Susan stepped through the hallway. When she reached the little breakfast nook, her heart surged at the sight of a beautifully decorated cake, one straight from the artistic eye of one Christine Sheridan. It was dotted with raspberries and flecks of white chocolate, and she’d written, in perfect icing-cursive, the word: CONGRATULATIONS. Susan splayed a hand across her chest as emotions overwhelmed her.
And when she turned to face the living room, one-by-one, Christine, Lola, Audrey, Baby Max, Wes, Scott, and even Kellan appeared. They’d hidden behind the couch and the chairs. They didn’t spout any kind of “SURPRISE”; they didn’t scream. They just rushed toward her and Amanda and covered them with hugs and congratulations.
“You did so well. What a remarkable thing!” Grandpa Wes beamed.
“It wasn’t all us,” Susan said. “The actual murderer eventually confessed. He —”
“Come on,” Christine said with a cheeky grin. “We know all the effort you put in. You basically smoked out the villain in the story. The police had no idea what they were doing until you started sniffing around.”
Amanda nudged Susan playfully. “It’s true. Mom is basically a lawyer-turned-spy.”
Scott hustled up and dotted a kiss on her lips, then wrapped his firm arms around her. Everything within her wanted to yank him upstairs if only so she could huddle against him and allow him to hold her. She longed to finally fall into the mindlessness of sleep.
But cake would do, at least for a while.
They sat in the last of the evening sunlight near to the water, each with a plate of cake. Out in the distances, sailboats chased one another like wild cats while their sails caught the frenetic energy of the last light. Susan sat between Scott’s legs and leaned against his chest, listening to the familiar sound of her family’s conversation.
“Boston is up in arms, you know,” Lola said. “They just can’t believe that girl is innocent. They had it so sure in their heads that she was the killer.”
“People love a good story like that,” Christine agreed. “Difficult to show people the truth.”
“What will Marcie do now?” Grandpa Wes asked.
“She says she has about a million plans, but all of them still seem fictional to her,” Susan said.
“If I was her, I would just run all over the world. Freedom must feel so delicious right now,” Christine said.
“She won’t waste that feeling. I know that for sure,” Susan said.
Very soon, the conversation leaned toward other topics. Susan nibbled at the last crumbs of her cake, as Christine brought up the fact that it was already June 3rd, which meant that the island’s favorite couple would soon marry. Susan’s heart leaped into her throat. There was still so much to be done.
Lola laughed. “If we had left everything up to you, that wedding would have never happened.”
Susan, a well-known control freak, arched an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Well, we had a chat with Charlotte about all of this a few weeks ago, and she sprung into action,” Christine said. “You remember how quickly she works. That Ursula wedding at Thanksgiving came together like a frantic whirlwind. Because the island knows and cares about you already, it was no trouble at all.”
“And Claire is going all out with the flowers. Jeez. She’s arranged so many potential bouquets, it’s ridiculous,” Lola affirmed.
Susan wasn’t sure quite what to say. She turned her head slightly to catch Scott’s eye. “I can’t believe it. I get to marry the love of my life, and I hardly had to lift a finger thanks to my amazing family.”
“We knew it was stressing you out,” Lola told her.
“The only thing you need to do, I guess, is go back and get that dress!” Christine cried. “I already called her and she said it’s still there, waiting for you. All that history, waiting to add to your story.”
BACK UP ON THE PORCH, Christine disappeared and reappeared a few minutes later, armed with one of the old, slightly-stained books from Anna’s chest of treasures. She lifted the book as conversation from the others died around her.
“I found this passage in Mom’s diary the other day. I couldn’t believe it. I feel like it’s the perfect time to read it, if you’ll let me.”
Susan nodded as her throat tightened. “Please.”
