Back to the Lake Breeze Hotel

by Amie Denman

  Alice laughed. “Not this year. That was Jack calling from the parking lot. We’ve got the ice rink company setting up and reporters from the Bayside Times crashing the party.” She smiled. “Fun for all.”

  “We’re driving out there, right?” Nate asked. “I didn’t bring my cross-country skis.”

  “You’ve spent too much time in Florida,” Alice said, shaking her head. She opened a closet door built into the wood paneling of her office. “There’s an extra hat and scarf in here.”

  “You’re prepared,” Virginia said.

  “I started here last January and learned my lesson fast. I was used to the wind off the bay because I grew up in Bayside, but this peninsula gets it from three sides.” She handed the red wool scarf and hat to Nate. “You’ll want these.”

  “You kids have fun,” Virginia said. “I’m going to plead old age and take the rest of the day off.”

  “Me, too,” Henry agreed.

  Alice grabbed her car keys and a folder of plans from her desk. “We could share a ride,” she suggested to Nate. She fully expected him to say no, even if it meant walking a mile to wherever his car was parked.

  Nate pulled the red hat on and wrapped the scarf around his neck.

  “Do I look like an elf on a mission?” he asked almost playfully. At least for him.

  Alice laughed. “A very tall elf. I hope you get your picture in the paper looking like that. A color picture. It will be great advertising for Starlight Point’s Christmas weekends.”

  Nate frowned and she thought he was going to pull off the hat and scarf and chicken out on a trip outside. Instead, he squared his shoulders and stood stoically waiting, his PR neutral expression in place. Alice slipped on her wool coat and gloves and left the office with Nate right behind her.

  “Speaking of advertising,” Nate said as they walked down the hall. “I need to get started—probably yesterday. I wanted some photos of park visitors, but I may have to settle for staging the pictures.”

  “How will you do that?”

  Nate shrugged. “I could get people to pose in front of decorations, maybe borrow some kids from other employees. The snow will help make the pictures attractive and realistic.”

  “It would be nice to get video of people on our skating rink,” Alice suggested.

  “Maybe you’re right. Could you find some people and coach them? I’ve never skated.”

  Alice laughed. “Lots of people around here know how to ice skate. I’m surprised you don’t. I hope the ice rink company can set it up and get it to freeze fast,” she said, “so you can get promotional pictures soon.”

  Nate shivered and nodded. “Thanks.”

  Alice’s car was parked just outside the gate nearest the corporate office. Nate used his gloved hand to wipe snow off her door handle and then the windshield. As Alice drove her small SUV on the outer loop road around Starlight Point, the windows started steaming up until Nate reached over and adjusted the defrost settings.

  “Do you think Virginia would really skip her friend’s wedding?” he asked.

  Alice let out a long breath. “I wondered about that, too. I can’t understand why Virginia never mentioned we were planning her friend’s wedding—apparently a very close friend. It was odd.”

  “Her husband has been gone for a few years, right?”

  “Virginia?” Alice asked. “About five, I think.”

  “So you might think she’d consider moving on herself.”

  “I couldn’t say.”

  “I thought there might be a little something between Henry and Virginia,” Nate commented. Alice negotiated a steep curve around the Wonderful West part of the peninsula. The waves from the lake and bay rolled in large angry-looking sweeps of blue, gray and green. It would be freezing cold in the parking lot.

  “I noticed that, too.”

  “But if Virginia is adamantly opposed to her friend having a second chance at love, I guess she’s already ruled it out for herself,” Nate said.

  Alice sighed. This talk of second chances was loaded, heavy with their own personal history and speculation about other people.

  “I plan to talk to her about being her friend’s matron of honor in case she’s called upon. I can’t imagine she’d turn down someone she’s known for thirty years. How would her friend feel?”

  Nate shrugged.

  “Well I think her friend would feel terrible,” Alice said. “She’d feel guilty about being happy, and no one should feel guilty about finding happiness. Everyone deserves it.”

  “Can’t argue with that,” Nate said. “You could talk to Virginia.”

  Alice laughed. “That worked out so well at the Halloween nightmare. And the more I think about it, the more I realize it was all my fault. I knew they were wrong for each other. It was obvious at every meeting and planning session we had. I should have told them.”

  “You can’t tell people those things.”

  “Why not? If being honest avoids bigger mistakes, maybe we have a moral obligation to speak up. It might have helped work out their problems before they destroyed their big day.”

  If only she’d been honest with herself and put the brakes on wedding planning long enough to evaluate whether or not marriage was something she and Nate were ready for. Had he really never seen it coming?

  “You tried to do the right thing, and I respect that,” he said. “But sometimes brutal honesty is just brutal, nothing more.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  REHEARSAL DINNERS ARE not my favorite, Alice thought. She loved weddings. Planning the music, flowers, vows, colors and food were the fun parts of beginning a life together. Nothing made her happier than going to the florist’s shop with a bride to decide on daisies or roses. Even though she’d imagined herself planning other special events, her time at Starlight Point had made her love the moment when the bride walked down the aisle to join the waiting groom. Her heart lifted with each step the bride and her party took, and she adored seeing the groom’s expression of wonder.

