Laney, Ready for the Big Day
“Just think,” Autumn said to Laney as they wiped down counters at the coffee shop, “it’s almost your wedding. Tonight we’ll be at the Red Barn, dancing with cowboys at your bachelorette party.”
It was hard to believe. After all the discussion and planning, the big day was only forty-eight hours away. Everyone would be meeting at the waterfront park for the ceremony, then going back to Primrose Haus for the reception. There would be food and flowers and dancing. No bright lights, no noise and crazy excitement, but they’d have the stars in the sky and they could make their own noise. It would be exactly the wedding she’d dreamed of when she was a little girl.
“Ben told me the guys still don’t know what they’re going to do up there for Drake’s bachelor party,” Autumn said. “I think hang out at the river, sit around and drink beer. Talk about boring.”
Laney shrugged. “It’s not Vegas.” Okay, that sounded kind of…off. From the corner of her eye, she could feel Autumn studying her. “I’ll take out the garbage,” she announced and ducked into the alley behind the coffee shop. It was wrong not to feel more excited about all of this, especially since her mom had worked so hard on pulling everything together for her. And everything had been pulled together perfectly, right down from the donut cake to the DJ. (The Flesh Eaters weren’t happy that they’d been bumped from playing at the reception, but Drake had told them about the open-mike night at Zelda’s on Sunday, and they were planning to make an impression on the residents of Icicle Falls and maybe get a future booking.) Laney had a wedding gown she loved and was marrying her best friend. That was what mattered, not where or how they got married. Anyway, it was too late to change her plans now. Everything was ordered and everyone was coming.
Autumn was happy to keep the wedding conversation going when Laney came back in. “Are you sorry you guys aren’t going to Vegas?”
Laney concentrated on putting a new liner in the garbage can. “My mom’s right. This is better.”
“For who?”
“For everyone.”
“It’s not your mom getting married,” Autumn reminded her.
Why was she always saying stuff like that? “I know,” Laney said. “But this way our family and friends can come.”
“They could’ve come to Vegas. I just got a Visa card. I could go. So could Ben.” She grinned. “Let’s go.”
“Oh, sure,” Laney said. “I’m gonna take off for Vegas two days before my wedding.”
“I would. If that’s what I really wanted.”
Laney bit her lip.
“Don’t be a wimp, Laney, not when it’s something as important as your wedding.”
“I’m not being a wimp,” Laney insisted. “I want this.” She liked Icicle Falls. She liked the river. She liked the old-fashioned house on Primrose Street. So did Drake. Well, sort of. He liked the river, anyway. This was going to be fun, the best of both worlds. They’d have the fancy wedding here and then go to Vegas for their honeymoon. She set aside the image of Drake and her on the Treasure Island pirate ship, shook her head in an effort to erase the beautiful pictures she’d seen on the website.
But she’d wanted to get married on that ship. Primrose Haus was beautiful, but in the end, it was just a house and the yard was just a yard. She frowned and told herself to cut it out. Her mom was right, she thought again. She’d have no regrets about the wedding they’d planned.
Your mom will have no regrets about the wedding you’ve planned.
Where had that come from? It was as if Autumn was still talking to her.
Well, she wasn’t listening. Canceling things now would be totally selfish and unfair to her mother.
And so the wedding party left Thursday afternoon for Icicle Falls. Friday morning after breakfast they’d all go rock climbing. At some point during the day, her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins would arrive, along with the rest of the guests who would trickle in. There would be a rehearsal on Friday night and then a dinner party for the immediate family and bridal party. Saturday was the big day. It was going to be like Christmas, only better. Yes, she had made the right decision.
They checked into the Icicle Creek Lodge and Drake’s best man, Ben, said, “This place is something else.” Since he’d leaned over to Drake and lowered his voice, she knew he hadn’t meant that in a good way.
“It ain’t Vegas, that’s for sure,” Drake whispered back, echoing her earlier words.
Her stomach started churning and that made her cranky. They got to the room and instead of being charmed by the mountain view, she saw fussy furniture she’d never pick and curtains at the window that made her think of her grandmother. Those were antiques. Valuable antiques. And the lace curtains were pretty.
Except she didn’t like lace curtains.
This was her bridal suite. This was where she’d spend her wedding night. She burst into tears.
He dropped their suitcases and took her by the arms. “Laney, what’s wrong?”
“I don’t want to do this,” she wailed.
He looked at her in concern. “You don’t want to get married?”
“No.”
“You don’t?” He sounded horrified.
“No. I mean, no, that’s not it. I want to get married, just not here. But it’s too late.”
“No, it’s not. Tell me what you want.”
She shook her head. Too late, too late. She’d blown it. She’d let herself get talked into something that wasn’t her and Drake. Yeah, this had been her when she was ten, when she was sixteen even, but she wasn’t sixteen anymore. Somewhere along the way, her tastes had changed. Her mom had meant well, but she’d been wrong and now they were stuck.
He led her into the room and settled them on the bed. “Talk to me.”
“We should have gone to Vegas,” she said between sobs. “I’m sorry, Drake.”
He tucked a finger under her chin and raised her face to look at him. “Hey, don’t be sorry. I told you I’d do whatever you wanted.”
“I know, and I thought I wanted this. What I really want is to go to Vegas.”
He brightened at that. “Yeah? Then we’ll go to Vegas.”
“Are you crazy? We can’t do that now! It’s too late to cancel the reception. My parents have spent all this money.”
“We’ll pay them back.”
“My mom would be so embarrassed.” The very thought of humiliating her mother made Laney cry even harder.
There was a knock at the door, and Autumn and Ella ducked in, together with their boyfriends. Darcy and Drake’s other pal, Gordy, hovered behind.
“What’s wrong?” Autumn asked.
“Laney doesn’t want to do this,” Drake explained.
“She doesn’t want to get married?” Ben asked, shocked.
“No, stupid,” said Autumn. “She doesn’t want to get married here. I told you all along this was a mistake,” she scolded Laney. “You’re such a wimp.”
Good old Autumn, always a comfort. Laney glared at her.
Unaffected, Autumn pulled out her cell phone. “Let’s check on flights to Vegas. I bet we can get a red-eye.”
“I can’t go to Vegas,” Laney protested. “It’d be wrong.”
“Well, then, what are you going to do?” Autumn demanded.
“I’m going to call my dad.” She didn’t dare tell her mother what she was thinking.
Her father answered his cell phone on the second ring. “Laney girl, are you guys up there now?”
“Yes, and, oh, Dad, this is all wrong.”
“What’s wrong?”
His voice was suddenly worried. Great. He was going to be mad; Mom was going to be upset. “Never mind. I shouldn’t have called.”
“Yes. You should have. Tell me what’s going on.”
“I don’t want to do this.”
“You don’t want to get married?” he asked, shocked.
“I don’t want to get married here. We should’ve gone to Vegas. I should be happy about this wedding, but I’m just so…unhappy.”
“Aw, Laney, why didn’t you say something earlier?”
He had to ask that? As if he hadn’t been there, seeing all the work Mom was doing, how important this was to her? “Mom.” That was as far as she got, but that said it all. She started crying again.
“I know. Your mother really wanted this for you. Sometimes I think that in doing it for you, she’s enjoyed planning the kind of fancy wedding we didn’t have.”
He suddenly stopped talking. Had they lost the connection? “Dad?”
“Don’t do anything just yet, Laney. Stay up there. And don’t worry. I’ve got an idea.”