Wind Chime Wedding (A Wind Chime Novel Book 2) Page 25

  Courtney shook her head and sighed. “You’re hopeless,” she said, but there was a small smile twitching at the corners of her mouth.

  “Luke!” Taylor ran over, holding a fistful of unlit sparklers. “Look what Uncle Joe gave me!” She pushed half of them into his hand. “He said if we light them, they’ll sparkle!”

  “Cool!” Luke dropped his plate on the table and ran after her as she raced to the nearest Mason jar and dipped the first sparkler into the flame.

  Colin and Courtney watched them chase each other around the yard, laughing as little bits of fire shot out of the top of the sticks. “Luke seems happy tonight,” Colin said.

  Courtney nodded, but her smile faded as she turned and began tidying up the dessert table. He’d heard that she’d started leaning on some of the other mothers recently, letting them help out by watching Luke when she was at work. The kid was obviously doing a lot better, but something must still be upsetting her.

  He knew she was still working two jobs. She still had permanent circles under her eyes, but despite how tired she looked, he couldn’t help noticing how much effort she’d put into her appearance tonight. She was wearing a black cocktail dress that complemented her slim frame perfectly. Her hair was swept back from her face in a simple, classy knot, and she’d even taken the time to curl a few pieces around her face.

  He’d gotten used to seeing her in her work clothes—an old T-shirt and a pair of baggy sweatpants and beat-up sneakers—whenever he’d stopped by to check in on Luke, as he had a few times over the past couple weeks. But the first thing that had struck him the moment he’d walked in her door was how impeccably clean and organized her home was. The second thing that had struck him were the pictures of her with her late husband all over the house. In every shot, she’d been dressed up sharp and looking good.

  She may not have come from money, but she had style and class and she obviously took pride in keeping up her both appearance and her home—when she had the time to devote to them.

  Turning around to face her, an idea began to stir inside him. “You cut hair, right?”

  “Yes,” she said, glancing up and giving him a brief once over. “You look like you could use a trim.”

  He smiled. “I wasn’t thinking about myself. But some of the people who are going to be staying with us might need some help getting cleaned up.”

  “I’m always open to taking on new clients,” she said, still tidying up the table, which really hadn’t needed any tidying up in the first place. “Just give them my number.”

  “Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of you coming here, instead of them going to you.”

  She glanced up. “What do you mean?”

  “Well,” Colin said, leaning back against the table. “Most of the people coming to stay with us have never been on a real interview before. I know at least five of them enlisted straight out of high school. They might not know how to dress, how to present themselves professionally. Will and I will be working with them on how to answer questions and build a decent resume, but we could use someone to help with shopping for clothes, finding outfits that’ll look good on them. I’m thinking mostly consignment and second hand stuff. We don’t have a big budget, but we’ve got some funds to play around with. Think you’d be interested in something like that?”

  He caught the flash of interest before the shield went up. “I already have two jobs,” she said, shifting a cake platter an inch to the left that had looked perfectly fine where it had been before.

  “How much do you make?”

  She paused, taken aback by the bluntness of his question. “Excuse me?”

  “How much do you make at the hotel?”

  She straightened her shoulders, turning to face him, too proud to be embarrassed. “Eight dollars an hour.”

  “We can double that.”

  She blinked. “Double it?”

  Colin nodded. “We’re still looking for someone to clean once a week, too, if you have any interest in that. You could pick the day, set your own hours. You’d still have plenty of time for your regular hair clients. You do most of your appointments out of your house anyway, right?”

  She nodded slowly.

  “We’re only a mile down the road, so it’d be an easy commute, and you could bring Luke with you whenever you came to work.” He nodded back out to the kids, who were still chasing each other around the yard. “It looks like he and Taylor get along pretty well. They could do their homework together in the evenings if you wanted to fit in a few hours of work at the end of the day.”

  She looked up at him, like it was too good to be true. “I’m not looking for a handout.”

  “You’re a hard worker, Courtney. You’ll earn every penny we pay you.” He watched the wheels turning in that sharp, efficient mind of hers. He had a feeling she could be an asset in a lot of ways, if she’d agree to the job. “But you should know—the people who are coming here next week, they’re coming to heal. They’ve likely fallen on hard times. Some of them are going to be pretty rough around the edges.”

  Courtney lifted her chin. “I can handle rough.”

  “I don’t doubt it.” He smiled. “Why don’t you stop by on Monday? We’ll work out the details, then.”

  Courtney looked back out at the yard and was silent for several minutes as she watched her son light his last sparkler. “Thank you,” she said finally, the words so soft he could barely hear them.

  “You’re welcome.” He turned his attention back to the dance floor as the band started strumming a few introductory notes. He spotted Jimmy standing nearby with several members of his crew, without a drink in his hand. As far as he knew, he’d been sober since the night he’d been pulled over.

  “How’s he doing?” Colin asked, nodding toward the contractor.

