I expected Agatha to argue. Everybody does. They say I’ll ruin my clothing by having them scrape on the ground, but instead of an argument, I got a surprise.
Agatha and Teagan had come up with the perfect solution to a problem I didn’t even know I’d have.
Agatha stood behind me, something felt like it clicked, and the part of the dress that I described as a long sleeveless vest, came free. Agatha moved in front of me, released a little thing in the front, and off the overdress came. What it left behind was a strapless princess dress that was perfectly tailored to my body, made my waist look impossibly small, and ended just above my ankles with a hint of scalloped lace at the bottom.
Not Carrickmacross lace — I looked — but I wouldn’t be wearing my veil after I took off the overdress thingy.
Guy explained that the way he did my hair, all I would have to do was pull out a couple of combs he would have in place, and my veil would come off no problem.
The dress was more me than I thought. Something Lucille Ball would wear on her best day. I love those old black-and-white reruns when she wears the cigarette pants with the fabulous full skirt over them.
I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.
I actually held it together pretty well until I took my dress off. Considering how many pictures A.J.’s photographer friend took, it was a challenge.
Suzi and Teagan were in the room with me. I was afraid I’d step on the hem or something, so they were there as backup.
Teagan unzipped the dress for me, and I pulled it off my arms, straight forward. When I glanced down, I just about lost my mind.
I’m sure it was Teagan’s idea.
On the inside of the dress, right where my heart would be, Agatha had embroidered the word MOM. She would be close to my heart on my wedding day.
I lost it.
I lost it to the point that by the time I was done losing it, I had no makeup on at all.
I did have a bright red nose and swollen eyes.
Very attractive.
Teagan and Suzi were almost as much of a mess as I was.
It was good.
I’ve been holding on to a monumental cry for a while. I’ve done a pretty good job of mourning. I can get through most circumstances, and although Mom is always on my mind, I’ve gotten to the point that I smile when I think of her.
I miss her, but I’m healing.
I wonder if Teagan knew what she was doing to me — for me — or if she was just trying to do something sweet.
Doesn’t matter. That cry cleansed my soul.
I feel like I can enjoy my day now.
Thank you, Teagan.
NINE
WHEN I GOT home, I told A.J. all about it. Not about the dress, other than to say Teagan and Agatha had outdone themselves. I explained Suzi and I are pretty sure I’m Teagan’s practice run for her own wedding. He chuckled when I explained we were only half kidding.
If I’m gonna be a guinea pig, this is the way to do it. I think I would have been a pretty bride — I’ve never seen a bride that wasn’t pretty — but I wouldn’t have looked like I did in the mirror today.
A.J. jumped up like he’d been startled. “I bought you something.”
“Really?” I wondered what was causing his weird mood.
“Come with me.”
He led me out to the backyard. “Your father and I talked about this. I thought it was wrong, but he assures me it’s a good thing.”
I was confused but intrigued.
A.J. took my hand and led me to a corner of the backyard where the flowers were especially pretty. I noticed a little statue. The Child of Prague. I had one as a kid. I think my mother gave it to me when I was in fourth grade. When I was in the school’s Christmas play. It wasn’t the same statue. Mine had a beautifully embroidered red cape or vestment or whatever it was. I wonder what happened to mine.
A.J. brought me back to the moment. “Your father told me traditionally brides put this statue in the garden if they’re having an outdoor wedding. The belief is it will bring them good weather on their wedding day. He said a lot of brides bury it, but I’m really not comfortable burying a religious statue. What do you think?”
“We can place it right in among the beautiful flowers. Thank you for doing this.”
A.J. smiled.
I’m so lucky that A.J. cares enough about me to do all these things for me. I know he doesn’t share all of my beliefs, but he respects my right to believe them. He understands the difference between support and enabling, and he walks that line better than most.
I snuggled. “You do realize if we ever need to sell a house, we need to bury Saint Joseph in the front yard. If memory serves, we bury him upside down. I can’t remember. If the time ever comes, we’ll look it up.”
“Why would we bury Saint Joseph?”
“I don’t know why it works, but if you want to sell your house and you want it to be a really fair sale, you bury a statue of Saint Joseph. Some people bury him by the front door, some by the sale sign. I’ve never known it not to work.”
A.J. gave me a look. “Of course not. If you bury a statue of a saint, and it doesn’t work, are you really going to tell your friends?”
I laughed. “I guess not. But I’m all about superstitions, and this kind of stuff, too.”
“Having witnessed the great cutlery incident of last year, I would never doubt it. You dropped a drawer of silverware, and we had to prepare for an invasion of uninvited guests. And we don’t have to talk about you and your strange obsession with salt and pepper.”
I laughed. “When something comes between a couple, you have to say something that goes together. I don’t know why, it’s just a law of nature.”
“So if we walk on either side of a pole and you don’t whisper salt and pepper or peanut butter and jelly, we’re instantly going to break up?”
“Why take the chance?”
“Nothing will ever come between us, Cara.”
“Chances are something will try. I know whatever it is, we’ll work through it. If we can survive Barry and the fact my mother didn’t survive that stupid drunk driver, we can take on anything.”
