Where Azaleas Bloom (25 page)
Read Where Azaleas Bloom Online
Authors: Sherryl Woods
She slapped at him. “You were that sure of yourself?”
“I was that sure of you.”
“Then you probably know what I’m going to say to your marriage
proposal, don’t you?”
“I hope I do, but I can’t wait to hear it from your lips.”
“Yes,” she said softly. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Mitch. Just as
soon as all this messiness with Ed is behind me, I will marry you.”
“Think Lexie and Jeremy will be okay with it?”
“I think they’ll be over the moon. What about Nate and
Luke?”
“Luke will be onboard. Nate will come around.”
“I don’t want to come between you and your son, Mitch.”
“I won’t let that happen,” he assured her.
Because this was too important not to get it right. By the time
they walked down the aisle as man and wife, there would be no shadows to darken
the way. He’d make sure of that. He’d been blessed once before by love. Now he
could count himself twice-blessed. What man could possibly ask for more than
that?
Epilogue
“W
hy on earth do you want to stop by the
bakery at this time of night?” Lynn asked Mitch after their dinner at Rosalina’s
with the kids. “You can’t possibly be hungry.”
“I have a craving for one of those red velvet cupcakes of
yours,” he said. “And I know for a fact there were three left over when you
closed up. That’s exactly enough for me, Jeremy and Lexie.”
“All right!” Jeremy said, giving a fist pump from the backseat.
“Now that you’ve got the bakery, Mom, you never make cupcakes at home.”
“Oh, please,” Lexie scoffed. “You stop by the bakery every day
after school and look pitiful till Mom gives you whatever you want.”
Mitch grinned. “Does that mean you don’t want your cupcake?” he
asked Lexie. “Because I can manage to eat two.”
Lexie rolled her eyes dramatically. “Don’t even think about
it,” she warned as Mitch pulled into a parking space in front of the darkened
bakery. “That cupcake has my name all over it.”
Lynn shook her head at the friendly bickering and reached into
her purse for the key. She held it out to Mitch. “Go ahead. You obviously know
where they are.”
She thought she detected a flash of alarm on his face, but
maybe she’d only imagined it since he immediately shook his head and said, “No
way. That alarm system is still a mystery to me.”
“Don’t blame me. You were the one who insisted I have it
installed.” She climbed out of his truck, unlocked the bakery door, then quickly
punched in the alarm code on the box just inside, only to have all the lights
come on and shouts of “Surprise!” echo off the walls.
With her hand on her chest, where her heart seemed to be
beating wildly, Lynn looked around and into the faces of her friends. Every
single one of the Sweet Magnolias was in the room, along with the three women
who thought of themselves as the Senior Magnolias—Flo, Liz and even Frances.
Lexie danced in front of her, delight written all over her
face. “Are you really surprised, Mom? You didn’t have any idea they were going
to throw you a bridal shower?”
“No idea,” she managed to whisper, her eyes welling with tears.
She turned to Mitch. “You knew?”
“Of course he did,” Helen said. “It was up to him and the kids
to get you here without letting you get suspicious.”
“I had to keep the secret, too,” Jeremy said, grinning as he
added triumphantly, “And I did it!”
“Yes, you did,” Lynn said, giving her son a hug. “I nearly had
a heart attack when all the lights came on.”
Jeremy looked around at all the women gathered there, then gave
her a plaintive look. “But there are cupcakes, right?”
“Of course there are,” Raylene assured him. “Grace Wharton put
in a huge order yesterday, claiming she wanted to give them a try in the
restaurant.” She gestured to the counter, which had been set up with a beautiful
tiered arrangement of cupcakes, plates of cookies and, of course, margaritas. A
huge pile of presents graced the end of the counter.
“I’m afraid the margaritas are nonalcoholic tonight,” Helen
said with unmistakable regret. “At least three women in this room are pregnant,
three have no business drinking,” she added with a pointed look at her mother,
Liz and Frances, “and the rest of us are making a huge sacrifice to keep Carter
from feeling the need to raid the premises.”