  “Better,” Courtney said. “I think he had a pretty big wake up call when the cops took away his license. He can’t get around to the sites like he used to and he’s missed out on a few big jobs that came up when people in the area found out about what happened. The hearing’s in a few weeks from now, so I think he’s motivated to stay clean. Jake’s been a big help. He’s been taking him to AA meetings, coming over to his house each night to make sure he has someone to talk to or watch the game with so he won’t be tempted to go to Rusty’s.”

  Colin looked over at Becca, who was slowly walking up from the pier with Grace. He knew, now, that her father had been an alcoholic. He knew a lot of things about her now that he hadn’t known before. They’d spent almost every night together since he’d come back from Colorado, and everything he’d learned had only made him love her more.

  “I’m happy for you,” Courtney said softly, her gaze following his to where Becca had paused at the edge of the dance floor. “It’s hard for me to imagine it now, but, maybe one day…” She trailed off, and was quiet for a long time. “I don’t think I’ll ever love anyone the way I loved Rob, but I’d like to think there might be someone else out there like me—someone who lost the person they loved and might be willing to take a second chance.”

  The chords of a love song floated into the air as they watched Will lead Annie out to the dance floor for their first dance as husband and wife. “I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to know your husband,” Colin said. “I bet I would have liked him.”

  Courtney looked away, but not before he caught the sheen of tears glistening in her eyes. “He would have liked you, too.”

  The party was in full swing by the time Becca spotted her father making his way toward her to claim the dance she’d promised him earlier. Excusing herself from the group of teachers she’d been chatting with, she smiled and walked across the grass, meeting him halfway. Night had fallen and a spray of stars winked overhead. White candles flickered from every picnic table, illuminating the hundreds of frosted milk jars that she, Grace, and Gladys had spent all day filling with white roses, pink tulips and Baby’s Breath.

  It was amazing how much more fun the preparation
s had become the moment she’d started putting this wedding together for someone else. Maybe it hadn’t been the wedding planning that had been stressing her out before. Maybe it had simply been the fact that she’d been planning a wedding for herself to the wrong man.

  Slipping her hand into her father’s as he led her onto the dance floor, she let him guide her around in a simple two-step to an old country song that had always been one of his favorites. She had thought she might feel a touch of sadness, maybe even a hint of regret at some point during the ceremony earlier that evening. But how could she have felt anything but pure joy as she’d watched two of her best friends, two people who deserved happiness more than anyone she’d ever known, commit their lives to each other.

  Will and Annie had been married at sunset, just like Della had wanted, under a driftwood arch covered in roses as the sun sank into the water behind them, painting the sky in a thousand shades of pink. Annie had worn a short, lace dress that she’d sewn herself from vintage fabric. She’d left her long red hair loose and flowing, with a single white tea rose tucked behind her ear. Will had looked stunning in his black suit, but it was the love in his eyes for the woman beside him when he’d recited his vows that had ensured that there hadn’t been a single dry eye in the audience.

  Annie had been right when she’d said there was no way she and Will could get married on this island without inviting everyone. And they hadn’t had to. Once they’d removed all Tom’s co-workers from the guest list, there had been plenty of room to extend the invitation to the rest of the islanders. Everything about this night had turned out differently than the way she’d planned it. But, in the end, it had turned out exactly the way it was supposed to.

  Gazing across the lawn, she spotted Colin leaning against an ash tree, his hands in his pockets, his tie loosened around his neck, the top button of his dress shirt already unbuttoned. The moment their eyes met, a slow, lazy smile curved his lips. She would have thought she’d have gotten better control of her reaction to him by now. After spending almost every night together over the past two weeks, she had expected at least some of her nerves to calm down.

  If anything, they’d gotten stronger. She still felt slightly out of breath every time he looked at her. She still got tongue-tied every time he touched her. And whenever he left the island, even if it was only for a few hours, a strange ache settled deep in her chest—an uncomfortable longing that gripped her until the moment she saw him again.

  When her father’s gaze followed hers across the yard, and he saw who she was looking at, he smiled. “Colin’s been watching you all night.”

  “Dad,” Becca said, blushing. “That’s embarrassing.”

  “No, honey,” he said quietly. “It’s not.” Her father’s expression sobered as he turned her around slowly. “Because the way he looks at you is the same way I used to look at your mother.”

  Becca felt the familiar lump begin to form in her throat, but instead of wishing her mother was there with them, that she was the one dancing with her father right now, she focused instead on the other couples dancing—all of the other people smiling and laughing and twirling each other around. When she spotted Shelley walking over to the tent, a glass of champagne in her hand, she waved. But the other woman didn’t wave back. Shelley paused, alone, by the edge of the dance floor with the strangest, most wistful expression on her face.

  Becca frowned. She could have sworn Shelley had been looking straight at them. She waved again, but the other woman didn’t even seem to notice. Shelley continued to watch them, and Becca slowly began to realize that it wasn’t her she was looking at…it was her father.

  Becca stared at the woman who’d been like a second mother to her all these years, who had been a fixture in her life for so long now it was impossible to imagine what a single day would be like without her. Was it possible that she had been secretly hoping, all this time…? “Dad,” she said slowly, pulling back as the song ended and the band switched to a slower tune. “Maybe you should ask Shelley to dance.”

