by Hope Ramsay
Willow allowed herself thirty seconds of self-pity before she turned her back on the wedding ceremony and headed for the exit. She had things to do.
Outside, Dusty was lining up the limousines and seemed to have everything under control.
“I’m going back to the inn to make sure everything is ready,” she told him. “Thank you so much for helping. I couldn’t be two places at once. If you need me, you have my cell.”
She turned toward the parking lot. “Hey, Willow,” Dusty called from behind.
She looked over her shoulder. “Yeah?”
“The next wedding you plan will be out at Laurel Chapel.”
She stopped. “I didn’t think about that. With Jeff’s support, I can completely restore the chapel the way Shelly wanted it, can’t I?”
“Yep. And I’m going to make a fearless prediction. When it’s your turn to walk down the aisle, you’ll be doing it out there.”
She gave him the look she reserved especially for him. “I hate weddings. They make everyone so sappy.”
He snorted. “Yeah, I can tell how much you hate weddings.”
She turned and hurried to her car.
For the next two hours she was too busy to think about anything but making sure the wedding guests got through the receiving line, got their drinks and hors d’oeuvres, found their assigned seats, and had champagne for the toasts that would precede dinner service.
She was standing near the bar, having just delivered more lime wedges to the bartender, when the tinkle of silverware hitting water glasses signaled that the moment for toasts had arrived. The crowd quieted, and all eyes turned to the dais where the wedding party was seated.
David got to his feet holding a champagne glass and looking devastatingly handsome in his black tux.
“I’m wearing two hats tonight,” he began. “First of all, I’m honored that Jeff chose me to be his best man. I have a lot of cousins—there are probably a dozen of them in this room tonight—but Jeff is the one who was always missing while we were growing up. And believe it or not, all of us felt his absence at family gatherings. So I cannot tell you how pleased I am—and I’m sure I speak for the rest of the Lyndon family—that he found a local girl.”
He turned toward Melissa with a smile that actually showed his dimples. Oh, the man was hard to look at when he smiled like that. Willow’s heart took flight, and she hated the fact that she still wanted him—heck, she loved him, even though he was beyond her reach.
“Melissa, thank you,” he said, “for bringing our prodigal son back home where he belongs. And thank you for insisting that we hold your celebration here.” He gestured to the room, which was filled with candlelight and Christmas lights and the aroma of evergreen and roses.
“Which brings me to my second hat. Eagle Hill Manor is my home, and since Shelly is no longer with us, I’m your host for this evening. The inn has been dark for a long time, but I think Shelly would be pleased to see the entire Lyndon family gathered here to celebrate this joyous occasion. So, Melissa, thank you for that too. You’ve brought life back into this place.”
David’s voice wavered, and he had to take a deep breath. Willow had to take one too. She remembered that day, weeks ago, when she’d gotten right up in David’s face and told him how disappointed in him Shelly would be if he didn’t step up and host this wedding. He’d listened. He’d made this reception happen, and if Shelly were here, she’d be beaming with pride for him.
“I’m not very good at speeches like this, but there is something I need to say, to both Jeff and Melissa and to everyone here,” he continued, his voice a little gruff as his gaze wandered over the crowd of wedding guests until it found her and stopped.
He spoke again, and it was almost as if he was speaking right to her. “I remember the day I walked down the aisle. I can see that evening in my mind’s eye like it was yesterday. I thought Shelly was the most beautiful woman in the world. And I thought I knew what marriage was about. But I didn’t. Not really. In fact, I don’t think I truly understood until it was too late.”
His gaze shifted to the bride and groom, and Willow started breathing again. What was he trying to say?
“Jeff, Melissa, I don’t have the words to express my joy for you both. But I also want both of you to remember that there are no guarantees in this life. So live your lives to the fullest every day. Hold on to each other like there’s no tomorrow, but at the same time, you have to let go.” His voice cracked, and his gaze found Willow again.
