“I think it’s time you put on your dress,” Lacey’s mother announced.
The house was suddenly a flurry of activity as the girls headed up to the getting ready room. Lacey’s elegant Vera Wang wedding gown hung near the window with the light cascading onto it. Maggie photographed the dress and Lacey’s pink peep-toe Jimmy Choo heels.
The bridesmaids helped Lacey carefully climb into her dress and her mother fastened her up. The room grew quiet as they all stepped back to take a look at the bride.
Lacey glanced over at her reflection in the mirror and fanned at her eyes with her hands as she started to tear up. “Now it feels real.”
Her mother walked over and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Your father and I are so proud of you.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Lacey replied.
The carriages returned to the residence fifteen minutes before the ceremony was to begin. Maggie rode in the first carriage with the bride and some of the bridesmaids, while Sarah rode in the second. The carriages made their way down the hill to the hotel and turned right into the hotel drive. They drove past the security guards set up to keep out uninvited guests and press, and pulled up to the front steps. The timing was perfect.
The guests had all arrived and were seated in the Tea Garden with the groom and his groomsmen in place.
Sarah climbed out and headed down to the garden, while Maggie captured the girls exiting the carriages. She then quickly made her way to the bottom of the hill and captured Lacey’s grand entrance down the staircase, where her father was waiting to offer her his arm. He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, and she smiled at him endearingly. They walked together across the lawn and down the aisle of rose petals.
George was beaming as Lacey approached.
Maggie spotted Simon at the front of the aisle shooting the groom’s reaction. She felt a little twinge of panic at the sight of him, but pushed it aside.
The governor lifted Lacey’s veil and gave her a kiss.
Click. Click. Click.
She smiled as she captured the moment and remembered how important this job of hers was. These photos were the very things that would help keep these moments fresh in their minds for many years to come.
The ceremony was beautiful with traditional vows exchanged. Maggie was standing in the center of the aisle about halfway down clicking away, when a sudden hand on her shoulder startled her.
“Excuse me, miss.”
A gentleman squeezed around her on the right and walked to the front of the aisle. It wasn’t until he turned around that she realized who it was.
“I wrote a special song for Lacey,” George announced.
This was not a surprise to Maggie as it had been discussed during the planning meetings with DeDe.
“And since I knew I would be a little too nervous to sing it myself, I found someone who could do a much better job of it. So here to perform my song is Mr. Michael Bublé.”
This was a surprise.
The guests applauded as Michael began to sing of George’s love for Lacey.
Maggie could hardly believe their choice of artist, and she wondered if Simon had anything to do with it. She smiled to herself as she photographed Michael performing the song.
Lacey and George weren’t watching Michael at all. They were looking deep into each others’ eyes, and Lacey was crying tears of joy.
At ceremony’s end, the guests made their way to the porch for cocktails while the portraits were taken. Simon and Anna handled the formals, while Maggie and Sarah photographed the guests at the cocktail hour. Maggie was once again relieved that she and Simon were working separately.
“There you are,” Anna called after her. “Simon needs you.”
Maggie took a deep breath. Be professional. Don’t think about last night. Don’t you dare cry in front of him again.
Lacey greeted her as she approached. “Maggie, I know we asked Simon to do the formals, but we love your casual style of portraits, and we’d love to do some with you, too.”
Maggie glanced over at Simon.
He nodded at her and bowed out without a word, heading for the cocktail hour.
She took Lacey and George onto the steps and had them sit together and cuddle and kiss. Then they walked out onto the property, and she asked them to walk hand in hand along the woodsy path. She even had them sit on a couple of chaise lounges by the pool. They had a fun time laughing and talking with Maggie, and she got some relaxed shots of them enjoying their first hour of marriage.
“Thank you, Maggie. We can’t wait to see these.” Lacey gave her a hug.
“You’re welcome. George, the song you wrote was just beautiful.”
“Thanks, Maggie.”
“And Michael Bublé.” She gave him a thumbs up. “Great choice.”
“We had a little help with that.” George winked at Lacey.
Maggie wondered if her suspicions were correct.
DeDe had not exaggerated when she gushed about the reception. The Theatre was decorated in the most luxurious way possible. The ceiling was covered in beautiful draped silk and the room had been professionally lit for a dramatic look. The floral arrangements stood high above the tables, all of which were surrounded by Chiavari chairs and covered in exquisite linens with letterpress menus neatly tucked in the folds of the napkins.
“Wowsa!” Sarah exclaimed when they walked through the doors.
Maggie stood in awe at the sight. They had been waiting all day to see this room. Simon and Anna were the ones to photograph the room earlier in the day, while they were with the ladies at the residence.
“So?” DeDe walked up beside them. “Didn’t I tell ya?”
“Yes!” Maggie took off to photograph everything she could. Though Simon had taken pictures of the room earlier, Lacey and George had told her they loved her detail shots. It was one of her favorite things about weddings, and she did not want to disappoint them.
As she worked her way around the room, she noticed an old fashioned photo booth in the corner, the kind you would find in shopping malls or carnivals. Some of the guests were standing near it, waiting to have their pictures taken. She thought of the photo booth in Vegas and smiled.
