Authors: Kristin Wallace
Some women feel they don't exist unless they're with a man. Julia's mother was one of those women. She simply could not be alone. In between marriages Brooke Richardson kept time with a professional tennis player, a congressman, a doctor, a lawyer, a real estate developer, a CEO, an investment banker, a minor league baseball player, a chef, and a violin player for a symphony orchestra.
Each relationship followed a predictable pattern. She'd fall madly in love and spend every waking moment with her new man. Until he did something completely offensive like leaving his dirty coffee cup on the kitchen counter all day, causing her to kick him out, or she became so jealous and possessive she turned into one of those crazed stalker women and the man headed for the hills.
Living in the house had been like an endless soap opera, filled with angst and pity. She was angst. Julia was pity.
Julia had decided back then her life would never revolve around a man. Ironic, since her life now consisted of helping other women revolve their lives around a man.
Something else twisted? Having an outdoor wedding in the middle of summer. Slipping on a fifty-pound wedding dress and standing around in one-hundred-plus degree weather all day was not Julia's idea of a good time. At least she'd had a week to prepare for the outdoor extravaganza, as opposed to a couple days.
The wedding and reception was taking place at the Botanical Gardens on the outskirts of town. It hadn't taken long for Julia to realize dealing with the country club staff was a piece of cake compared to transforming a patch of nature's glory into a suitable setting for the grand nuptials.
Since the crack of dawn she and Betsy had been directing a dozen workers in the set up. Well, Betsy had been directing, Julia had mostly been pointing in a vague direction whenever anyone asked her where something was supposed to go.
The ceremony was to be held in the rose garden. In front of a semicircle of rose bushes was a white trellis festooned with ivy. Six rows of dainty white folding chairs were arranged in front of the trellis. About a hundred feet away, a giant tent with filmy white drapery and a temporary parquet dance floor had been erected for the reception. Chef Devon was catering the wedding, and she and her staff had been busy underneath the tent for hours now.
Speaking of the ceremony, according to Julia's schedule it was nearly time to start. Most of the guests were already seated. She went in search of Betsy. As she walked, Julia pulled her sticky blouse from her skin and fanned herself. After hours of running around in the Georgia soup, her hair had turned into a giant frizz ball. Plus, her deodorant had thrown up its hands in defeat some time ago, so now she was a
smelly
, giant frizzy ball.
Beautiful.
Julia spotted a white limousine in the parking lot so at least she knew the wedding party had arrived. The employee's lounge doubled as a bride's room for weddings. Julia burst into the room and was confronted with a half-dozen young women giggling and chattering like a bunch of chipmunks in hot pink dresses.
Betsy turned as the door shut. “Hi, Julia. Is everyone here?”
“Looks like it. Please tell me everything fits this time.”
Betsy gestured to a young woman in white who was fully dressed, thank goodness.
Lisa Evans, the bride, shot her a worried look. “Are there any clouds?”
Julia shook her head. “No.”
“You're sure? Because I thought I saw one when we came in. I would die if it rained on my wedding.”
“I don't think you have to worry about any freak thunderstorms today. Heat exhaustion, maybe, but not rain.”
“And the roses? The dresses match, right? I specifically told my dressmaker I wanted the bridesmaids' dresses to match the roses in the garden. I even brought her out here so she could see the color.”
“Of course they match,” Julia said. She had no idea if it was true, but at this point she'd say anything to get Lisa up and out of the room in time for the ceremony.
Lisa was satisfied because she nodded. She and the bridesmaids started to file out of the room.
“Ugh, it's hot,” one of the bridesmaids said. “Remind me not to have my wedding here. My makeup is already melting.”
My everything is melting, Pinky.
Julia ran ahead to signal the string quartet to start the processional music. With relative ease, she and Betsy got the attendants and the bride down the aisle. Julia turned to her tiny cohort, and they gave each other a little high five.
“Not bad for only our second wedding,” Julia said.
Betsy grinned. “Piece of cake.”
Seth was performing this ceremony, too, and he stepped forward. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today, in the sight of these witnesses to celebrate the union of Lisa Anne Evans and Scott Edward Thompson⦔
Julia surveyed the wedding party and had to admit Lisa and Scott made a lovely picture. She noticed the bridesmaid's dresses did indeed match the roses.
“I'm going to head over to the reception tent and make sure everything is in order there,” Betsy said. “You stay here.”
Since she was feeling invincible, Julia nodded. “Okay.”
She turned back as Seth was getting to the vows. “Lisa, repeat after me. I, Lisa Anne Evans⦔
“I Lisa Anneâ¦
Ah!
