I promise you this dress is absolutely going to fit. It fits right now and I’m the same size that I’ve been for the past ten years. Everything’s going to be okay, hon. Really.”
“Oh, Gretch, I’m sorry. It’s just…I want everything to be so perfect. You know?”
“I know, Pam.” And she did know that much. Enough of her friends and cousins and sisters had gotten married in the past few years for her to be very familiar with this need for the most beautiful, perfect day of all eternity. “And, Pamela?”
“Yes?”
“Everything is going to be just wonderful. You love Raymond, don’t you?”
“Gretchen, you know he makes my sun rise every morning.”
“And he loves you more than he loves anything else. More than baseball and basketball, which is saying quite a lot for a sports nut like Raymond.”
Her friend giggled on the other end of the line. “All right, all that’s true.”
“Then what more can you ask for, Pamela? The day is going to be perfect even if it rains elephants from the sky. You’re marrying the man of your dreams.”
A long silence hung on the line. A nice silence.
“Pam?”
“You’re right, Gretchen. It’s going to be a wonderful day. Only one thing could make it more perfect.”
Uh-oh. Gretchen had heard this line before. She knew just where her friend was headed.
“It’s not going to happen, Pam. I’ve told all of you, I just don’t want to get married.”
“Not even if you met a special guy?”
“If I meet a special man, we’ll date, we’ll share our thoughts, we’ll probably make love, but in time it’s going to end. I’m just not cut out for husbands and babies. I like my job. I like my life. That’s just not going to change. Nothing’s going to change.”
She was right about that. But it still meant that every time someone asked her to stand up in a wedding or to attend a wedding or even mentioned the words wedding or marriage or husband or children, all her friends and loved ones were going to wish she were different. They were going to try their best to get her to settle down and make them feel that at last she’d fit herself into the world the way they wanted her to fit.
But Pam wasn’t talking. Perhaps she was getting the message. Finally.
“You’re thirty-two, Gretchen. You want to be alone all your life?”
Gretchen couldn’t help chuck ling at that. “Pam, hon, I have seven brothers and sisters, more cousins than is probably legal, and friends all over the country. Almost all of them are generous and loving. Like you, Pamela. They share their lives, their homes, and their children, and I absolutely love that. How could I be lonely? And why do I need to raise my own family when I can just share in everyone else’s whenever I feel the need?”
“Gretchen—”
“Pam, stop. Right now. I’m so happy for you and Raymond. I’m glad you’re getting married and living the life you want. Be happy for me, too. I have everything I could ever need or want.”
More silence.
“Okay, Gretchen, I am happy for you. I’m truly happy if you really do have everything you want.”
Gretchen felt herself relax a bit. She and her friend talked a few minutes longer, but when they finally hung up, a frown formed on Gretchen’s face.
“I do have everything I want,” she whispered. “But just once, just one time, I wish I could show up at a wedding with a man on my arm.” She wouldn’t, of course. Asking a man to travel any distance with her to a wedding implied a closeness that she just didn’t want to encourage. She had enough trouble with men who thought dating a female detective meant a lot of things it would never mean. But wouldn’t it be great to show up with a date? Maybe then all her friends and family would believe that she was truly happy living a life with no ties outside of work. All she needed was a little help from the right kind of man.
Unfortunately the right kind of man didn’t exist in White horn. The only way she was going to find a date for this wedding would be if one fell from the sky and disappeared just as quickly the day after the wedding.
Chapter Three
It was definitely good to be home, David thought, sitting on the long porch of the Big Sky Bed & Break fast that night and gazing out at the tall pines that stretched away for miles. He, along with his mother and father had stopped by for an overdue reunion with the remaining members of the family, taking the short walk across the sloping lawns that separated their home from the Big Sky. Now evening had dipped the stars in silver and cast them out over the sky to shine down on the elegant old manor house where Celeste and Jasmine still lived and where so many guests had found peace and beauty.
“You missed this. At least a little, didn’t you? Admit it, David,” his sister Frannie said, leaning back in her husband Austin’s arms and gesturing to the crowded porch where all the people he loved best were now gathered.
David drank in the scene and noted how relaxed his sister seemed. At last. She clearly loved her husband. Marriage suited her. “I missed you, squirt,” he told her. “Missed all the torment of having you chase after me.”
“Humph,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “You and Cleo and Summer used to torment and tease Jasmine and me. Wasn’t it true, Cleo?”
“Mmm, absolutely,” her cousin said, linking her hand in her husband Ethan’s as she nodded her agreement at Frannie. “And wasn’t it tons of fun?”
Her chuckle floated out on the night and his cousin Jasmine joined in. “It was great fun.”
“The best,” Summer agreed. “Remember when David wrote a play for us and we insisted he play all the male parts?” she asked. She smiled up at her husband, Gavin. “David spent his life practically surrounded by women,” she told him. “Must have been a bit harrowing at times.”
“Or…maybe not,” Gavin said, staring around at the quartet of beauties gracing the porch.
“It did have its moments,” David admitted. “I got to meet any number of young ladies I might otherwise not have had access to. And you were all very understanding about being forced to share your space with a mere male.”
“Was it a pain having to deal with all our feminine foibles?” Jasmine asked, prodding her cousin. “Be honest, David, now that we’re all grown up.”
He turned and smiled at her and marveled at what a lucky man he had been. “The truth, Jasmine? It was pretty great. We were all very close, and no, I didn’t mind at all being the only guy other than Dad most of the time. You all spoiled me shamefully, you know.”
“Like you didn’t spoil us,” Cleo drawled. “You did. You and Uncle Edward.” She sat silent for a full five seconds. Then she raised her brows speculatively. “So which of our friends did you want to meet that you didn’t tell us about?”
David
