by Lee Hollis
Liddy sat quietly, a tight smile on her face, staring at Hayley, waiting for her to finally call it a day so they could make the quick twenty-minute drive to Ellsworth. Liddy’s presence was making Hayley extremely uncomfortable. It was hard doing her job with someone constantly eyeballing her, so by four thirty, with only a half hour left before quitting time, Hayley sighed, stood up, and headed back to Sal’s office.
She found him sitting behind his desk watching a cat video on YouTube. That made the prospect of her leaving a little early suddenly more attainable.
“Sal, Liddy’s been sitting in the front office for a while now . . .”
“I know. What the hell is this, Bring Your Friend to Work Day?”
“It’s just that she’s going through a tough time right now . . .”
“Yeah, my wife told me. So what does that have to do with me?”
“Well, it doesn’t really, but she needs to go pick up her wedding dress and she wants me to go with her . . .”
“Why? The wedding’s been called off! What does she need the dress for?”
Hayley sighed and explained the whole nonrefundable issue because it had been custom tailored and how it would be a waste of money to just leave it at the tailor’s.
Sal thought about this and shrugged. “Fine, but you better be here a half hour early tomorrow morning to make up for it.”
“Yes, I promise. Thank you, Sal.”
Sal grunted and then went back to watching his video. As Hayley slipped out, she heard him giggling at the cat’s hilarious antics on his computer screen.
Hayley scooted back to the front office and waved at Liddy to get up and follow her out the door before Sal changed his mind. Hayley grabbed her bag and the two slipped out of the office. Hayley quickly texted Bruce to let him know she would be back in town by six to have dinner with him at her house.
As Liddy pressed the remote in her hand to unlock the doors on her Mercedes, Hayley quietly asked, “Have you thought about what you’re going to do with the dress?”
Liddy nodded. “Probably put it on eBay and say something like ‘Never Before Worn Designer Wedding Gown! Cheap!’ Whatever gets rid of it.”
“That dress is so beautiful, I’m sure it will make some young bride very happy,” Hayley said.
Liddy slid behind the wheel and Hayley buckled up in the passenger’s seat. Liddy reached over and pressed the engine button and the car roared to life, but instead of putting the car in drive and pulling out of her parking space, Liddy just sat there silently staring out the window.
Hayley watched her a few seconds, and then gently placed her hand on Liddy’s arm. “It’s all going to be okay. You will get through this.”
“I know . . . But it’s so hard . . .”
Liddy suddenly burst into tears, dropping her head and covering her face with her hands. Hayley tenderly rubbed Liddy’s back, trying to comfort her, patiently waiting for her to stop crying.
After ten minutes, Hayley checked the clock on the dashboard. Liddy was still wailing and rubbing her eyes. She knew she had to say something, but didn’t want to be insensitive. However, the clock was ticking, and she knew the bridal shop locked their doors at five o’clock.
“Liddy . . .” she whispered.
“I know, they’re going to close soon. We should get going.”
Liddy put the car in drive and squealed away from the curb, nearly sideswiping a plumber’s truck that was passing by at the same time. The driver blared his horn, and Liddy acknowledged him with a half wave before wiping her tears with the sleeve of her blouse and zooming off down the street.
Once they were on Route 3 out of town, heading toward the Trenton Bridge on their way to Ellsworth, Liddy pressed her heel down on the accelerator, and Hayley noticed the speedometer clocking in at fifty in a thirty-five-mile-an-hour zone.
“Liddy, you might want to slow down,” Hayley warned.
“We have to get there on time, Hayley. I have to do this today, because I will have a full-on nervous breakdown if I have to go through with this again tomorrow!”
“I know, but if we get pulled over for speeding, we’ll never make it in time.”
“Your brother is married to the police chief. I’m sure we can talk our way out of a ticket.”
Liddy swerved the Mercedes around a bend and down a hill, picking up speed as they barreled along the bumpy road that was in desperate need of a fresh paving.