By the time she returned to the entrance, the bridal party was lined up. Once they were announced and seated, Governor Hartman took the microphone and stepped up to the head table. Maggie moved to get a better shot as he began to speak.
“Welcome, everyone. My wife and I would like to thank all of you for joining us here on Mackinac Island this weekend. We appreciate you all taking time out of your summer to travel here for Lacey and George’s big day.”
Maggie snapped away as he continued on with his speech. She noticed Simon out of the corner of her eye, shooting from the other side of the room. She turned on her heel and took some pictures of the guests laughing at something funny the governor said, but she wasn’t really paying attention to his speech any more. She was very aware of Simon and the fact that the end of the reception meant the end of everything for them. When the wedding was over, they would go home — her to Hastings and him to his new home in California.
After the meal, Michael Bublé took the Theatre stage and began his wonderful crooning. George led Lacey onto the dance floor for their first dance as husband and wife.
Maggie watched them dance. Her heart ached as it had the night she watched Tom and Sarah’s wedding dance. But this time it wasn’t that she was afraid of never finding love again, it was because she was afraid she may have already found it and was about to lose it.
The newlyweds had taken dance lessons before the wedding, and they wowed the crowd with a choreographed number. When he dipped her back and kissed her, Maggie smiled through her camera viewfinder.
Click. Click. Click.
Sometimes, in the middle of a wedding, there were moments, true and pure, so full of love that you could almost see it flow from one person to the other. It always took Maggie by surprise, this overwhelming feeling of joy. This
dance was one of those moments. She was also keenly aware of the huge responsibility photographing a wedding was and how much couples trusted her to capture their day.
Michael performed a few more slow songs for the traditional dances then exited the stage, and another band took over for the rest of the evening. The music shifted to something a little more upbeat, and the dance floor filled quickly.
Maggie wished she had half the energy the guests had at that moment. She was physically exhausted from the long weekend and emotionally exhausted from Simon. She began shooting again and tried to will herself to get a second wind, but she was spent. Need coffee.
She walked over to the coffee bar and grabbed a cup of caffeinated goodness. As she stirred in some cream and sugar, Anna joined her and got a cup for herself.
“Hey, Maggie.”
“Hi,” she replied.
“Isn’t this the most gorgeous wedding you’ve ever seen?” Anna took a sip of coffee. “Ow! That’s hot. I burned my tongue.”
Maggie rolled her eyes at Anna’s ditziness.
“This has been so fun working with you again,” Anna declared. “If you ever need an assistant to fill in when Sarah can’t, you let me know.”
“Yeah. I’ll do that,” she lied.
“Hey, Simon has another wedding booked for next summer in Petoskey. Maybe we can work together there again.”
Maggie wished this conversation was over.
“That would be fun, right?” Anna asked.
“Yeah,” she answered sarcastically. “Only next time, maybe Simon can save some money, and you two can just share a room.”
Anna looked at her with a strange expression. “Why would we share a room?”
“You shared a room last time,” she replied with annoyance and an edge of anger.
“No we didn’t!” Anna looked shocked and disgusted at the same time.
“What?” Maggie wasn’t sure she had heard her right.
“Are you talking about that night when you stopped by the room? Oh my gosh, you thought ...” Anna chuckled. “No! I complained that my back hurt from carrying the cameras all day. He had that big jacuzzi tub in his room, so we swapped. He was just being nice.”
Maggie thought she might be sick. “You swapped rooms with Simon?”
“Yeah.”
“But you were in a towel.”
“Oh, I couldn’t figure out how to get those darn jets to work. Simon came over and fixed it for me.” She looked at Maggie again with a screwed up face. “I can’t believe you thought I spent the night with Simon. He’s my boss. That’s way inappropriate.”
“Right,” Maggie mumbled.
Anna shook her head and walked away.
Maggie couldn’t move. She was frozen in place. She stood holding her coffee cup and stirring. Her mind raced. He didn’t sleep with her. He didn’t.
When she saw Sarah across the room with DeDe, she forced her legs to move. Slowly, she walked as if in a trance through the crowd of dancing guests. She didn’t notice any of them.
“Hey, Mags.” Sarah noticed her strange behavior. “What’s wrong? You look pale. Are you sick?”
Maggie was shaking now. The coffee spilled over the edge of her cup and ran down her arm, but she didn’t notice.
“He didn’t sleep with her.” She finally spoke it aloud.
DeDe pried the coffee cup out of her hand. “Who didn’t sleep with who?”
Maggie looked Sarah in the eyes. “He didn’t sleep with Anna.”
Sarah’s eyes widened. “He didn’t?”
All Maggie could do was shake her head “no” over and over.
“Sit down, Maggie.” DeDe helped her over to a nearby chair, cleaned the coffee from her arm, and went to get her some water.
“What do I do?” she repeated over and over. Tears filled her eyes. “All these months, I pushed him away, because I thought he couldn’t be trusted. Because I thought he slept with her.”
“Just relax.” Sarah put an arm around Maggie and rubbed her back. “You’re gonna give yourself a heart attack.”
