to Caty, and he wanted to be with her—should be with her. The rest of them would have to adjust, but Marianne knew it wouldn’t be easy.
“They’ll be back,” she said out loud, as much to herself as to anyone else. “Two weeks isn’t that long.”
“It’s forever,” Emily moaned, her chin trembling while she stared down at her wilting bouquet.
Marianne swept her up for a comforting embrace. “They’ll be back before you know it. Everything will be just fine.”
“You’re set if I go, right?” Lisa asked. “I’m beat.”
“The servers are handling the cleanup,” Marianne replied, giving her a quick hug. “Thanks for all your help.”
“No problem. Ridge, it was nice to meet you.” Shaking his hand, she added her usual dazzling smile. “If you get hungry, I work at Ruthy’s Place on Main Street. We’ll fix you up with some honest-to-goodness home cooking.”
“Do I look like I need it?” he asked.
“Every man does,” she retorted.
“Ruthy, as in Ruth Benton, the amazing chef who catered the wedding?”
“The very same. You come in, I’ll set you up.” Flashing him another smile, she sauntered over to her car and gracefully slid into the driver’s seat.
After her sister’s flirtatious exit, Marianne snuck a look at Ridge, fully expecting to find him watching Lisa go. Pretty and carefree, Lisa was a starry-eyed dreamer who adored people, men especially. Males of all ages were drawn to her sunny personality. They just couldn’t help it.
Not this one, though. To Marianne’s amazement, he was engrossed in a discussion with Kyle about the faulty motor on his remote control helicopter. Something about servos was all she understood.
“I’m done, too,” John announced, stooping to kiss Marianne’s cheek. “You sure do throw a great wedding.”
As he strolled down the lane toward the converted carriage house he lived in, she shook her head. A ratty pair of sneakers had replaced his good shoes, and he’d shed his jacket and tie sometime during the day.
Because their mother had died when he was only five, Marianne had mothered him since childhood, and he still counted on her to look after him. Later, she’d find his missing clothes and get them cleaned, but this time she’d give him the bill. He was almost thirty, and it was time for him to start doing more on his own.
Right now, she had company. Still holding Emily, she turned to Ridge. “Come on inside. I’ll fix us a snack.”
“I had enough from that buffet to last me a week,” he replied, patting his stomach. “I’d love some more of that lemonade, though.”
They headed up the back porch steps with the kids, and he stepped in front of her to pull open the screen door. Thanking him, she set Emily down in the kitchen.
“Emily, where are your pretty new shoes?” she asked as Kyle snagged some chocolate chip cookies from the jar in the middle of the table. He thought he was being sneaky, but he’d been so good all day, she let it go.
Innocent blue eyes looked up at her. “In the pond.”
“Why?”
“They were hurting my feet.”
While she was counting to ten, Marianne noticed the red streak on her daughter’s dress. “What’s this?”
Emily glanced down like the spill was news to her. “Punch.”
She really didn’t have the energy for this, Marianne thought, swallowing a sigh that would only make matters worse. “Go take it off and bring it down for me. If we soak it, we might be able to get the stain out.”
The suggestion earned her a world-class pout, and Emily wrapped her arms protectively around herself. “No. I like my dress.”
“I do, too. I want to get it clean so you can wear it again.”
Now those sweet eyes glared up at her defiantly. “No.”
It had been a long day for all of them, and Marianne had finally reached the end of her patience. “Emily Rose—”
“Hey, Emmy,” Kyle interrupted, “I’m goin’ swimming. Wanna come?”
How he’d inhaled those cookies so fast was beyond Marianne. But his idea made Emily forget the argument, and she nodded enthusiastically.
“Let’s go put our suits on,” he said. “I’ll race you!”
Squealing, she took off with him trailing close behind her. Typical Kyle, he let her win the race upstairs. Two bedroom doors slammed shut, and a couple minutes later Marianne heard the front screen door squeak open. She looked out the window to see Emily tearing across the lawn toward the pond. Another set of footsteps pounded down the stairs, and Kyle reappeared in the kitchen, grinning as he handed over the stained dress.
“Here you go, Mom. Good luck.”
“Wait for me before you hit the water!”
He waved without turning around, and she felt silly for saying it. As responsible as most adults, Kyle knew the rules, and he followed them to the letter. Her little man, Marianne thought proudly. Every day she thanked God for sending him to her.
Emily was hollering his name, and he yelled for her to run out to the barn to spring his dog. They came back into view with Tucker barking excitedly as he ran circles around them and begged for attention from Kyle, then Emily, then Kyle again.
“Whew,” Ridge commented as he dropped into a chair at the table. “Is it always like that around here?”
Marianne smiled as she opened the fridge and poured them both some lemonade. “With the wedding, they’re a little more wound up than usual. Now that school’s out, things should calm down a little. I’m a teacher, so I’ll be off with them all summer. Lots of their friends end up here, which makes it fun.”
He chuckled. “I’ll bet.”
Of course, she wasn’t entirely certain she still had a job. Her teaching position was a one-year contract filling in for Kathy Walsh, who’d been on leave recovering from back surgery. Kathy would return in the fall, and Marianne was waiting anxiously to find out if Harland Elementary had a spot for her. If not, she had to find one somewhere else. With budget cuts and declining enrollment throughout the area, that wouldn’t be easy.
Pushing the worry from her mind, she set their glasses on the table and plopped down across from Ridge. Slipping off her grass-stained pink satin shoes, she crossed her feet on another chair and took a long swallow of the first thing she’d actually tasted all day. “Mmm.”
“Your kids are fantastic, Marianne,” Ridge said. “Emily could charm a statue, and Kyle’s something else.”
Like the proud mother she was, she smiled at the praise. “Yeah, he is. I don’t know what Emily and I would do without him.”
Emily’s