“Here I am, a young girl on the brink of becoming a woman,” Christine read. “For tomorrow, I will walk down the aisle to meet the love of my life — Wesley Sheridan and become one of the Sheridan clan. The entire concept is beyond my wildest dreams. And isn’t it funny? All those years, you dream and ache to become a wife, to belong to someone, as a girl. When it finally lands in your lap, it seems to be one of the most terrifying events of your life. You don’t realize the finality of it all when you’re eight or nine, donning whatever lace blanket is around and walking slowly through your parents’ living room. You don’t realize the severity of ‘till death do us part.’
“But when I look into Wesley Sheridan’s eyes, I feel that I know something. I know something about our future. I can practically feel our babies kicking around in my belly. I imagine he’ll care for me when I’m sick; that we’ll fight over money troubles and then find a way through; that we’ll ache with sadness and longing as we grow older and develop wrinkles and find new and interesting ways to love one another.
“For this is what I believe a marriage truly is: I believe it means opening your eyes every day to a person who is also in the midst of ever-constant change. And it means loving the bits that are still there, along with the bits that they’ve left behind, along with the bits that they’re headed towards. Time isn’t linear; love is complex. And I am so open to the concept of loving Wesley Sheridan completely, for all the days of my life.”
Susan’s eyes snapped closed as emotion swept over her like a forceful wave. Scott squeezed her hand hard. Always, Susan had known her mother to be a poetic genius, a woman of tremendous thought and feeling. Hearing these words was incredible; it also made her heart quake with sadness. What sorts of things might she had said, now, had she been allowed to live past the age of thirty-eight? Would she have taken any of that back? Would she have laughed at her youthfulness?
“She really did, though,” Wes breathed then.
Susan blinked up to find her father in the midst of his own tears of longing.
“She loved me all the days of her life. I know it grew complicated. We all know that love can be complicated, but I felt her love for me and, indeed, her love for the three of you, girls, in everything else she did. She was a powerful woman that made me proud to call her my wife. She wanted to know and feel and do everything.”
“I can feel it in her words,” Lola whispered. “I only wish she could be here with us.”
Susan reached across the table to grip Lola’s hand. Christine’s hand joined theirs.
“She is here with us,” Wes said finally. “I see her in everything you girls are. I see her in Audrey’s laughter. I see her in Susan’s quick wit and perseverance. I see her in Lola’s creativity and great style, and I see her in Christine’s glorious smile and ability to change and grow. And Amanda, I see her in your cooking. Some of the new experiments you craft in that kitchen remind me of when Anna would say, ‘Dang it, Wes, I can’t eat the same stuff every day. My palate gets so bored.’” Wes chuckled inwardly.
Kellan lifted his glass of lemonade. “She sounds like a really remarkable woman. I wish I could have met her.”
“She was,” Scott said. “I’m so glad I knew her when I did.”
Susan’s heart swelled again. Wasn’t it remarkable that the man she would soon marry had witnessed that part of her life, that wonderful and innocent time when her mother had lived on at that house and worked at the Sunrise Cove? He’d known her then and he knew her now. It was such a gift that people could see you through so many different eras of your life without judgment and with seemingly endless amounts of love.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Susan draped a pearl
necklace around her neck and clasped it just at the nape. Each individual pearl caught the light from the lamp and beamed it back into the antique mirror before her. As she took in the sight, she very nearly tricked her mind into seeing herself as Anna Sheridan — the previous owner of this piece of jewelry — especially as she’d witnessed Anna putting the pearls around her slender neck countless times.
This time, Susan had wanted to bring a piece of her mother along with her for the rehearsal dinner. Somehow, it was already June 18th and in only twenty-four hours, she would marry the love of her life.
Downstairs, Amanda hollered that it was nearly time to go. Susan stepped up to get a better full-body view of her entire ensemble. She had gone with a cream-colored dress for the rehearsal, a semi-low cut, with a beautiful view of her feminine shoulders. She and Amanda had picked it out on a recent trip to New York, which they’d called her “bachelorette” weekend. Mostly, they’d just shopped and chatted about the legal system. They had both agreed that nearly anyone else in the history of the world would have thought the time spent was boring, but it was perfect for them. “Like mother, like daughter.”