The tears she’d been fighting spilled down Lynn’s cheeks then.
It wasn’t enough that these friends had supported her in getting Sweet Things
opened and had sent more than enough business her way, now they were here to
celebrate her upcoming marriage to Mitch, which was less than a week away.
Without their unwavering support, she wondered if they’d have
made it this far, especially after the news of Ed’s relationship with Jimmy Bob
had broken and set the town on its collective backside. She’d needed their help
in making Lexie and Jeremy believe that the news wasn’t the end of the world,
that he was the same dad as before and that nothing could change the fact that
their dad loved them to pieces.
She had no idea how Helen, Raylene and the others had
accomplished it, but she’d not heard of a single cutting remark being made in
the presence of her children, not even at school, where old lessons about
bullying had apparently had a lasting effect. Even their grandmother’s tart
tongue had finally been silenced, though if there had been a way to blame this
turn of events on Lynn, she was sure her mother-in-law would have found it.
“Okay, Mitch, you can go now,” Raylene said, urging him toward
the door. “You, too, Jeremy.”
“Hey, I’m the groom,” Mitch protested halfheartedly. “Shouldn’t
I get to stay?”
“You’ll see these presents soon enough,” Raylene told him with
a spark of mischief in her eyes. “And, trust me, you’re going to want privacy
when that time comes.”
Lynn felt a blush steal into her cheeks, even as Mitch’s face
turned an even deeper shade of red. He nodded toward the pile of presents.
“Lingerie?”
“You bet,” Helen said.
He winked at Lynn then. “In that case, I’ll see you at home
later.”
“But there’s an embargo on the lingerie till the honeymoon,”
Helen said with mock severity. “Understood?”
Mitch planted a kiss on Helen’s cheek. “Counselor, correct me
if I’m wrong, but I don’t think there’s a law on the books that would prevent
Lynn from giving me a private showing tonight. I’m counting on that.”
Jeremy went with him without protest, two cupcakes in hand.
Mitch had stolen a couple, as well.
“I thought they’d never go,” Maddie grumbled with a grin. “Now
let’s get this party started. Hon, you have a lot to celebrate.”
Once again, tears welled up in Lynn’s eyes. “I sure do,” she
whispered. “And you guys are right at the top of the list.”
“Higher than Mitch?” Helen challenged, though there was a spark
of amusement in her eyes.
“No one’s higher than Mitch or my kids,” Lynn said, drawing
Lexie close. “But you all are right up there. I never knew how much it meant to
have friends like you, the kind who are there at a moment’s notice, who listen
without making judgments, who’ll whip up a margarita at the first sign of a
crisis. You’re the best.”
“To the Sweet Magnolias!” Dana Sue said, lifting her glass.
“To the Sweet Magnolias!” the others chimed in.
“What about me?” Lexie asked. “Mandy and I want to be Sweet
Magnolias, too. So do Carrie and Katie and Misty.”
The three original Sweet Magnolias—Helen, Maddie and Dana
Sue—exchanged a look. “Your day will come, I imagine,” Maddie promised. “You
already have exactly what it takes.”
“What’s that?” Lexie asked.
“You understand the meaning of real friendship,” Helen
explained. “You’ve all proven that at one time or another. So has every woman in
this room.”
Maddie linked arms with Helen and Dana Sue, then said quietly,
“To lifelong friends!”
“And to those we’ve come to know,” Dana Sue added. “Love you
guys.”
Once Lynn would have felt like an outsider, but now she basked
in the knowledge that she was one of them. And when she walked down the aisle to
marry Mitch, they’d be there cheering her on. She’d wanted at least one of them
to stand up for her at the ceremony, but it had been impossible to choose.
Instead, Lexie would be at her side, and her friends would be in the pews
reserved for family. Exactly where they belonged.
