Jess Kazmaroff’s wedding day was a bright, cool spring day with all of Atlanta’s floral show in full bloom. Jack carried an armful of white roses into the church. With the cancellation of all of the wedding florist orders, he and Mia had amassed a collection from various florists nearby.
He had a box of fliers he’d created that morning, which would be handed out after the ceremony alerting all guests to the change in venue for the reception.
Mia hadn’t said what happened in her showdown with Mindy and the scramble to fill in the cancelled appointments, photographer, and catering had kept Ned, Mia and Jack running for four days. In a way, the wedding felt a lot more personal now. Instead of the Cancun honeymoon—the flights for which were cancelled weeks ago—Jess arranged for them to drive up to Brasstown Bald. When she told Maxwell she preferred a cabin in the North Georgia mountains where she could take walks and have him teach her to fly fish, the big lug nearly cried.
Jack set the flowers down and looked around. It was two hours before aisle-walking time. Ned came out of an anteroom, an SLR camera in his hands.
“Hey, Jack, any more flowers in the back of your car?”
“No, this is it. Did the new photographer cancel?”
Ned hefted the camera. “This one we can’t put on Maxwell’s crazy daughter,” he said. “He got the flu.”
“Terrific.”
“Did you deliver the cake to the reception hall?”
When the reception venue was cancelled Jack arranged to have everything moved to the VFW Hall in Norcross. In fact, the only thing that hadn’t gotten totally screwed by Mindy’s sabotage was the church, itself. Because Jess saw and spoke to her priest weekly, when he got the email canceling her church date, he simply ignored it.
“Yeah, Mia delivered it.”
“Surprised you trusted her with your masterpiece.”
“I’m trying. Have you seen the chief?”
“He’s in one of the dressing rooms trying not to look like he’s coming apart at the seams.”
“That’s only because he’s smart enough to worry Jess might come to her senses.”
They walked to the front of the church.
“Haven’t spoken to Mia in awhile,” Ned said. “She doing okay?”
Jack shrugged. “She’s still pretty focused on the Internet Hussy case.”
“You mean obsessed.”
“Yeah, that’s what I mean.”
“That’s a dead end, isn’t it? I mean, nobody has any leads?”
Jack sighed. “Yeah, but the worst of it, because it’s an open case, is she can’t have access to any evidence the Atlanta detectives discover. And while it was great that she helped solve Tracey Kilpatrick’s murder, it didn’t budge the needle at all on Maxwell relenting on her working on Victoria’s case.”
“You need to do a better job of distracting her,” Ned said, his hands on his hips.
“I thought that was your job.”
Ned laughed. “Yeah, right. But speaking of jobs, I’m off to pick up Jess and her dress.”
“Isn’t Mia doing that after she delivers the cake?”
“There’s only room in the car for the driver, the dress and the bride. I told Mia we’d meet her here.” Ned looked at his watch and frowned. “I’d better get going.” He slapped Jack on the shoulder and trotted down the aisle to the exit. As he opened the front door, Mindy Payne stepped into the church and was momentarily backlit. She hesitated, then turned slowly, as if aware she was being watched.
Jack approached her. “Looking for your dad?”
“Eventually,” Mindy said. She wore jeans and flip-flops and carried a long garment bag, presumably containing her bridesmaid’s dress. “I’m in charge of the entertainment.” She smiled and looked past Jack. “I need to find where the church AV room is located.”
“I have no idea, but the chief’s in the last dressing room off the narthex and down that hall.”
“No problem,” she said, sweetly. “I’m sure I’ll find it.”
Jack watched her walk down the hall and his gut tightened. She was way too happy today of all days for that to be good for anyone.
*****
Mindy dumped her dress on a chair in the parish AV room. She’d called ahead and discovered they only had an LCD projector with a ten by twelve foot screen.
Archaic. But it would do.
Just in case there was a more updated way of showing the video at the reception—assuming everyone made it that far which was not at all certain—she had the video as a QuickTime file on a jump drive too.
Otherwise how’s it going to go viral from a stupid church projector?
She stooped to examine the power amplifier system on a cart in the corner. The video was pure gold all on its own of course, but if there was any way she could get the audio to link up for the full effect of “Jess’s” cries of delight, Mindy would be thanking the AV gods forever. Is that blasphemous? she thought, with a grin.
“I thought I saw you come in.”
She whirled around to face her father walking into the room.
“Getting the video ready?” he asked, looking past her. He already had his suit on. It had been a long time since Mindy had seen him so dressed up—his last wife’s funeral came to mind.
“That’s, right,” she said. “Just doing some sound checks so there are no hiccups.”
“I wanted to tell you, Mindy, how grateful I am that you’re doing this. I know this has been hard for you.”
“It’s okay, Dad. As long as you’re happy.”
He looked nervous, which surprised her. Bill Maxwell was a rock. To see him now, jittery and ruffled was disconcerting.
“I want you to get to know Jess,” he said. “I guess because I love her—and I love you—it’s hard for me to…to see why you can’t be friends.”
“Sure,” she said. She felt something cold and hard seize up inside her chest. “I know you want that. Stands to reason you would.”
“I wish you could understand.” He watched her, his eyes liquid and sad. Mindy held herself together, not moving, not speaking, not breathing—hoping he would just leave.
“Okay,” she said, her voice a squeak.
