A Wedding on Lilac Lane by Hope Ramsay (best book clubs .txt) 📕

tea service. I booked it at the last minute. It might turn into a regular thing though. So tell Granny I’m sorry I lost my temper and I’ll see her at church tomorrow. Also, I’ll be back to help her unpack her books on Sunday afternoon.”

She turned and headed down the street.

“Do you need a lift?” he asked to her back.

She turned, backpedaling. “No. I just told you what I needed.”

He nodded. “Okay, I’m on it. But, um, we need to get together to work on the engagement party.”

She stopped, her hands fisting on her hips. “Are you still determined to break them up? Because if you are, I’m not going to help, even if you did come out here to validate my feelings.”

He cracked a smile in spite of his determination not to. “I promise that I won’t use the engagement party as a means to break them up,” he said.

She gave him a probing stare. “You know, that was a non-denial denial. You could still work like mad trying to bust up the romance, outside of the party planning.”

“I guess I could.” He wiped the smile from his lips and aimed his best poker face in her direction. It wouldn’t do for her to know how much he was starting to like her.

“I’m going to be watching you.” She pointed at him. “And I suspect Mom and Jim will be too. So in my opinion, you should stop this little game you’re playing. You might have a lot of regrets if you keep this up.”

Maybe. But he might have more regrets if he didn’t try to get Dad to see reason. And Ella was the best argument in his favor. He hated to think about his father spending the rest of his life tiptoeing around Brenda’s anger the way Ella did.

He wanted to save Dad from that. And weirdly, he wanted to save Ella too. But he had no idea how he was supposed to do that.

*  *  *

Brenda stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. She was an idiot. After all these years of hoping that Ella would come back home so Brenda could make amends and start over, she’d just fallen back into the same behavior that had driven Ella away in the first place.

When would she learn? She turned around, unable to look herself in the eye, and leaned her back against the bathroom vanity. Tears filled her eyes.

What on earth had possessed her to think that Ella might have hit Dylan on purpose? Her daughter wasn’t the same rebellious teen who had once challenged her at every turn.

Ella was a grown woman now. She wouldn’t have purposefully hit Dylan, although now that she thought about it, Jim’s son probably deserved it if what Ella had said was true.

Instead of fussing at Ella, maybe she should have applauded her daughter’s actions.

No. No. No. She pressed her face into her hands as the room started to close in. This would not be a good time to have an anxiety attack, and yet her heart rocked precipitously in her chest and charged off in a full-out gallop.

She groped her way to the commode, lowered the lid, and sat down, dropping her head to her knees as a wave of dizziness struck.

“Brenda?” Jim was outside the bathroom door. And the dear man was so respectful of her privacy that he hadn’t blundered into the room even though the door was unlocked.

She took in a big breath, counting out four beats as she inhaled, held it for seven beats, and then exhaled slowly for eight more. She’d learned this technique years ago as a single mother, running from her abusive husband, trying to make ends meet and restart her life and education.

She repeated the deep-breathing pattern one more time.

“Brenda, are you okay?” Jim’s voice was kind and concerned, and he drawled a little like a Southerner even though he’d been born in New York. A lifetime of living in South Carolina had slowed him down.

Just like her heartbeat was starting to slow. Funny how the sound of Jim’s voice worked better than the breathing technique she’d learned from the social worker in the women’s shelter all those years ago.

That winter, after she’d run from Keith’s abuse, had been the longest of her life. She’d promised herself during that dark time that Ella would never go through the same thing.

And she’d failed. Cody might not be the complete screw-up Keith had been, but that man hadn’t been good for her daughter. It broke Brenda’s heart to see Ella alone and struggling to figure out what came next. Brenda had been through that. She’d had to look reality in the eye and give up on a lot of dreams. But it had been worth it. She’d poured everything into Ella.

But Ella didn’t have a child. Ella was alone.

“Honey?”

Brenda’s new life was just beyond the door.

“I’m okay,” she said, speaking the truth. The dizziness had started to fade. Weary beyond measure, she wiped away the tears that had leaked from her eyes, then opened the door.

Her heart swelled with the sight of him. He was her anchor. He’d pulled her from her depths of her misery. And now she was afraid to rock the boat too much. Maybe she should shut up about Dylan. Dylan was the one she should be furious with, not Ella.

“I’m sorry,” she said, because it seemed like the right thing to say.

“I’m not the one you need to apologize to.”

“No, I do need to apologize because I just ruined a chance for our kids and us to behave as a family. And I’m torn up about it.”

“Well, maybe so. But if you want my opinion, I think Dylan is the one who bears the most responsibility for what happened today.”

She blinked. “But—”

He moved in and took her into his arms. “Dylan is a problem. He resents you. He might be thirty-one years old, but he’s clinging to the memory of his mother. Just the other day, he got upset