"I'm thrilled to hear this,"Jane said. "House or condo?" "Condo," Cecily said. "Neither of us has ever mowed grass and we don't want to learn how to."
Michael said, "We're starved. All we ate today was a bag of potato chips on the plane from New York.""Let's stop off on the way home," his grandson said.
"A good Mexican restaurant, please," Cecily said. "The Danes aren't hot on Mexican food and I'm longing for some."
Jane was sorry she hadn't brought her bottle of Turns along. And felt a tad gaggy at the thought of Mexican food after all she'd eaten the night before. Maybe she could make do with chips and a mild queso.
Chapter
TWENTY-THREE
J
ane, Mike, Cecily, and Michael were waiting in the lobby of the hotel for Katie to arrive. Jane had explained to her parents that she'd booked them into a two-bedroom suite because Katie wanted to stay with them.
When Katie arrived with a rather large suitcase, she set it down and rushed across the lobby. "Mom, they picked me up in a white stretch limo as if I were a celebrity."
She set down the suitcase with a thud and embraced her grandparents and then her mother. Mike edged away from a hug.
Jane said, "Someday you will be a celebrity chef." "Right now I'm starving," Katie said.
Jane had a bellhop take Katie's monster suitcase up to the suite and they all went into the deli restaurant in the hotel.
When they'd picked out sandwiches and chips, Katie asked, "So what's the plan?"
"The rehearsal dinner here tonight. A civil wedding tomorrow morning. Just family. Then Addie's wedding at five the next day."
"What do you mean by Addie's wedding'?" Katie asked. Jane explained.
"That's stupid. She's not the bride's mother," Katie complained. "She's Mel's mother."
"As I've already pointed out to Mike, it saves me the money," Jane said with a laugh.
"Wait until you guys see what Mom's doing to her house, speaking of spending money."
Cecily asked, "What are you doing, Jane?"
"Adding an office for Mel in back of the dining room," Jane said.
"I think that's nice," her father said.
"Thank you, Dad. Mike doesn't like it."
"Yes, I do," Mike objected. "I just think you're spending too much money."
"Mike, it's my money, and Mel is moving from an apartment where one bedroom was his office. He needs one at our house when he moves in."
"We need to all take a rest and then dress for the rehearsal dinner," Jane said. "It's in this hotel somewhere. I'll go ask where and when."
Jane was back in moments with printed instructions for finding the right place and time. She gave one copy to her mother and kept the other one.
They were all on time for the rehearsal dinner in the hotel. Addie had brought along her two daughters, Alice and Emily, and their husbands, who were also introduced. Mel was introduced last.
Jane then took her turn, "My parents, Michael and Cecily Grant. My son Mike, my daughter, Katie, and my son Todd. And this wonderful gentleman is my honorary uncle, Jim Harding."
The whole time Jane was speaking, and pointing out the family members, Addie had her eyes on Cecily with an expression that was a mix of envy and hostility.
My mother is prettier, nicer, and more sophisticated than you are, and you know it, Addie, Jane was thinking.
Addie finally tore her eyes away from Cecily and said, "I have labels on the table by the door. Please put your names on them so anybody who didn't catch all of them will know you."
Drinks were served with trays of appetizers, while the hot food was being brought in from the kitchen. The food was ordinary and rather sparse but tasty, despite coming from the hotel kitchen. There wasn't a vegetarian choice of meals. Addie apparently didn't care much about food — at least for this meal intended for family.
There was a choice of two desserts, both of which contained walnuts, which Jane herself hated, so she passed. There wasn't even a groom's cake.
Altogether it was boring food, and the only people who seemed to be enjoying themselves were Jane's own kids. Even Addie merely picked at her plate. Jane put her left arm on her lap and looked at her watch. An hour and a half wasted. Mel, sitting next to her, patted her right hand and whispered, "It's almost over. Fifteen minutes and we'll be out of here."
He proved to be right. He stood up and announced that he and Jane had enjoyed themselves and graciously thanked his mother for a nice dinner. He stood up and took Jane's hand to depart. Everyone else bolted out right behind them, except for Addie, who was actually tipping the employees.
Almost all the same people attended the civil ceremony the next morning, even though they weren't part of the wedding party. Jane had only invited Mel's mother, her parents and her kids, Uncle Jim, and Shelley. Addie had forced her daughters and their husbands to attend as well, which put the participants cheek to jowl in the small room. It only took fifteen minutes to say the vows, and sign the wedding certificate.
"Sorry, Janey," Mel said when his own family had departed. "I told her it was only for the people in the wedding and she dragged along another four people who aren't part of it."
"Don't worry. It's over. And we're married. Do I have to give the wedding ring back so you give it to me again tomorrow?"
"Probably. I'll give mine back to you as well."
On Saturday morning Jane persuaded Shelley to come with her to the hotel, just to check out anything that might go wrong.
"What could go wrong?" Shelley asked.
"With Addie involved, a lot of things could go bad." Shelley shrugged. "Okay. You might have a point." They found Miss Tarlington, who was looking at Jane
rather oddly. "We've already set the tables for dinner.
