The Carpenter's Bride

by Elana Johnson

  His head pounded by the time he got back to his job site, and he stayed in the car to eat the Cobb salad he’d gotten for himself. This was familiar. Being alone actually soothed him. His thoughts quieted, leaving just one question behind: Where does that leave me and Lisa?

  Chapter Fifteen

  Lisa had never been happier to have a stack of folders on her desk than she was after Cal had showed up with the words, I need to go a little slower.

  Slower.

  Lisa scoffed as she checked the calendar notification that had just popped up on her phone. She couldn’t wait until this wedding was over. She felt like her name would be in the headlines if something didn’t go exactly as planned for the mayor’s daughter.

  Regina Keani was a nice woman, but wow, she had too many opinions on her dress, the flowers, the stationery, the altar, even the exact grain size of sand she wanted for her wedding. She’d paid to have bagged sand brought in so it wouldn’t be full of “nasty critters” from the ocean.

  And Your Tidal Forever did whatever it took to ensure the bride got the wedding of her dreams.

  Lisa had thought she was getting closer to her own dream wedding. Then Cal had walked in with a big salad and the words I need to go slower.

  Slower.

  In Lisa’s opinion, they were already moving extremely slow. She only saw him a couple of times a week, not every evening. She’d only met his daughter a couple of times, and not under the best of circumstances.

  She felt like Cal had said I want to break-up, and her heart trembled inside her chest. Her phone rang, and she picked it up to see Dierdre’s name on the screen. “What’s up?” she asked after answering the call.

  “I need you in my office,” she said. “I have the florist on the line, and I think she has the wrong flowers.”

  “Oh, this is not happening,” Lisa said, getting up quickly and heading for the door. “Be right there.”

  Dierdre was one of two new consultants Hope had hired about nine months ago. She was capable and smart, but she was still learning all the ropes at Your Tidal Forever. She’d been the junior consultant on the Keani wedding from the beginning, and it was a killer first file to be assigned to.

  Lisa supposed she’d probably learned more in the last nine months than Lisa had in the three years she was a junior consultant. Didn’t lessen the panic coming from Dierdre’s eyes when Lisa walked into her office.

  “…I just don’t think those are right. Lisa is here.” She turned her computer screen, where she had a video call going. Her wide eyes didn’t instill any confidence into Lisa, but she focused on the screen instead.

  “Those are gardenias and stephanotis,” Lisa said. “That’s not the Keani wedding. That’s for the Chief of Police’s daughter, Jennifer.” She leaned closer and saw dozens of white flowers. “So those are ours. Just not for the Keani’s.” She looked at Dierdre and put her hand over hers.

  “Oh, the Gardner wedding is two days before,” the woman on the screen said. “Yes, okay. Phew. I really thought we’d ordered the wrong thing.” She laughed, and Lisa was glad there hadn’t been a problem. Thea at Petals & Leis was their go-to girl for flowers, and Lisa needed to be able to depend on her.

  “Now, we should have dozens and dozens of roses for Regina,” Lisa said. “Red and pink. They cover the altar, and that thing is not little. And calla lilies for her bouquet. And ranunculus.” It was such a unique flower that even Petals & Leis had to special-order it onto the island. And Lisa had checked on that order at least three separate times in the past two months.

  “Yes, those are supposed to be here two days prior,” she said. “We got gorgeous orange and yellow and even some pale ones for all the centerpieces and the boutonnieres.”

  “That’s right,” Lisa said. “Only two days before? Will you have time to make everything? Regina has twenty-seven boutonnieres she needs, and she is not going to be happy if even one of them isn’t right.”

  “We have everyone slated to work the two days prior to the wedding,” Thea said. “We will be ready for the morning delivery.” She smiled. “Have I ever let you down, Lisa?”

  “Never.” Lisa smiled at her friend. “Thanks so much, Thea.”

  Dierdre also added her thanks, and the video call ended. Dierdre sank into her chair and sighed. “Oh, my holy rose petals. That was the most stressful thing on the planet.”

  “I’m surprised Thea thought the gardenias were for Regina.”