  She had never given Nate an opportunity to have that look. Knowing how carefully he reserved his feelings, would he have given his heart away with his expression?

  The night before the wedding when the party gathered to begin the official transformation of bride and groom to husband and wife should be a happy time of waiting, like Christmas Eve. But to Alice, it brought back the night before her own wedding when she had finally gathered the courage to say no.

  “You can’t believe how surprised I am to be here,” Henry said, leaning close to Alice as she watched the guests arriving and finding their seats.

  She turned and found Henry wearing a dark suit with a burgundy tie. “You look dangerously handsome.”

  Henry pulled at his tie. “I swore I’d never wear a tie again after I retired from the airline.”

  “Virginia must have been very convincing when she asked you to dress up and be her date.”

  “Yes, but she asked me at the last minute, which isn’t too flattering. Maybe everyone else turned her down.”

  Alice smiled. “You know that’s not true. Tonight is also the early Thanksgiving feast for employees in the ballroom, so she was probably thinking of going to that instead. That’s where the rest of her family is. She wasn’t committed to attending this wedding until recently, and she was probably being courteous to you by not dragging you into her indecision.”

  “I wouldn’t have minded. What I’d like to know is how you convinced her to come to this wedding.”

  Alice shrugged. “It wasn’t the hardest thing I’ve done all summer. She needed an impartial person to talk to. Her own children are too close to the situation.”

  “She could have talked to me.”

  “You,” Alice said, shaking her head and pointing playfully at Henry, “are definitely too close to the situation.”

&
nbsp; “How’s that?”

  Alice had said too much. She wanted to be truthful and tell Henry that his company was the reason Virginia was so conflicted about her friend getting married. He had to see it for himself already. If other widows in Virginia’s circle of friends could find love a second time around, it made it even more plausible and frightening for Virginia.

  “You should take your seat at the head table.” Alice pointed toward the long table where the bride, groom and bridal party were seated.

  “I don’t really belong there since I just met the bride today.”

  “You’re there for Virginia, just keep that in mind. She needs a nice steady rock like you right now.”

  “Thanks. Every man loves being labeled nice and steady.” Henry laughed. “I’m glad to say it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever been called.”

  Henry strode to the table of honor and took his seat next to Virginia. He exuded confidence in everything he did, and Alice could easily imagine him at the controls of a passenger jet. The big question was how he would navigate his relationship with Virginia. Alice knew from her conversation with Virginia that she liked Henry enough for it to worry her. Having lost someone she loved very much, she wasn’t sure she could take a chance on someone new.

  The rehearsal dinner began with a brief toast from the bride’s son and the groom’s daughter. Unlike weddings of young people, the toast did not include slanderous stories of wild bachelor days. Instead, the family members of the soon-to-be husband and wife expressed simple joy at their parents’ happiness.

  When the bride stood up to speak, the entire restaurant fell silent. Alice’s chest flared with pain and she struggled to draw a breath. What was the bride going to say?

  She vividly remembered the stunned silence after she’d stood at her rehearsal dinner and quietly told the assembled friends and family that she had changed her mind and would not be marrying Nate Graham. What had Nate thought at the time? She regretted that she would never know. He didn’t fight, didn’t risk a scene. Simply stared coldly as she walked out.

  In the hours, days and weeks that had followed, Alice had expected him to show up on her doorstep demanding an explanation, even fighting to get her back. Instead, silence. Was he secretly glad she called it off and she was the one who looked like the bad guy? She remembered his face whenever she’d said I love you. He always responded appropriately, saying the three little words cautiously. Who says I love you cautiously, even if it is most dangerous sentence in the world?

  “Thank you for coming this evening,” the bride said. Alice waited, intent on every word. “Getting married at our ages is not the same as getting married when you’re twenty or twenty-five. At that age, you have no idea what life is going to throw at you, but you’re darn sure you can face it if you just have love.”

  The silver-haired bride paused, and Alice watched Virginia’s expression. She looked as if she was witnessing something painful but was helpless to do anything about it. Was she hoping her friend would change her mind, even at the last moment?

  “Believe me, I’m sure we’ve both had second thoughts, even wondered what possessed us to fall in love when we were least expecting it.” She turned to her intended groom and put a hand on his shoulder. A flash went off and Alice followed the bright trail back to the man holding the camera.

  Nate, wearing his PR neutral smile.

  He caught Alice’s eye and they stood frozen in the bizarre experience of listening to a bride at a rehearsal dinner express honest feelings about second thoughts. Nate’s expression hardened and he looked away. Alice swallowed the lump in her throat and focused on the beautiful bride who was twice as brave as Alice for going through with two weddings in one lifetime.

  “But loving someone is worth risking everything. So thank you to everyone for joining us. Especially to my dear friend Virginia who has always stood by my side and is standing in tomorrow for my sister who wasn’t able to get here from Arizona. Mike and I want to express our love and gratitude to our children and extended family for welcoming our decision to get married.”

  Alice released the breath she’d been holding.