The lump in Willow’s throat cracked open and the tears started flowing. She couldn’t stop them.
He took another breath and spoke again, but he wasn’t looking at the bride and groom. “You have to give each other space. You have to tell each other how you feel, even if it means showing your weaknesses sometimes. And you have to sacrifice.
“Now, that’s a word that I learned at an early age, but I don’t think I’ve understood its meaning until recently. Sacrifice doesn’t mean doing something grudgingly because you have to do it. Or because it’s expected of you. Or because you’re afraid of disappointing each other. Sacrifice shouldn’t benefit one of you and harm the other. True sacrifice means doing something for love. And when you sacrifice out of love, it shouldn’t be a burden but a joy.”
He turned his gaze back on the bride and groom. “So, one day, many years from now, when you look back on today and the vows you made, I hope you feel as if those promises are still alive and fresh and new. I hope you work together to make each of you the very best that you can be. I hope you will have many, many years of happiness together. But most of all, I hope you have love for the rest of your time together. And not the kind of love that you fall into and that fades over time. But the kind of love that needs your attention and your commitment and your hard work. Every day.
“Jeff, Melissa, congratulations, and may you have a long, long life of happiness together.”
He raised his glass, seemingly unaware that there wasn’t a dry eye in the room, including Willow’s.
Melissa got up and threw her arms around David and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Her mascara was running. David looked supremely awkward in that moment.
Jeff stood and gave him a man hug, which David accepted with a small smile.
Senator Lyndon dashed a tear from his manly cheek, stood up, and said, “Hear, hear.”
Poppy openly wept into Walter’s handkerchief. The Realtor had his arm around her.
And then Thomas Lyndon stood up, raised his glass, and started talking about Jeff when he was a kid. He talked on and on about how Jeff was a disaster at fly-fishing, which seemed sort of incongruent after David’s emotional speech about love and commitment.
Willow wiped the tears from her eyes and made a quick escape before she, also, created an embarrassing scene. She headed for the kitchen to make sure the food service was ready to go, and with every step she wondered how a man could give such a deep and insightful speech about love and marriage and still behave like such an idiot.
* * *
A best man couldn’t just disappear. Not until the toasting was done, and since there were a boatload of Lyndons in the room and they all thought they had a gift for oratory, the toasting went on for a long, long time.
Uncle Thomas spoke longer than anyone and managed to say less in the process. David put his champagne aside, avoided the wine, and sipped his water as the toasts went on. He was itching to leave the room and find Willow. He needed to have that talk with her that he should have had days ago.
But once the toasting was finished, the photographer demanded time. Then there was dinner, and he couldn’t go missing then.
So it wasn’t until the dancing started that he finally found a moment to slip away. By then it was a challenge just to find her. She wasn’t in the kitchen. She wasn’t on the terrace. She wasn’t in the solarium or the library or the dining room.
If it hadn’t been almost eleven o’clock and only thirty-five degrees, he might have gone
traipsing out to the old chapel to look for her. But he knew she wasn’t out there in the cold.
There was only one other place she could be. So he headed upstairs, where he found her standing in the dark at the corner windows of the Churchill Suite, staring up at the clear winter sky and a bright full moon.
She startled when he opened the door, a wedge of light from the hallway spilling into the darkness. “I need to talk to you,” he said, closing the door behind him and plunging the room back into darkness.
His eyes needed time to adjust. The moonlight definitely gave a luster to the room—not quite the luster of midday, but enough to turn Willow into a silhouette against the windows and spark like silver in her hair. Enough for him to see her square her shoulders as if she was preparing to do battle with him.
He deserved that.
“Uncle Jamie made me watch an old movie today,” he said. “Maybe you know it—It’s a Wonderful Life.”
She leaned back on the windowsill and crossed her arms. Her face was in shadow, but her body language said it all. He was going to have to grovel to get through her defenses. “How could you have never seen that movie?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I’m a failure at Christmas. I think I always have been. Even before Shelly died, I never could quite see what the fuss was about.”