I kissed him. “We have you to thank for that. Always. I hope you know that I know the reason we’re good is because you make us good.”
It was a good thing Suzi had stayed behind to talk to Agatha about good ways to build her underwater-photo dress designs. Gran had Evelyn for another hour and a half.
A.J. had taken her over to Adeline’s loft so the girls could have some quality spoiling time. Suzi was going to pick up Evelyn, and then grab some simple takeout for dinner.
We had the house to ourselves for a couple of hours, and we took advantage of it.
Suzi and Evelyn were in fine form.
Evelyn and A.J. have created a hybrid of vectoring in on Cheerios and peekaboo with a little I-got-your-nose thrown in for good measure.
Suzi and I were cooking.
“Gran told me she and the girls are thinking about going on a cruise.”
I did my best surprised look, but A.J. saw right through it. He laughed. “That sounds like fun.”
Suzi continued. “She said Adeline mentioned something about maybe inviting you. Gran tried to invite me, but I don’t think Evelyn would be happy on a boat.”
“A cruise ship is far from just a boat. Maybe you should think about it. I’m sure if you want to go, I could talk your boss into it.” I did a little butt wiggle. A.J. caught it and came over and snuggled in.
“I’m not really interested. I’m not a cruise person.”
“How do you know if you’ve never been?”
Suzi pulled a face. “You’ve never been zip-lining, and everybody you’ve ever met is sure you wouldn’t like it.”
“True, but that’s a heights thing. Are you afraid of the water?”
“I’m afraid of being bored to death.”
Was that a dig? At me? At my boring life? My less than exciting choices for entertainmen
t?
A.J. laughed and then jumped out of the way before I could take a swipe at him.
I gave Suzi a look. “Are you suggesting I’m boring?”
She gave me a huge smile. “Are a suggestion and a statement the same in your world?”
I chased Suzi around the kitchen and family room. A.J chased us both, holding Evelyn like she was Supergirl. She loved it and made all kinds of blissful noises.
I thought when I stopped to answer my phone, Suzi would act like a grown-up and allow me to do so in peace.
I thought wrong.
Roland is so formal it’s hard to deal with him while you’re running and laughing and a baby is in the background zooming from one spot to the next.
No doubt he could hear the chaos in the background. “Do you have a moment, or shall I call back?”
I gave my family my best mom look. They actually stopped in their tracks. What power!
“Sorry. What’s up?”
“I got you a wedding present. Actually, not me personally, but I’m claiming it.”
What I wanted to say was: You mean someone got to Barry in prison?
I took a second to ask if I could put him on speaker, since it was a wedding present and everything, which allowed me to take a couple of deep breaths so I didn’t say anything totally callous in front of Suzi. I’m still a little bit revenge-centric when it comes to Barry.
I found the perfect tone of voice. I’m getting better at this stuff. “Meaning?”
“We caught the kids trying to make entrance into your home.” His tone changed. “They’re very sorry. They’ll not do it again.”
Something in his tone alarmed me. “You guys didn’t do anything to them, did you?”
“Of course. We explained, in detail, their options. How they could take this opportunity to turn their lives around and become upstanding citizens, or how they could ignore this opportunity to better themselves and perhaps find themselves on the wrong side of some serious bars in a segregated housing unit in a prison. I assured each and every one of them — in separate rooms, of course — with our connections, it would be guaranteed to be an exceptionally nasty prison. We then pointed out their families would disown them, and they would become the best friends of a big pervert named Bubba. Turns out the little snots are very upper middle class. Entitled. Spoiled. Stupid.”
I couldn’t help myself. “I hope you weren’t too hard on them.”
“There’s no such thing as being too hard on these types of young men. They’re making terrible choices that could not only alter the course of their lives in a negative way, but they also believe it’s okay to bully and victimize law-abiding citizens such as yourself and, more importantly, Adeline. Any little worm willing to terrorize an elderly female — or anyone else, for that matter — doesn’t deserve to be coddled.”
“They were going after Adeline?”
“One of the little idiots bragged about the fact they’d moved on from you to Adeline. Said they figured they could grab and go with the purses of the old bitches and then have their keys and entry to their homes and businesses. They were going to use the cover of that knockout game. Evidently, it’s starting up again. Some little punk walks up to someone they obviously outweigh or can easily take advantage of and tries to punch them hard enough to knock them out.”
“That would be a mistake.”
“Took everything I had not to teach them a lesson right then and there. I hate a coward. Only a coward would assault a group of senior citizens. To my eye, there’s no redemption for such an individual.”
“I agree there’s little worse, but no redemption might be a bit strong. What are you going to do with these guys? Are you going to inform Adeline?”
“For her protection and the protection of her friends, I need to tell her.” He took a calming breath. “The children and I had a little talk once I had gathered myself. We obtained information, and then we used said information to formulate the best possible way to achieve a positive outcome.”
“I’ll bet.”
“I — along with seven of my biggest guys — had what we might refer to as an intervention.”
“They saw the light?”
