by Cindy Kirk
So far, Holly had presided over six weddings as the church’s representative in all things nuptial. A few of the brides (those on tighter budgets or planning more intimate weddings) hadn’t brought in professional coordinators. In those cases, the bride, Holly, and sometimes the mother of the bride had managed the big day themselves.
None of the prior weddings had been nearly as ambitious as Amanda’s would be, however. This wedding, scheduled to take place in just twenty-one days, was destined to test Holly’s skills. It had already begun to test her patience.
Mitzi launched into an animated monologue about floral arrangements.
If Mattel ever decided to roll out a Yellow Rose of Texas Barbie, Amanda could serve as a blueprint. Her long and highlighted blonde hair always looked shampoo-commercial worthy. She wore leather boots and a print dress beneath a fitted jean jacket.
Amanda Warren had been born with extraordinarily good taste. At one week of age, she’d probably begun selecting her own smocked onesies and coordinating baby caps. Goodness knows, Amanda had sailed through adolescence without an awkward stage. She’d been named Fraternity Sweetheart and Homecoming Queen at SMU before returning to Martinsburg to start her own interior design business.
In a life of excellent decisions, Amanda’s best by far was her choice of groom. Tall, strapping, ginger-haired Ben Hunt was outgoing, warm, quick to laugh, and genuinely interested in everyone he met.
Holly picked a tuft of lint off her ivory cable knit sweater. She and Amanda were the same age and their parents had been members here at Trinity in the same era. She and Amanda had been pushed together since toddlerhood with the expectation that they’d play together in a mannerly fashion and become bosom friends.
They’d certainly played together in a mannerly fashion. In fact, there’d never been a cross word between them. Yet, they’d never become bosom friends. They lacked that mysterious link that leads to confidences and transparent affection. To wit, Amanda had selected ten bridesmaids and a house party of six for her wedding. Holly had not been invited into either camp.
“Sorry for the long wait, Holly.” Amanda approached, the older women in tow.
“No problem. Take as long as you like.”
“I think we’re ready to talk through a few things with you.”
“Sure. We can sit down here,” Holly indicated the pews, “or we can use one of the meeting rooms.”
Mitzi opted for a meeting room, so Holly brought them to the nearest one. A table dominated the plain space. Holly sat on one side with her pen and notebook in front of her, and the other ladies took chairs opposite her. Amanda lowered an accordion file as large as a carry-on onto the table. Mitzi propped up an iPad attached to a small keyboard and began typing furiously. Amanda’s mom, Christine, met Holly’s eye.
Christine resembled her daughter, except thirty years older with a chin-length bob. She presided over the Ladies Golf Association at the country club in Lilly Pulitzer clothing and small-heeled sandals with gems on them. The bulk of her communication consisted of “Mm” and a well-bred smile that could as easily mean I’m thoroughly charmed by you as I hope you rot in your grave. Holly could never tell. She was a little bit afraid of Christine.
“We’re concerned about how many people the sanctuary can accommodate,” Mitzi stated, glancing at Holly without fully lifting the angle of her face.
“Mm,” Christine concurred.
“The sanctuary seats three hundred,” Holly said.
“We’re expecting at least that many.”
“You’re welcome to use the choir loft.” It functioned much like a small balcony in a theater.
Mitzi and the others theorized over how many bodies they could squeeze into the choir loft.
“Do you have any other suggestions?” Mitzi asked.
“I’m sorry, I don’t.” Holly understood their concern. Amanda and Christine were going to have a tricky time fitting Martinsburg’s ten thousand residents into Trinity Church. Apart from asking guests to sit on each other’s laps or straddle each other’s shoulders, Holly had no solutions.
“Do you think the pews could accommodate three hundred and fifty?” Mitzi squinted one eye.
“Only three hundred,” Holly answered.
“I’d like to give the ushers some specialized training the night of the rehearsal,” Mitzi informed Christine and Amanda.
“Sounds good,” Amanda answered, still wrestling with the accordion file.
