CHAPTER TWELVE

 

“Hurry,” Lily called over her shoulder.

“Why?” Violet asked as she panted after her sister.

Lily didn’t answer until after they climbed the hill on their street and left behind the cluster of large Victorian houses. As they cruised downhill and passed row after row of corn, tobacco, and soybeans, Lily slowed down to talk.

“We need to get Mona to go for a bike ride, crash her, and then you and I will head off to ‘get help.’”

“Won’t Mona be hurt? And that’s horrible to leave her on the side of the road by herself,” Violet said, aghast.

“She won’t be alone for long. Kevin Stokes gets off work in twenty minutes from the farm. He’ll be driving a pickup, perfect for putting a bicycle in the back,” Lily said with a wink and a mischievous grin.

Violet laughed as she looked at her sister. She was glowing. When Lily had told her over the phone about all the weddings she had attended and about how she had helped the couples along, Violet had no idea Lily had actually orchestrated their relationships.

“You seem like your old self, Lil,” Violet called out. Lily held her hands up in the air as she sped down the hill.

“Matchmaking makes me feel alive. It makes me happy to give others what I can’t have myself. It’s very rewarding to see their love spark and grow. It’s a way of experiencing love without any of the pain. Now, hurry up. There’s Mona’s house.”

 

“What a great idea to go for a bike ride. It’s so pleasant out here before the summer heat sets in.” Mona smiled as she pedaled between Violet and Lily. Her long blond hair was tied back in a ponytail, and she wore a bright blue scarf tied at her neck.

“That’s what I thought, too. And I thought it would be nice for Violet to see the countryside again. She’s been gone too long in France.” Lily gave her sister a wink. It was the key to cause the crash. They had just ridden down a hill and were starting to pedal uphill near the farm where Kevin worked.

Violet took a deep breath and hoped love was worth the physical pain Mona was about to experience. One thing she knew was it wouldn’t be as painful as her broken heart. Violet nodded to her sister, and they both angled their bikes toward Mona, who was pedaling unsuspectingly in the middle. Giving her bike one last push, Violet headed straight for Mona. Violet saw Lily coming from the other side and closed her eyes, knowing impact was coming soon.

“Oh no,” Mona called out a second before Violet collided with her sister. The bikes crashed head-on, and Violet opened her eyes and shot over the handlebars, straight into her sister’s surprised face.

Violet and Lily met midair. Forehead cracked into forehead, and they grabbed at each other and held on as they fell with a hard thump onto a pile of wrecked bikes. Lily groaned and Violet closed her eyes and tried to remember to breathe.

“Jumping Jehoshaphat! Are you two hurt?” Mona’s voice called out from above the wrecked sisters.

Violet opened her eyes to see a completely uninjured Mona standing over them. “Ow,” Violet groaned and pushed herself up to sit. “Are you hurt?”

Mona shook her head. “No, my chain came off, and I had to stop to walk my bike up the hill. What happened? You two just veered and collided at the exact same time.”

Violet saw Lily roll her eyes and barely heard the curse she couldn’t contain. “We must have popped our tires. Maybe something was in the road,” Lily said as she struggled to get up.

“Yeah, that’s it. Must have run over something,” Violet groaned as she slowly managed to stand up.

“I’ll go get help. You two just sit on the side of the road. I’ll be right back!” Mona helped the sisters to the side of the road before hurrying to her bike. Violet collapsed against the bed of bluegrass and waited until Mona had slid her chain back on her bike and pedaled off before turning to her sister.

“Of all the harebrained schemes. I have an egg on my head where you flew into me. My elbow is bleeding. And I’m pretty sure I have an imprint of a pedal permanently engrained on my hip.”

Lily kept her eyes glued to the setting sun and tried moving different body parts. “That didn’t go as I planned, but at least nothing seems to be broken. I’m more upset that Plan A didn’t work. I thought for sure this was the perfect way to get Kevin and Mona together. Every woman loves a knight in shining armor coming to her rescue.”

“What are you going to do now?” Violet asked. The sky was turning shades of blue, yellow, orange, pink, and purple.

“Plan B.”

“What’s Plan B?”

“I’ll kidnap her and send a ransom to Kevin?”

Violet was about to respond when the sound of a car engine reached them. Violet propped herself up and felt her mouth drop open. “Son of a . . . your plan worked, Lily.” Inside the truck was a smiling Kevin and a calf-eyed Mona.

“Thank goodness. I didn’t want to go to jail for kidnapping,” Lily said with relief as she sat up and watched the infatuated couple heading toward them.