“They claim to. We’ll be working closely with them.”
“What does that mean?”
“We explained we would be on top of them for the foreseeable future. They could cooperate or not. Doesn’t matter to us in any way. One of the kids — more brain cells than the others — proposed an apprenticeship program where he could learn our trade and become a truly good guy.”
Roland chuckled. “First workout was immediate. Don’t think any of the kids will be moving too fast for the next few days. One of my guys is, shall we say, profoundly physically fit. He warms up with seventeen different plank exercises, taking just over twenty-five minutes. You ever plank for twenty-five minutes? Those kids won’t be able to move tomorrow, and it will be worse the next day.”
A.J. laughed, but I kind of felt bad for the kids.
I made the mistake of saying so.
Roland snapped. “They aren’t kids. They’re young men. In any other country in the world, they would be expected to act like it. We coddle our kids and spoil them rotten. We teach them luxuries are to be expected and responsibility is optional.”
I smiled. “Rough day?”
“I just called to let you know.”
With that, he was gone. I’d get further details later. I knew Roland’s next step would be to talk to Adeline. One of the reasons he was so stressed.
The silly mood we’d been in was broken.
I tried to point out the positive. “Things are looking up.” I spelled out Barry is back in prison where he belongs. If he’s stupid enough to try anything again, the authorities will be watching more closely this time.
It took a couple of tries. Spelling out each word one letter at a time.
When others try it for the first time, it always makes me laugh. My entire family can hold a complete conversation spelling instead of talking. My mother insisted the older kids learn the skill so we could communicate without the younger kids being able to understand. Now all the younger kids are grown, and we’ve another generation of kids to spell in front of.
I don’t think it’s right to say anything negative about Evelyn’s father in front of her. Period. He may be an idiot, but how I choose to deal with him in front of his daughter — at least while she’s a child — is more about me than him.
I continued, using words, not spelling everything. A.J. and Suzi seemed much more at ease. “The kids were caught. Don’t have to worry about them crashing the wedding. I’d say life is pretty near perfect.”
The look on A.J.’s face told me he wasn’t convinced.
“What’s wrong? You don’t look very … ”
“That’s two.”
“What?”
“When I met you, you and Teagan were all about everything happening in threes. That’s only two. It makes me a little nervous.”
“Don’t go there. Don’t bring anything negative to us. We’re good. Life is good. The wedding will be outstanding. More importantly, our marriage will be as close to perfect as the gods allow.”
Suzi shook her head. “You really do believe in tempting fate, don’t you?”
“Stop sounding like my mother. I’m gonna plate the food. Then we have some decisions to make about the wedding.”
Suzi and Evelyn were upstairs. Evelyn is quite a water baby. She loves to spend time splashing around in the tub. Suzi’s going to set her up with swim lessons at the facility where A.J. is going to start taking underwater pictures. I think every little kid should be a great swimmer. It really doesn’t take much to drown, and Florida is full of pools.
A.J. and I were drinking tea in the living room. Actually, he had hot chocolate; I had tea. I swear one of these days, I’m going to convert him.
I shoved a picture in A.J.’s direction. “Traditional Irish wedding cake is a fruit-cake-type thing. It has
almonds, raisins, cherries, and spices. Then I think you add a bunch of bourbon or brandy. Are you interested?”
The look on his face was perfect. He knows how important Irish stuff is to me, but he also knows the cake I’d just described didn’t sound like anything I would want. I could see the little wheels turning in his brain. We were in danger the hamster would overheat.
I couldn’t watch him suffer. “Two things. First, I don’t want the traditional cake — at least I don’t want it to be our only cake.”
He looked relieved.
“Second, I know you’re trying to make everything perfect for me and you don’t want to say anything that might not be the ideal thing. You need to relax. This is our wedding, and you have just as much of a right to have it your way as I do.”
He teased counting things off on his fingers. How many times have he and Teagan reminded me people haven’t done the first thing, second thing in conversations since 1944? I don’t care. I like it.
He pulled back his index finger. “First, you can have any kind of cake you want. I’m not a cake guy. Plain old chocolate works for me, so whatever you want is good.”
He lifted his second finger — you know, the international sign we use second fingers for — and made a weird face. Had the love of my life just flipped me off?
I laughed so hard it was a challenge to listen. It was so out of character for A.J. “Second, every person I talk to tells me I should back away from the decisions. The woman has a vision in mind, and if I step on that vision, I’m gonna pay for it later.”
I started to object, but he continued before I could get any words out.
“I know you aren’t like that, but let’s just stick with old-school knowledge. We’ll call it tradition.”
He has such a cute smile when he’s trying to be charming. Little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar, with a fireman calendar overlay.
We almost lost track of the purpose of our meeting, but Evelyn — with the help of her mother — let her presence be known. She was fresh out of the bathtub, she wanted her Uncle A.J., and he couldn’t have been happier to oblige.
A.J. excused himself to dance with his favorite little girl while Suzi and I talked arrangements, both of us quite sure A.J. was more than happy to leave the arranging to us.
Wedding Tea Page 13