The Rejected Writers' Christmas Wedding (The Southlea Bay Series Book 3)

by Suzanne Kelman

  Dan flexed his fist, and Lottie tapped him on the shoulder. “John will get what’s coming to him. Mark my words: what goes around comes around. I actually think he was gut wrenched that Flora got a hold of that information. I truly believe he was going to destroy the letter before she received it, so he isn’t all bad. We think he came here with an evil intent, but we all won him over with our fabulous small-town charm.” Her eyes sparkled.

  “I want to get going as soon as possible,” Dan said. “That’s why I’m here. It’s going to take about three or four hours to get up to Leavenworth. We have no time to lose. I’m not sure what I did to upset her, but I want her to have a friend when I get there, and maybe I’m not it . . .” His voice trailed off, and he looked down at his hands.

  Lavinia took hold of one of them and squeezed it tightly. “We’ll be ready in a jiffy. Taking off in the middle of the night is my and Lottie’s specialty.”

  “Why don’t you go and get the car gassed up, and pick us up at six o’clock?” Lottie suggested.

  “Oh Lord, is it only five thirty?” said Lavinia.

  “I hope no one from my church sees me,” Lottie said. “It will look bad, me leaving town with a young man at six in the morning.”

  “Not for me,” said Lavinia with a wry smile. “People wouldn’t expect anything less.”

  Her eyes twinkled as she let Dan out the door, and the ladies made their way up the stairs to get ready. Pulling out their overnight cases, they started packing their clothing.

  “Something warm,” said Lavinia.

  “Then we’ll need those blue boots,” added Lottie.

  “Lottie,” said Lavinia.

  Lottie continued to pack the pink raincoats. “I know what you’re going to say. Black pumps.” Lottie hovered in front of her case. “I think we should tell him something before he sees Flora, about the letter. Otherwise, he may want to turn around and not go after her. He may just be too heartbroken.”

  “But he may not want to go at all, then,” stressed Lavinia as she tossed some pantyhose into her suitcase. “We have to give Flora a chance to put this right.”

  “Violet blouses,” mumbled Lottie as Lavinia headed for her underwear drawer.

  Lottie slammed her hands down on her case with frustration. “I still can’t believe it. Flora married! She’s as quiet as a church mouse and barely leaves the island. What if the whole thing is a mistake, or even a forgery?”

  Her attention in her underwear drawer, Lavinia furrowed her brows. “If it’s a forgery, why did Flora take off? There has to be some truth in it. Otherwise we’d be hearing about it at one of our Rejected group meetings, in one of her ‘I wonder what’s happened to all the good in the world’ poems.”

  “Good point,” said Lottie, adding, “Red skirt.”

  “We don’t own a red skirt.”

  “I mean shirt,” said Lottie, preoccupied.

  Suddenly, their phone rang. Lottie headed down the stairs to pick it up, saying, “It isn’t even five forty-five and we have people calling and knocking down the door.”

  She didn’t allow her irritation to creep into her voice when she picked up the receiver. It was Ruby.

  “I was ringing my Tibetan singing bowls on the beach, and my inner goddess told me to give you a call.”

  “Yes, we’re going to Leavenworth. Dan thinks Flora might be there. I’ll call Dan and tell him to pick you up if you like.” Then Lottie had a thought. “Ruby?”

  “Yes?”

  “What’re you wearing right now?”

  “My birthday suit,” she said and chuckled. “You know I hate wearing clothes when I’m meditating.”

  “But it’s freezing out there,” Lottie shrieked back.

  “Bracing,” corrected Ruby.

  “Well, I think it might be appropriate to put something on before that young man gets there. He doesn’t need any more shocks this week.”

  “Oh, OK, Mom” she said in a singsong tone. “I’ll throw something on. Namaste.”

  “Ham and what?” inquired Lottie into the silent receiver. Realizing Ruby had gone, she muttered, “Bless her heart” absently as she hung up the phone.

  When Dan returned, both the twins stood in the driveway with their little suitcases at their feet. In the car was Ruby, now dressed in a snow suit. Dan jumped out, asking, “Are you ready?”

