by Raven Snow
Clarissa’s smile fell as well. She pointedly looked away. Any excitement Rowen had been feeling started to fade.
“We don’t have too long,” said Maddy. “I think I’ll just take a look around, maybe sit aside some options.”
Mrs. Stenson’s smile faltered a bit. She clearly knew that a couple of unhappy customers had just entered her store. She had to know it was because of Rowen and her family.
“We’re getting this one,” said Rowen, forcing a smile.
“Don’t you want to try on the others?” asked Tina.
“I can’t imagine they’ll be better than this.” Rowen headed back into the dressing room, but she didn’t miss the look on her cousin’s faces. They were disappointed, sad. Margo probably wouldn’t have caved like Rowen did.
“Well, I’m going to stay and try these on,” said Margo.
So Margo, definitely, wouldn’t have caved. Rowen wished she didn’t care about what others thought of her.
___
A week later, the wedding was set up at the edge of the Greensmith property. It was near enough to the festival itself that you really could see all the decorations. They had already done all the setting up for the festival and it was lovely.
Rowen helped them set out chairs and decide where the flowers were going to go. From the pulpit where Lydia would stand, she could see some of the booths where people would be selling things. That worried Rowen and not only because her aunts and mother still insisted on running a booth. Rowen was worried that they might get some dirty looks or rude remarks she might overhear during the wedding.
“Maybe we should move it,” she suggested when they were working on the food for the reception, much to everyone’s dismay. “We could do the wedding right outside. We could have it next to the garden.”
“The garden is dead this time of year,” said Willow, looking puzzled as to how and why Rowen could forget something like that.
“It’ll be fine,” Aunt Lydia assured her. “There are trees between us and the festival-goers. They’re not going to be disturbed by the wedding unless they’re trying to be.”
“It’s not like we’re having the reception there,” added Tiffany. “We’re not even going to be making much noise.”
“I’m honestly a bit worried that we won’t be able to hear the wedding over the festivities,” muttered Aunt Nadine. She caught dirty looks from her sisters. “Not that I think we should move it. It’s fine right where it is.”
“It’ll be fine.” Eric was the last one to comfort Rowen. He put an arm around her as they sat in bed together. She hadn’t said anything, but her concerns must have been obvious.
“I’m just afraid,” Rowen said with a sigh. “I’m not sure the town has ever disliked us this much. It’s like everything we’ve ever done wrong and everything they think our family has done wrong just keep compounding. I’m not sure there could be a worse time for a wedding.”
“There’s not a whole lot they can do,” said Eric, which, frankly, Rowen thought showed a lack of imagination. There was plenty the town could do to ruin her wedding. “And this time tomorrow, we’ll be on a plane to Paris. You can finally relax.”
That did sound awfully nice. Rowen would give just about anything to have a break from all this for a while. Just not for too long or she was likely to worry herself to death. “I guess,” she said. She offered Eric a smile of her own. She knew he was probably a bundle of nerves too. Maybe not for the same reasons, but she would be surprised if he wasn’t. “How are you holding up? You still have cold feet?”
Eric laughed. “I don’t think I ever had cold feet. I’m not sure being a little afraid of your family is cold feet.”
Rowen rolled her eyes. “Semantics.”
Eric shrugged. “I think I’m all right. Rose and I had a talk. I’ll be fine.” That didn’t sound entirely genuine. He was trying to act more confident than he actually felt. Rowen wasn’t about to press the matter. She had her own problems and was hardly one to judge. “I’ve been thinking, though,” said Eric, sounding hesitant.
“Hmm?” Rowen had reached for her cell phone to check her e-mail. She looked up from it now.
Eric began to say something but hesitated. It looked like he was having second thoughts. “It’s… It’s not a big deal. We can talk about it later.”
“You can’t do that,” said Rowen, raising an eyebrow at him. “You can’t start to say something, then just stop. You have to tell me now.”
Eric chewed on the inside of his mouth for a moment. “It’s just… We talked some about moving out again.”
Rowen nodded. They had been casually looking at some houses. They weren’t in any great hurry. They had rushed into it last time—gotten out of the house just for the sake of getting out of the house. What Rowen wanted was a place where they both could settle down and make a home. With Eric’s work, that might take a while. That was all right, though. Rowen liked their arrangement, even if it wasn’t quite the norm.
“Are you going to want to stay in Lainswich?” asked Eric.
That question hit Rowen a bit like a slap. What a weird thing to ask. Wasn’t the answer obvious? “Why wouldn’t we live in Lainswich?” It occurred to her then that maybe they had a big problem here. “Do you not want to live here?”
“I feel about Lainswich like I feel about any other place,” Eric said quickly. “I’m not really attached to living in one town or city over another. As long as we’re not too far from an airport, I’m good. You know that.”
