by Kim Law
“I’d like to apologize, sir. I should never have put Tiff in the position of needing to drive herself home that night. I should have gotten her there myself.” He swallowed then pushed ahead. “I apologize for taking your daughter from you. I know it changes nothing, and I should have said it years ago, but…” He shook his head; it wasn’t enough. “I’m sorry.”
Tears filled the man’s eyes and Mark couldn’t help it, but tears filled his, too.
“It wasn’t your fault, son. Is that what you’ve always believed?”
Mark stared. What? He nodded. “Of course it was my fault. It had been raining, she didn’t know the streets. I should have been driving.”
“You had been drinking, had you not?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then no, you should not have been driving.”
Mark tilted his head in acknowledgment. “I shouldn’t have been drinking.”
“That’s true. But your drinking isn’t what killed my daughter.”
Mark didn’t know what to say. He didn’t want to argue with the man about it.
“If you knew anything about Tiffany, you’d know she was a bit impulsive.”
Mark did smile then. “That was one of the things I liked so much about her. You never knew what she would do next.”
“Right. And that included when she was behind the wheel.” Mr. Avery stepped away from the tree, and together to two of them walked side by side toward their vehicles. “She hit this tree doing eighty. Did you know that?”
Mark blinked. He looked down the road the way he’d come. He wouldn’t think it was long enough to get a car up to eighty.
Her father let out a dry laugh. “Guess you missed that. She liked to go fast. Just like her mother. I have no idea how she got it up to eighty on this stretch, but the reports show she did. It was all her.”
“She was mad at me that night,” Mark threw out. “That had to be why she was going so fast.”
“You’re not hearing me. She already had two speeding tickets in the three months she’d had her license. I helped her get out of them so she didn’t lose her right to drive. It made it easier on us if we didn’t have to take her back and forth to her job.” He wiped a tear from his eye. “I shouldn’t have done that. Then she wouldn’t have gotten behind a wheel. She needed to learn from her mistakes, and I didn’t see to it that she did.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Mark stressed.
“No,” Mr. Avery said. “But I didn’t help. It was an accident. A bad one. But it was nobody’s fault but hers.”
“No,” Mark began.
“I’m so sorry you’ve carried this guilt all these years. I didn’t realize. Her mother and I were too distraught to think of anything but ourselves or I might have noticed.”
Mark chuckled wearily. “Sir, my own mother didn’t realize. I doubt you would have.”
Mr. Avery looked at him then, from head to toe, and gave him a nod. “You might be right. But I wish I’d paid attention anyway. It wasn’t your fault, son. Let it go. No one has ever blamed you.”
Except me.
He kept his gaze on Mark as if waiting for a response. Mark had no words to give him. Finally, he simply nodded and Tiffany’s father patted him gently on the cheek. He gave Mark a lonely smile and turned to his truck.
After Mr. Avery drove off, Mark stood there on the side of the road, watching the peonies sway in the wind. Then that calmness he’d felt earlier came back. It had never occurred to him Tiffany’s death might not have been his fault.
He closed his eyes as he stood there and pictured Tiffany back then. She’d been blonde and beautiful, and she’d liked to paint her fingernails in the brightest colors she could find. She’d laughed as if never concerned of what others would think. And she’d always moved fast, no matter what she was doing.
Whether she was walking down the halls at school or being the one to kiss him before he got up the nerve to kiss her first. Or driving well above the speed limit. She’d done everything fast.
How had he not realized she’d gotten his car up to eighty on this road?
She smiled at him in his mind, and then she was gone.
He opened his eyes. He had to go to Andie before she gave up on him for good.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Come on, Kayla,” Andie said, pounding her hand on the kitchen counter. “I need to go.”
“Just one day more, I swear.”
Andie dropped her suitcase to the floor. Frustration had her breathing hard. She’d already waited four days since she’d figured out she should be by Mark’s side. She wanted to go now. He needed her.
She hadn’t called because she’d wanted to surprise him. Thought it might mean more if she just showed up. But that was when she’d intended to go up on Tuesday.
She’d wrapped up everything she could on Monday; made sure her mother, aunt, and Kayla would be fine on their own; and made arrangements for Ginger to handle her class at the senior center this week. Ginger wasn’t the ideal substitute in that she was unable to actually construct a usable basket, but until Andie knew for certain that she would be staying in Boston, she didn’t want to look for a permanent replacement.
Then Ginny had gotten sick and spent a full day laid up in bed, and Kayla had had one crisis after another with the week’s weddings. Maybe her mother wasn’t going to work out if they couldn’t get through a couple of days without Andie.
The last straw had been Ginger calling at the last minute that morning to cancel at the center. Andie couldn’t just skip the class. Too many people looked forward to it each week.
She ground her teeth together and paced the floor.
“What is it that can’t possibly wait?” She’d already moved her flight once that day so she could have the class. She needed to leave for the airport soon or she would miss her flight altogether. And now Kayla wanted her to stay another day?
“There's a last-minute wedding at the bar tonight.” Kayla used her pleading voice.
“And what’s so important about it that my mother can’t help?”