  “Well, Gina and Jen do sound the same. Maybe I mumbled.” Dierdre shrugged and looked at her screen again.

  Lisa nodded, but she didn’t think the mistake was Dierdre’s. “Okay, flower emergency sorted. Wow, my heart is still beating a little too fast.”

  “Why do we schedule huge weddings on top of each other like this?” Dierdre asked. “I mean, the Chief of Police’s daughter one weekend and the mayor’s daughter the next?”

  “And summer hasn’t even started yet,” Lisa said with a sigh. Which was honestly fine, because if Cal broke up with her, then she’d at least have dozens of tasks to keep her busy. But she didn’t want wedding planning tasks occupying her every thought and all waking minutes.

  She liked Cal, and she’d enjoyed the time she’d spent with him—and his daughter.

  “Lisa?”

  “Hmm?” She looked at Dierdre, realizing she’d disappeared inside her own mind.

  “I asked if you’d eaten yet and wanted to run down to the taco railcar for lunch. Twenty minutes, and then we’ll be back on these weddings.”

  Lisa thought of the salad sitting on her desk. Thought of the man who’d brought it. “Yeah,” she said. “I can spare twenty minutes for tacos.”

  “Great.” Dierdre grinned as she leaned forward and picked up her phone to call in their order. Then all they had to do was walk down the boardwalk, pick up their food, and eat it on the way back. Twenty minutes.

  “How did dress shopping go last night?” she asked, and Lisa flinched. “Oh, not well, I see.”

  “No, the actually shopping part went great.” The image of Sierra’s glowing face as she wore that black dress floated through Lisa’s mind. “It’s just…I don’t know.” She didn’t know how to articulate all she was feeling. She hadn’t been able to last night once she’d made it home, and Cal’s appearance and his blurted statement had only confused things more.

  “She’s your boyfriend’s daughter, right?” Dierdre asked.

  “Yeah,” Lisa said, the misery in the single word not hard to hear, even to her own ears.

  “What did she say?” Dierdre opened her drawer and pulled out her purse. “I’m buying the tacos. Let’s go.”

  Lisa didn’t answer as she followed her friend down the hall. Dierdre paused at Sunny’s desk, where Riley used to work, and another blast of missing her best friend hit her. She still hadn’t been up to Riley’s since checking on it once after the tsunami, and she vowed she’d go that night after she finished work.

  Dierdre led them out into the sunshine too, and Lisa regretted not running back to her office to grab her sunglasses.

  “Okay,” Dierdre said. “So what did she say that has you all worried?”

  “How do you know she said something?”

  “I have a sixteen-year-old daughter myself,” Dierdre said. “And trust me when I say, girls in their teens know exactly what to say to shatter your whole world.”

  Surprise moved through Lisa. “I didn’t know you had a daughter.”

  “She lives with her father full-time now,” Dierdre said, her voice cooling with every word. “I see her on weekends. Well, I’m supposed to. Our relationship is…difficult.” She glanced at Lisa. “That’s how I know this girl said something to you. How old is she?”

  “Fourteen.”

  “Oh, the worst age.” Dierdre smiled. “You don’t have to tell me, but I might be able to help.”

  “She didn’t even really say it to me.” Lisa tried to remember exactly how the conversation had gone. “We’d bought the
dress, which was really fun. She asked me to come in and help her with the sleeves, the zippers, all the buttons.” A happiness moved through Lisa she didn’t know she needed so desperately. “On the way home, she said something like, ‘you know, you’re not as fake as I thought you were.’”

  “Oh, ouch.”

  “Yeah, so I found that out, and that she’d talked to her father about it, and he wasn’t sure what to think.” Her skin suddenly pimpled, as if she were cold. “He obviously puts a lot of stock into what his daughter thinks, because then he brought me a salad while I was on my conference call and said he needs to take our relationship slower.”

  Dierdre was kind enough to think about all Lisa had said, before she responded. “Maybe the two things aren’t related.”

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  “How long have you been dating?”

  “Since the company party.”

  “So only a few weeks.”