“Then what?” asked Rowen.
Eric bit the inside of his mouth again. “I just… With everything that happens here, I can’t help but wonder if Lainswich is the best place for you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, it doesn’t seem like you have the best luck here.” Eric sounded a bit sheepish as he spoke, like he knew this was a delicate subject. It seemed like this was something he had been thinking about for a while. He just hadn’t wanted to say anything. “Every time something happens in the town, the people here turn on you. It’s like they have a short memory… or a long one. It’s hard to say. Maybe it is just time you picked up and moved your family to a new town, you know?”
“Lainswich is our home,” said Rowen because it was. It had always been the home of the Greensmiths.
“You moved out for a long time, didn’t you?” asked Eric. “Before I met you, you had an apartment off in the city. I’m sure it’s occurred to you before to move.”
He was right. Rowen had been living away from Lainswich for a very long time before she had moved back in with her family. “I can’t,” she said. “I have the Inquirer here now and my family needs me.”
“But we don’t need the money,” Eric pointed out. “I can keep us both up wherever you’d like. I’m not saying I would wanna take your whole family, but I could help set them up somewhere.”
“They wouldn’t move,” said Rowen. She knew that for a fact. It would probably take an asteroid turning Lainswich into a crater before Aunt Lydia or Nadine left. “This is their home. This is their house.”
“I know,” said Eric. “And I know you like living near them. I get it. I never had that with my family, but I get it in theory.” He leaned over and pressed a kiss to Rowen’s cheek. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “This will pass. It always does.”
Rowen nodded. She tried to put on a smile and at least look like she believed him on that front. It was hard to fake. It wasn’t that she didn’t think it would pass. It was more that the town distrusting them had just come at a spectacularly bad time.
Chapter Nine
Saturday was the first day of the Fall Festival and also the day of Rowen’s wedding. The excitement was a little overwhelming. It bordered on surreal.
First thing in the morning, Rowen and Eric had to part ways. That was a bit of a pain. Rowen would have much rather spent the day with Eric than any of her family. Eric was much better at grounding her than they were. If anything, Rowen
’s family had a tendency to stress her out even more.
“I don’t know how we’re going to get all of this done,” Tiffany complained, looking across the kitchen at all the food laid out. “I don’t have cups. Why didn’t anyone think to buy cups? It’s not like there’s time to go buy them now. There’s too much to do.”
“We’ll be fine,” said Rowen, frustrated, but wholly unsurprised to find she was comforting her own mother on her wedding day. “We can drink out of regular glasses. It’s not like there are that many people coming to the wedding. We have plenty.”
Despite her mother’s insistence that there was no way they would be ready in time, they pretty much had everything they could possibly need. Aunt Lydia had done a good job of getting everything in order. She had done such a good job that presently she and Nadine were at the festival running their booth.
At the last minute, Rowen had done her best to talk them out of it. She had tried convincing them that she was too nervous, that she needed them around just in case she got cold feet. They had seen right through it, unfortunately.
“We’ll be back in plenty of time,” Aunt Nadine had promised.
“It’s going to take more than some angry locals to scare us off,” said Aunt Lydia.
Rowen really wished they wouldn’t push their luck, but what could she do?
With some time to kill, Rowen had been sure to call Grammy. It had taken a few minutes for the prison to patch her through, but she had reached her in the end.
“It’s the big day!” Grammy had said as soon as she was on the other end. “How are you feeling?”
“Nervous,” said Rowen, though that felt like an understatement.
“Well, that’s to be expected,” said Grammy, sounding unconcerned. “If you were having the wedding here, I could talk you through it, but…” She trailed off with a sad sigh.
Rowen was beginning to see where Aunt Lydia got it from. Grammy could be a little ridiculous when she set her mind to it. “We weren’t going to have the wedding in a prison, Grammy,” said Rowen with a sigh.
“I know,” said Grammy. Rowen could tell without seeing her that she was smiling. She had one of those smiles that came through in the way she talked to a person. “I wish you the best, Sweetheart. I hope your wedding is just fantastic.”
___
There was no wedding party. It really was just going to be a small service. Her cousins spent the day with her anyway, seeing to her hair and nails and, eventually, her dress. The day went by faster than Rowen would have liked. It was all too soon that the sun was going down. That meant that the lights were going on at the festival, and her wedding would be starting soon.
Aunt Nadine returned from closing down the booth to intercept her. “Aunt Lydia is already where she’s supposed to be,” she said. “Eric and his family are already there, but it’s no hurry. They know they’re early.”
Rowen wished she could go on and get it over with. Unfortunately, she was stuck in a chair, waiting for Margo to put the last touches on her hair. “How’s the stall going?” she asked while she waited.