“What does the church have in the way of tables?” Mitzi asked Holly, her earrings clunking the sides of her neck.
“What kind of tables?”
“We’ll need a table in the foyer for the guest book and another for the wedding programs and a flower arrangement. We’re going to want tables that are suitably special.”
“Mm,” from Christine, paired with what might have been an I’m-thoroughly-charmed-by-you smile.
“I’d be happy to show you what we have,” Holly said.
“If we can’t find what we’re after here,” Mitzi said, “we’ll import our own.”
“You’re welcome to.”
“And I do believe we’ve decided to bring in our own musicians and organist as well.”
Holly’s loyalty pricked. “Our organist, Doreen, is great.” Doreen would hate to miss the opportunity to brag to her friends about playing the organ at Amanda’s wedding.
“I think Doreen’s great too,” Amanda said. “But my dad’s second cousin’s wife plays the organ professionally in Vienna, so she’s going to play for the wedding, if that’s okay.”
“Of course.” Doreen, Holly wrote in her notebook, to remind herself to bring Doreen a bucket of caramel corn (Doreen’s favorite) when she broke the bad news.
“We’re going to want,” Mitzi declared, “to take down all the tacky papers and posters and announcements and such that are currently featured in the public areas of the church.”
Holly chewed the inside of her lip and wondered if she was too young to start drinking Alka-Seltzer. Thank goodness she had a rehearsal dinner scouting session scheduled for this afternoon with Josh. Otherwise, today might’ve turned into a real pothole.
Josh. A mental image of him, standing beside her and turning his face to watch her, took shape. That dark hair. The sleekly muscled body. His height and strength. Those unwavering eyes, focused solely on her . . . You can’t let yourself care about him!
“Holly?” Mitzi asked.
“Ah . . .” What was the question? Oh, yes. “You can take down the announcements in the public areas at ten on the day of the wedding. We’d just ask that you put them back up after the ceremony.”
Mitzi’s fingers paused on the mini-keyboard. “We have a large staff coming. A floral designer and her team, a lighting designer, a group of ribbon specialists, a garland expert, a videographer, the photographer, not to mention the musicians.”
What about a flock of cherubs? No cherubs?
“It would be extraordinarily helpful,” Mitzi continued, “to have access to the premises at least twenty-four hours prior.”
Amanda and Ben’s wedding would take place at five o’clock on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. After which, guests would make their way to the reception at a local winery. “I’m sorry, but we have a prayer meeting every Friday night and a lady’s Bible Study every Saturday morning. The church will be available at ten.”
“Mm.” Christine’s smile took on a I-hope-you-rot-in-your-grave tinge.
Holly stuck her pen behind her ear and inhaled deeply. This was going to be a long meeting.
Holly and Josh went location shopping that afternoon, and every other afternoon for the week that followed. With each passing day, the weather turned cooler and crisper. Amber leaves began their downward dance from Martinsburg’s trees. The scent of wood smoke tipped the air. Holly brought out throw blankets from her linen closet. The bakery started carrying their eagerly awaited autumn walnut cake with apricot preserves. And Josh still hadn’t booked a rehearsa
l dinner venue.
Twelve days before Amanda and Ben’s wedding, on her way back from her morning coffee run, Holly set Rob’s black coffee at his door, then knocked on Mrs. Chapel’s. “Good morning!” She edged the cup through the gap between the door and the jamb.
“Thank you, dear. Did you remember to put in one and a half packets of sugar?”
“Yes, indeed.”
“Will you be going out again later?”
“I expect to.”
“I’m in need of some Efferdent Plus for my dentures.”
“I see. Is it an urgent type of thing?”
“Very urgent.”
“In that case, I’ll see what I can do.” Holly waved and moved toward her door.
“Remember to get the Plus. The Efferdent Power Clean Crystals aren’t worth the packaging they’re sold in.”
“Got it,” Holly assured her. “Efferdent Plus.”
