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

the ring. I’ve got the marriage license too. Were you this nervous the first time?” He stepped back and inspected his handiwork. The flowers were cockeyed but not enough to fix.

“Good,” Dad said. “Don’t sneeze and lose it at the wrong moment.”

Dylan gave his father a look. His father returned it.

“So, are we ready?” Dylan asked.

“Yeah, but before we go…”

Oh boy, here it came. Dylan recognized that fatherly tone. They were going to have a father-son conversation. And Dylan preferred to avoid that.

He didn’t want to talk about feelings right now. Because they were raw and ugly, and who needed that on a wedding day?

But Dad had other ideas. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine. And I’m so happy for you.”

Dad gave him a paternal stare. “That’s a load of bull.”

Dylan shrugged. “What do want me to say? You and Brenda go off to Nancy’s for dinner every Friday, and I’m never invited.” It seemed like a whiny thing to say on Dad’s wedding day, especially since staying away from family gatherings was probably smart.  He didn’t want to inadvertently expose his deep feelings for Ella.  But he still felt isolated and alone.  And sad.

“I’m sorry,” Dad said.

It didn’t help dispel Dylan’s gloomy mood.  “I don’t get it. You know I didn’t invite Tammy to the damn engagement party. Why doesn’t Brenda believe that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because you treated Ella so badly.”

He ground his teeth. That was the trump card Dylan could never play. He hadn’t treated Ella badly at all. In fact, she was the one who’d dumped him in the emergency room that night. He’d simply stood there and taken it.

Like a team player.

Okay, he hadn’t started out as a team player. So some of this was his own fault. But Brenda didn’t give second chances.

Unlike her daughter, who had evidently decided to give that jerk she’d been with all those years another chance. Last Sunday, Donna Cuthbert, the town gossip, told him that Ella had given her notice at the inn and was planning to leave Magnolia Harbor in order to pursue her musical career.

He blew out a breath, trying to extinguish the slow simmer, one part angry and one part pathetic, which burned in his gut.

“Son, I’m sorry but you should never have tried to turn Ella against her mother.”

“I never did that.”

 “No?  You bullied her, right at the start, when you told her that Brenda and I wanted her to move out of the beach house.”

Well, there was that. “Okay, you have a point.”

Dad shook his head and turned away, clearly upset.

“Look, Dad, I don’t want you to be unhappy, okay? I’m glad you’re getting married. And I know you love Brenda. So it’s fine. Maybe in time Brenda will realize that I’m not the bad guy here.”

“Maybe she will. But in the meantime, I expect you to be on your best behavior today. Don’t screw it up.”

“I won’t. I promise.” So no getting drunk and cornering Ella and grilling her to find out if she was going back to that red-faced redneck. Or worse yet, telling Ella that he couldn’t get her out of his mind. Or telling her that he’d fallen in love with her. Nope. That was not allowed.

“You know one thing that would help?” Dad said.

“What?”

“You could find a nice girl and settle down. I bet if you had a couple of kids, Brenda would warm up to you real fast. She loves children. She was a teacher for a long time, you know.”

He stared at his father for a moment, letting the irony settle into his bones. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he said.

*  *  *

The Killough-McMillan wedding was going to be a small one. Only family and one or two close friends. Maybe fifteen people max. And the wedding guests would be staying after the ceremony for an hour or so for a tea service, which would be limited today to the private party.

A handful of chairs had been set up in the rose garden, along with a small canopy at one end so the guests would have a view of the bay across the lawn and the bride could make her entrance through the arched garden gate. The canopy was decorated with a garland of eucalyptus leaves and blush-colored hydrangeas.

Ashley finished wiring the last of the blossoms to the garland and stepped back to admire her handiwork. The setting, with its view of the bay, always stole her breath.  Unfortunately, today was still and quiet and hot as the dickens.

Ashley hated it when the weather refused to cooperate. She loved hosting weddings at Howland House and she wanted them all to be perfect in every way. Weddings brought her joy.  And since her B&B wasn’t all that large, the weddings here were never big extravaganzas. Like the one scheduled today, they were small, intimate affairs where she got to know the bride and groom.

Since today’s bride and groom were locals, she considered them friends. Which was a problem today. She knew a secret that had been weighing heavily on her for quite some time. It had become a millstone around her neck ever since Ella had given her notice.

Ella and Dylan had ended their brief affair. But Ashley couldn’t shake the feeling that the couple had backed off because of Brenda’s medical problems. That seemed wrong. And it seemed wrong for Ella to be running away.

She’d told everyone that she was leaving to pursue her musical career, but she’d been vague about that. If only Norton Treloar had come through and offered her the open seat in the symphony. But maybe Ella wasn’t quite as talented as Ashley thought. She’d had this stupid idea that if Ella got a job thirty minutes away in Myrtle Beach, she would stay, and then the romance between her and Dylan might reignite.

And then everyone would have a happy ending. Ashley loved happy endings these days. She hoped every new bride and groom got to have a long, long life together before death