  “Shelley?” he asked, as if the thought would have never occurred to him. “Why?”

  Becca glanced back at Shelley, just to be sure. The other woman was still watching her father with that same expression of longing on her face. She couldn’t believe she had never noticed it before. She looked back at her father. “Have you ever thought that Shelley might be interested in being more than just friends?”

  “No.” Her father was shocked.

  “Well.” She took a deep breath and gave him a little nudge toward the woman standing at the edge of the dance floor. “Maybe it’s time we both stopped living in the past.”

  She smiled as she left him standing awkwardly in the middle of a crowd of people, trying to get up the courage to approach a woman he’d probably never thought twice about before tonight. She walked across the lawn to where Colin was still standing under the tree. In the flickering candlelight, his hair was so black it gleamed. The slightest hint of stubble darkened the line of his jaw, and the pale blue eyes that stared back at hers reflected the same rush of emotions that coursed through her every time she laid eyes on him.

  When he opened his arms, she walked into them, pressed up on her toes, and laid her lips on his.

  “Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?” he murmured, when she finally pulled back.

  She nodded, blushing. She still hadn’t gotten used to his compliments, the way he never missed the slightest change in her appearance, or a single detail in the stories she told him each night about the kids at school. She had been with a man who thought only about himself for so long that she had assumed that was how all men were.

  She knew better now.

  Shifting in his arms so her back was against his chest, so he could continue to hold her while they both watched the party swirl around them, she took in the scene of over two hundred and fifty of their friends and neighbors milling around the yard. A few yards away, Luke and Taylor were blowing bubbles at Riley, as the dog barked and nipped at them until they popped. Hundreds of wind chimes swung from the branches of the trees, sparkling in the soft glow of the twinkle lights.

  When she heard the faint sound of her mother’s charm bracelet, she almost didn’t bother to look up. She’d been hearing it more and more now, whenever she and Colin were together. She’d stopped trying to understand it, and had simply accepted it as a sign that her mother was there, watching over her.

  In the east, a thumbnail moon was rising, its silver curve visible through the low-hanging branches of the ash tree. Pale green leaves shivered in the salty breezes overhead, drawing her eyes up to where a tiny, hidden wind chime dangled from a thin branch. She blinked when she saw a familiar shape spinning slowly at the end of one of the strings. “Oh my God,” she breathed.

  “What’s wrong?” Colin asked.

  Pulling out of his arms, she took a step closer and spotted more familiar shapes through the leaves. Lifting up on her toes, until she could just barely reach it, her fingertips brushed over one of the charms. Most of them were rusted, corroded from years of being underwater, of being constantly lashed by salt and tide. A few of them had lost their shape completely. But there was no question that this was her mother’s charm bracelet—the one she had lost in the harbor so many years ago.

  “Taylor,” she whispered.

  Taylor paused in the middle of blowing more bubbles, glancing up at her teacher. “Yes?”

  “Where did this come from?” Becca asked, struggling to find her voice.

  Taylor pushed to her feet, walking over. She looked up at the chime Becca was holding. “I made it,” she answered simply. “From an old charm bracelet.”

  “But…where did you find it?”

  “Luke gave it to me.” Taylor looked over at Luke, who’d walked over to stand beside her. “You said you found it in the harbor, right?”

  Luke nodded. “I caught it,” he said, looking from Becca to Colin. “That day we went fishing after school. That’s w
hat the hook got stuck on.”

  Colin reached up, touching the rusted pieces that had been hidden underwater for so long. He found the matching mourning dove to the one Becca still wore on the chain around her neck and smiled down at her. “I think,” he said, letting go of the charm and drawing her back into his arms, “that your mom just gave us her blessing.”

  The End

  I hope you enjoyed Wind Chime Wedding. I am currently working on the third book in the series, Wind Chime Summer, which will be available in 2016. For updates, please visit my website at sophiemossauthor.com.

  After spending the past year writing and traveling and living out West, I have happily settled back into a quiet life in my hometown on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I live in a small town similar to Heron Island and I feel so fortunate to be able to share the rich culture and traditions of my home through my stories.

  In each of the Wind Chime Novels, I feature a Chesapeake Bay recipe at the end of the story. On the next page, you’ll find a recipe for a ten-layer Smith Island Cake. I have only baked this recipe once, and while I promise it’s worth the effort, it’s definitely a labor of love.

  If you want to try a Smith Island Cake without having to don an apron for an entire afternoon, check out the Smith Island Baking Company at smithislandcake.com. Located on Smith Island, the bakery specializes in authentic Smith Island Cakes—Maryland’s State Dessert—and they ship their products throughout the U.S. and around the world. I have tried several of their cakes, and they’re fantastic.

  Lastly, I have a small request. If you enjoyed Wind Chime Wedding, it would mean so much to me if you would consider leaving a brief review. Reviews are so important. They help a book stand out in the crowd, and they help other readers find authors like me. If you have time, I would really appreciate it if you’d leave a review on the site where you purchased the book.

  Thank you so much for reading Wind Chime Wedding!

  Sincerely,