”
Julia jumped as the bride started screaming and slapping her arms. Julia rushed forward, along with most of the guests.
“It's a bee! Get it off me! Get it off!” Lisa screamed.
Julia pushed through the crowd, in time to see the bride drop to the ground in a heap of white crinoline.
“Lisa!” Scott cried.
Julia knelt over the prostrate girl. Her face was flushed, and she looked like she was struggling to breathe. So, not just a panic attack.
“Someone call an ambulance!” Julia shouted.
Julia was pretty sure she'd seen this reaction before in movies. This was not good.
“Is Lisa allergic to bees?” Julia asked.
Lisa's mother looked panic-stricken. “Yes. We never should have let her talk us in to an outdoor wedding.”
Julia cursed under her breath. “Is the ambulance coming?”
“They're on the way,” Betsy said, pushing through the crowd.
She dropped down to the ground. The giant tackle box was with her again. Betsy reached in and pulled out a long, thin wand and handed it over.
“Where did you get this?” Julia asked, staring at the instrument in confusion.
“Lisa gave it to me when we met last week,” Betsy said. “Just in case, she said.”
“What am I supposed to do with it?”
“She's in anaphylactic shock. You need to give her a shot of epinephrine.”
Julia goggled at her assistant. “I have to do
what
?”
“Pull the cap off, stick it in her thigh, and give her a shot. Lisa said we're supposed to hold it for ten seconds and then rub.”
“Why don't you do it?”
“I hate needles.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Julia, just do it!” Betsy said. “Remember to keep it in for ten seconds.”
Man, she hoped these people weren't prone to lawsuits. Taking a deep breath, she whipped off the cap, flipped up yards of ruffles and lace, and plunged the needle in Lisa's thigh. Julia had just reached ten when the wail of a siren cut through the buzz of panicked conversation. The paramedics pushed everyone out of the way, and within minutes, Lisa was being driven away. Most of the members of the wedding party headed to the hospital, too. The rest of the guests were left standing around in shock.
“I feel like
I
need a shot,” Julia said. “Is every wedding you guys do this exciting?”
Betsy's hand shook as she brushed a strand of hair from her face. “No, this is a first.”
“Betsy, I have to say, you're a good woman to have around in a crisis,” Julia said, giving the younger woman a grin.
Betsy giggled. “So are you.”
Just then, Chef Devon approached. “Good save, ladies.”
“Thank you,” Julia said.
“I've got one more little problem though.”
Julia's chest tightened. “Little problems” were usually full-scale disasters with this business. “What?”
“Well, I'm all set for a reception,” Devon said. “Unfortunately, most of the wedding party is at the hospital.”
“Can't they postpone?” Julia asked. “It's obvious there won't be a wedding today.”
Devon shook her head. “Most of the food has to be eaten today. It'll spoil. They've already paid for everything, too.”
Julia ran a frustrated hand through her frizzed-out hair. “I think I might kill Sarah.”
“I'm sorry to heap more troubles on you, but someone has to make a decision,” Devon said.
Julia looked at her assistant. “Is there anyone from either family still here?”
“I think one of the groom's cousins is still around.”
She nodded. “Go fetch him. He's just been appointed family representative.”
Okay, now they were about to have a reception without a wedding, which was par for the course for her life lately. She felt like someone should go to the hospital and wait for word on the allergic bride, and Betsy volunteered to stay and oversee the party.
Julia reached the hospital in minutes. Rushing into the Emergency Room, she encountered the family members milling about the waiting room.
All fifty million of them. She'd never known someone could be related to so many people.
The mother-of-the-bride spotted her first. “There she is! The woman who saved my baby!”
Julia was immediately enveloped in a bear hug.
“How is Lisa?” Julia asked.
“We're still waiting for word.”
With a shuddering sigh, Julia sank into a plastic chair to wait.
****
Julia was sitting in one of the chairs in the waiting room when Seth finally tracked her down. Actually it was more of a reclining position than a sitting one. Her eyes were closed, and she looked utterly exhausted. A grin kicked up the corner of his mouth as he slipped into the chair next to her.
“It's the hero of the hour,” he said.
She rotated her head on the chair back and peeled her eyes open. “Shouldn't you be off praying somewhere, Reverend?”
“I've been praying with the family members,” he said.
“First wardrobe malfunctions, now killer bees,” she said, letting out a soft groan as she sat up. “I thought things would be dull and uninteresting around here.”
“You're lucky I guess. Seriously, that was amazing. You might have saved her life.”
For the first time Seth could recall, Julia Richardson actually blushed. He watched the dusky, pink color rise in her cheeks with fascination.