  The bride raised her glass. “To the future.”

  As guests lifted their glasses, Alice stole a look at Virginia. Her glass hovered in the air and she exchanged a quick glance with Henry before sipping the champagne.

  “To the future,” Alice whispered. She risked a glance and discovered Nate was gone. He’d taken a good picture for his blog and then taken off as fast as he could go.

  As soon as she could slip away, Alice left the marina restaurant, swung through the open park gate and crossed the wide midway to the ballroom. She was starving after a long day. The turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pies she’d seen on the menu for the employee dinner were calling her name. As she approached the ballroom, a tall man exited through the glass doors.

  “Nate,” Alice said, halting his movement. What could she say after that rehearsal dinner had chafed so many old wounds. She hadn’t asked him if he planned to attend the employee party, and now she wondered why he was leaving right after he’d gotten there. “You’re already leaving?”

  He nodded. “I only stopped by for a while. I didn’t want to be unfriendly or ungrateful to the Hamiltons. I love this job. But I have a...family thing...tonight.”

  “Your dad?”

  Nate nodded. If she had married him, they would be talking about her father-in-law and sharing the burden of caring for a loved one. But when she’d rejected Nate, she’d also rejected his family. Did his father face cancer with a neutral everything’s fine expression? Is that where Nate had learned to mask his feelings and soldier through life?

  Nate cleared his throat. “I don’t like leaving him alone any more than I have to.” He held up a bag filled with foam takeout containers. “The food inside looks terrific, and I’m headed home to share it with him.”

  “I’ll be thinking of you.” Alice put a hand on Nate’s shoulder, almost expecting him to brush it off. Instead, he pulled her into a long wordless hug.

  Having Nate’s arms around her made the entire Starlight Point midway slip away, as if they were standing on an island. The intimacy brought every one of her feelings to the surface, and she pulled away from him, intending to finally have the honest conversation they both needed.

  She was ready to tell him it was time to dig up old feelings, but when she saw his face, she stopped. His lip quivered a little, but his face was still pulled into a calm expression as if hugging his ex-fiancée on a darkened midway didn’t move him at all.

  What would?

  He walked away a moment later without a word, and Alice pictured him getting into his car—a dark blue sedan—and driving across the Point Bridge. Alone, physically and emotionally.

  Alice shoved through the ballroom door into cheerful lighting, music and the tantalizing aroma of good food. Such a contrast. She picked up a white china plate from the end of a long table covered with silver chafing dishes and started down the line with every intention of heaping her plate full. It was the only way she could fill the empty space left from her encounter with Nate.

  “Over here,” June called when Alice got to the end of the line. June half stood and waved.

  Alice strode over to June’s table and plunked down her plate on the bright red tablecloth. “Getting a drink. Be right back.”

  She walked past sparkling red punch bowls. A variety of mini cans of sodas on ice. Pitchers of water and iced tea. All lovely, but Alice went for the waiting bartender who only had one question. “Red or white?”

  “I think it’s an occasion for red,” Alice said.

  She balanced her full glass of red wine and walked carefully back to the table.

  “How is our mother behaving?” June asked. “My sister and I have been wondering.” Evie was just down the table with her husband, but she was talking
to someone else. Alice noticed she had a glass of water instead of wine, and Evie glowed with happiness. She wished she could have been there for the weddings of the three Hamiltons that had taken place three years in a row. June had shown her pictures, knowing her love of big events. They were all beautiful but different, and everyone in the Hamilton family seemed so happy. What about Virginia? She deserved a happy ending, too.

  “When I left the rehearsal dinner, she was playing poker with the best man and knocking back shots of Jack Daniels,” Alice joked, trying to put June at ease.

  June grinned. “Good. I was afraid she wasn’t going to have fun. She’s taking her friend’s wedding much too seriously. Sheesh,” June said, leaning back in her chair, “you’d think she was the one getting married.”

  Alice cocked her head but didn’t comment.

  “What?” June asked. “You have that look you get when you want to tell someone exactly what you think but you’re too nice. I’ve seen you use it at least twelve times this summer.”

  “I’m not too nice,” Alice said. “It’s just that sometimes the absolute truth does more harm than good.”

  “Hard to believe,” Mel said. He had liberated a bottle of wine from the bar and refilled his glass and his wife’s. He set the bottle in the middle of the table.

  “What do you want to tell me about my mother?” June pressed.

  “Nothing you don’t already know.”

  When June was silent, Mel filled in the gaps. “Virginia is having a little fling with a seasonal employee. We’ve all been there.”

  “Enough wine for you,” June said.

  “This is a nice party,” Alice said. She forked a piece of turkey and enjoyed it slowly instead of being drawn into June’s questioning. The gravy was heavenly and its flavor warmed Alice as she surveyed the room. Although Starlight Point employed two thousand seasonal employees for the summer months, the year-round staff was much smaller. Numbering only about a hundred, they were a close-knit family.

  “I wish Nate could have stayed,” June said. “He seems to like it here, and he’s done a great job with our media presence. Almost as if it’s an obsession with him to be everywhere at once covering everything.”