I become a professional bridesmaid?” Addie asked eagerly. It was obvious that her aunt’s story had completely won her over.
“You have to get to be a little taller first,” Gina told her, kissing the top of the girl’s head. “But I don’t see why you can’t be one when you’re grown up if you want to.”
“Will you show me what to do once I get tall enough?” Addie asked seriously.
Gina inclined her head as if she was bowing to the little girl. “I’d be honored.”
“Just what is it that you’re going to show my daughter how to do once she gets tall enough?” Tiffany Loren asked as she came into the guest bedroom.
Addie swung around on the bed and looked up at her mother. “Aunt Gina’s going to show me how to become a professional bridesmaid,” she declared gleefully.
Tiffany looked more than a little dismayed. “Just what kind of ideas are you putting into my little girl’s head?” she asked.
“I had nothing to do with it,” Gina said, disavowing her culpability in the matter. “This was all Addie’s idea.”
“An idea she got from watching you come over here, parading around in all those bridesmaid dresses,” Tiffany said pointedly.
“She could do worse,” Gina answered defensively. “I get paid for making people happy and they get to enjoy their big day. Plus I get to eat cake on top of that. Not a bad gig if you ask me.”
Tiffany looked at her daughter. This wasn’t a conversation she wanted the little girl to hear. “Addie, why don’t you go find your cousins? I want to talk to your aunt Gina for a minute.”
Addie leaned in and told her aunt in a stage whisper, “Don’t let her get you stressed, Aunt Gina.”
Tiffany looked after her departing daughter, dumbfounded. “Where did that come from?” she asked her younger sister.
“I’d say she was just extrapolating on what I told her I did as a professional bridesmaid.” Tiffany looked at her quizzically. “I told her that I made sure the bride didn’t get stressed. I also might have told her that you were stressed on your wedding day—you were, you know,” Gina reminded her sister before Tiffany could deny the fact or get annoyed with her.
Gina grinned as she thought about her niece. “I can’t wait to hear how this is going to play itself out by the time Addie gets to tell her father about it.” She flashed Tiffany a sympathetic smile.
“Terrific.” Tiffany looked momentarily worried. “You know how Eddie jumps to conclusions.”
“But you know how to get him to jump back and that’s all that counts,” Gina reminded her older sister. Her brother-in-law had a short fuse, but his outbursts never lasted too long.
Tiffany smiled to herself. “That I do. Can’t wait until you get married so that I can pass along that wisdom and knowledge to you, little sister.”
“About that, I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you,” Gina advised. She saw the doubtful expression on Tiffany’s face. “I’m perfectly happy with my life just the way it is.”
Tiffany looked at her skeptically. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you.”
“That, dear Tiffany, is your prerogative. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to prepare to hold a bride’s hand and get her through what she’ll remember as ‘the happiest day of her life,’ otherwise known as tomorrow.”
“Do you have any more weddings lined up after that?” Tiffany asked her innocently.
“Not yet,” Gina replied honestly. “But I will,” she added with the confidence that she had managed to build up with this new career of hers.
Tiffany began to ease herself out of the bedroom. “By the way,” she added, nodding at the dress on the bed, “you performed a miracle with that bridesmaid dress.” She had seen the dress before its transformation. It had been absolutely ugly in her opinion.
“I know.” There was no conceit in Gina’s answer. There was just sheer pleasure in the knowledge that she was good at her chosen vocation.
Tiffany left the room, walking quickly. She waited until there was a room between her sister and her before she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. Making sure that she was alone, she pressed auto-dial 8.
The line on the other end was picked up almost immediately.
“Mom?” Tiffany asked just to be sure she’d gotten the right person. When her mother answered in the affirmative, Tiffany declared, “All systems are ‘go.’ Gina’s got nothing scheduled after she’s done with this wedding.”
“Perfect.” The line went instantly dead.
Anna Bongino wasn’t about to lose any time in calling her friend with the news.
“Gina has nothing immediately scheduled,” Anna breathlessly told Maizie the moment the other woman answered her phone. “Whatever you’re going to do, now would be the right time.”
“I’ll get back to you on this as soon as I can,” Maizie promised.
Maizie had already gathered her best friends and comrades-in-arms together to tell them about Anna’s daughter and her dissatisfaction that Gina was a perpetual professional bridesmaid. Intrigued, Celia Parnell and Theresa Manetti had gotten to work on the so-called “problem.”
Maizie wasn’t surprised that they already had a plan ready to go when she called Theresa with the news. A widow like Maizie and Celia, Theresa had built up a thriving catering service and she had found the perfect solution using that service.
“As luck would have it, the young bride whose reception I’m catering in three weeks is about to have a nervous breakdown,” Theresa announced, sounding far happier than the news should have warranted.
“Why?” Maizie asked.
“It seems that her photographer somehow accidentally double-booked two ceremonies at the same time, one of them being my bride’s. In addition, her cousin dropped out of the wedding at the last minute because her cousin’s boyfriend of five years just broke up with her,” Theresa explained.
“And we have just the young woman who can handle that for her and smooth out all the bumps,” Maizie replied happily.
“Yes, we do,” Theresa agreed.
“I admit that this does give us a reason to call Gina so she feels that her particular ‘talents’ are being utilized, but as far as I know, we still don’t have any suitable candidates to play the potential groom to her potential bride-to-be—or do we?” Maizie asked when Theresa didn’t immediately respond to her question.
“Hold on to your hat, Maizie. This is about to get even better,” Theresa promised.
“All right, consider my hat held. How does this get even better?” Maizie asked.
She could almost hear Theresa smiling from ear to ear as she