  Lavinia looked at the tiny car and said, “I hope you don’t think we’re all going to travel in that bumper car. We’re not clowns, you know.”

  Dan looked at his little Honda like he hadn’t even thought about what it would take to get them all in.

  “We also have to pick up Annie on the way. She wants to come. She came along for the cross-country craziness we went on, and she and Flora became very close. She thinks she might be able to help that poor girl see some reason. I called Janet, too, but she has grandbabies right now, so her brain’s all Jell-O, though she said she might try to drive down herself and meet us there.”

  “Well, if we don’t take my car, what do you suggest?” asked Dan.

  “The Cadillac, of course,” said Lottie, as if that was her plan from the beginning. “We always keep the tank full, and that old car likes a nice little journey now and again. We’ll enjoy the wind in our hair.”

  “Even though it’s like thirty degrees,” added Lavinia. “Annie’s still getting hot flashes. She’ll probably need the top down to keep her cool.”

  Dan seemed bemused by all this female information, looking especially tired after what Lavinia surmised was two nights of no sleep.

  “OK,” said Dan, apparently anxious to get on the road.

  “She’s in the garage. Would you be a dear and pull her out into the driveway for us?” said Lavinia, flashing a warm smile and batting her eyelashes.

  Ten minutes later, they were all loaded into the twins’ blue Cadillac. It was clean as a whistle, and the cream upholstery was shiny, the chrome newly polished.

  “We only had it detailed last week,” said Lottie as they all climbed in. “May as well travel in comfort. Now, let’s pick up Annie on the way and get going.”

  Dan pulled out of the twins’ driveway as Lavinia, who had commandeered the front seat, brushed his hand with hers, saying, “Don’t worry, Dan. We’re going to find your bride and bring her back. You’re going to have the perfect wedding, and Flora is going to get married.”

  Lavinia then turned her head back and couldn’t resist adding the word “again” in a whisper to her sister, who tapped her shoulder and mouthed “Lavinia!” in a silent outcry.

  Ruby pulled out a CD from her little Ban the Bomb bag and handed it to Dan. “Here,” she said. “For the journey.”

  He pushed it into the CD player and the song “Turn! Turn! Turn!” filled the car. They all couldn’t help but join in the chorus—all except Dan, whose eyes and thoughts were fixed on the road.

  As they pulled into Annie’s farm, and Dan slowed the car to a stop barking escalated. Annie had kept kennels for many years and didn’t even seem to hear it anymore as they all shouted their greetings. Already packed, she jumped into the car, and they made their way to catch the seven a.m. ferry.

  They arrived just in time.

  “This is great. We’ll be there by ten,” commented Dan as he parked the Cadillac on the ferry. They had twenty minutes before they arrived at the other side.

  “I think I need a cup of coffee and some air to keep me awake,” said Lavinia. “Do any of you want anything?”

  They all shook their heads as Lavinia got out of the car and made her way up the stairs to the upper deck.

  Chapter 15

  Ferry Forays & Moments of Truth

  John sped down the hill and just managed to slide into the last space on the early-morning ferry. He shut off the engine and hunched over the steering wheel of his Pinto, which he’d slept in overnight. He had finally gotten the money from a friend to get him off the island. He was tired and cold and ready to get out of this place . . . or was he? He felt
a knot in the pit of his stomach. Every time he thought of Flora, he felt this churning guilt. These people had been nothing but kind to him, and he’d repaid them by ruining Flora’s wedding.

  He pushed his hand deep into his pocket and located his cigarette box—it was empty. He looked around until he spotted a set of stairs and wondered if there was somewhere to get cigarettes up there. He managed to disentangle himself from his car and stand up, feeling stiff and tired.