“Betsy was the one who had the medicine,” she said. “I only stuck the needle in.”
“Something she was too afraid to do. You did a good job today, Julia.”
“Thank you.”
She looked down, which drew Seth's gaze in the same direction. At some point he'd taken her hand. He drew away with a start, unnerved by how natural touching her felt.
Before either of them could say anything else, the doors to the waiting room opened and the doctor walked in. Everyone came to full attention.
“Lisa should be fine,” the doctor announced. “She's awake now and has a pretty bad breakout of hives, but she should recover fully in a couple days.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” Lisa's mother said. “Can we see her?
“Yes, of course, but keep the visitors to a minimum for now.”
Scott and Lisa's parents hurried off after the doctor. The rest of the extended family started to gather their things to leave.
“If any of you are interested, the party is still on at the gardens,” Julia said.
Most of them looked too weary to go anywhere but home, though some actually perked up. Before long, Julia and Seth were the only ones left.
“You could probably go home now, as well,” Seth said.
“I feel like I should make sure our client is all right before I leave,” Julia said.
“You heard the doctor.”
“I know, but I stillâ”
The doors opened again, and Lisa's father hurried in. “Reverend, Lisa and Scott would like to speak with you.”
“All right.” He turned to Julia. “Why don't you come with me so you can look in on Lisa yourself?”
Julia glanced at Lisa's dad, who nodded his okay. They trailed the older man up to Lisa's room. The almost bride was sitting up in bed. Her wedding dress was gone; replaced with a blue, cotton hospital gown. Her arms were covered in red welts, and her face looked a bit swollen. Scott was sitting on the edge of the bed. They both looked up eagerly as Julia and Seth entered the room.
“Lisa, you're looking well,” Seth said, going over to kiss her cheek. “You had us all pretty scared for a while. I'm glad you're all right.”
“Thank you. Reverend, Scott and I were talking, and we still want to get married.”
“Of course. Let me know what day, and we'll do it.”
Lisa giggled. “No, we'd like to get married today.”
He looked at them with surprise. “What, now?”
“Yes.”
Julia stepped forward. “Are you sure? You had that big wedding planned and everything. It can be rescheduled.”
Lisa shook her head. “What matters is that Scott and I love each other, and I don't care if we get married in a garden or in this hospital room. All I want is to be Scott's wife.”
A grin lit up Seth's face. “It's unusual, but I'd be glad to marry you. Why don't I pick up where we left off? Repeat after me. I, Lisa Anne Evans⦔
“I, Lisa Anne Evans⦔
****
By the time Julia made it back to the house, the sun had long departed. After the impromptu ceremony, she'd gone back to the Botanical Gardens to help Betsy oversee the not-really-a-reception and the cleanup afterward. At this point she'd surpassed tired and was approaching catatonic. As she trudged up the steps, every cell in her body protested the latest injustice. Her mind drifted back to the ceremony she'd witnessed.
After her father and Grace had divorced, Julia had ended up in a weird parental limbo. Her father was single again, and a teenaged daughter had not been conducive to his swinging bachelor lifestyle. Her mother was still on husband #3, and Julia's presence had not conducive to
his
lifestyle. So, Julia had wound up at an exclusive, all-girls prep school in Connecticut. The change had turned out to be a blessing, as it served to shield her from the drama surrounding her parents' lives.
It also brought her into contact with girls of means, or to put it bluntly, girls whose families were loaded. Julia had made a lot of friends, which meant she'd spent the years after prep school and college attending nearly two dozen society weddings. Lavish, overblown affairs where the brides wore $20,000 designer wedding gowns, and guests dined on lobster tail and $400 per ounce caviar.
Of course, of those two dozen girls, sixteen of them were now divorced. They'd had the fairytale wedding but never bothered to think about what happened after the clock struck midnight.
Julia couldn't help but compare those affairs to the wedding in Lisa's hospital room. What should have been an awkward occasion had turned out to be one of the most touching things Julia had ever witnessed. The bride had glowed, despite the highly unflattering hospital gown and red, splotchy skin. The groom had teared up when Seth got to the “till death do us part” line. Everyone else got misty, too. Even Julia had fought back a few tears.
Lisa and Scott understood, Julia thought. They realized an expensive gown â and rose-colored bridesmaid's dresses â didn't lead to a successful marriage. Their relationship counted, not a ceremony.
Darkness enveloped her as she slipped in the front door. All she wanted was a hot bath and a bed.
“Julia?”
She jumped and then realized the disembodied voice was coming from the back of the house. She made her way to the kitchen.
Grace was standing at the stove stirring something in a pot. “I thought you might be hungry after the day you had.”