Would you like to come look? There are twenty tables for
ten. Mrs. Nowack was right. Only a hundred and forty‑
nine of Mrs. VanDyne's guests are attending."
They followed her. Shelley whispered to Jane, "I think that she's worried."
Jane nodded.
When the door to the dining area opened, both she and Shelley gasped.
"What on earth are those flowers on the tables?" "They aren't what you ordered?" Miss Tarlington asked. The vases were tall and bright blue, with calla lilies
and ferns.
"No, they aren't. Where did these come from?" Jane asked. Miss Tarlington told Jane the name of the florist.
"That's not my florist. Mine is coming at two with low bowls of gardenias."
"Thank goodness, Ms. Jeffry, I knew you had better sense and taste than this. Nobody could see over them to the people across the table."
Shelley spoke up in a faint voice. "So what do we do with them? Can the wrong florist come back and take them away?"
"I doubt it," Miss Tarlington said.
"Please check,"Jane said. "And if this florist won't pick them up, can you find someone on the staff to load them up and take them to the nursing home where my mother-in-law was? I don't have my address book with me, but I'll call it in as soon as I get home."
"There will be a charge for that."
"Naturally there will be. And Mrs. VanDyne can pay it." "I suppose you'd like to also see the bridal bouquet?" "Oh no! Not that as well?"
Miss Tarlington took Jane and Shelley back to a kitchen where there was a glass house for flowers waiting to be put out. "There it is," she said, pointing to a massive bouquet of huge pink roses.
Jane put her hands over her eyes for a moment then looking again, she said, "Get rid of it. It must weigh ten pounds and would clash horribly with my suit."
"I can find somewhere in the lobby to put this monster," Miss Tarlington said. "It will have to go in a really big vase."
"Could you wait until the wedding is over so she doesn't recognize it as she comes in?"
"Good idea, Ms. Jeffry."
When they were back in Shelley's van, Shelley said, "What a hell of a nerve Addie has. She's known from the start you w
ere doing your flowers, and probably thought that she could get away with doing them herself without your knowing in time."
"I'm so glad I had a premonition that something might go wrong,"Jane said. "You're right. If we hadn't seen them in time, it would have been a disaster."
"Are you going to rat on her to Mel?"
"No. He'd just be even madder at her. He probably forgot about the flowers after he told her the rules. But I'd sent her a copy that she must have thrown away in a fit of pique."
As soon as she got home, Jane called Miss Tarlington with the address of the nursing home.
She went back out again to have her hair done, and even asked them if they did makeup as well. It was a day spa, so she got lucky. And she didn't look like a tart or an owl. She looked like herself, but better.
Chapter
TWENTY-FOUR
J
ane and Shelley were back at the hotel earlier than they needed to be just to check once again that the right florist had brought the proper flower arrangements for the tables. As they opened the door to the room they could smell the lovely scent of the gardenias.
"You and your florist made an excellent choice," Shelley said.
"He did a wonderful job. We need to go to room 5200
for the pictures to be taken ahead of time, remember?"
"I do. But we don't have to be there until three o'clock." "Let's go get glasses of iced tea and take them with us,"
Jane suggested.
"I've already checked into a room. You need to bring your suitcase in and check in as well. I've ordered soft
drinks and iced tea and coffee to be sent to suite 5200 where the pictures will be taken," Shelley said.
"Oh, Shelley, how good of you."
When they entered suite 5200, Mel was already there, and so was his mother.
"Janey, you look fabulous," he said before he gave her a quick kiss. "And you smell wonderful."
Addie was sitting in a chair sipping a glass of iced tea and said nothing.
A moment or two later, Jane's parents arrived, with all three of Jane's children. Mike and Todd looked so good in their tuxes that Jane got misty. Katie was wearing a long yellow dress and matching sandals. Jane had never seen this outfit before. "You look wonderful. Where did you find such a pretty dress and shoes?"
"At Nordstrom — on sale," Katie answered smugly.
The pastor who was doing the service followed Katie in. "What handsome people you are. The photographer is coming along behind me."
A man loaded down with a big bag arrived a minute later. "Is everybody here? I'm not late, am I?"
Jane soothed him. "We're all early."
He set up his camera on a tripod and started with Jane and Mel alone. Then with Jane and her family, then Mel and his family. He was taking three pictures of each group just so they'd have a choice in case someone had their eyes closed.
After this, he grouped them all in front of a wall ofdraped windows and pushed them around until he was satisfied. Then he took three more pictures.
Miss Tarlington showed up and said, "It's time to go. I need to show the wedding party where to stay until the guests are all in place."
They followed her in a private elevator that took them directly to the floor where the wedding would be held. There were soft chairs, two coffee tables with bowls of mints and glasses of water.
"I'll be back for you shortly," Miss Tarlington said. Jane suddenly realized someone was missing. "Shelley, where is Paul?"
"He had an emergency in Miami. There was a fire in the kitchen and he had to take the insurance policy and some other paperwork down there last night."
"Oh, that's too bad. I really hoped he'd be here." Shelley said, "So did I."
