Teardrop Lane (33 page)

“No. We’ll come home and get married in front of our friends and our family. On Saturday night.”

“You’re going to throw a wedding in five days’ time?”

“No, silly.” She playfully hit his arm. “Of course not. Celeste and my sister will do it.”

After leaving Mac’s office, Rose and Cicero took an hour to formulate a game plan for the next six weeks. With a strategy in mind, they called their family and close friends and requested they come for lunch and an important discussion at Cicero’s studio. Right at noon, their guests began to gather. Celeste, Sage and her husband Colt, Shannon, the Murphys, Gabi and Flynn and Mitch.

“Please, grab something to eat,” Rose said, gesturing to the salad and sandwiches she’d picked up from the Fox’s Den. “We’ve had a situation develop. We are under some time constraints, and we decided it’d be easier to share the story with you all at once. Hunt?”

He gave them a rundown of the Parnells’ visit and the decisions they’d made in the wake of it. As Rose had expected, all of their friends expressed their concern and support. Sage wrapped her arms around Rose in a hug, and when she cried a little, it took all of Rose’s will to fight off tears of her own.

Being a Saturday in June, the local churches and Angel’s Rest already had weddings booked. However, by the time they reached the wedding license office, their friends had come through.

“An outdoor wedding at the Davenports’ place, I can
picture,” Cicero observed after she gave her verbal okay to the arrangements those friends had cobbled together. “Eagle’s Way estate is spectacular. But a wedding night in a tent?”

“Not just a tent. A yurt—a spectacular yurt. Trust me. You’ll love it.”

He picked up her hand and kissed it.

“Hey, I’ll be with you. Of course I’ll love it.”

They told the kids about the wedding that night at supper. Their excitement sparked her own and for the first time that day, Rose put aside her worries and allowed herself to enjoy the moment. She was a bride-to-be. For the next six weeks, she got to be mother to these children. She owed it to herself, to Cicero, and to the kids to live every moment fully and with joy.

She’d have plenty of time to mourn what might have been later.

To her surprise, she slept soundly and awoke, not to an alarm, but to a warm body curled against her in her bed. “Hunt! What are you doing here?”

“I bribed Lori to show up early this morning. I need some stress relief. I thought I’d go to yoga.”

“And on the way to Murphy’s Pub you just happened to lose your direction and your clothes?”

“Something like that, yeah.” He skimmed his lips along the sensitive skin of her neck. “My muscles are tight. I’m really stressed,
Sirena Bellissima
. Help me?”

She rolled over on top of him. “I suppose it’s the least I can do.”

Forty-five minutes later, she left him sleeping soundly in her bed while she went to yoga class, energized and excited to begin her day. The class flew by, as did her shift at the clinic. She returned to Angel’s Rest and went up to her loft to change her clothes before the scheduled three o’clock wedding planning meeting and found a single, long-stemmed red rose lying on her pillow.

She floated down to the kitchen where Celeste sat at the table, a yellow legal pad before her, and a phone at her ear. “That’s perfect, Savannah. Yes, of course we will wait. Rose and I will have a glass of lemonade and a chat.”

At home in Celeste’s kitchen, Rose fixed two glasses of lemonade and set them on the table as Celeste ended the call and said, “Thank you, dear. Savannah’s running about ten minutes late, which is good because I can use a little break. It’s been such a busy day. A good busy. I understand you had some excitement this morning.”
Had she and Hunt been too loud?

As heat stung Rose’s cheeks, Celeste continued, “My guests came back from the clinic singing your praises. They said their daughter might have died had you not acted so swiftly this morning.”

“What happened?” Sage asked as she swept into the kitchen.

“A previously undiagnosed food allergy. Acute respiratory distress. Sit down, Sage. You look exhausted.” Rose stood and fixed her sister a glass of lemonade.

“I am exhausted. I’m pretty sure my belly doubled in size overnight. August can’t get here soon enough.”

As soon as the words left Sage’s mouth, she shot Rose a stricken look.

“It’s okay, Sage,” Rose said. “I’d feel the same way if I were you. I remember how miserable I was during those last weeks of pregnancy.”

“I like that you speak about it now. For so long—” Sage smiled and blinked back tears. “Oh, here I go again. I cry at everything these days. Enough of this. Let’s talk weddings. Celeste, judging by that notepad, you’ve made progress today.”

“I have!”

Rose dropped her gaze toward the legal pad where she saw notes about folding chairs and photographers.
She much preferred those sorts of notes to the ones Mac had taken yesterday.

“I can’t thank you both enough for your help.”

Blue eyes twinkled as she sipped her lemonade.

“I’m thrilled to be part of your wedding, Rose. I love the destination wedding events that we have at Angel’s Rest, but having two of our own tie the knot is an extra level of special. This is going to be such a lovely wedding. Now, let me tell you what we have arranged.”

She went down her list, beginning with reception plans. “Both Maggie Romano and Sarah Murphy have offered to bake your wedding cake. It’s your choice, though even Sarah said you should choose Maggie’s famous Italian cream. Ali has suggested this catering menu.” Celeste pulled a printed sheet from beneath her legal pad and handed it to Rose.

“They’re all my favorites,” Rose said.

“Yes, that’s what she said,” Celeste said. She worked her way down the list, completing the reception information and continuing on to the ceremony itself. “Now, we are short on officiants, but Reverend Harold from St. Anne’s over in Creede has offered to substitute for Reverend Leak of St. Stephen’s, so that he can scoot up to the Davenports’ to perform your wedding. I have a list of readings for you and Hunter to review before your meeting with Reverend Leak tomorrow at eleven. You can make that?”

“Um, yes,” Rose said. “Of course.”

