on his Cuban heels and making the sign of the cross. He was probably high on pain medication, because he was looking at her as if she were a saint. ‘Are you sure it can be done?’
She gave a quick nod, then turned to the rest of the women and gave them a hard Nurse Ellie stare.
‘You sort her out, ladies. And I’ll sort these little fellas out.
’ The bridal party flew into action, relieved to have a mission, and shouting things like, ‘Get the snail mask!’ and ‘Cucumber, we need cucumber!’
Alex’s mum followed her out, being careful to close the door behind them and talk quietly.
‘Are you sure they can be saved? I could still get an order from the mainland arranged. It might mean delaying the wedding by a couple more hours…’ She winced, and Ellie knew that couple more hours was going to be more like five.
‘Nah, besides, she wants her mother’s flowers, and that’s understandable. I’ll sort them out, if you’re sure it’s okay to use some of your flowers from the garden to beef it up a bit. I might need the bridesmaid posies too…’
‘Of course, take anything you need. I’ll get Alex to help you. He needs a distraction today.’
She tried not to bristle at that comment – she knew Jessica meant well, but why did they all think they had to walk on eggshells around Alex? He’d shown them he was over it last night.
Or did they realise something she didn’t?
Alex joined her in the kitchen a few minutes later, suave and sophisticated in his cream linen suit.
The cut of the jacket made it hang off his broad shoulders perfectly, and the colour brought out his holiday tan.
He wasn’t wearing his glasses today, and the brightness of his blue eyes was startling, especially when they were focused on her so intently.
The staff were furiously busy preparing for the wedding breakfast, but Alyssa had given her the quiet corner sink to use. She’d taken one look at the flowers and wished her luck.
‘Thanks for doing this.’ Alex came to stand beside her. ‘You must think it strange trying to save a bouquet when there are so many beautiful flowers already here, but Savannah’s mother—’
‘I get it,’ she interrupted him, her attention focused on filling the sink with cool water and sugar syrup. ‘She wants to keep her mother’s memory alive. Flowers are such a great way of doing that, although I’m probably biased.’
‘You knew?’ he asked softly, coming to stand beside her. ‘You’ve only known her a week. I didn’t know even after months of dating her. I guess that only proves what a shitty boyfriend I can be.’
He sounded so depressed that she dared to meet his eyes. ‘We all make mistakes.’
Oh God, what was she saying? That she’d made a mistake by saying they should remain friends? Had she made a mistake?
She shook her head. ‘Sorry, but I need to concentrate, one minute.’ Clearing her throat, she tried to focus on what kind of arrangement she could salvage, before placing all of the flowers – including the bridesmaid posies – gently in the filled sink.
‘Right, I’m going to leave these to rest. Let’s go pick some flowers.
Your mum said to take whatever I needed. ’
They stepped out of the kitchen’s back doors and began to walk the gardens, dodging the guests and picking a myriad of flowers and foliage.
Ellie kept cutting the flowers until Alex’s arms were full and he twitched his nose with a smile, the variety of scents wrapping them in a bubble of heady perfume.
When they returned to the kitchen the bouquet looked a little better, but still beaten up and sad.
How on earth am I going to assemble them into any kind of order?
She took a deep breath and tried to channel her nanna and mum’s green fingers and remember all of their advice and wisdom over the years.
‘How can I help?’ Alex asked.
‘Cut these to there, and for these strip the leaves from here.’
He nodded and followed her instructions to the letter. Thankfully, he seemed to understand the value of not ballsing up a bride’s bouquet as much as she did.
She began to work, pulling apart the old bouquet and rearranging the stems. A waterfall of flowers with the roses and peonies in the centre might work.
‘I bet Savannah is thanking her lucky stars that I brought you here,’ said Alex, gesturing towards the growing bouquet in her hand. ‘It already looks a hundred times better.’
Ellie laughed as she plucked out some of the dead leaves. ‘We’ll see, she might kill me when she sees it. It’s been a while since I did an arrangement as big as this.’
At the end she smiled triumphantly, and, honestly, she had the right to. She’d done a spectacular job – even if she did think so herself.
The majority of the peonies and roses were gathered in the heart-shaped centre, fanned by large tropical leaves that only highlighted the contrasting delicate pinks in the centre.
To add more colour, and balance out the green, she’d added a waterfall of lush, vibrant pink-toned flowers, and dotted a few around the outer leaves of the heart to draw it all together.
‘A bit of sugar water. Some bougainvillea, some hibiscus, a few leaves… and voila, a bridal bouquet fit for a Hollywood star. Plus, I’ve enough to bulk up the bridesmaids’ posies – I had to steal some of the roses from theirs for the bride.
’ She turned to Alex, the bouquet clutched to her chest as she fluttered her lashes dramatically. ‘How does it look?’
He didn’t react as she’d thought he would, just looked at her with a yearning she’d have thought impossible a few weeks ago. ‘Beautiful,’ he said. ‘Just like you.’
Heat flooded her face, and she turned away and inspected the bouquet with a more critical eye.
‘Well, it’s nothing compared to what my mum or nanna could have made.
I haven’t been able to save all of the flowers, but I’ve made sure the best roses and peonies take centre stage in the bridal bouquet.
I’m not sure how long they’ll last though.
’ She picked up a can of hairspray from the counter and began liberally spraying the flowers.
‘This will help. But they’ll need to get as many photos done as quickly as possible while they still look good.
Can you tell the photographer, and ask for a bride ETA? ’
‘You’re amazing, you know that, right?’