A Wedding in Truhart

by Cynthia Tennent

  Mom introduced them to everyone and after quick nods they dumped their helmets, tore off their suits, grabbed seats across from June and Scarlett, and made themselves comfortable. June and Scarlett’s eyebrows were almost lost in their hairlines as they stared at Marva’s green sweater covered in cherries, and Corinne’s penciled-in black eyebrows and over-bleached hair.

  “So, what was Tom Cruise really like when you interviewed him last winter?” I heard Corinne ask Scarlett.

  “He’s old news, Corinne,” Marva interrupted. “I want to hear about that actress who had the wardrobe malfunction at the Academy Awards. Don’t you think that was a publicity stunt?”

  Mom and I were clearing the last of the serving dishes when Charlotte walked over and put her hand on Mom’s arm. “Mom, isn’t there some way you can get rid of them?”

  “Now, honey, they’re harmless. Just let them get it out of their system. Scarlett must know how to field those types of questions, after all. Why don’t you relax?”

  Charlotte shook her head and frowned. “I can’t.” She moved closer to the table and hovered, wringing her hands. Several times she tried to change the subject and failed miserably.

  Alain stopped me as I poured him more coffee. He had just started his third pastry. “I will need some extra help today and tomorrow. Your sister says you will be a good assistant.”

  “Of course. Just let me know when you need me.” I tried to be polite.

  “Merci, mademoiselle.”

  I turned around and bumped into a broad chest. The room fell away from me.

  “Good morning,” Nick said. His cheeks were red and I could still see snowflakes on his eyebrows. I felt heat rush to my face and wondered if he could feel it where he stood. The gleam in his eyes made me want to run my hands along his naked skin all over again.

  “Good morning,” I said. For a moment we just stood there grinning. Travis Hartwick walked up and slapped Nick on the back.

  “Pretty as a picture out there, isn’t it? But colder than a witch’s tit, I’ll bet. Heh, heh. Gotta say, I am glad we don’t have to deal with this kind of weather in Atlanta.”

  Aunt Addie rose from her seat at June and Scarlett’s table, where she had been listening to the gossip. “It might be a little cold here, but I’d rather have snow than deal with your hot summers. Honestly, Atlanta was hotter than a goat’s butt in a pepper patch when we were there,” she yelled across the room.

  Alain choked on his pastry. Moving faster than I thought possible, Aunt Addie rushed up to him and whacked her hand on his back. “You okay, Alan?”

  You could put Aunt Addie in the palace with the queen and she would act the same way she did in the grocery store.

  The sounds of a piano chord filled the room and I stifled a moan. The crew finished running sound and light checks, and as if on cue, Ian tried to make the most of it. When he opened his mouth to sing Charlotte flew across the room and grabbed his wrists.

  “Not now, brother dear,” she said through gritted teeth.

  “But I’m just warming up,” said Ian.

  Henry and Mom pulled them off each other and the morning went downhill from there.

  I barely had a moment to speak with Nick as I found myself running races around the inn. I cleaned up breakfast, double-checked the details for tomorrow’s wedding meal, helped our two temporary housekeepers find extra linens and supplies, and trailed after Alain as he scouted out backgrounds for wedding pictures. At one point he and I trudged through the snow and wind, trying to get the right angle on the back of the inn, which he wanted to use as the background for some kind of artistic pose he had planned. I didn’t know how he thought he was going to get the ladies to stand in the snow in three-inch heels, but every time I made a suggestion, he shook his head as if I had no idea what I was doing. After a while I kept my mouth shut. My feet were getting numb and my arm ached from holding his clear umbrella over his head to keep the camera dry. I rolled my eyes later when he said “Voilà!” to my original camera angles as if he had figured it all out on his own.

  When we returned to the inn and shook the snow off our coats, we found Nick and Travis Hartwick sitting in the lobby surrounded by paperwork. Brittany sat beside Nick on the couch. She was so close that I wanted to pry her off with a crowbar. She looked glossy and fresh in a white ribbed turtleneck, black jeans and boots. Her perfectly plucked eyebrows rose as she looked me up and down.