“I know we never talked about it…why I left. And I’m sorry about that.” He nodded as if he’d delivered sage, important advice and then turned to walk out the door.
The pain and the hurt wouldn’t be contained another moment. Not with her father crowbarring the lid off her carefully packed box of resentment.
“You left me alone with her,” she said in a small voice.
He stopped and turned around. “Your mother?”
“You left her because she was a drunk and self-destructive. I get it. Only she got worse when you left. And there was only me to pick up the mangled, ugly, bloody pieces. You let that happen. You made that happen. But you didn’t watch it happen.”
He opened his mouth, his eyes moving around the room.
“I just...I wanted out so bad,” he said, his eyes finally resting on her, “that I didn’t think how it would be for you. I am so sorry for that. My God, I am so sorry, Mindy.”
“It felt like you left me too, Dad.”
He reached for her. “I’ll never leave you, darling girl. I swear on all that is holy, you’ll be the one out of all of them, I know that for sure, who I’ll never leave.”
Mindy felt her shoulders sag beneath his pressing fingers. He wouldn’t let her look away. For a split second, she remembered him from so many years ago. Those same eyes of love: reading to her, throwing the ball to her, laughing with her.
“Do you hear me, Mindy?” he said, giving her a little shake. “This isn’t like that time. This time I’m not leaving you. I’m bringing you with me. Do you understand?”
Her eyes drilled into his, searching. She wanted to answer him. The lump in her throat was burning and she felt tears stinging her eyes.
“Jess and Mia are standing by, too,” he said, “They want you. They want both of us.”
She shook her head to chase the tears away. Trying to sound flippant, she said, “Taking applications to form a family?”
“You’ve met Mia. You know she’s no BS.”
“I know she’s crazy.”
“So the two of you should get along great.”
Mindy smiled in spite of herself. He brought her into his arms and hugged her tight.
“What a zoo it’s going to be at family holidays,” she whispered into his chest.
“I can’t wait,” he said. He pulled back to look at her again. “And get a load of this—your mom’s welcome too.”
She nodded and wiped her tears away. “Okay, Dad. Well, it’s a new angle, that’s for sure.”
“See if you can work it, sugar,” he said, moving a tendril of her hair from her eyes. “I really need you to. I think you really need you to, too.”
She stood on tiptoe and kissed him, then let out a long breath. “Think Jess will forgive me?”
“She already has.”
“All right then. It’s your special day, Dad. Let’s do this thing.”
The first strains of the wedding march began, faltered and then stopped. Her father looked away as if he’d been goosed. For a moment, his face looked panicked.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” he asked, but his gaze was on the door.
She laughed. “I could ask you the same thing.”
“I’ll be fine,” he said, looking back at her. “Now that I’ve got you and Jess, I’ll be more than fine.”
“I need to hit the ladies’ room to do some damage control,” she said, pointing to her streaked mascara.
“Don’t take too long. I need you next to me when I do this.”
“I’ll be there,” she said. He turned and walked out of the room. She stood quietly for a moment, still feeling the pressure of his hands on her shoulders. There were more people walking up and down the hallway now. She glanced at her watch. Less than an hour away. She turned back to the projector and found the USB port on the side. The thumb drive went in easily and she felt a rush of intoxication.
Yep. This was definitely going to be a very special day.
*****
Mia sped toward the church. It wasn’t that she was late exactly, but she hadn’t meant to take so much time at the reception venue.
Jack will thank me when I tell him how they were about to put his caprese salad in the refrigerator. The parking lot had filled up. Glancing at the digital clock on her dashboard, she realized she was later than she thought.
She took a long breath to steady herself. All she really had to do was get into her bridesmaid’s dress, put her hair into a ponytail or something and borrow some blush and mascara from her mother.
Her mother.
In the scramble to replace all the things necessary to have the wedding come off on time, Mia hadn’t had much time to spend with Jess. A hurried phone conversation this morning and a brief handoff last night was about it. She would make it up to her. After all, wasn’t everything she was doing now for Jess?
Mia yanked the garment bag that contained her dress out of the backseat of the car. In fact, twenty minutes before launch gave her plenty of time to dress, have a heart-to-heart with Jess and still be in place next to the chief when Jess was escorted down the aisle by Ned.
Locking her car, she hurried across the parking lot, scanning it for anyone she knew, but knowing they were probably all already inside—Jack, Ned, her mother, the chief. Would Mindy show? It didn’t matter. Short of stuffing a roman candle in the pipe organ, she couldn’t stop if from happening now.
An usher stood at the door, welcoming people as they came in. Mia slipped in among a throng of entering guests—none of whom she knew—and stood in the narthex to get her bearing. Holy Family Catholic Church had been their family parish for as long as Mia could remember, and although Mia had stopped going years ago, Jess was as involved as ever.
Mia shouldn’t have been so surprised to see the number of people who had come to watch Jess get married. This was Jess’s church, and Jess’s people. Mia squeezed past a group of four well-dressed middle-aged couples waiting to be shown to their seats and was about to run down the north hall to the dressing rooms when she saw something that made her stop.
A sudden coldness fluttered through her chest.
It was impossible. He can’t be here.
But he was. He stood by the water fountain, arms crossed, eyes dull and spiritless, waiting for the usher to lead him to his place.
Jeff Wojinziky.