  He scanned the cars around him; this seemed to be a commuter ferry. The majority of the people appeared to be going to work. Everyone looked like they were from somewhere and had a place to be. He not only didn’t fit—he had no place to be. No one cared if he lived or died. He used to like that about his life; it made him feel free as a bird. Now seeing all these travelers made him feel lost somehow. He hated that. He pulled his jacket close around his neck, shoved his hands deep into his pockets, and made his way up the stairs. He headed to the coffee counter and bumped into someone who was turning with a cup in her hand.

  “John!” she exclaimed. It was Lavinia.

  He looked frantically around for a place to escape to, but the coffee counter was packed and he was blocked in at every turn.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere.” The concern in her voice disarmed him for a minute. So there had been no posse to run him out of town on a rail? He was sure if he saw anyone again, he would’ve gotten punched in the nose.

  “Ms. Lavinia,” he said, “I have to go.”

  “We’re on a twenty-minute ferry trip. There is nowhere for you to go. I need to speak to you right now. You ran off before anyone could straighten this thing out.”

  For a minute, John had a glimmer of hope. “Did Flora come back?”

  “Why don’t you take my cup of coffee, and you and I can go and have a little talk about that?” she said, smiling.

  John felt trapped. He hadn’t expected to see any island people again, and here he was, face-to-face with one of the very people he was trying to escape. Lavinia found a table and sat down. “Stop looking at me like that,” she commented. “I ain’t the principal of the high school. This is me—Lavinia. There isn’t one thing you’ve thought up that I haven’t done. I know exactly how you feel right now, believe me.”

  He looked down at the table, hanging his head. “You don’t understand. I did a terrible thing to Flora.”

  Lavinia smiled. “You mean sending her a letter with her wedding certificate in it?”

  He looked up, shocked.

  “Lottie and I found it. But don’t worry, no one knows about it but us. Now, we’re going to start at the beginning, and you’re going to tell me the whole story.”

  John could see he wasn’t going to get away with not telling her everything. She had a persuasive air—and besides, he liked the old girl. She’d obviously lived in her day, and she had always been nice to him. He swallowed deeply and realized he wanted a cigarette, powerfully, with all his might, but that would have to wait. “It’s a long story,” he said.

  “Why, I have the whole ferry ride!” said Lavinia, batting her eyelashes.

  “Two years ago, I met a guy named Andy. He was a graphic artist, and he needed someone to help him with an extension. Andy and I hit it off, and we started hanging out together. One night, we went out drinking, and he talked about how he was considering proposing to his girlfriend. And then he joked about how it wouldn’t be like the last marriage. Apparently, he’d had a great opportunity to go and work in the States, and he talked this girl, Flora, into marrying him for a green card. She had been getting an art degree up there. He had the idea that if he married an American citizen, all his troubles could be over.”

  “That sounds like something Flora would do. She is a little naive and helpful to a fault.”

  “Anyway, they got married. Everything went according to plan, or so they thought. But getting the annulment didn’t turn out as easy as he’d thought. He didn’t have the heart to let Flora know since she’d been so kind to him. So he lied to her and told her the annulment had taken place and everything would be fine, thinking he’d figure it out after she had gone.

  “Fast forward a few years, and here I was with Andy, who was on the verge of proposing to this girl, and he’d lost touch with Flora. All he remembered about her was she lived on an island somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. He managed to finalize the divorce a few months ago and wanted to get the paperwork to her. And I offered to do that for him—for a price, of course.”

  “Of course,” said Lavinia tartly.

  “That’s when I saw dollar signs. If she didn’t have the paperwork, I could lead her on, telling her she was still married and offer a price to solve her problem, pretend I was going to serve the papers to Andy, get paid both ways. I thought she might have a life here, a boyfriend, or a wealthy family, someone I could leverage for some money.”

  Lavinia sipped her coffee as he continued.

  “She was hard to track down, but eventually I found an article in the Bay Breeze about a show she was in last year to raise money. But when I got here and found out she was actually in the process of getting married, that meant I had even more power. That’s when the whole plan backfired. I was going to give her the official final divorce paperwork the morning she disappeared—I swear—then I found out the original letter I wrote, demanding money and telling her she was still married, had gone missing.”