  “Right, and trust me, we haven’t done anything or talked about anything that anyone would consider to be too fast.” Except for Cal, obviously.

  “Widower or divorced?” Dierdre asked.

  “It’s Cal Lewiston,” she said. “You know him. He built Regina’s altar.”

  “Oh, I didn’t make that connection.” Dierdre smiled at Lisa. “He’s a great guy, but I still don’t know if he’s divorced or if his wife died.”

  “His wife died.”

  The conversation stalled as they arrived in the shade at Manny’s and picked up their food. “I will say this,” Dierdre said. “Most men who are widowers do need to take things a little slow, especially if he hasn’t dated before.”

  “Have you dated a widower?”

  “Once,” Dierdre said. “He wasn’t ready, and our relationship didn’t last long.” She seemed wistful about it, and Lisa wondered what the story was behind those few words. But she simply bit into her fish taco, the lime and cilantro and spices making a party in her mouth.

  She moaned, and Dierdre laughed. “Hey, at least we have fish tacos.”

  Lisa swallowed and said, “Yeah, and they’re always ready and willing to be consumed quickly.”

  Hours and hours later, Lisa pulled up to Riley’s house. The motion-sensor light came on, and everything looked fine on the outside. No burst pipes or signs of forced entry. Maybe Lisa had an overactive imagination. Maybe she just liked coming to this house where she’d spent so much time with her best friend.

  She keyed her way into the house, and everything was just as normal inside as it had been out. She remembered when Sunshine and Marbles would run to greet her, how Riley would make their favorite tea after work sometimes—especially when one of them had just broken up with another boyfriend.

  Trailing her fingers along Riley’s counter, she went out the back door. The ocean glistened in the distance, and she’d always loved this view. “Miss you, Riles.” She pulled out her phone and texted her friend.

  All’s well at the house. How’s Malibu?

  She wasn’t sure if Riley was in California right now, as she traveled with her boyfriend’s band, and Georgia Panic was one of the biggest bands in the world right now.

  Not as fun as it would be if you were here.

  For some reason, Riley’s text made Lisa tear up, and she stared at her device, at a complete loss as to what to say. Riley had always been the one to help her through her relationship troubles, but she hadn’t even told her about Cal.

  And hey, I’m coming home in a couple of weeks, and I need a wedding planner…

  Lisa shrieked and jabbed her finger on the call button. Riley answered with a laugh, and while Lisa felt like she was falling down, down, down into a dark pit, she was thrilled for her friend.

  “I get to be the wedding planner, right?” she asked, bypassing the hello.

  “Of course,” Riley said. “But Evan hasn’t asked yet. We just went ring shopping last night.”

  “Last night?” Lisa demanded. “And I’m just hearing about it now?”

  “I know you’re busy. The Gardner and the Keani weddings are right now.”

  “Riley,” Lisa said, cocking her hip as if her friend was present with her. “You shouldn’t know stuff like that.”

  “Yeah, well, I do,” Riley said. “And not only that, but you’ve been keeping secrets yourself.”

  Lisa wanted to deny it, but she couldn’t. “Who told you?”

  “Charlotte.”

  “Yeah, well, it probably isn’t going to work out. You know I like to keep my new dates on the down-low until I know if they’re going somewhere.”

  “But Cal’s great. I can’t believe we never thought to ask him out before. Tell me how that happened.”

  Lisa thought of him sitting on that chaise beside the pool on the twenty-sixth floor, that drink in his hand almost gone….

  She still hadn’t gotten her dance—and she really, really wanted it.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Cal finished the construction at the Avenues as scheduled. He hadn’t realized it, but Lisa had two big weddings she’d been working on, and the days passed, and one of the nuptials concluded.

  He hadn’t attended the wedding for Jennifer Gardner, though he was good friends with her father. He’d taken Sierra to the reception though, left a card with a little bit of money, and said hello to Wyatt Gardner, the Chief of Police.

  Because of the public nature of his job, there had been people crammed into the open-air reception hall. Cal hadn’t had much time to talk to Wyatt, which was probably okay. Cal didn’t have much to say anyway, seemingly to anyone.

