to Amy. “I don’t know how to thank you for returning the deposit.”
Amy waved off her friend’s thanks. “What are friends for? You might recoup some of your money on the dresses, too, if the bridal shop owner agrees to sell them on consignment. It’s good when couples can reclaim some of their costs, so they’ll be able to focus their attention on what to do next.”
Haley could feel Mrs. Warren’s gaze on her, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at her. Beyond tomorrow’s chores, she didn’t know what she would do next. She realized that she needed to carve out a new life for herself now, a focused life, but how could she find it when she didn’t know what she wanted?
“Okay, what’s my job?” Matthew asked as he leaned forward, bracing his forearms on the table.
“Hang around and nod your head a lot,” Jenna supplied.
Caroline looked up from her list. “You could check off chores on the list while the rest of us do the jobs.”
“Or,” Amy paused for effect before adding, “you could tag along while Caroline talks with the caterer.”
Matthew shot a frown his mother’s way, but then he turned back to the others.
“What is this? I thought you were all evolved, twenty-first-century women, and here you are applying a double standard by saying a man wouldn’t know his way around wedding plans. I’ll have you know that I plan the music for all the weddings at our church, and no one ever complains.”
“Then what do you want to do?” Jenna asked.
“I don’t know.” He hesitated, as if he’d just realized what he’d gotten himself into. “I can handle anything as long as it doesn’t involve frilly dresses or makeup.”
Caroline glanced down at her list and then at Matthew again. “You could help repackage the gifts for return.”
He turned to Haley. “You have to return the gifts?”
“That’s how it works,” Haley said.
“She doesn’t have to return mine.” Caroline crossed her arms over her chest. “Single women can use blenders, too.”
Matthew was grinning over Caroline’s feminist perspective when he turned back to her youngest sister. “You don’t need to open Caroline’s gift since she gave away the surprise. It’s a blender.”
“It is not,” Caroline insisted, but everyone laughed again, anyway.
Haley even chuckled this time, the light feeling in her chest offering another surprise in a day chock-full of them. She’d planned to be at her rehearsal dinner tomorrow night. Surprise. She’d expected that the details in her life would be neatly in order by Saturday afternoon. Surprise. And now she’d discovered that with the support of family and these friends, she might someday have more reasons to laugh again.
The two families were working together to clear away dishes as they’d done so many times over the years when Amy Warren cornered her son in the kitchen.
“I have a better idea for something you can do to help Haley,” she told him.
He lowered an armload of half-empty platters on the counter. “What’s that? And don’t tell me it’s by going out with a certain sister of hers, either.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Mother,” he said in a warning tone.
“We’ll worry about that later.” Glancing at the door separating the kitchen from the dining room, she gestured for him to come closer to the sink. She spoke in hushed tones. “You can kill two birds with one stone. You need a child-care provider, at least a temporary one, and Haley needs a job.”
Matthew was shaking his head before the plan was out of her mouth. He felt badly for only thinking of his own problems when Haley was having a crisis, and he’d wanted to help her in some way, but this wasn’t it. “You’re not serious.”
“Of course, I am.”
“But this is Haley Scott we’re talking about.” Haley, whose résumé was too long to fit on one page, and not in a good way. Haley, who switched college majors and jobs as often as other people changed clothes. But he said only, “I don’t think that’s a good idea. And besides, I still have a few candidates left to interview.”
Amy shrugged as she rinsed dishes and loaded them in the dishwasher. “Up to you.”
“Yes, it is.”
His mother clearly disagreed with him, but as Elizabeth’s father, it was up to him to decide who should provide care for her. What kind of father would he be to trust his child to someone as flighty as Haley? He couldn’t even understand why his mother had suggested it, except that Haley was her best friend’s daughter.
His obligation was to his own daughter, whose needs he would always put ahead of his own or anyone else’s. Elizabeth deserved better than a child-care provider who might desert her without looking back. Might do exactly what his ex-wife had done.
“She isn’t Stacey, you know,” his mother said.
Matthew blinked. His mother was bringing out the big guns if she was mentioning his ex. He’d declared that name off-limits, and usually his family abided by that rule. Before he could call out his mother for breaking the rule, though, Jenna pushed through the door, carrying an armful of dishes. Haley followed right behind her, but she only had dishes in one hand because his daughter was holding the other.
Matthew glanced surreptitiously at his mother, who caught his attention and grinned. He started shoving dishes into the dishwasher, hoping the others hadn’t overheard their earlier conversation.
“I was just telling Haley that when I get back from the florist tomorrow, we can go shopping for some new outfits,” Jenna said. “There are so many cute styles for spring.”
“Jenna, I don’t think—”
“Aw, come on. It’ll be fun.”
Their mother and Caroline entered the kitchen, stopping just inside the door.
“You know…shopping therapy,” Jenna continued. “Haley will want to look her best when she gets back out there.”
“Back out there?”
The dread in Haley’s voice couldn’t be missed. She didn’t sound anywhere near ready to be out there again. Matthew knew what that was like, and he could also relate to times when relatives’ well-meaning help felt too much like pressure.
“Shopping therapy might work for some, but are you sure that’s what your sister wants to do?” Matthew turned to Haley. “Haley, what do you want to do?”
“That is the question of the day.” Haley shook her head, appearing overwhelmed with the thought. “Haley Scott, what do you plan to do with the rest of your life?” For the last, she took on a game show announcer’s voice.
“I’m not talking about the rest of your life. Just tomorrow.”