“There’s just a lot of people. Some of them are older, and they’re going to be on the beach. We need all hands on deck.” Kayla twisted her hands in front of her and chewed on her bottom lip. She really seemed distraught.
Andie stared at her normally freakishly well-controlled event director, unable to understand what had her in such a state.
“And if I stay, what’s it going to be tomorrow? Because I’ll tell you, it’s starting to feel as if you’re making up excuses to keep me here.”
“No.” She shook her head vehemently. “I swear. There will be nothing tomorrow. But I’ve got to have your help tonight.”
Andie clenched both hands into fists. She pulled her phone out and seriously considered calling Mark. It had been almost two weeks. She needed to talk to him.
He might begin to think she didn’t care.
A little voice reminded her that he hadn’t called her, either, but she ignored it. He had stupid pride. She knew that about him. It was something she’d decided she was willing to accept.
But she would not give up on them without putting everything she had into it.
She looked at Kayla. “One more day. That’s all.”
“I swear.” Kayla nodded. “I’ll make flight arrangements for you right now.”
Kayla disappeared before Andie could say anything else. She forced herself to breathe calmly instead of screaming in frustration, then picked up the suitcase that had been packed for two days, grumbled out a “Fine” to herself, and stomped back upstairs.
“We’ll leave right before dusk,” Kayla yelled from the other room.
Thirty minutes before Andie had planned to head back downstairs, there was a knock at her door. She pulled it open to find her mother standing there wearing a lovely, pale yellow lace tea-length dress. She was carrying another inside a clear protective cover.
“I bought you a nice dress the other day,” he mother said,
not waiting to be invited to enter the room. Andie looked down at the straight skirt and top combination that was often her working attire.
“I’m fine as I am,” she said. She grabbed her purse. “Let’s go.”
“Just try this on, will you?”
Her mother held the dress up to Andie and tilted her head at an angle as if imaging what it would look like on her. It was beautiful. A peaches-and-cream color with loads of lace, but it was too dressy for work.
“Your aunt and I decided we’d wear nice dresses tonight. So we bought you one, too.”
“Stop it.” Andie pushed the dress away. She wasn’t in the mood. “I don’t want a nice dress. I just want to leave.”
She looked at her mom. “And why would you have bought me a dress for tonight? I was supposed to be on a plane to Boston two hours ago.”
Instead of answering, Cassie hung the dress on the back of the door and went to work on the buttons of Andie’s shirt.
“What are you doing?” She slapped at her mother’s hands.
“We have to hurry. Now come on.” No-nonsense Mom was back.
Andie sighed. Fine. It wasn’t a fight worth having. She’d overdress and make her mother happy. Then maybe everyone would leave her alone and let her go to Mark.
But as she slipped the dress on over her head and turned to the mirror, she let out a small gasp. It was gorgeous. It was just body hugging enough to be sexy but not overtly so. The hemline was shorter in the front than in the back. And there was a swell of a tail from the back of her knees to her ankles, ending in a scooped gathers.
Before she could comment, her mother was pulling the gold chain from around Andie’s neck.
“Don’t.” Andie pressed her fingers to the sea turtle charm against her chest. “I want to wear this.”
“It doesn’t look right with the cut of this dress.” Her mother was relentless in her pursuit, and had the necklace off and was replacing it with another before Andie could do anything about it.
“This is one of mine,” her mother said. It was an old-fashioned strand of pearls, and actually looked very nice with the lace. “It was my mother’s,” Cassie added.
Cassie pushed Andie into the seat in front of her dressing table and began fussing with her hair as Andie stared at herself in the mirror. She was being transformed. As her mother twisted the majority of Andie’s hair to the top of her head, leaving a few tendrils hanging, Andie met her gaze in the mirror.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
Hairpins appeared in Cassie’s hands and were quickly fastened to Andie’s hair. “I told you, your aunt and I wanted new dresses for tonight. It might be your last wedding with us, so we thought it would be nice to make it a little special.”
The thought that this could be her last wedding was sobering. It very well might be. She couldn’t help but wonder if that was the reason behind everything going on this week. Did they not want her to go?
She looked at her mother in the mirror again. “Are you okay with me leaving, Mom? I know we just started getting to know—”
“I’m fine with it, sweetheart.” Her mother patted Andie gently on the cheek, and then picked up a makeup brush. “I only want you to be happy.”
Andie nodded. She’d discussed her plans with her mother and aunt, but she hadn’t been convinced that either thought she was doing the right thing. “You didn’t say much about it when we talked Monday,” she said.
“Only because I was worried about you then.”
“And you aren’t now?”
Steady green eyes met hers. “Mothers always worry. I have since you were born. Even though you never knew it. But this time…” She smiled and leaned in, brushing her cheek against Andie’s. “This time, I can see that you know what you want. I’ll support anything you choose when I can see that look in your eye.”
The words meant more than Andie would have thought. “And you’ll be okay if Mark and I get married someday and I do nothing but stay home and have his babies?”
It frustrated her that she still worried about upsetting her mother with her decisions.
Cassie pulled Andie to her feet. “I’d be more proud than you could ever imagine,” she whispered.