Kevin finally tore his eyes from Mona and looked down at the two disheveled sisters. “Lily! Violet! What happened? By the way, it’s nice to have you back, Vi.”

“Kevin is my hero! He saw me biking down the road by myself and pulled over to offer to escort me to my destination. He told me he couldn’t live with himself if he let a woman go off into the night by herself. Isn’t he such a gentleman?”

Kevin blushed as Mona looked at him like he hung the stars and the moon. “Shucks, Mona. Any man would do the same.”

Mona reached out and placed her small hand on his muscled forearm. “And when I told him about you two, he grabbed my bike, put it in his truck, and insisted on rushing straight here to check on you two.”

Violet looked at Lily and tried not to laugh. The two lovebirds had totally forgotten about them sitting on the ground bleeding. They were lost in each other, just as Lily had planned. Well, not exactly how she had planned it, but the end result was all that mattered.

Kevin placed their bikes in the bed of the pickup and helped Lily and Violet climb onto the tailgate. Violet dangled her legs as Kevin went to open the cab door for Mona.

“Are you sure you two don’t mind riding in the back? There’s just not room for everyone up here,” Kevin asked with only a slight hint of remorse.

“Of course not. We’re just glad Mona found you,” Lily called out.

“I’ll get you home in a jiffy.”

Kevin started the truck, and Violet grabbed the side of the truck bed to hang on as he drove over the rolling hillside and back into Keeneston. “Don’t you dare tell anyone about this,” Violet warned her sister.

“We’ll be dancing at their wedding and laughing about this before you know it,” Lily said, full of cockiness. “Besides, we won’t have time to dwell on the little hiccup my plan took—we’ll be too busy on our next project.”

 

* * *

 

“What do you mean, Robert left?” their father asked. Daisy had come home, and Lily and Violet enjoyed surprising her. But the happiness quickly turned to frustration when Daisy had announced Robert had left that morning for Washington.

“It’s an amazing opportunity. As soon as the war is over, he’ll be back and we’ll get married,” Daisy said with a smile plastered on her face. She pressed her hand to the necklace she had hidden under her suit top.

“But, you’ve been together for years. It’s time to shit or get off the pot,” her father muttered, flicking the newspaper closed.

“Dad,” Daisy gasped.

“It’s true, dear. There’s no reason he couldn’t have married you before he left. Or at least set a date for a wedding. He didn’t even come to talk to your father about your future. A true gentleman would ask permission to marry you or to set a date. Instead he ran off into the night. It’s not right.” Her mother shook her head as she placed the main course on the dining room table.

“He did make a commitment,” Daisy defended as she pulled out her engagement ring.

“Humph,” her father grunted. “Did he come talk to us? No. Did he tell you to start planning a wedding? No. Did he even tell you when he was coming back? No.”

Lily could no longer stay quiet. “I told you not to trust him. I don’t like this at all. He’s just stringing you along.”

Violet nodded her agreement, and Daisy lost her temper. “What right do you have to agree to anything, Vi? You haven’t been around for the past four years, and you think you can waltz back in here and give me relationship advice? I’m the only one of us who even has a marriage prospect.”

“You’re right, but you’ve told me all about your relationship, and I think he’s using you. His loyalty is questionable at best, and it’s obvious he’s a social climber.”

Daisy threw down her napkin and stood up from the table. “If you all don’t like him, fine. But I’m not going to sit around as you bash my fiancé.”

With an air of righteous indignation, Daisy stomped from the room and out the front door. The sound of her car starting made Violet jump from the table. Her father reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her.

“Give her time to come to terms with our dislike of her fiancé. With him gone, she’ll discover quickly how much she depends on us for our unyielding love. Call her next week to let her know you two love her. We’ll do the same in a couple days. We’ll ride this out as a family. While family may disagree, we never abandon.”

“Yes, Daddy.” Violet sat down and took in her parents’ worried looks. “Do you think he’ll ever marry her?”

“I don’t. He’s all smiles and polish on the surface, but there’s something very calculating underneath. However, it’s something Daisy needs to discover for herself, much like you two had to,” her father told them as he cut the pork tenderloin.

Tears threatened to spill from their mother’s eyes as she passed out the plates. “It’s the hardest thing about being a parent. We have to give you enough space to learn your own lessons. She needs to learn this on her own and realize we will be here with open arms anytime she needs us.”

Violet sniffled. “Thank you for giving me space to grow and the love to know that even if I failed, you would be there.”

Their mother rushed around the table and wrapped them in a hug a second before their father’s strong arms encircled them all.