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Authors: Debra Burroughs

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BOOK: Debra Burroughs - Paradise Valley 06 - The Harbor of Lies
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“Is he going to be…
okay
?” Emily didn’t want to ask directly, but she wondered if he would be able to walk again.

“Eventually, yes, the doctor said, but it’ll be a long recovery. His legs were badly broken, in multiple places. Once he’s out of the hospital, he’ll be in a wheelchair at first, and then on crutches for a while. Between that and all the medical bills, well, there’s just no way—”

“But we haven’t even set a date yet.”

“I know, but you’ve been saying it was going to be this fall and it’s already the end of September. I assumed you just hadn’t gotten the invitations out in the mail yet.”

“My wedding planner and I were just talking about picking a date before you called.” Emily glanced up at Camille. “We were thinking six weeks from now, but we could postpone.”

“Oh, Emily, I appreciate that, but with Brian’s condition, and the cost…there’s simply no way we can come.”

“I understand,” Emily muttered sadly. “Poor Brian—I hope he’s up and around before too long.”

“It’ll just take time,” Susan said. “But…”

“But what?”

“I may have come up with another way to be at your wedding, and you won’t have to postpone.”

“What is it?” Emily asked, with a hint of skepticism in her voice.
Skype the wedding?

“Now, hear me out first, and then take some time to think about this before you respond.”

“Think about what?” Emily’s gaze flew to Maggie, who returned her stare.

“As I’m sure you remember, I’ve been working part-time at the Rock Harbor Inn as their wedding consultant. Oh, Emily, we have the most beautiful weddings on the lawn overlooking Frenchman’s Bay.”

“Yes, I know. What’s your point?” Emily hadn’t meant to sound so impatient, but her sister was taking too long to finish her thought.

“Well, we’re nearing the end of our tourist season. We only do weddings until the middle of October. I’ve just had a cancellation for that final Saturday. It would be in two weeks, which is too soon for anyone else to book the place, so I thought maybe—”

“Anyone else?” An uncomfortable chill slid down Emily’s back. “What are you trying to say?”

“Here’s what I’m thinking, if you guys agree to come to Rock Harbor, I will handle all the details from this end. That’s the only way I can think of to still be part of your wedding. Is that something you might consider?”

That was a lot to take in—a logistical nightmare in the making. Emily’s thoughts were a jumble and no words would come.

“Sis? Are you still there?” Susan asked.

Emily blinked a few times, trying to absorb the information. “I’m still here.” She looked down at the phone, then up to Maggie and Camille, who were both gaping at her.

“What do you think?” Susan asked.

Emily stuck the phone up to her ear again. “I…I don’t know what I think.”

“What is it?” Maggie whispered impatiently.

“You want me to have my wedding in Rock Harbor, Maine, in two weeks?”

“What?” Camille and Maggie gasped in unison.

“Yes, silly, that’s what I said.” Susan breathed a laugh. “Weren’t you listening?”

“It’s just kind of hard to wrap my brain around right off. Give me a minute.”

“I’d be thrilled if you’d say yes.”

“I’ll have to talk it over with Colin and get back to you.”

What would he have to say about this hair-brained idea?

“Now, don’t take too long,” Susan warned. “Like I said, it’s only two weeks away.”

~*~

Once Susan had hung up, Maggie and Camille pelted Emily with a barrage of questions.

“Have your wedding in Maine?”

“Travel all the way to the other side of the country?”

“Do you know how much that will cost?”

“Put on a wedding in just two weeks?”

“What about all the people who were planning to attend your wedding?”

“What is Colin going to say about all this?”

Emily raised both hands in surrender. “Calm down, you two. I only said I’d think about it.”

The doorbell chimed. “Saved by the bell.” Emily rose from the sofa and stumbled slightly. “Whoa.” She put a hand to her head and sat back down, feeling dizzy from getting up so quickly.

“I’ll get it.” Maggie smiled. “You just sit there and rest.” She went to answer the door and swung it open to find their friend Isabel.

Isabel stepped into the entry and gave Maggie a quick squeeze. “How’s Emily?”

“Better,” Maggie replied.

“You’re not going to believe the latest,” Camille called from the living room.

“The latest?” Isabel asked, as Maggie linked her arm through Isabel’s and walked her into the next room.

