style="font-size:15px;"> “THANKS SO MUCH for offering to host the party here, Jules.”
Julia Winston smiled, though it didn’t quite push away that subtle air of sadness that encircled her. “My pleasure, really. Especially since McKenzie is doing all the work. This house needs more parties.”
Julia lived in one of a handful of gorgeous Victorian mansions about a block off the water that had been built by early mining and business magnates, in the days when the area around Lake Haven had been an exclusive retreat renowned for the healing nature of the hot springs in abundance around the area.
Katrina had always loved this neighborhood. Steeped in history and beauty, it always felt graceful and elegant to her, even when she was a girl.
“How are you doing?” her mother, Charlene, asked Julia with a concerned expression. “How’s your mom?”
The town librarian gave a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She had lived here with her elderly mother until Mariah Winston had a stroke a few months earlier. Mariah was now in a rehab center in Shelter Springs, the same one where Katrina’s father had spent the last few years of his life.
“Fine. Every day she seems to be showing a little improvement. Or at least I would like to think so. It’s hard to be sure.”
Oh, Katrina remembered those difficult days after her father had suffered a debilitating brain injury after being shot on the job. How many hours had she sat by his bedside, watching for a blink or a facial tic or anything that might indicate the man she adored was still inside the shell lying on that hospital bed?
She squeezed Julia’s hand. “I’m sorry. Hosting a bridal shower is probably the last thing you felt like doing.”
“Not at all. I wouldn’t have offered if I hadn’t wanted to do it. I needed the distraction, if you want the truth. The house seems too quiet sometimes.”
“It’s such a lovely home. Every time I come here, I feel like I’m stepping back into another era,” Kat said.
Julia made a face. “Your great-grandma’s era, maybe.”
“I love it,” Sam declared. “You’ve got that classy, retro vibe going on. That’s really in right now.”
“There’s nothing wrong with old-fashioned,” Charlene assured Julia.
“I agree,” Kat said. “I wish I had been able to see Haven Point in its heyday.”
“Totally,” Sam said. “All those rich dudes coming here to soak in the hot springs. I’d be all over that.”
Before Julia could answer, Eliza Caine walked into the room. She looked around them as if wondering if someone else was hiding behind the grandfather clock in the entryway. “You don’t happen to have brought the guest of honor with you, did you? She’s fifteen minutes late, and that’s totally not like our Wynona.”
“She’ll be here,” Katrina assured her. “She called us before we left the house and said she had to help Cade with something.”
Samantha gave an inelegant snort with a distinctively naughty edge.
“Get your mind out of the gutter, young lady,” her mother, Linda, said, glaring at her only daughter.
“What? I didn’t even say anything,” Sam protested.
“Something at the police station,” Charlene said quickly. “I think one of the cases she investigated last summer when she still worked for the police department is going to trial, and he had some questions for her. She’ll be here soon. She said she was on her way.”
As if on cue, an old-fashioned doorbell chimed through the graceful entryway.
Kat was closest to it. She opened the door and was the first to hug her sister.
“Sorry I’m late,” Wynona said. “I didn’t mean to keep everyone waiting.”
“You didn’t,” Katrina assured her. “We just arrived ourselves.”
“Everyone’s in the back, if you’d like to follow me.”
Julia led the way through the house, filled with antiques and collectibles. It really was like a museum. How did Julia walk down for a midnight snack without worrying about breaking some sort of priceless family heirloom? she wondered.
This neighborhood was set on a hill some distance from downtown, but the huge screened sunroom Julia led them to offered spectacular views of the lake and the Redemption Mountains.
“Oh, look what you’ve done to this place,” Charlene exclaimed. “It’s absolutely stunning, Kenzie.”
McKenzie Kilpatrick, the Haven Point mayor and floral shop owner who loved nothing so much as throwing a big party—except maybe her husband, Ben—had pulled out the perfect bridal shower decor for Wynona. Though Wyn had been a police officer, she was a girlie-girl at heart, and the decorations reflected that, with large paper parasols in soft pastel shades hanging from the ceiling and heart-shaped balloons in the same shades in every corner.
“I had a lot of help. Katrina and Sam were here for several hours this afternoon.”
As maid of honor, Katrina probably should have handled many of the shower details. She had participated in the planning with Julia, Eliza and McKenzie via Skype and email, but it was a little hard to do much more from another country.
“I hope you didn’t go up on the ladder to hang those parasols, honey,” Charlene said to Katrina. “With your luck, you’d fall off and break something. Wouldn’t that be a sorry state of affairs, if you had a broken arm in a cast to go with your bridesmaid dress?”
She managed to refrain from rolling her eyes—which she wanted to think was a sign that she was indeed maturing at least a little bit. “Yes. Terrible.”
“Although, maybe if you had a broken arm,” her mother said tartly, “you would have to stick around home longer than a few weeks.”
As Katrina was well aware of her mother’s negative attitude about her return to Colombia, she opted to ignore that broad hint. “I’m going to go set this salad over on the table and say hello to Hazel and Eppie,” she said, then escaped before her mother could call her back.
She adored the two Brewer sisters, sisters ten months apart who had married twin brothers and spent their entire lives living next to each other. She and Samantha often said they wanted to grow up to be just like them, sassy and funny and full of spice.
She set the salad down and hugged each of them in turn. “How are my favorite troublemakers? What have you been up to while I’ve been gone?”
“Why, there’s our favorite world traveler,” Hazel said. “It’s about time you came back.”
“I’m so happy you made it in time for the wedding,” Eppie exclaimed.
Surely they knew she wouldn’t have missed Wyn and Cade’s wedding, no matter what. Even if she had been stuck in a tiny village on the Amazon River without a boat, she would have swum through barracudas to be here if necessary.
“Sit