“Poor little rich kid,” she snarked in the same tone she sometimes used with Dusty. “Guess when you have everything, Christmas presents lose their appeal.”
“I like presents just fine. But Christmas at Charlotte’s Grove was about much more than presents. Grandmother, oh my God, she insisted that Christmas run on a schedule like the military. She sucked most of the joy right out of it for me. Mother is a lot like Grandmother, to tell you the truth.”
“Well, you got turkey for Christmas dinner. I got to eat Tofurky and brussels sprouts. Yuck. But I still managed to enjoy the day.”
He laughed. “We usually had prime rib, actually.”
“See. You have nothing to complain about. So why did your uncle make you watch this movie?”
“Last night, when we were tying one on, he told me that if I wanted to I could become George Bailey. I had no idea what he meant by that.”
She didn’t say anything to this, and he couldn’t read her face in the dark. So he blundered ahead. “It’s kind of amazing to think I could be like the guy in that movie. I mean, he makes one sacrifice after another. I’ve done that, too, but the difference is that he made all his decisions out of love. I always made my sacrifices out of obligation.
“And every sacrifice I made over the years hurt someone. Shelly. Natalie. Poppy. You.”
“David—”
“Hush, let me finish. After that photo of us was published, my family and my consultants—everyone—told me that I needed to give you up. I told them all no, but then I tried to make this deal with Hale Chandler, my political consultant. I figured it would be better for you to sacrifice your case against Restero than it would be for you to sacrifice the potential for a wonderful relationship. I figured you’d be willing to do that. For me.
“I missed the point. I missed the fact that, if I love you, maybe I should be willing to sacrifice something. Like running for Congress.”
“But you—”
“I know. I know. It’s what I’m supposed to do. And that’s the point. I never actually decided to run for Congress. I mean, I never questioned the idea that this was my fate. And maybe that’s because I was just plain scared. Scared that if I didn’t do what everyone expected of me, then my life would have no meaning at all. But I was wrong. And Uncle Jamie helped me to see that.”
“By making you watch a movie?”
He shrugged. “Well, sort of. He pointed out that I could have a meaningful life living right here in Shenandoah Falls doing the right things instead of the expected ones. Like standing up for Dusty. Like hosting Melissa’s wedding. Like taking Natalie to her swim trials instead of dancing to my mother’s tune. Or like standing beside you and supporting your quest to bring Restero to justice. Or…well…like loving you, Willow. Loving you would be the right thing to do, even if it’s not what is expected of me. I’d like to change those expectations. And I meant what I said tonight. I want to work at love this time, not just accept it as a given.
“So, the first thing is that I’ve decided not to run for Congress. I’m going to stay here and be an innkeeper’s boyfriend, and maybe, in time, something more.”
“Oh, David.” Her voice broke, and he crossed the room to take her in his arms. “You can’t do that.”
“Yes, I can. I don’t want to be a congressman. I hate campaigning. I always have. And I’d rather spend my free time fishing with you and Dusty than going to town hall meetings or dialing for dollars. I don’t want it. It’s a joy to sacrifice it, especially if it means I can be with you.”
She rested her head on his shoulder. Holding her was like coming home. “I don’t think you’re something that needs to be managed,” he said against her hair. “And I love the fact that you make trouble. Seems to me that all the trouble you’ve made these last few months has been the good kind. And I have this feeling that we’re going to have lots and lots of trouble in our lives from this moment forward. But I also think we’re going to get through it all and maybe even have some fun at the same time.”
He stroked her hair and tilted her head back so he could kiss her. He put his heart and soul into that kiss. She melted in his arms and even made a little inarticulate noise that pretty much blew his mind.
He nibbled his way down the column of her neck and then over to her ear. “I want you,” he whispered, “not because we’re friends with benefits. I just need you, Willow.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a hungry kiss. She didn’t need words to let him know her answer. Her body was surprisingly eloquent.