Camille settled on the arm of the sofa. “Emily’s sister can’t come for the wedding and—”

“Oh no,” Isabel said.

“That ain’t all,” Maggie continued. “She suggested we all go to Maine and have the weddin’ there, at the inn where she works.” Maggie planted her hands on her hips. “What do you think of
that
?”

“Well…” Emily stepped in, “she didn’t exactly say we should
all
go.”

Maggie sat on the sofa beside Emily and rested a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure that’s what she meant, Em. She certainly wouldn’t expect you’d leave us all here.”

Isabel pushed her long, dark curls over her shoulder as she took a moment to let it sink in. “When?”

“In two weeks,” Camille huffed. “Can you believe it?”

Isabel rubbed her jaw and pursed her lips as she thought about it. She was the logical one in the group and preferred to think before speaking. “I think it sounds like a wonderful idea.”

“It does?” Emily was a bit surprised by her practical friend’s response.

“Oh, Isabel, you can’t be serious.” Camille crossed her arms for emphasis. As a caterer and event planner, her experience would say that it would take weeks, maybe months, to pull together such an affair.

Isabel settled on a chair near the sofa. “Emily and Colin keep saying they want a small wedding, but you two,” Isabel wagged her index finger between Camille and Maggie, “keep trying to make it the event of the year.”

“Well, um, we just want the best for Emily,” Camille muttered.

“Emily, if you go along with Susan’s suggestion, it would be almost like eloping,” Isabel grinned, “like Alex and I did.”

“Eloping?” Emily echoed, remembering back to a spat she and Colin had had over that very subject. He wanted to elope, but she wanted to be surrounded by the people they loved.

“Only it would be better,” Isabel crossed her arms and sat back in the chair, “because you’d have your friends and family there.”

Camille popped up off the arm of the sofa. “But what about the cost?”

“The cost?” Isabel asked. “Hmm. Didn’t you tell us that you and Jonathan have been saving up for a vacation, but you couldn’t decide where to go?”

Camille nodded that she had.

“And with all Jonathan’s business trips, I’m sure he’s got tons of frequent flyer miles saved up,” Emily added.

“True, but—”

“And, Maggie,” Isabel cut Camille off, “didn’t you tell me Peter wanted to take you away for a long, romantic weekend?”

“Yes…” Maggie seemed to wonder where Isabel was going with that.

Could this really work? Emily ran her fingers through her tousled curls, letting the possibilities dance in her mind. “What we save in not paying for the wedding would cover our airfare, plus airfare for Colin’s parents.”

Camille bolted out of her seat. “But what about the other people in town—the police chief, the mayor, and your other friends, like Ernie and Marge?”

“You’re right,” Emily nodded sadly, “they would be pretty upset if we left them out.”

A bright smile spread across Isabel’s face. “What if we have a big celebration when you two get back from your honeymoon? Alex and I could host it at our place.”

Isabel lived in a sprawling, two-story brick home with her lawyer husband, Alex. It was surrounded by expansive, manicured grounds and a large, stone patio, the perfect setting for the event.

Camille’s expressive blue eyes widened. “Then all those that would have been invited to the wedding can come to the reception.” She seemed to be getting on board with the idea. Her hand waved through the air and her gaze followed, as if she were visualizing the entire scenario. “Oh, I can just see it now. A big white tent on your lawn, little twinkle lights everywhere. I’ll prepare the food. We can hire a band.”

Maggie’s face lit up and she clapped her hands. “Like a big ol’ party!”

~*~

The women bounced ideas off each other, and the excitement grew, at the prospect of having a destination wedding in picturesque Rock Harbor. Camille made some snacks while they sketched out plans for the trip. Without having spoken to any of the men yet, Emily was reluctant to call Susan back to tell her they would come to Maine, but it looked more and more like a real possibility.

“I’ve got to get going,” Isabel said after the table was cleared. She hugged the girls good-bye and went to the front door.

She opened it to leave and met Colin, climbing the few steps to the porch. “Hey, Isabel, what’s up?”

“Oh boy, you have no idea.” She laughed a little as she passed him.

“What do you mean by that?” he called after her.

Isabel kept walking to her car and waved a hand in the air. “You’ll find out.”