She felt dizzy, her breath coming in bursts. “I think I’m having a panic attack. I can’t breathe.”
DeDe returned and pulled a bag out of her emergency kit. “Here! Breathe into this.”
Maggie took a few slow, deep breaths until she had calmed down. She took a sip of water, then looked over at Sarah. “I blew it. I’m such an idiot. I ruined this. And now he’s going away.”
“Just go talk to him,” Sarah pleaded.
“I can’t. I’ve made a mess of everything.”
DeDe took the seat next to her. “I think it’s time I told you a little story.”
June 19, 2010
The Plan
As DeDe spoke, the wedding and all the guests seemed to disappear around them.
“Last year, after Lacey and George were through all their vendor meetings, I sat down with them to go over things. As you know, part of my job is to help them along with their decisions. Even though I praised you and your work, they decided to go another direction and hire Simon as their wedding photographer.”
Maggie gave her a confused look.
“It was actually decided before your birthday party, but I didn’t have the heart to tell you when you asked me that night.”
“But they hired both of us.” She didn’t understand what DeDe was saying.
DeDe laid her hand on Maggie’s arm. “I’m getting to that.”
“Sorry.” She took a sip of water.
“They called Simon first thing that next week, and he was very excited to get the news. Only, the next day, he called me, and asked if I could set up a special meeting with the couple as soon as possible. We were able to work in a conference call later that day.”
Maggie listened intently.
“In this meeting, Simon asked them if they would reconsider hiring you for the wedding instead.”
“What?” Maggie was shocked and confused.
“He really talked you up, told them how talented you were, what an amazing style you have, and how well you work with your couples. And since they already loved you and your work, they were happy to go along with his plan.”
“I don’t get it. What plan?” She wasn’t sure whether she would like this story or not.
“If they hired you for the wedding, Simon would shoot for free. They would get two photographers they loved for the price of one.”
“Simon didn’t get paid for this wedding?” Sarah interrupted.
Maggie’s mouth hung open as she stared at DeDe.
“His only stipulation was that we let you believe they hired both of you.”
“Wh ... Why would he do that?”
“I guess his uncle told him how upset you were about all the canceled weddings.”
Maggie’s mind raced through all the details. “So, he gave up this commission … and he had to pay out of his own pocket to come here. Paying Anna, paying for travel, and for the rooms.” She sat still for a minute letting it all sink in.
“He was very adamant that I kept this to myself.” DeDe smirked. “He didn’t want you to think that he did this because he felt sorry for you.”
“Then why did he do it?”
DeDe looked at her with raised eyebrow. “Why do you think?”
Maggie walked outside for a breath of fresh air and sat on the nearest bench. He gave me this wedding. Gave it to me.
She stared at the camera sitting in her lap. And he didn’t sleep with Anna.
Her mind replayed the weekend in Petoskey again. She had made a huge assumption. But if he hadn’t slept with Anna, why had he let her go on believing that he had?
Her thoughts were all jumbled. She couldn’t make sense of anything. And did any of it really matter any more? He was going to California anyway.
What do I do? Do I tell him that I know about Anna? Do I tell him I know about the wedding when DeDe wasn’t supposed to tell me?
Sarah came outside looking for her. “There y
ou are. Are you OK?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I’m not sure where to go from here.”
“Do you want to be with him?” Sarah got straight to the point.
Maggie closed her eyes and nodded. “What do I say to him?”
“Just say what’s in your heart.”
“I wish I knew how to put it into words. I feel like such an idiot right now.”
Sarah took her hands and started praying aloud. “Lord, please give Maggie guidance right now as she makes this decision. Give her the right words to say to Simon and the strength to say them. Thank you for healing old wounds and giving us tender hearts capable of loving again. Amen.”
“Amen,” Maggie repeated.
Sarah squeezed her hands. “Maybe when you go back inside, you’ll see him and just know what to say.”
Maggie raised an eyebrow.
“Or maybe not,” Sarah shrugged.
“That’s so reassuring.”
“We need to go back in anyway, because the governor would like a picture of the photographers with their family.”
“Oh, goody.” Maggie was so much more comfortable behind the lens. She took a deep breath and let it out.
Sarah hugged her before they went back in. “Everything will work out. I believe that.”
Maggie opened the door and stepped inside the Theatre again. The band was still going strong, and the dance floor was as lively as it had been an hour before. This party was sure to go late into the night. She watched Lacey and George dancing in the middle of the floor and, suddenly, there he was. Simon stood in the middle of the dance floor, shooting from the center of the action.
Her heart began to flutter, and she felt weak in the knees as she watched him work. She didn’t know what she was going to say, but she knew she had to speak to him. He moved around to the other side of the dance floor and disappeared into the sea of people.
Maggie lifted her camera and shot several photos of the dancing. She moved up by the stage to get pictures of the band and some details shots of their instruments and music. She climbed up on the stage and got a few shots from behind with the dancing guests in the background. Then, she shot over their shoulders as they played. The drummer looked back at her and made a crazy face, which made her laugh.
Goodbye, Magnolia (Cornerstone Book 1) Page 21