“Liddy!”
Liddy sighed, and pressed down on the brakes.
The car kept racing along at full speed.
She pressed her foot down on the brakes again, harder this time.
Liddy gasped.
Hayley turned to her. “What is it?”
“Something’s wrong!” Liddy cried.
“What do you mean?”
“The brakes aren’t working!”
“What?”
“I’m pumping the brakes, but we’re not slowing down!”
Hayley glanced over to see Liddy’s foot pressed to the floor.
Liddy screamed as they reached the bottom of the hill, now whizzing along at sixty-five miles an hour.
“What are we going to do?” Liddy screamed.
“Keep your eyes on the road!”
A tanker truck rounded the corner ahead of them.
“Keep the wheel steady!” Hayley yelled.
The giant tanker truck seemed to be taking up most of the road, and they both took a sharp inhale of breath before zooming past it. They both exhaled.
Suddenly the steering wheel rattled violently and Liddy screeched, “Hayley!”
She was losing control of the car.
Liddy’s Mercedes veered into the opposite lane of traffic.
Another vehicle, this one a pickup truck, careened straight at them.
Liddy yanked the wheel hard to the right, and the Mercedes jerked back just as the pickup truck, horn blasting, whisked past them.
But there was no chance to steady the vehicle, and with tires skidding, the Mercedes suddenly flew off the road, sailing through the air and smashing into a telephone pole.
The last thing Hayley remembered was screaming and covering her face with her hands as glass shattered all around her, and then everything went black.
Island Food & Cocktails
BY HAYLEY POWELL
My old high school friend Beth Leighton-Mays recently showed up in town from her current home in California to attend the upcoming nuptials of my BFF Liddy Crawford, who you all know is marrying one of our local attorneys, Sonny Lipton.
I invited Beth to stop by my house her first night in town for a taste test of a couple wedding appetizers that my daughter Gemma has been preparing for the reception.
It was fun catching up with Beth as we hungrily scarfed down Gemma’s delicious treats. Beth brought a lovely bottle of white wine, so I whipped us up some citrus wine spritzers, and suffice it to say, they complemented the appetizers perfectly.
We both agreed that Gemma’s baked crab poppers were the absolute showstopper, and between the two of us, we eagerly devoured the entire tray even before Gemma had a chance to pop the second batch in the oven.
About ten years ago, Beth met her now-husband Danny (not to be confused with my own ex-husband Danny) when he was a volunteer summer policeman. They were first introduced at a party I hosted, and they immediately hit it off. Well, never one to dillydally, Beth asked him out on a date before he even had the chance to crack open his first bottle of Corona, and soon the relationship took off like a three-year-old Thoroughbred at the Kentucky Derby. Needless to say, a wedding soon followed.
It was to be held in the fall at the end of September before the temperature dropped too much on the front lawn of the Bar Harbor Inn, overlooking the vast dark blue ocean and the outer islands, with a perfect view of all the fancy yachts and working fishing boats drifting in and out of the harbor. It boasts one of the most breathtaking views of our impossibly picturesque Frenchman’s Bay.
&nbs
p; After the ceremony, the wedding party would simply file inside the inn for the reception in a lovely room with its own outdoor space so everyone could step outside for some fresh air with their champagne and hors d’oeuvres in between the dancing and the wedding toasts.
Beth and Danny were determined to keep the wedding ceremony small by just inviting close friends and family. Beth chose her sister to be her maid of honor, and Danny asked his brother to be his best man. However, the reception was going to be opened up to a much larger crowd, so pretty much half the town would be waiting for them to arrive after they said their “I do’s” to celebrate.
Beth was incredibly nervous the night before her wedding, and she called me, Liddy, and Mona, begging us to join her for a quick cocktail, hoping it would calm her nerves before the big day in the morning. We all jumped at the invitation in the event that Beth got a case of cold feet. We could all be there to talk her out of any thoughts she might have of becoming a “runaway bride.”