Epilogue
One Year Later
The string quartet played the Bach beautifully as Courtney leaned down and whispered something into Natalie’s ear that Willow couldn’t hear. The nine-year-old’s brown eyes lit up, and she turned toward Willow, who stood to one side of the tiny foyer at Laurel Chapel.
“See you down there,” Natalie said with a wink.
Her goddaughter looked adorable in her green moiré taffeta dress with a big skirt, puffy sleeves, and just a hint of crinoline showing at the hem. Her beautiful red hair was piled up on her head and covered with baby’s breath, and Courtney had given her just a tiny bit of blush and mascara.
Courtney had mad skills when it came to planning weddings, which was why Willow had offered her a job as the director of special events at Eagle Hill Manor. Courtney, who had all but burned out as a nurse, had jumped at the chance, and now she and Courtney worked together every day, marketing the inn as the premier wedding destination in Northern Virginia.
The music swelled in the small confines of the Laurel Chapel, which had been thoroughly decked out with period-accurate Christmas decorations. Holly and ivy dripped from the beams and edged the windows and the altar.
The antique wood pews had been installed less than two weeks ago—after a year-long project that included consultations with historians and archaeologists from Williamsburg to make sure that the restoration was as historically accurate as possible. Just a week ago, Reverend Weston, the minister at St. Luke’s, had reconsecrated the sanctuary.
Now the small church was lit up with dozens and dozens of candles.
“It’s time,” Courtney said, taking Willow by the hand and pulling her toward the center aisle. Willow would be making this walk alone. She didn’t need anyone to give her away, and besides, she was learning to stop being embarrassed by the fact that her father had been a drugged-out rocker who had never been in the picture.
Courtney adjusted the tulle of her ball gown dress and made sure her tiara and veil were in place. Willow felt like Sleeping Beauty on her wedding day.
The string quartet finished the Bach and struck up the Wagn
er. Everyone stood up and turned toward her. Willow took her first step down the aisle, her gaze finding David’s. He was devastatingly handsome in his tuxedo, with Dusty McNeil standing at his elbow. That had caused a minor furor in family circles. David choosing his friend instead of one of his male cousins had been tantamount to blasphemy or something.
Pam wasn’t all that thrilled about Juni either, who stood on the left side of the altar wearing her own green taffeta gown with a big smile on her face. Last night, at the rehearsal dinner at the Jaybird Café, Juni had shocked the entire Lyndon clan when she’d stood up and told the world that David’s and Willow’s auras indicated strong sexual compatibility, which usually meant that they’d be having lots and lots of babies. Soon.
Willow had almost choked on her cheeseburger when her little sister made that announcement. Even if Juni was right about the whole sexual thing, Willow didn’t see herself ever having lots and lots of babies. She had an inn to manage. But that sultry look in David’s dark eyes never failed to ignite her body. It was having an impact right this minute, as she reached the end of the aisle and took his hand.
It was warm, slightly rough, and had become so familiar over the last year. She had no doubts, no concerns, no worries about this decision. She belonged with this man, and he belonged with her.
He was her prince. He’d awakened her with a kiss. He’d rescued her from a dungeon. And he’d slayed every one of the dragons that stood in the way of their love, chief among them his own family’s expectations. Pam was still a little bit unhappy about the way things had turned out, but all that effort she’d aimed at David had found a new target—his sister, Heather.
A month ago Heather Lyndon had become the first female member of the storied Lyndon family to win a seat in Congress. She sat in the front row, the representative-elect for the twelfth congressional district. Mom had even campaigned for Heather, which had blown everyone’s mind.
The minister began the service with the Bible verse that she and David had especially picked for this day. She looked up into his eyes, feeling light and happy and sure. The words the minister said were perfect, and if they were a lot like the ones David had spoken a year ago at Jeff and Melissa’s wedding, well, that was not entirely by accident.