“Good,” said Aunt Nadine, smiling. The smile faltered a bit within moments. “All right, maybe it’s not so great.” Nadine had never been very good at bending the truth—not even a little. “I don’t think we’ve had a sale all day. No one wants to stop by. If anything, they’ve been avoiding us so much that it’s gotten awkward. I almost wish Lydia had listened to you and just let us sit this Fall Festival out.”
Rowen gave Aunt Nadine a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know you were looking forward to it.”
Aunt Nadine shook her head. “Not half as much as I’m looking forward to you getting married.” She came over and gave Rowen a kiss on the cheek.
“Watch it!” warned Margo. To be fair, Margo had spent the majority of the day working on getting her face just right.
They hadn’t really thought through how Rowen would actually get to the site where they were getting married. Sure, it wasn’t a very long walk away. The walk just seemed longer when you were trying to very carefully make your way through a lawn in a white dress. She was going to have grass stains all over everything by the time she got there, she just knew it.
Her cousins helped keep her dress out of the way to the best of their ability. They went around the long way, so that they would come up behind the wedding guests. Rowen could see them before they saw her. They were all seated. Nadine and Tiffany had gone ahead to be seated.
Her family was on one side along with some friends. Tina was there, Ben, Roland. Surprisingly, there were more people on Eric’s side. His parents were there, and David, of course. There were also some people that Rowen didn’t recognize. Maybe they were friends of the family. Rowen certainly hoped they weren’t business partners she needed to make a good impression with. She could never guarantee that her family would make a good impression.
Aunt Lydia was up at the front, looking awfully excited. Behind her, the festival was going on. Some people had stopped in their shopping to peer between the trees at the proceedings. Rowen tried not to focus on that. She focused on the lights instead. It was as beautiful as she had imagined it to be. Pumpkins glowed amid fairy lights. There was some ambient music from the live band. The weather was nice. The sounds from the streets were festive. It was…perfect.
Rowen’s cousins left her side to go be seated. Them taking their seats drew everyone’s attention toward her, and she started down the aisle.
Rowen’s heart was pounding in her chest. She tried to focus on Eric. He was standing in front of Lydia, looking like a fairy tale prince in his black suit. He looked tall and handsome. The way the light from the festival caught his blond hair made him look almost angelic.
Suddenly, the rest of the world and what they thought didn’t matter so much. Rowen smiled and found herself completely unable to stop. She was happy. Her world zeroed in on Eric, and she moved toward him.
Eric’s expression was hard to interpret. He was smiling, but he looked like he might fall over at any given second. The moment Rowen was within arm’s reach, he held out his hand for her. “You look…wow,” he managed quietly. He was grinning.
Rowen looked down at his hand. She moved her thumb along the back of it. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“I know, right?” Eric leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek, like he couldn’t help himself.
“Hey, you two,” said Aunt Lydia. “There’ll be time for that in a minute. Control yourselves.”
Everyone got a laugh out of that. They fell silent as Aunt Lydia went into her whole spiel that led into vows and such. It was hard to follow. Rowen couldn’t quite manage to concentrate, though she was able to repeat the things she was supposed to repeat as necessary.
They were getting close to the “I dos.” Rowen could feel it. She hadn’t heard the vows before now, but she could just tell Lydia was getting close to them. Rowen kept her eyes locked on Eric’s. She knew he was getting impatient too. She drew her eyes away long enough to look out over their friends and family.
They all looked so happy for them. It was a nice change from when they had first broken the news. Everyone was smiling. Tina was sniffling into a tissue from a box she was sharing with Tiffany. Ben sat up front with her cousins, smiling, even though he and Rowen never quite saw eye to eye. Roland was sitting between Tiffany and Nadine, all smiles as well. It was hard to believe that less than a year ago he had hated the Greensmiths. If only the whole town of Lainswich could come around like he had.
Aunt Lydia cleared her throat, directing Rowen’s attention back to the vows. They had finally gotten to the most important part. “Eric Richardson, do you take−” But Aunt Lydia didn’t get any further than that.
Rowen felt something hit her in the back and roll down her dress. She didn’t register what it could be at first. It baffled her. She turned and saw a couple of teenage boys standing at the edge of the trees and laughing. One was holding what looke
d like a chili dog. Another was holding an empty holder for one.
Rowen felt her face grow warm. She reached behind herself and her fingers found the warm foodstuff between her shoulder blades. Chili? Was there chili dripping down the back of her white wedding dress right now? There was a cold, horrible, sinking feeling in Rowen’s chest as what had just happened set in on her.
Eric dropped Rowen’s hand. He moved past her, toward the boys who were now trying to retreat. Eric caught up with them before they could get away. “What is wrong with you?” he demanded, catching the one who had thrown the chili dog by his wrist.
“Let him go!” shouted a man from the other side of the trees. A group of adults were headed down the hill. The commotion had drawn the attention of quite a few festival goers.