  I was pretty sure my earlier glow had worn off hours ago. I pulled off my old knit ski hat and my static-filled hair clung to my face. My armpits were moist from trudging through the snow and my nose was wet.

  Nick frowned at me. I must have looked like his mother’s dog, Lucifer, after a romp in the pond. I shook out the umbrella and Alain handed me his coat before collapsing on the couch.

  “Je suis fatigué! Can you dry off my camera bag and make sure to put my equipment someplace safe, mademoiselle? I don’t want anyone playing with it while I rest,” he said.

  “Annie—” Nick said. I looked over, but before he could finish, Travis interrupted him with a comment about the building codes in some business district. Whatever they were discussing, it sounded important. Nick was pulled back into the discussion. I hung up the coats and decided to take the camera equipment into the back office where it would be away from Aunt Addie and Marva’s clumsy feet.

  The office was dim when I entered and I didn’t see the pile of boxes near the desk. I tripped over them, almost dropping my precious cargo. Setting the equipment down, I let my hands linger over the camera case. With reverence and only a little guilt, I opened the clasp and lifted the lid. For a minute I just ogled. I used to dream of lenses and filters like these. I lifted the camera from where it was nestled in gray foam and slowly brought it to my chest, measuring the delicate balance in my hand. The Nikon was first-rate and one of the most expensive on the market. I removed the cover and lifted it to my eye. Pleasure passed through my pores at the power I felt, holding that beautiful piece of equipment in my hands. But something akin to torment got the best of me. I set the cover back on and tucked the camera away. I would never own anything like that in a million years.

  When I turned to leave I stopped to pick up the overturned box I had tripped over. Still thinking about the way the camera felt in my hands, I almost missed the words written on the pages in front of me. “Terms of Sale.”

  I looked more closely. There must be some mistake. I flipped on a light switch and looked again. All of a sudden my legs gave out and I sat down on the floor to reread the page. It took a while for the words to sink in. I couldn’t believe it. Feeling light-headed and short of breath, I rifled through the rest of the documents.

  Inside the box were bills and notices warning of a possible foreclosure on the inn. Paper-clipped documents on top outlined the terms of sale to a commercial real estate agent whose name I recognized. The agent was known around the county for reselling property to bargain-basement land developers. That explained the surprisingly low price. It was a steal by any measure.

  I knew I shouldn’t be surprised. This was what my mother warned me could happen. But somehow I hadn’t expected it to be so soon. Our home—our livelihood—was being sold right out from under us. And what was worse, the foreclosure notices pointed to the fact that Mom had little choice in the matter.

  No wonder Mom looked ten years older this morning. The dates on the documents indicated they had all been drawn up in the past week. She had been keeping this a secret in order to spare us the worry during the wedding celebration.

  As Ian and I had been buying bedsheets, centerpieces, and designer shampoo, thinking we were helping, Mom had been dealing with a landslide of bills.

  How could I have been so naïve?

  I looked around me and felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness. For Mom, Aunt Addie, and our family—this was everything. The inn had been owned by Adlers for four generations. It was our home, our livelihood. And for me, well, I couldn’t imagine life witho
ut it.

  As a child I took my first steps behind the front desk, played tag down the hallways in the winter, and chased geese along the links of the golf course. I knew the inn like the back of my hand. I had committed to memory the trademark cookie and pastry recipes we prided ourselves on baking fresh every weekend morning. Like Aunt Adelaide, I could make a bed in thirty seconds flat, and sanitize a bathroom in less than ten minutes. Most people would have thought that was a pitiful thing to be proud of, but Aunt Addie actually timed me one summer.

  I wanted to grab the documents and throw them outside in the snow. I couldn’t let this happen. This would have killed my father.

  Chapter 18

  As I tackled the endless list of tasks for the wedding it seemed like I was dragging a hundred extra pounds around my neck. I felt like I was looking at everything through the wrong end of a telescope and I found myself unable to focus.

  Suddenly the wedding details seemed unimportant. Trivial.