* * * * *
Be sure to look for Sherryl’s next original trilogy set in the
Outer Banks, coming in spring 2013! Also, check out
THE
SWEET MAGNOLIAS COOKBOOK,
available at your favorite retailer
now.
Questions for Discussion
1. Divorce can be traumatic enough, even when all goes
smoothly, but for Lynn Morrow the end of her marriage has been anything but smooth.
Have you ever known anyone who was left nearly destitute while embroiled in a
divorce? How did she cope both emotionally and in terms of getting her finances in
order?
2. Often the children suffer the most when parents are going
through a divorce. Could you relate to Lexie’s desire to protect her mom and how
that conflicted with her love for her dad? What should parents do to protect their
children from the fallout? Did Lynn do enough?
3. Mitch knows that Lynn
and her family are in trouble, but he tries hard not to trample on her pride when
offering his help. Raylene is equally cautious about stepping in. What should
friends do when they see someone struggling to make ends meet? Should they take
action or wait for guidance from the one who’s in trouble?
4. When Mitch
does reach out to Lynn at first, how much of that was tied to old feelings and
attraction? Or do you think it had more to do with his own personality and the
emptiness he’d been feeling since his wife’s death? Have you known people who rushed
into a new relationship right after a loss? Did it last?
5. Initially,
Mitch’s sons are dead-set against his relationship with Lynn. What role, if any, do
you think adult children should play when their parents get involved with someone
new? How much should the new partner do to reach out? Or is it the parent’s
responsibility to smooth over hard feelings?
6. At the same time, Lynn’s
children were already bonding with Mitch. How careful should a parent be about
allowing her children to get too attached to someone before she knows where the
relationship is going? Do you think Ed was right to be concerned about that bond? Or
was he acting solely out of jealousy?
7. When Lynn hears rumors that
Mitch has a drinking problem, it stirs old memories for her that are almost
impossible for her to put aside. Do you think she handled her fears appropriately,
by getting Mitch to open up on the subject? Should she have trusted what he told
her, especially when she’d personally seen no evidence to the contrary? Have you
ever carried past baggage over into a new relationship and allowed it to interfere
in moving forward?
8. When Ed Morrow finally opens up to Lynn about why
their marriage failed, she is stunned. Have you ever known anyone whose spouse
turned out to be gay? Were there signs that the partner—or Lynn—should have noticed
all along? Do you think Ed did love Lynn as much as he was able to? Or was the
marriage all about preserving his image with his parents and the town?
9. When Helen Decatur-Whitney discovers that her mother is seriously involved with a
younger man, she’s appalled. She’s even more horrified when Flo and Donnie decide to
move in together, rather than getting married. Have you known senior couples who’ve
decided to do this? How have their families reacted? Should the families even have a
say?
10. In this story Frances’s cognitive disorder has progressed and
it’s necessary for her family to be told and for tough decisions to be made. Have
you known families who’ve been faced with the dilemma of whether to take in a parent
or find an appropriate living facility? What choice have they made and why?
There’s no place like home, especially if
it’s Serenity, South Carolina…
For more warm and inspiring stories of friendship, families and
heartfelt emotions, don’t miss the rest of the Sweet Magnolias series:
Stealing Home
A Slice of Heaven
Feels Like Family
Welcome to Serenity
Home in Carolina
Sweet Tea at Sunrise
Honeysuckle Summer
Midnight Promises
Catching Fireflies
Do you love to cook? Sherryl Woods shares delicious down-home
Southern recipes and exclusive “behind-the-scenes” stories in
The Sweet Magnolias Cookbook
. Available now!
Looking for even more? Check out the Chesapeake Shores series,
and dozens of other titles by
New York Times
bestselling author Sherryl Woods, all available in ebook format.
“Woods is noted for appealing, character-driven stories that
are often infused with the flavor and fragrance of the South.”
—Library Journal
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