  Lavinia nodded. “That’s some story, but all that matters”—she took his hand—“is that you really did plan to do the right thing. Do you still have the documents that prove her divorce is final?”

  “Yes,” he said and nodded. “In the car.”

  “Why don’t you come with us to Leavenworth? You can tell Flora yourself how sorry you are. Things could still be saved so she knows it’s OK to marry Dan.”

  John shook his head. “I’m bad luck. There’s no place for me in this.”

  Lavinia cocked an eyebrow “Honey, believe me, there is always hope.”

  An announcement came over the speakers, telling the passengers they would be arriving at the dock shortly and they should return to their cars.

  John jumped to his feet. “I need to get back on the road. Let me give you the papers, and maybe if you find Flora, she’ll have a wedding after all.”

  Lavinia followed him quietly to his car, and he handed her a large manila envelope. She took it and looked at him. “Are you sure you don’t want to give it to her yourself? I think it would do you a lot of good to find forgiveness.”

  For a moment, it looked as if John was considering it. Then he took a deep breath, pulling his jacket up around his ears. Giving her a half smile, he got into the car, adding, “You’re not as bad to the bone as you make out, Ms. Lavinia.”

  Lavinia smiled and took it as a compliment. She put the large envelope in her purse and signaled to him to lower his window.

  “Good-bye, John. We’ll miss you.” When she gently kissed him on the cheek, he seemed visibly shocked by it, and Lavinia couldn’t help saying as she walked off, “Those kisses don’t come cheap, so make sure you savor that one.”

  She arrived back at the car just as the ferry bumped gently into its mooring. Lottie was wringing her hands, beside herself.

  “My goodness, Lavinia, where on earth have you been? We’ve been getting really worried.”

  Lavinia slipped into the passenger seat of the Cadillac and pulled down the mirror, cool as ice. She pulled out her lipstick and gracefully reapplied a coat. Then she said quietly, after pushing her lips together to coat them evenly, “I got myself some nice fresh air.”

  The next morning, I was up early. I hadn’t slept well. The painkillers had done their job well enough, but sleeping in the cast had been uncomfortable. It woke me up several times in the night. I sneaked into Stacy’s room. Both twins had left their beds and were draped over her in one fashion or another. James had his foot in her face, and Livvy was lying across the p
illow, trapping Stacy by the hair. I grabbed her phone to take a picture, but I didn’t want to risk the chance of waking any of them, so I crept down to the kitchen to try to figure out Stacy’s phone. I pulled up the message tab by mistake and found lots of messages from Chris. He sounded sad and confused. To me, it just confirmed that I was doing the right thing.

  I located Chris’s number and walked out on the deck, huddling in my heavy robe and slippers. It was a lovely, fresh morning, and the squirrels leaped around in the grass, looking for any traces of food. I smiled as I dialed the number.

  He picked it up on the second ring. “Stace,” he said. The desperation and relief was obvious.

  I felt a pang and hoped that I was still doing the right thing.

  “No, Chris, it’s me, Janet,” I said.

  “Oh,” he said, disappointed. Then, as an afterthought: “Is everything OK? Are the twins OK?”

  “Yes,” I said. “They’re having a marvelous time up here with us. They seem to be changing by the day.” I automatically regretted saying that, knowing how sad he would feel to be missing out on their lives. “Look, I’m going to get straight to the point. I think you need to come up here and spend some time on the island. I think you and Stacy need some quality time together. You two belong together, and for the sake of the babies, you should at least give it a try.”

  There was a long silence on the other end and I wasn’t sure if he’d hung up. Then he spoke. “Does Stacy know you’re calling me?”

  For a second there, I heard hope in his voice. I didn’t want to take that hope from him, but I needed to be honest. “No, she doesn’t, Chris. But you and I know this can’t be the end of the story. Raising children can be very hard, and there’s a lot of work. Raising two at the same time and the same age is very hard, indeed. It’s going to take both a mommy and a daddy to do it. Please, I think it would be a good thing if you and Stacy just took some time away from work and your own pressures at home.”