Inside her apartment, she settled herself and her caramel nutmeg latte at her desk. Between fielding calls from Christine and Amanda, the time she’d spent with Josh in person, and the much larger amount of time she’d spent thinking about Josh, she hadn’t accomplished much work of late. Her deadline had made an appearance on the horizon. She’d need to make steady progress toward it in order to avoid becoming a basket case the month before the manuscript was due. She pushed up the sleeves of her cotton shirt, determined to pound out some genius.
One minute dragged into five, then ten, while she squinted at the document open on her computer screen.
Well, it didn’t look like genius would be forthcoming today. She’d settle for mediocre hogwash. Then, at least, she’d have something to work with. Hard to edit and revise blank pages.
Work, Holly. Focus.
She ended up sipping her latte instead, her attention sliding toward Main Street while she thought some more about Josh.
They hadn’t made headway with a rehearsal location, but their friendship had progressed. Whenever they were together, they spent the whole time talking, slowly catching one another up on the events of the past eight years, accustoming themselves to the people they’d become.
More and more powerfully with every meeting, Holly had grown attuned to Josh’s movements, the timbre of his voice, his expressions, his clothing.
There were moments, very fleeting, when she suspected her awareness of Josh might not be one-sided. In those moments, her breath would still and her hopes would tangle with her weighty sense of caution. Then the moment would break.
Afterward, she’d tell herself that he most likely didn’t like her in that way anymore. If by some miracle he did feel the same magnetism toward her that she did for him, she was pretty positive that he’d never act on it. Josh was a very controlled person, private and complex, with a fair amount of pride.
They never spoke about their dating relationship or how it had ended. She’d begun to wish that she could tell him the truth about why she’d broken up with him. She wanted to explain.
But did she want to explain for his sake or for her own selfish reasons? It would be cathartic to unburden herself, yes. But would dredging up the past be of any benefit at all to Josh at this point? She couldn’t very well throw his mom under the bus. And how exactly was she supposed to bust out old confessions, anyway?
“This restaurant has an excellent wait staff, Holly.”
“I feel badly about breaking up with you when we were teenagers, Josh! Let me tell you why I did it!”
No. They were friendly with each other and she was helping him find a rehearsal dinner site. That was it. Josh had moved on. He wasn’t her eighteen-year-old first love anymore, he wasn’t someone she confided in anymore. He was flourishing.
She was the one she should be concerned about. Her heart needed every possible layer of protection against him—
No. It was all right. She’d been doing a good job at keeping things straight in her head. So long as she didn’t let herself go all gooey over him on the inside, it was safe enough to help him with dinner venues. Their outings together were too uncommon and wonderful in their poignant way to pass up.
She could afford to spend a little bit more time with him while he was in town. Just a little bit more.
Holly entered Das Lokal, restaurant number ninety-one in their Year of Restaurants. Sam followed her inside, as did Holly’s neighbor Rob. A rush of warm air greeted her as she unwound her scarf and hung her coat on the rack.
Das Lokal enjoyed its status as a town favorite. People, the clink of silverware, and the mouth-watering dinnertime smells of steak, frites, and apple strudel packed the small pub-like interior. Holly scanned the space, looking for an empty booth on the far side—
Her gaze collided with Josh, who’d already caught sight of her. “Oh.” He and Ben sat at the bar, a plate of buffalo wings between them. Josh’s vision remained steadily leveled on her. Solemn and glittering. Her heart thumped, then skittered into a fast rhythm.
“ ‘Oh’ what?” Sam asked.
Holly didn’t want Rob to hear, so she leaned near Sam’s ear. “Josh is here.”
“Your high school love turned billionaire?”
“The very same.”
“What? I’ll be subtle, but I demand that you take me to him immediately. Immediately! Make haste.”
Holly threaded through the crowd toward Ben and Josh’s position. Running into Josh around town unexpectedly, outside their scheduled meetings? Fine. She was cool with it. She could handle it. No problem.
He had on a simple white business shirt with the collar open one button at the neck. He always looked at ease in his clothes, even though his garments had likely come straight from an expensive French clothier. The Texas sun had lightly tanned his strong, masculine features. As usual, his hair looked sexily finger-combed.