On the trip to New York, Susan had asked Amanda again about her failed marriage to Chris. “Does it still bother you? That he left?”
Amanda’s answer had surprised Susan.
“To be honest, Mom, not at all. I feel like it should bother me more, but sometimes I have to force myself to remember that it could have been a lot worse if we had actually gone through with everything. I can’t even imagine if we did, where we would be in five years— probably at city hall getting a divorce. I’m just glad I dodged that bullet.”
Susan had only smiled at her daughter. She knew Amanda was right.
The rehearsal was held at the event space itself — the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown, a historic, landmark hotel built in 1891, with a beautiful view of the lighthouse, a charming gazebo, and sweeping lawns with every assortment of flowers. Scott and Kellan arrived just in the nick of time — both gasping for breath as they buttoned their suit jackets.
“Sorry. We’ve been working on the house all day,” Scott said. “Kellan pointed out the time, so we rushed around, getting ready.”
“We both took two-minute showers,” Kellan announced proudly.
Susan laughed. “I can’t wait to see everything you’ve done!”
In the wake of Scott’s showing her the house, she and her sisters had selected a number of paint colors and wallpaper samplings. This would all come after she, Scott, and Kellan moved into the property itself, probably the following week. Scott finalized the last of it and had even begun to move in bits and pieces of furniture to ensure that they were comfortable as they got the rest of their lives together. “There’s no rush,” Susan had told him several times. “We’ll just piece it together as we go.”
The rehearsal went off without a hitch, and then, the bridal party returned to the Sunrise Cove Bistro for the rehearsal dinner. Zach Walters had arranged for a usual Zach Walters menu, although even from outside the bistro, Susan sensed that he’d given it one hundred and ten percent. He had even placed a large placard outside, which listed the menu for the evening. It listed lobster tails with chive butter, brie with crab and macaroni, seared scallops and spiced pomegranate glaze, hazelnut glazed cauliflower, steak for vegetarians, and beef steaks wellington for everyone else. Zach hadn’t allowed Susan to know a single element about the evening’s dinner menu and Susan was glad she’d allowed him to surprise her. She whistled as Amanda performed a slow clap.
“Zach’s is simply the best at what he does,” Amanda praised. “But how much do you want to bet he’s back there having a hissy fit about one problem or another?”
“You know it’s true,” Susan said with a laugh. “All chefs have tempers. Glad I don’t work with them.”
The bistro itself had been set up with several long tables; white table clothes caught the glow of flickering candles, and lilies adorned the spaces between the ornate plates. Already, many members of the Sheridan and Montgomery families had arrived, along with Lily and Sarah and their families, and a few members of Scott’s party. Scott didn’t have much family any longer, but he had been an islander his entire life and thusly, his collection of friends was enough and filled with love.
Uncle Trevor waved a sturdy hand as Susan entered. “There’s our beautiful bride!” He stepped over and dotted a kiss on her cheek. Susan remembered over a year ago when she had come to the island for the first time after so long that Uncle Trevor had been the one to pick her up from the ferry. He had been the first set of eyes she’d seen from her past. She would never forget the intensity of that moment. How finally, she’d realized, she was home.
Zach appeared at the door between the kitchen and the bistro. Christine was behind him, red-faced but smiling. She whipped around him as he cried, “Christine! I still need your help!” But she hurried toward Susan and hugged her tight.
“I told Zach over and over again that I would hire someone else for this event,” Susan said with a funny smile.
“You know how he is. He lives for this,” Christine said. “But everything is nearly done, so he should be able to eat with us while the rest of the staff takes over for the rest of the courses. It was just a lot of prep work. I can’t stress that enough. We’ve been awake for a long time.”
“How are you feeling?” Susan asked.
“Oh, you know. Pregnant, I guess.” Christine laughed as she rolled a hand over her still flat stomach. “But the morning sickness seems to be clearing up. I shouldn’t say that, though. Every time I say that it comes back with a vengeance.”