Chapter 3

Colin crossed the living room and leaned down to kiss Emily, ever-so-briefly. Even so, the soft warmth of his lips lingered on hers. “How’s my girl doing?” His sultry eyes searched her face as he sat on the sofa beside her. “Feeling better?”

She nodded and smiled. “A lot better.”

A small crease formed between his brows. “I ran into Isabel on the porch. She sounded like she was trying to warn me that you girls were cooking something up. What’s going on?”

With Camille’s and Maggie’s help, Emily excitedly explained Susan’s surprising proposal for their wedding. “It will almost be like eloping, which you said you’d like to do.”

“But I thought you hated the idea of eloping. If I remember correctly—”

“I know. I know.” Emily recalled the argument they’d had about it at the time. “But that was different. This way, we’re not running off by ourselves.”

“Yeah, but—”

“We’ll be married in two weeks, and that means less time for anything else to get in the way of our wedding.”

“Good point,” Maggie added.

Colin took Emily’s hand. “We’d better think this thing through, Babe.” He lifted his eyes to the two other women standing in the room.

Camille took Maggie by the arm. “I think that’s our cue to leave. Let these two lovebirds hash things out.”

As they left, Camille gestured to Emily, raising her thumb and pinky to her ear and mouthing the words
call me
.

Emily smiled and waved her off. Leave it to Camille to pick up on Colin’s hint to give them some privacy yet be unable to resist urging Emily to call her with the juicy details.

Colin rested an arm on the back of the sofa. “Now, tell me again, what happened to Brian that they can’t come here?”

Emily repeated what Susan had said, including her suspicions that there might be more to the car crash than a simple accident taking place.

“Was she hinting we should look into it if we decide to come?” he asked.

“I’m not sure, but if it was you,” Emily laid her head on his chest and Colin draped his arm around her, “I’d certainly want to know.”

~*~

By the next day, Emily had convinced Colin they should take Susan up on her offer, using many of the points the girls had bandied about the previous day. As well, the other three women spoke to their men about the adventure and, eventually, all of them were on board.

When Colin phoned his parents and told them about the plan, offering to pay for their flight back east, they were thrilled at the idea of being able to go to Maine at the peak of fall colors, in addition to the wedding, of course.

Now, what Emily had dreaded—the logistical nightmare.

Last-minute air fares were tricky. The four women would fly out on Tuesday, before the wedding, while Colin and Alex would follow on Wednesday, after tying up the separate cases they were working on. Jonathan, Camille’s husband, would have to fly in from a business meeting in Chicago, and her daughter, Molly, from college in Florida.

As well, Peter, Maggie’s boyfriend, who also happened to be Camille’s brother, would be coming in on Friday from his television reporting job in Seattle. Then, lastly, Colin’s folks were scheduled to be traveling from San Francisco on Friday as well.

The closest airport was in Bangor, an hour away, so arrangements would have to be made for several rental cars. If everything went like clockwork, the entire guest list would be in Rock Harbor for the rehearsal dinner on Friday night—fingers crossed.

~*~

The day of the trip, Emily was up at four in the morning, scurrying around, doing last-minute packing, rushing to be ready for Alex to take the girls to the airport for a six am flight. She hadn’t slept well the night before. Her dreams, which had been filled with visions of her late husband, Evan, had unnerved her.

He had plagued her dreams for months following his murder, but eventually their frequency had subsided. Although, around the one-year anniversary of his death, the dreams returned, haunting her for weeks. That had been more than six months ago and she thought she was finally over them, but these last few days before the trip to Rock Harbor, they were back. A few mornings, she actually would have sworn she awoke to the scent of Evan’s aftershave.

She had moved on and was totally in love with Colin. So why these painful dreams of Evan and why now?

Emily remembered being fresh out of college when she had given her heart to Evan. They had been happily married for five years. But even if the dreams had come back, it didn’t mean Evan could. He was dead now, and she had grieved for him. She had also solved his murder and learned the surprising truth of who he really was. But she’d come to terms with all that, using the painful realization to push herself to move on and begin a new life.

No. Evan was her past. Colin was her future.

As she gathered her toothbrush and makeup bag, Emily paused and stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. The whites of her eyes were flush with red. Maybe she could get some sleep on the long flight to Maine. She tipped her head back and squeezed a drop of Visine into each eye.

BOOK: Debra Burroughs - Paradise Valley 06 - The Harbor of Lies
10.18Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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