  But conversations about the snow and the wedding dominated the day. In light of the snow, it was decided that the flowers and cake should be brought to the inn earlier rather than later. Fortunately the cake was ready to be transported to the inn. It took a while, but with the help of two men from the bakery, we were able to set the cake up in the corner of the dining room. It was simple and elegant. Charlotte worried it was too small, but Mom assured her there was plenty to feed an army.

  When the van with the flowers arrived, Ian, Nick, Kevin, and Richard helped unload. Mom stood at the door, opening and closing it on the gusting snow.

  “Oh, they look beautiful, don’t they?” she said, clapping her hands. I could only nod, afraid my voice wouldn’t make it past the permanent lump in my throat. I couldn’t look her in the eye. She knew me so well she would guess what I knew.

  “What do you think?” she asked Charlotte, who stood beside us.

  “Are we going to put anything else around them, like candles, or are they just going to go on the table with nothing?” Her words woke me from my haze. I looked at Charlotte and wondered if she knew how she sounded.

  Mom didn’t even notice. “We’ll have tea lights around them.”

  “Oh, that will be nice,” Charlotte said. But she sounded disappointed.

  I turned away, hating the direction my thoughts were taking. I began to understand why Mom didn’t want to tell us anything until after the wedding. We would never be able to muddle through all these insignificant details if we knew. What was a centerpiece compared to the loss of the inn?

  The flowers were carried to the storage room in the basement, where they would stay cool. I volunteered to count them, taking advantage of any opportunity to be alone. When I finally finished I wandered to my tiny darkroom under the stairs so that I could be alone. I crossed my arms and hugged myself, taking several deep breaths. We needed to get through tomorrow and then we could worry about the future. This weekend was about Charlotte. I said that over and over in my head. But it was a mantra that grew weaker and weaker the more I repeated it.

  I had just turned to go upstairs when I felt a hand on my waist, yanking me toward the dark landing. I barely had time to protest when my mouth was covered by a very warm set of lips. Despite my earlier worries, my body reacted instantly and I threw my arms around Nick’s shoulders and clung to him. I responded to Nick’s kisses with such intensity that I think I surprised him. After a few minutes, a rising panic inside me threatened to surface and I found myself gulping for air. I ripped my mouth away from Nick’s and buried my head in his neck.

  I refused to cry. If I repeated that to myself maybe it wouldn’t happen.

  Nick held me close and ran his hands along my back. “Annie? Are you okay?”

  I gripped his shoulders until I realized I was going to leave a mark, and broke away. I paced back and forth along the back wall of the alcove, trying to compose myself.

  Nick watched me and I could feel the intensity of his stormy gaze. “You’re working too hard, Annie. Let the rest of us do more.”

  I laughed bitterly. “If only it were just that.” I turned my head away. “This wedding is suddenly the least of my problems.”

  He put his hand to my chin and turned me toward him, studying my face. “You’ve been running yourself ragged for this wedding.”

  I debated whether I should keep my discovery from him, but this was Nick. The man I loved. And besides that, I felt an overpowering need to confide in someone.

  “My mom is selling the inn,” I blurted out in a shaky voice.

  It wasn’t what he thought I would say. He blinked. “What?”

  “I discovered a pile of foreclosure notices in her office. We are up to our ears in debt. I found a signed document outlining the terms of sale to a land developer.” I remembered how she and I had joked about the inn being turned into a landfill or a parking lot and felt my stomach churn.

  It really was happening. Reality hit me. What would Mom do? Where would she live? And Aunt Addie? She had spent most of her life here.

  “Annie, are you sure? Your mom never said anything about it to you before?”

  “We joked about it. I knew the bills were coming in and we were having trouble. But somehow I never thought it would really happen. If only I hadn’t lost my teaching position, I could have helped her out. I could have at least paid some bills off. I can’t believe she never even told me, Nick.”

  Nick pulled me toward him, where I could rest my head on his shoulder. “You’ve done so much to help your mom. Don’t feel guilty about losing your job. Your mom wouldn’t want you to use your paychecks to keep this place going.”

