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

thank Ella for that. But I’m still worried about you. I still have my misgivings about Brenda.”

“Unfortunately, those misgivings show all the time. She feels like you’re not giving her a chance.”

“I’m trying.”

“Well, Tammy being here isn’t going to help. Look, I need you to keep an eye on that woman. I don’t want her to do anything to hurt Brenda’s feelings. You understand? And I figure you’ll have an easier time of it than I will. Because she liked you.”

“She used me.”

“Well, that too. But I think she had more trouble leaving you than me. I’m going to keep Brenda as far away from that woman as possible, okay?”

“I got it. I’m on it.”

Dad gave his shoulder a squeeze. “I’m counting on you. Now, if I’m not mistaken, the girls are tuning up.” He cocked an ear in the direction of the salon.

“Sounds like it.”

“You’re in for a treat. This duo they’ve been working on is incredible.”

They headed back down the passageway into the salon, where Ella and Brenda had taken up a corner. Dad got up in front of them.

“Hey, everyone, I’m sure some of you know that my bride-to-be is a gifted musician. What you guys don’t know is that my soon-to-be daughter is maybe a little better than her mom. They’ve been working on something special for you. A performance of Wolfgang Mozart’s ‘Violin Duo Allegro.’”

Dad stepped away from Brenda and Ella, and they began to play at a breakneck pace that blew Dylan’s socks off. They were both incredibly good, their fingers flying over the fingerboards of their instruments in a mesmerizing musical dance of dueling violins.

A lump formed in Dylan’s throat, not because the music was terribly emotional. But because it dawned on him that he could never keep Ella here with him. One day, sooner or later, she’d be gone. Off to pursue her career in music. Off to play for audiences bigger than this one.

She would leave him sooner or later. She might come home for the holidays. She might visit in the summer. But Magnolia Harbor would never be her home. What was she going to do with her talent in this small tourist town? Find another loud country band? Continue to waste herself waiting on tables?

No. She would leave him and break his heart, and he’d never be able to tell a soul about what he’d lost.

When Brenda and Ella came to the end of the piece, the guests in the salon applauded. Several even shouted “brava.” The two violinists bowed and beamed.

Brenda waved for their audience to quiet. “Thank you all so much for coming tonight. Jim and I are so happy to celebrate with our friends and family. Now I’m going to get some champagne and maybe one of those strawberries dipped in chocolate. And Ella has agreed to continue to serenade you. And by the way, y’all, if you like her music, she plays at Ashley Scott’s teas most Saturday afternoons. And I’m extremely proud of her.” Brenda leaned forward. “And she’s the one who did most of the work for this party. I’d say she did a wonderful job.”

Everyone clapped again, and Ella stood there blushing to the tips of her auburn hair. Holy crap, Brenda had praised her daughter in front of everyone. Would wonders never cease? Well, Ella deserved it.

And Brenda was being delightful and gracious tonight. And after hearing her play the violin, he could almost understand what Dad saw in her. Dad was, himself, a gifted musician. So maybe they had a lot in common.

He scanned the room as Ella started to play one of the numbers he’d heard at the tea party weeks ago. Tammy was standing in the corner, a sour look on her face as she studied Ella and Brenda. He sidled up to her, determined to do Dad’s bidding tonight.

He reached her, blocking her path as Dad escorted Brenda up the ship’s ladder to the deck. “So, Tammy, it’s been ages,” he said.

She gave him a cool smile. “Dylan, I can’t believe how much you look like your mom,” she said. “How have you been? I missed you.”

“Did you really?”

She nodded and then asked, “So, do you like this woman?”

“This woman?”

“Brenda. She seems a bit…dowdy.”

Dylan let his gaze drift to Ella, who was playing something bright and lively that sounded like an old Irish jig. Her hair was falling out of its pins as she vigorously bowed the violin. She and her music made his heart sing. In fact, she looked a great deal like her mom right now, and it struck him that neither of them was dowdy.

They weren’t like Lauren or Tammy though. They didn’t wear designer dresses. They didn’t worry about their hair or their makeup much. They were down to earth. Like Aunt Brooklyn, who looked a whole lot like Mom, which made sense since they were sisters.

“Well,” Tammy said when he made no response to her cutting remark. “Her daughter is sort of cute in a hippy-dippy way. They certainly can play the violin. I suppose it’s a redeeming quality.”

Dylan turned, a nasty retort on the tip of his tongue. But right then, the chocolate fountain exploded.

*  *  *

One minute Ella had been playing “The Streets of Derry,” and then suddenly she became the victim of a…chocolate attack?

That wasn’t exactly the first thought that went through her head when a clump of congealed brown stuff hit her in the face and splattered over the violin’s fingerboard.

She may have screamed. Or at least gasped before she turned toward the chocolate fountain that had been behaving quite normally up until then. Jackie Scott had encamped near it and had been happily feeding himself copious quantities of chocolate-covered strawberries.

But now suddenly the fountain was having a meltdown, turning out big globs of congealed brown goo that looked like…well…She stood there stunned for a moment before someone in the room shouted, “Good god, that looks like poop.”

It did. And she was covered in it. She reached for a napkin