We met at Geddy’s, which was situated across the street from the Bar Harbor Inn on Main Street, so it would be easy for Beth to just walk back after we said good night, since both families were treating themselves to rooms there for the night.
Beth announced that she wanted to be sharp and clear-eyed for the wedding ceremony and that she would only have one cocktail just “to take the edge off.” Three cocktails later, Beth was relaxed and happy, and she couldn’t stop talking about how wonderful her groom-to-be Danny was, and how nervous and excited she was to move to Belfast, Maine, after the wedding, since Danny had just accepted a job at the local police department there in his hometown. I glanced at Liddy and Mona, both with big smiles on their faces, because we all knew we had done our job—keeping the bride-to-be chatty and content before her big day.
Finally, Beth called it a night and floated back to the inn on a cloud, anxious for all the possibilities ahead as a woman married to the man of her dreams. The three of us decided to stay for a nightcap. By now, the bar had filled up with a lively crowd, a live band took to the small stage, and pretty soon we found ourselves on the dance floor, shimmying and shaking until we were all exhausted and ready to go home to collapse into bed. Liddy made a beeline for the ladies’ room while Mona and I headed back to our table to gather up our bags and pay the check. Well, not thirty seconds later, Liddy dashed back toward us, breathless, eyes bugging out of her head. She could hardly speak and her face was pale, as if she had just seen a ghost. All she could do in the moment was frantically point toward the back of the bar near the restrooms. Mona and I turned, and when I saw him, I gasped. I couldn’t believe it. Beth’s fiancé had a petite blond girl, not more than twenty-one, pinned up against the wall, grinding her with his pelvis. The blonde giggled and grinned, and she reached up and clasped her hands around his neck. She pulled his head down until their lips were touching, and they shared a passionate kiss.
The three of us just stood there in frozen silence, our mouths hanging open, in utter disbelief.
After what seemed like an eternity, I finally heard Mona yell, “Oh, hell no, this is not happening!” And then she took off in a flash, marching over to an unsuspecting Danny. Liddy and I knew this was not going to end well, so we both lunged after Mona, because we didn’t want her beating the groom to a pulp the night before his wedding.
By the time we reached her, she was already laying into Danny, shaking her fist at him, threatening to smash in his face. The blonde panicked and skedaddled past us, not wanting any part of this possibly violent confrontation. I almost felt sorry for Danny, who just stood there in shock. Every time the poor guy opened his mouth to speak, Mona shut him down, refusing to allow him to insult her with any of his lame excuses. Mona was so loud, the band decided to take a fifteen-minute break so everyone in the bar could gather around and listen to her tirade. A lot of four-letter names were used, followed by a litany of threats detailing how Mona would cause Danny serious bodily harm if he in any way hurt our dear, beloved Beth.
Finally, after ten minutes, Mona ran out of steam and in a steely, cold voice, informed Danny, “You are one lucky son of a you know what that Beth is a dear friend of mine and that I don’t want to see her heart broken, so we are not going to tell her about this little incident so long as you clean up your act and start acting like a devoted husband who is going to make his wife the happiest woman for the rest of her life. Otherwise, mister man, you and me are going to have big, big problems. Am I making myself clear?”
At this point, Danny had no intention of antagonizing this wild-eyed woman any further, so he just nodded, not saying a word. Mona threw him one more murderous look and then whipped around and marched out the door, stopping only to confront the cowering blonde, who was trying her best to be invisible at the bar.
“By the way, he’s taken!” Mona growled. And then she slammed out the door with Liddy and me running to catch up to her.
The next day, as we settled in our seats on the lawn of the Bar Harbor Inn for the wedding, Mona still hadn’t calmed down. It was a perfectly beautiful, sunny day for a wedding, except for the storm clouds in Mona’s eyes as she sat silently, staring straight ahead out toward the vast ocean. I sat between Mona and Liddy and was feeling immensely guilty about withholding such important information from Beth, but Liddy had convinced me that it was probably for the best that we just stay out of it.
