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

her in motion, but she needed to stay, precisely because she was a full-grown woman.

Old enough and strong enough to make her own decisions. And fix her life.

When the set ended, Cody made a beeline to her table and took the chair Dylan had vacated. “Who’s the asshole?” he asked.

She found his language offensive, and she didn’t like having that word applied to Dylan.

“He’s my brother,” she said.

“You have a brother? Since when?”

“His father is marrying my mother. So he’s sort of my brother.”

Cody laughed in obvious relief right before he leaned in. “Oh, that explains it. I honestly couldn’t understand what you saw in a straight arrow like that.”

“Right,” she said, her mouth suddenly dry.

“Well, I’m glad your standards haven’t slipped that low. Look, can’t we work this out? You and me, we’ve been together all this time. We’ve had a good thing going. And you know how I believe in destiny. I will never forget that night you walked into that bar in Illinois.”

She stared at him. Was this the best he could do?

She leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest. “We met in Muncie, Indiana, Cody, not Illinois. And you talked about destiny then too. And you know what? I’ve seen you hand that line off to countless women over the last thirteen years. You’d think you’d switch it up now and then.”

“Come on, babe, those groupies never did mean nothing. You know I love you.”

“If you loved me, you wouldn’t cheat on me. If you loved me, you’d get your butt in gear and fix up the house in El Paso so I didn’t have to live in an RV all the time.”

“Honey, come on, you know that house in El Paso is falling down.”

“I know no such thing. I know you’re lazy. And I know that what you love most about me is my fiddle playing.”

“That’s unfair.”

“Is it? Look, I’ll cut to the chase. You guys suck without me, and the set list is exactly the same as last year. You haven’t written any new songs since I don’t know when. Years. But I’m willing to help you out. I’ll rejoin the band at the end of the month.”

“You can’t join us before then?” He sounded desperate. Were they having trouble getting gigs? Probably. They clearly hadn’t been rehearsing much.

“No, I can’t. My mother’s getting married in a few weeks, and I need to stay here until then. And when I rejoin you, it will be only until the end of your tour. I figure you’re touring until November?”

He nodded.

“And I sleep in my own room.”

“What?”

“You heard me. I’m not coming back as your girlfriend. Not ever. When the tour is over, I’m going to Nashville.”

“What you want to do something stupid like that for?”

“It’s not stupid. I could get work in Nashville. You’re the one who’d struggle. So you can go find yourself another fiddler at the end of the tour.”

He blinked a few times, and Ella waited for his arguments and his gaslighting and all the rest of the games he played. She was on the verge of turning blue waiting for him to say something when he finally said, “Okay.”

Okay? That was all? His assent was anticlimactic. To say the least.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

On her wedding day Brenda wasn’t nearly as excited as she’d hoped to be. She started the morning doing yoga alone on the beach because Jim had spent the night at Dylan’s place. It seemed kind of stupid not to sleep together the night before their wedding, but Jim was a sweet traditionalist.

Ella and Momma had picked her up precisely at nine, and they’d spent the morning at the beauty shop getting cut, curled, buffed, waxed, and painted. They all looked fabulous when they arrived back at Momma’s place to get dressed for the afternoon’s big event.

It should have been the happiest day of her life, but she seemed to have collected her own personal rain cloud.  Momma had found out at last Tuesday’s Piece Maker’s meeting that Ella had given her notice to Ashley. Ella hadn’t said one word about that. But Ashley seemed to think Ella was getting ready to leave Magnolia Harbor at the end of the month.

Brenda was terrified that Ella had decided to go back to Cody. The whole world had evidently seen them together at Rafferty’s when Urban Armadillo had come through town a couple of weeks ago.

Was Ella planning to sneak away while Brenda and Jim were on their honeymoon? Would her daughter break the news by sending one of those old-time postcards from someplace out in New Mexico? Ella used to do that all the time. For years and years, those postcards had been the extent of their connection.

How could Brenda be on the verge of unhappy tears on this day?  She had so much to be thankful for.  After all, Momma and Ella were right beside her in the condo’s palatial bathroom, repairing the damage the heat and humidity had done to their hairdos on the short ride from the beauty shop back to Momma’s place.

“We are a nice-looking family,” Momma said. Her words were so kind and reassuring, almost as if Momma knew Brenda needed to hear them. Her mother turned and took the wedding dress out of its garment bag. “And I think this dress is divine. It’s like something out of a fairy tale.” Momma’s eyes watered up as she turned in Brenda’s direction. “I’ve been looking forward to this day for so long.”

“Don’t cry, Momma,” Brenda said, feeling her own tears close to the surface. “If you start, I’m going to bawl, and then all this beautiful makeup that Marian Blake slaved over will be ruined.”

Momma nodded and patted her shoulder. “All right, let’s get you dressed up.” Momma grabbed a tissue from the box and dabbed her eyes, then turned toward Ella. “Come here, sugar. Give me a hug.” Momma wrapped her arms around Ella and gave her a hard squeeze that suggested Momma was