“Oh yeah. It can definitely hear you.” This was Audrey, who seemed to appear from nowhere. She held Baby Max in her left arm, and he sucked frantically on a pacifier as his large blue eyes caught the candlelight. She was dressed beautifully, in a black dress that revealed what was probably too much leg for a family occasion (although who was Susan to say?).
“You look hot,” Audrey said to both Amanda and Susan, who laughed in return.
“Thanks. Glad to know I can still look hot at forty-five,” Susan said.
Charlotte hustled up to announce that all spaces were accounted for. She was totally in her element, clutching a clipboard, her eyes alight.
“Charlotte. You promise me you’ll sit with all of us? Enjoy yourself?” Susan asked. “You’ve done such a marvelous job at arranging everything, but this is just the rehearsal. We sit. We eat. Maybe someone will make a speech. Not a whole lot more to do.”
Charlotte heaved a sigh. “I know. And to be honest with you, I hired an assistant to take over a lot of the responsibilities tomorrow. I just couldn’t bear the thought of watching all of you have fun together while I had to work.”
“Thank goodness,” Susan said. “I want you there on the dance floor with me until our knees give out, which might be nine-thirty. We are in our forties, now.”
Charlotte howled with laughter as Susan and Scott weaved their way toward the head of one of the long tables. Amanda was positioned to the left of Susan, while Jake and Kristen sat near Kellan. Apparently, they’d decided to leave the twins with a babysitter that night, there at the Sunrise Cove. The twins would be at the ceremony the following day, but then, the same babysitter would take over so that Jake and Kristen could enjoy the festivities. It would be one of their final trips together as a family of only four. Soon, even more, madness would begin.
The meal was absolutely extraordinary. Throughout, Zach beamed and whispered to Christine, speaking just loud enough for Susan to hear a few chairs down. “I think the chives really come through on the butter,” for example, or, “Wow, the scallops really turned out this time. Better than that event last week. Remember, didn’t I say, Christine, that that was the warm-up event for tonight?”
Grandpa Wes sat on the other side of Kellan, next to his sister Kerry, and across from Uncle Trevor. As they finished their third course, one of the hired wait staff approac
hed to pour another bit of wine into Wes’s glass. As the waiter stepped away, Wes clinked his glass with the side of his fork. Conversation dimmed around him as he stood. He lifted his glass toward Susan as his eyes glowed with love and gratitude.
“I just want to say a few words before we proceed with this absolutely incredible meal,” Wes said. “Susan? You were my first child—my baby girl. When you were born, I had the funniest feeling that I would have done anything for you. I would have moved mountains for you. I still would, you know, although the old back strength isn’t what it used to be.
“But still. I want to say some words. Here and now. I know I’m an older man and I know I’ve missed so much of your life. But I don’t think I can possibly say just how grateful I am to be here to watch you marry the love of your life. Even though we fell apart for many years, you’ve always been the sparkle in my eye, my beautiful daughter, a woman who has made me prouder than words can express. I only wish your mother was here to watch you walk down that aisle tomorrow. I wish you and Scott the most beautiful life together. After all, you are Susan Sheridan. And anyone who is anyone on the island of Martha’s Vineyard knows that Susan Sheridan gets what she wants— every single time. Welcome to the family, Scott. I’m so happy to officially be able to call you my son-in-law.”
Wes lifted his glass higher as all members of the rehearsal dinner followed suit.
“We love you, Scott and Susan. Here’s to the rest of your life,” he said.
Chapter Twenty-Three
When Susan awoke on the morning of her wedding, only the softest of light smeared itself across the Vineyard Sound horizon line, and most of the island remained lost in sleep. She padded downstairs toward the kitchen to discover it empty. She looked out the window to the rolling hills and water below and could feel the corners of her mouth turn upward as she thought, today is the big day. She would marry the man she’d always loved and take on his name, the Frampton name for good.
A Vineyard Wedding Page 13