  “But—”

  Nick stopped my words with a tender kiss on the top of my head. His hands cupped my face and forced me to look at him. “We’ll think of something. After the wedding we’ll talk to your mom about it. Okay?”

  He kissed me again and put his arms around me. I didn’t think there was anything he could do, but somehow I didn’t feel so alone anymore. It was enough for the moment.

  Chapter 19

  When Nick and I returned to the lobby, we found everyone standing in front of the television in the corner. Mary Conrad had arrived and she sent Nick and me a curious gaze before turning back to the TV. We watched as the weatherman from the local television station pointed on the radar behind him to a solid pattern of dark blue covering the northern part of the state.

  “ ‘Almost thirty inches of snow has fallen in some parts of Northern Michigan and there is no end in sight,’ ” he said.

  Charlotte put her hand to her forehead. “This can’t be happening.”

  “It’s okay, Charlotte,” Brittany said. “This guy might be wrong. Look, his tie doesn’t even match his suit. What does he know? The weatherman on the GATE Network is sure this is no big deal.”

  Behind her, Ian smirked. “Hey, you know you’re right. A guy with a fifty-thousand-dollar wardrobe has to know more about weather than the local dude who buys his clothes from Kmart. I’ll remember that the next time I need a proctologist. Go for the guy with the Gucci tie.”

  Brittany didn’t know what to make of Ian. She blinked several times, opening and closing her mouth before turning back to the TV.

  “Hey,” said Ian, leaning closer to her ear. “Who wants to play snow golf?”

  “What’s that?” asked Kevin with interest.

  Ian described a game we played with golf clubs and an orange plastic ball in the snow. Kevin, Richard, and Jessica thought the game sounded like fun. They convinced Henry, Bebe, Patty, and even Brittany to join them. Ian narrowed his eyes at Brittany as she put on her designer ski jacket and boots. He looked like a wolf getting ready to gobble up Little Red Riding Hood. I supposed I should have warned her about Ian, but then again, maybe not.

  Several minutes later, I closed the back door on Bebe and Patty, who had just finished bundling up. I shivered from the gust of wind that invaded the inn and watched as they leaped through the snow to join the gathering crowd o
n the back nine. They were covered in white in no time and started throwing snowballs before the golf game began. I was pretty sure I saw Ian teach Brittany how to make a snowball. He threw back his head and laughed when she sprayed him with a poorly packed first attempt. I was glad they were having fun. Someone had to lighten the mood.

  Nick stood next to me, watching the scene outside. “Are you going too?” I asked. He might at least keep Ian from being overly vicious.

  “No, I’ll hang out here,” he said. “Grady is setting up some tables, and I thought I would help.”

  In the lobby, Charlotte sat on the couch next to June and Scarlett and called the airline. Her voice rose as she demanded to know when her dress would arrive. The longer she talked the redder her face grew. Eventually, June and Scarlett grabbed the phone to yell at the poor clerk. The snow had put a major snarl in travel up and down the Mid-Atlantic and the odds of the dress arriving before tomorrow looked bleak.

  Meanwhile, Mary, Aunt Addie, Marva, and Corinne huddled together discussing a plan. They pulled me into the conversation hoping I would support them. But I already knew what Charlotte’s reaction would be.

  “You want me to wear what!?” she said when she heard their proposal.

  “We can fix it up—it won’t be that bad.”

  “Mary, there is no way Aunt Addie’s dress will even fit me.”

  I stared at the floor, wishing I was outside with everyone else. The idea of redesigning Aunt Addie’s dress was crazy, but then again, what else could they do? My mom had borrowed her wedding dress from her cousin all those years ago, so using hers was out of the question.

  “Well, Mary is a wonderful seamstress, and with the help of a few people we could make the dress look like new,” explained Corinne.

  “I would be happy to do whatever I can. I have loads of prom dresses that I’ve made, hanging in the girls’ bedrooms,” Mary said. “They seemed to like them and you know how picky Jenny used to be about her clothes. I am sure we can figure out a way to make the dress look more updated.”