Julia's mouth watered, but she forced herself to focus on Grace. “You heard about the bees obviously.”
“I was at the wedding.”
“I didn't see you.”
“You were a little busy,” Grace said with a wry grin. “I saw what you did for Lisa. Is she going to be okay?”
“Yes. They'll have to wait a few days for the honeymoon, but otherwiseâ”
“Honeymoon?” Grace queried in bemusement, as she filled a bowl with soup.
“They had Seth do the vows in the hospital.”
She chuckled. “Oh, how sweet.”
“It was actually.”
“Sit, sit!” Grace ordered, setting the bowl down on the table.
“You didn't have to cook for me,” Julia protested, even as she dug into the soup.
“It's from a can,” Grace said in a pseudo-whisper. “If my mother were still alive, she'd be horrified.”
“Why would she care?” Julia asked as Grace walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed the ever-present pitcher of iced tea.
“My mother always made hers from scratch.”
“But you're going to be a grandmother yourself soon.”
“I don't think we ever outgrow the need to please our parents.”
Well, here was the opening Julia needed, but how did she go about asking Grace why she had been dumb enough to hook up with a jerk? “Speaking of parents, can I ask you something personal?”
“You want to know why I married your father,” Grace said as she sank into a chair.
Julia blinked. “What⦠How?”
“I can see it in your eyes every time you look at me. What in the world did my sophisticated father see in that little church mouse?”
Julia winced at knowing Grace would think that. “No, mostly I wonder how a wise, sensible woman like you wound up with a no-good playboy like my father.”
“Sometimes we're all fools, especially when it comes to our hearts,” Grace said. “When my first husband died, I went into a tailspin. I was devastated and felt so alone. I was angry at God for taking my gentle, loving husband, and frightened about raising a child on my own.”
Julia took a sip of tea. “I can understand.”
“Unfortunately, emptiness and anger left me vulnerable to someone who offered an escape. Someone like your father.”
“Did you love him?”
Grace seemed to consider the question for a moment. “I did, though it was different from what I felt with my Samuel. Your father was handsome and charming. He made me laugh. When I was with him, I felt like the most beautiful woman on earth.”
“He was good at making women feel special.”
Grace nodded. “Yes, he was. The combination was intoxicating, let me tell you. I couldn't believe a man like him would even look at me, let alone profess to love me. Before I knew it, we were getting married.”
“How much did you know about him? Did he tell you about his previous marriages?”
“I knew about your mother, and you, of course,” Grace said, with a grimace. “I didn't know about the others until after we were married. I'm afraid I didn't ask too many questions.”
“Were you happy with him?”
Grace rested her hand in her chin. “For a while. I soon realized his charm was mostly surface. Of course by then I'd already fallen in love with his daughter.”
Julia choked on the soup. “Me?”
“Yes, you,” she said, with an indulgent smile. “I wanted to make our marriage work for your sake as much as mine. I knew you'd been shuffled around most of your life, and I wanted to give you a stable, loving home.”
“I was horrible to you.”
Grace laughed again. “You were a teenager. You were also a young girl who'd been hurt, which made me want to protect you even more.”
“Is that why you kept writing and calling, even after my father and I were gone?”
The answer was slow in coming, and when Grace finally did speak her voice was husky and filled with sadness. “It nearly broke my heart when you left. It felt like someone had ripped my body apart. For weeks I'd go into your room and just look at it.”
Julia drew in a sharp breath. “I didn't knowâ”
Grace took Julia's hand. “I couldn't put an added burden on you. I couldn't bear to lose you entirely, so I started writing. I tried not to push too much because I was afraid you'd bolt. You'd learned not to trust love, and you were so skittish. So, I contented myself with whatever snippet of your life you'd allow me to have, and I prayed someday I'd get the chance to teach you what love is.”
“It only took Sarah nearly losing her baby to do it.”
“Well, everything happens for a reason.”
Right. God, the ultimate chess player.
“Everything? Even your marriage to my worthless father?”
Grace winced. “You shouldn't talk about your father that way, but yes, of course God had a plan. You came into our lives because of my marriage, and you are worth any disappointment I suffered.”
“Great, now all the pieces fit,” Julia said, with a cynical laugh. “God allowed you to marry my father so you'd meet me, so some day I could come back here and run Marry Me
,
so baby Mary can be born healthy and some day keep me from dying of cancer. It's all coming together.”
No response.
“I was kidding,” Julia said, starting to get a little unnerved.
Grace wasn't laughing. Rather, she looked thoughtful.
“Grace, I'm joking.”
She smiled. “Of course, dear, I know.”