  He hadn’t said much to Lisa either. She’d texted him a little bit, and he’d responded when she did. But he hadn’t seen her in the flesh for nine days now, and he wasn’t even sure if they were still together or not. For all he knew, she could be going out with someone else every evening while he sat on his couch, dozing while he waited for Sierra to come home at night.

  He spent more time thinking about and talking to Jo than he normally did, but he rationalized that he needed to, because their baby was about to go off to her first prom. He’d approved of the dress despite the sleeves being only on her upper arms and not actually over her shoulders. But the neckline was high, and it covered her back, and he’d decided shoulders showing were fine.

  He literally couldn’t fight about everything, and the phrase “pick your battles” had really started to mean something for him.

  Cal stood at the sink, rinsing out the bowls he and his daughter had used for breakfast when she came down the hall, the tell-tale click of her heels preceding her. She appeared with every little piece in place, from her curled hair pinned to the top of her head, to the dangly earrings she’d borrowed from Hailey, who stood behind her.

  “Wow,” Cal said, still taking in the beautiful girl in front of him.

  “I didn’t go crazy with the makeup,” Sierra said, and Cal nodded.

  “No, you didn’t. Let me see the shoes.” He’d hated the red heels she’d first brought home, and they’d argued for an hour before she’d finally yelled, “Lisa said red heels! Why can’t I just keep them?”

  But with that pretty dress, and his slim daughter, the heels made her look too old for him. A little bit too trashy. So he’d held his ground, and she’d taken the shoes back. Now she wore a pair of wedges with black straps across her feet and red ribbons that tied around her ankles. The splash of color was still there, but these shoes didn’t say anything about undressing his daughter and doing adult things with her.

  “Let me take your picture,” he said. “Lisa will want to see.” If Sierra had noticed that his girlfriend had stopped coming over, she hadn’t said anything about it. Hailey moved out of the way, and Sierra posed so Cal could click a picture.

  “You’re so pretty,” he said, gazing at her. “Your mother would’ve loved to see you like this.”

  “I know, Dad.” Sierra came closer, and he hugged her. “Thank you for letting me go.”

  Cal didn’t want
to break down in front of anyone. He cleared his throat and stepped back. “Where’s your dress, Hailey?”

  “My mom is bringing it,” she said. “She’s supposed to be here any minute.” She looked at her phone. “She better hurry up. The boys will be here in twenty minutes.”

  As if summoned by her daughter’s displeasure, the doorbell rang. Hailey jumped toward it, and sure enough, her mother stood there with a garment bag. “I just picked it up. Let’s see if it fits.” She bustled into the house, throwing a look to where Cal stood with Sierra.

  “Hey,” Amie said. “Wow, Sierra, look at you.” She beamed from ear to ear. “Can we…?”

  “Yep, use my room,” Sierra said, and Amie went down the hall with Hailey.

  Cal turned back to load the dishes in the dishwasher.

  “So, did you break up with Lisa?” Sierra asked.

  He dropped the two bowls, both of them clattering onto the lower rack. Straightening, he looked at his daughter. “Honestly? I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know if you broke up?” Sierra rolled her eyes. “Dad, that’s not usually how things work.”

  “Well, I’m not fourteen,” he said, a note of disgust in his voice. “I mean, you were with Travis one day, and then the next, you went to the outdoor cinema with Justin.” He set the bowls in the rack properly and looked at his daughter again. “Right?”

  “Yeah, but I am fourteen,” she said. “And…you liked Lisa.”

  He still did, but he didn’t know how to explain anything to Sierra. He didn’t understand so many things himself. “I told her I wanted to move a little slower,” he said. “So we’ve been texting.”

  “Dad, that’s backward, not slower.”

  “Hey, I see some of the things boys text you. Trust me, they’re not thinking slow when they say they want to get you alone behind the bleachers.”

  Sierra rolled her eyes, but her texts kept Cal up at night. “Yeah, but those guys are scumbags,” she said. “You’re a nice guy, Dad.”