She’d really like to finger-comb that dark hair with her fingers—
“Holly!” Ben hugged her. “Good to see you.”
“You too.” Holly stepped aside to include her friends in their circle. “Do you both know Sam and Rob?”
“Sure, sure.” Ben smiled and shook hands. He knew everyone in town. If he ever decided to run for mayor, he’d win.
“This is Josh,” Holly said to Sam and Rob, hoping the he’s-an-extremely-cute-math-genius-and-my-first-love part didn’t show in her expression.
“Nice to meet you,” Sam said, then, bless her, adeptly steered the conversation toward Ben and Amanda’s wedding. She gave no indication that she knew or cared anything about the intimate details of Josh’s history.
Rob gently bumped Holly’s shoulder with his. “I see a booth opening up. I’ll go grab it for us.”
“Okay, thanks.”
The rest of them watched Rob’s progress as he commandeered the table. He took a seat, then gave them a salute.
“Does he work at Donovan’s?” Ben asked.
“Yes,” Holly answered. “He’s a sous chef.” Holly and Rob had become friends when he’d moved into her building. He was twenty-four, rarely missed a workout, wore his shoulder-length blond hair in a ponytail, and could panfry a mean salmon. Rob had yet to ask Holly out, despite Sam’s predictions that he would, and soon.
“Rob’s more than a sous chef.” Mischief lit Sam’s smile. “He’s a handsome sous chef. And luckily for Holly and me, he’s off tonight.”
Josh frowned.
Ben chuckled. “You’re married, Sam Sullivan.”
“I’m not the one Rob’s interested in, Ben Hunt.” Sam gave Holly a pointed stare. “Like every other man in this town, he’s into Holly.”
Holly burst out laughing at the absurdity of Sam’s statement.
“Why are you laughing, Holly?” Ben grinned. “It’s true.”
Bantering about Rob in front of Josh. If she ignored all the internal clanging and panic then this situation was still no problem. None at all. “Yes, goodness knows I’ve always had to beat men off with a stick. Such is my lot in life. At least this one can cook.”
“A m
an who can cook is never to be underrated.” Sam headed toward their booth. “I’ll go keep the handsome sous chef company until you arrive.”
Sam’s departure opened a pocket of quiet between them.
“How was your day?” Josh asked.
She moved her full attention to him. Those dark brown eyes! They were so sharply intelligent and at the same time, burned with emotion.
“I had a good day. I was able to get some work done. Plus, I saved Mrs. Chapel from a lack of denture cleaner and spoke with Amanda for thirty minutes about the parking attendants for the ceremony. You’ll be pleased to know, Ben, that the attendants will be receiving a tutorial directly from Mitzi the day before the wedding.”
“Thank my lucky stars! Now I’ll be able to sleep at night.” The reddish freckles that matched his hair made Ben’s cheerful face even more endearing. He gestured to the buffalo wings. “You want one?”
“No thanks.”
“So.” Ben glanced back and forth between Josh and Holly. “This clearly isn’t the first time you two have seen each other since Josh came back to town.”
Josh seemed to stiffen. “No.”
Josh hadn’t mentioned to Ben, his best friend, the groom, that they’d been scouting venues for the past several days?
“Should we go ahead and order dinner—” Josh said at the exact moment that Holly said, “We’ve been driving around town looking for rehearsal dinner sites together—”
Ben regarded Holly with confusion, then placed his palm on his chest. “What? For my rehearsal dinner?”
“Yes,” Holly answered slowly.
“Amanda’s excited about having it out at the Texas Olive Oil Company,” Ben said. “It’s going to be awesome. Can’t wait.”
“The Texas Olive Oil Company?”
“It’s up north of town. They have a barn.” Ben pushed to his feet. “Excuse me for minute. A buddy of mine from work just came in.”
He left, leaving Holly alone with Josh. The two young women sitting on Josh’s far side cut disgruntled looks in her direction, letting her know they weren’t pleased with her for hogging the attention of Martinsburg’s most eligible visitor.