Andie’s eyes watered. She believed her mother when she said that. She could see the pride shining in her.
“I want this, Mom,” Andie whispered. “I only hope I can help him get over his past so we can have a future. I want kids with him. I want a forever.”
Her mother’s eyes went glassy. “And I want to come visit you and those babies.”
“Oh, Mom.”
Andie reached for her mother, and they spent the next minute in a tight embrace. When she pulled back, she asked. “You think I can convince him?”
She was terrified she would fail.
Cassie nodded. “You’re my daughter. You can do anything you set your mind to.”
Pride swelled in Andie’s chest as she slipped on the jeweled flip-flops her mother handed her and brushed gloss over her lips. She followed her mother out the door. She couldn’t believe how far they’d come in such a short time, and she hated to step away from it.
But she needed to go to Mark. Plus, she imagined her mother and her aunt needed to make up for lost years themselves.
They would all visit. And life would be good.
As Andie reached the bottom of the stairs, Kayla looked up from where she stood by the front door and gave a little gasp. Andie frowned at her, suddenly remembering that Kayla was the reason she wasn’t currently heading to Mark.
“We aren’t walking over?” Andie asked. Kayla had car keys in one hand.
“We have things we need to take,” Kayla answered. She turned and walked out of the house without another word. Cassie followed.
“Fine,” Andie muttered. She slammed the door shut behind her. “Did you get my flight set up for in the morning?”
Kayla nodded. Cassie sniffled.
“What is going on with you two? And where’s Aunt Ginny?”
“She’s already over there,” Kayla informed her.
After only a couple of minutes, the car was pulling into the parking lot of Gin’s. Andie looked up at the caricature of her aunt and smiled fondly. She loved this place. Even though she didn’t plan to be around too much in the future, she was glad she hadn’t sold it. She wanted it in their lives. It represented so much of who she was.
The three of them stepped from the car as the sky was beginning to streak with purples and pinks. Andie could make out a crowd on the beach. And yes, there were a lot of older people. But if they’d needed so much help, why had none of them waited for the three of them to get there?
Plastering on her wedding planner smile, she headed toward the boardwalk.
“Let’s go in through the bar,” Kayla suggested.
“Why?” Andie motioned toward the crowd. “Looks like no one is waiting for us anyway.”
Her mother grabbed Andie’s hand without a word and tugged her to the side door of the bar. Andie gave up trying to make sense of anything and simply followed, but she noticed Kayla had headed around the outside of the building to the patio.
When Andie stepped inside and saw Maggie Walker, she got an odd sensation in her stomach. The little girl who’d been Sunday afternoon’s cheerleader was wearing a pale orange dress with a shiny sash around the middle. Her hair was a cascade of curls. She was holding a vine basket that looked to be one made in one of Andie’s classes, and it was filled with a wild assortment of flowers. The jumble of colors inside the basket looked like a florist had gone crazy. When Maggie spotted Andie, she began to bounce on her toes.
No one else was in the bar except for the bartender. He gave Andie a quick smile and ducked his head.
Andie looked at her mom. “What’s going on?”
Her mom offered her arm. “We have a surprise for you.”
She took her mom’s arm and followed her to the patio doors. When she stepped past the sheer curtains, all she could fo
cus on was the gathering just beyond the patio. Everyone was turned in her direction.
There were small torches circling the perimeter of the crowd, and tiny white lights running along the sand on either side of an aisle. The aisle led to a white wicker arch, where a tall dark-haired man stood solemnly waiting. With three separate groupings of flowers attached to the arch, the colors were a mix of reds, oranges, and yellows. The flowers matched the ones in Maggie’s basket, and the hues were definitely not the the typical cream and pale bridal colors. The effect was more like an explosion of happiness.
It was perfect.
It made Andie’s heart happy.
Under the arch stood Mark in a tailored black suit.
His jaw was tight, and he seemed nervous. Andie could have helped him out by giving him a smile, but she hadn’t yet decided if she liked what appeared to be happening.
She noticed Vanilla Bean and Chester Brownbomb standing together in the crowd. Vanilla beamed at her. Surrounding Vanilla and Chester were Andie’s other students from the senior center, and in front of the adults were the kids she made a habit of playing with each week. Several of them waved at her with their whole arms, grins spread across their faces.
Other locals filled in the crowd, and Ginger stood to one side of the arch. She was dressed in an orange similar in color to what Maggie was wearing. She looked gorgeous against the backdrop of the approaching dusk, but Andie wondered why Roni wasn’t beside her.
On the other side of the arch stood all three of Mark’s brothers. His parents and sisters-in-law lined the front row.
Tears began to well in Andie’s eyes.
“Why is Aunt Ginny standing with Mark?” she whispered to her mother. Ginny looked brilliantly amazing in a dress similar to her mother’s, only hers was a very pale green.
“She’s going to perform the ceremony.”
Andie jerked her head around to her mother. “What do you mean?”
“If you want her to.” Cassie patted Andie’s arm where it still rested against hers. “She spent Tuesday filling out the paperwork to get ordained. Mark called Monday night. He asked if I would walk you down the aisle, and if she would perform the ceremony.”