Suddenly, Liddy clutched my arm and squeezed it so hard I had to catch myself from yelling out loud. She signaled me with her eyes to the groom’s side of the aisle, and when I saw her I couldn’t believe it—the petite blonde Danny had been kissing the night before was seated right there with Danny’s parents!
“Whatever you do, don’t tell Mona,” I whispered.
“Don’t tell Mona what?” Mona bellowed before her eyes fixated on the blonde, who had yet to notice the three of us. “Oh, hell no!”
At that moment, the string quartet launched into the “Wedding March,” and it took every ounce of self-control for Mona not to leap over the other guests and strangle the pretty young blonde home wrecker.
And then I saw Beth, looking absolutely gorgeous in a lace wedding gown and escorted by her father, slowly make her way down the aisle, passing the blonde, walking toward her fiancé and their now-questionable future together.
That’s when I saw him.
And I burst out laughing.
I quickly slammed my lips shut, ignoring the quizzical stares from both the bride and groom’s family and friends.
Liddy and Mona finally noticed him too.
The groom’s best man.
Down front next to Danny and the minister.
Danny’s brother.
Or should I say, his identical twin brother.
As all three of us realized this had all been a simple case of mistaken identity, we shrank in our seats. The petite blonde actually turned out to be Danny’s brother’s wife! Well, needless to say, the three of us got an incurable case of the giggles, which lasted until the minister mercifully said, “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” and the whole thing was over.
Later, at the reception, we were all introduced, and thankfully a good laugh was had by all. In fact, Mona and Dean, Danny’s brother, became fast friends, and to this day, they still see each other at least once a year when Dean comes by every summer to buy lobsters at Mona’s shop. They love telling the other customers how their friendship started.
Now I know you’ve all been dying to get to the end of this story so you can start making your own delectable batch of baked crab poppers that you can enjoy with a citrus wine spritzer, so I wouldn’t dream of keeping you any longer!
CITRUS WINE SPRITZERS
Ice
Thin slices of lemon and lime
1 bottle of your favorite white wine (I love a pinot grigio)
12 ounces lemon-flavored sparkling water or seltzer
Fill each glass with ice. Add one slice of lemon and one slice of lime. Add 4 ounces of wine and 2 ounces of spar
kling water. Enjoy!
BAKED CRAB POPPERS
1 cup plain Panko bread crumbs, divided
1 cup canned corn
½ cup finely diced red bell pepper
¼ cup chopped green onion
16 ounces fresh crabmeat (you can use lump crab too)
¾ cup real mayonnaise, divided
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (more to taste)
1 lemon, juiced
Heat your oven to 425°F. Coat a 24-count mini muffin pan with cooking spray. (You may need to spray an additional pan depending on the size you make.)
Sprinkle the bottoms of the tins with half of the Panko bread crumbs.
In a bowl, combine your corn, red bell pepper, onions, crabmeat, half of the mayo, egg, salt, and black pepper. Mix gently so as not to break up the crabmeat too much, but combine well.
Spoon your mixture evenly to fill the cups in the pans. Sprinkle the rest of the Panko over the mixture.
Bake in your preheated oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and cool poppers for about 10 minutes and then remove to cooling rack to finish cooling.
While cooling, combine the rest of the mayonnaise, the cayenne pepper, and the juice from the lemon in a small bowl and brush over the tops of the baked crabmeat poppers.
Trust me, you’ll be making more before you even polish off your first batch!
Chapter 23
By the time Hayley had crawled out of the heaping pile of crunched-up metal, two police cars and an ambulance were already pulling up at the scene. Liddy was still fastened in the driver’s seat, and Hayley feared she might be seriously injured, but when the handsome young paramedic named Jay was lifting her out of her totaled Mercedes, she heard Liddy remark, “You’re looking awfully handsome these days, Jay.”