They could hear people in the hallway outside the room chatting as they were passing through to the wedding room. Jane had seen it before. It was set up with pews like a church but without any sense of a particular religion. They waited until they couldn't hear anyone else in the hallway. Miss Tarlington came to fetch them, and line them up properly. She took Mel and Uncle Jim down a side hall, opened a door, and said, "You stand on the left side and face forward."
She went back and took Todd and Mike, and Michael and Cecily next.
Jane and Shelley were standing in the back behind a door.
They peered around and saw Mike take his grandmother's arm and start down the aisle with Michael following. They were seated in the first pew on the right. Then Todd took Addie's arm with her daughters and their husbands following them to the front pew on the left.
Then Shelley walked down by herself.
There was a brief wait while Mike took his mother's arm and escorted her to the front next to Shelley. Jane was surprised that everyone stood and looked back at them with big smiles.
The ceremony itself was relatively short. Rings were exchanged for the second time. Mel took Jane in his arms and gave her a serious but dignified kiss. A sound system burst into "Here Comes the Bride" and the two of them walked back slowly, stopping to shake hands with a number of people close to the center aisle. Mel was well represented with what looked like half the police force, some in uniform, most in plain suits.
Jane and Mel stood beside the door, while Todd and Mike escorted the Grants, Katie, and Addie's family back down the aisle. Uncle Jim brought Shelley down the aisle. Then everybody else was left to file out neatly from front to back and be pointed to the dining room by Miss Tarlington. Some of Mel's friends hung back to congratulate Mel and Jane. A few of Addie's rich clients stopped to compliment her as well. She smiled and thanked them for coming, then joined the rest of the crowd, ignoring thewhole of Jane's family. Jane could hear Mel grinding his teeth and muttering.
The rest of the family went to the dining room, leaving Jane and Mel alone for a minute or two. "I'm sorry, Mel. But you know the way she acts. It's normal for her."
"You're right. It's sad though."
They made their way, arm in arm, to the dining room, and again everyone stood up and applauded. When they sat down, Miss Tarlington spoke into a microphone. "Someone at each table will find a penny concealed in their napkin. Mr. and Mrs. VanDyne have told me that those who get one are entitled to take the flowers on the table home."
There was a great rush to open napkins.
The wedding party was already seated, and Addie got up and leaned over Jane's shoulder, "What happened to my flowers?"
"They've gone to a nursing home. I'd told you repeatedly that I was choosing my flowers."Then she turned to Mel and asked, "Did you get the penny?"
Addie had apparently wanted to please her clients so much that she'd provided three courses: salad, choice of salmon or filet mignon, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, and an array of desserts on a buffet at the back of the room for later.
Addie had provided a huge wedding cake and Mel and Jane did the obligatory cutting of the first slice and
feeding each other a bite. When the waiters started clearing tables, Mel and Jane circulated. Jane had invited very few people. Ted's wife and children, and the nice lady, Mrs. Jefferson, from Thelma's funeral, and a very few neighbors and women she'd known from the room mother's group.
Mel made a point of introducing her to his assistant, Officer Needham, who was wearing a bright red suit and a big matching hat. Jane said Mel had told her what a great researcher he thought she was and Jane hauled her along to meet her parents and children.
Eventually the room was cleared and guests were herded into the room where the dance was to be held. Some of the guests starting slipping away. And as Mel took her arm for the first dance, Officer Needham, ear to her cell phone, whispered something to him.
His response was a huge grin. "I'm going to dance with my wife while you gather up the team."
"What's this about?" Jane asked as they started to dance.
"The reporter from the New York Times has found Miss Welbourne's children. Or we think they are." "Where are they?"
"Right here in Chicago. Th
ey're living in a rental in Evanston. They never left the area. That trip to San Francisco was a sham. Janey, I'm so sorry but—"
"It's your job, Mel. I understand. Now go! I'll dance with Uncle Jim, my dad, and Ted instead." When she'd finished dancing with them, she went to find Mrs. Jefferson, the nice church lady she'd met at Thelma'sfuneral. "I guess you learned to waltz when you were a girl. Would you do this next dance with me?"
Mrs. Jefferson smiled. "I learned dancing at a girls' school. I still remember."
When Jane and Mrs. Jefferson took the floor, other couples backed away, smiling. The photographer took several pictures, and other guests who'd brought cameras along joined in. As soon as the waltz was over, Jane bowed to Mrs. Jefferson and stood beside her, holding hands as others took more pictures. Both ladies did a curtsy. Jane then asked Mrs. Jefferson if she needed a ride home. "Ted Jeffry doesn't drink. He'd be glad to take you."
"No, thank you, Mrs. Jeff — I mean Mrs. VanDyne. My grandson is arriving to fetch me in a few minutes."
Jane stayed in what was supposed to be the honeymoon suite. She didn't mind that the groom wasn't there. He was doing his job. If she'd ever had the chance to be sent on a book tour, she wouldn't dream of making him take time off to go with her.
Besides, she'd packed a bag with the clothes she'd come here in and others she intended to wear the next day. She had her makeup and vitamins along. Her mother called Jane at nine the next morning. "Jane, dear, that waltz with the pretty old lady was the highlight of the wedding. I'm so proud of you for singling her out."
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