“He will go over your vows with you. Do you want to write your own or are you more traditional?”

“Traditional,” Sage and Rose said simultaneously.

The sisters shared a smile, as Celeste continued.

“We have Galen and Keenan as co–ring bearers. Misty and Daisy will be flower girls. If you will give me the boys’ sizes, we can order little suits for them over the Internet and have them here in two days. Since the girls
had matching Easter dresses, we thought they could wear those, only with sashes that matched Sage’s dress.”

“Your dress?” Rose asked Sage.

“I’m your matron of honor, of course. Due to my condition, I’m limited in appropriate choices of a dress.”

Rose’s lips twitched.

“Of course.”

“Will Flynn be Cicero’s best man? Or maybe Mitch?”

“Honestly, we haven’t discussed it.”

Celeste clicked her tongue and wrote another note on her legal pad.

“By the end of today, please. We will need a number and names. Well, that brings us to flowers and your dress. What would you like to carry in your bouquet, Rose? The meadow is carpeted with a rainbow of wildflowers this week—alpine timothy, bog sedge, rushes, bistort, Colorado blue columbine, larkspur, gentian, geranium, Jacob’s ladder, monkshood, catchfly, phlox, and bluebells.”

“I’d like to carry daisies and bluebells.”

“Lovely choice. Bluebell is Misty’s middle name, I understand. The girls will be pleased. So that takes us to the main attraction. Your wedding gown.”

“I know. I think I’ll have to take Thursday to rush into Denver and try to find a sample gown that fits or shop the secondhand shops. I’d go tomorrow, but Dr. Coulson can’t cover for me and—”

Sage linked her arm with Rose’s and said, “If you don’t find what you are looking for now, we’ll make Thursday a girls’ day to Denver. In the meantime, we should be ready. Shall we step into the upstairs to your suite? We’re set up there.”

Set up for what? Rose wondered as she and Sage followed Celeste upstairs. She walked into her suite of rooms to find it transformed. Wedding gowns lined one whole wall, hung on three long clothing racks. Six full-length
mirrors were positioned in a semicircle at the center of the room. Boxes filled with white satiny fabric sat at one end of the line of gowns.

“How in the world?” she asked.

Savannah Turner sat on a chair beside one of the boxes, a tape measure draped around her neck and a beaded bodice in her lap. “I’d forgotten what wonderful stuff the Patchwork Angels had squirreled away.”

Founded by the late LaNelle Harrison, the Patchwork Angels Quilting Bee had made the most beautiful quilts from fabric and embellishments from wedding gowns donated to the group. After LaNelle’s tragic death three years ago, membership in the bee had dwindled.

“Once the tourist season is over, we should see about holding regular meetings again. I’ve missed the group.”

“Where did all these dresses come from?” Rose asked, drawn to the racks.

“We’re hoping to save you from having to make a Denver trip. Gabi said when she shopped she saw very few sample gowns to buy right off the rack. When you look closely, you might recognize many of these dresses. They are ours—gowns worn by the women of Eternity Springs, your sister, your friends, even some of your patients—offered for the honor of becoming your ‘something borrowed.’ My grandmother taught me to sew and I will do any alterations you might need. Or, if you want to start from scratch and keep the design fairly simple, we can piece together something from the quilting supplies.”

“Oh,” Rose breathed, taken aback.

“We’ll do our best to make it as close to your dream dress as possible, honey,” Sage said.

“I don’t know what to say,” Rose added. “A woman’s wedding gown is one of her most prized possessions. How generous of everyone.”

“Well, people love to have a chance to pay back some
of your generosity.” Celeste gave Rose’s rear a little swat. “Now, don’t just stand there. Shop! We still have a list a mile long of things to see to.”

Rose did recognize many of the wedding gowns. Lots of romance happened in this pretty mountain valley. But one gown in particular attracted her eye. Designed to fit close to the body from chest to knee, then to flare out to the hem, the ivory silk dupioni “mermaid” silhouette suited her hourglass body type perfectly. Strapless, with a fanned, seashell neckline and V-shaped back and a chapel train, the gown was lightly embellished with crystal beads.

In her mind’s eye, she recalled the first time Cicero had looked at her and murmured,
Sirena Bellissima
. Beautiful mermaid, she silently translated as she lifted the dress off the rack. “This is gorgeous.”

“The racks are full of gorgeous dresses,” Savannah said. “I do love that one. I can’t recall who wore it, though. Must have been before my time in Eternity Springs.”

“Try it on,” Celeste encouraged. She breezily took it from Rose’s arms and carried it toward her bedroom where she spread the gown across Rose’s bed. “Slip it on and holler and I’ll come zip you up.”

“Okay.” Rose removed a strapless bra from her lingerie drawer, stripped, and changed her bra. Then she unzipped the wedding gown and prepared to step into it when she spied a big blue tag tied with a ribbon and pinned onto the lining of the dress. Curious, she read the handwritten note on the tag:

Rose laughed aloud, tried on Gabriella Romano’s wedding gown, and fell in love.

On the sun-kissed morning of his wedding day, Cicero took overnight bags for the hoodlums to the Callahans’ house, dropped Galen and Keenan at Lucca Romano’s summer basketball camp at the school, and left Daisy with Savannah Turner who’d promised to see that all four kids got up to Eagle’s Way in time to get dressed for the ceremony.

Then he went to the studio. He had a notion to make a gift for his bride on their wedding day.

“What are you doing here, mon?” Mitch asked as he sauntered into the studio. “It’s your wedding day.”

“That it is. And I need to make my bride a little surprise.” He wanted something light and bright and happy. Something that would make her smile. A piece to commemorate the day.