Ex on the Beach (43 page)

“No.” She shook her head vehemently. “I swear. There will be nothing tomorrow. But I’ve got to have your help tonight.”

Andie clenched both hands into fists. She pulled her phone out and seriously considered calling Mark. It had been almost two weeks. She needed to talk to him.

He might begin to think she didn’t care.

A little voice reminded her that he hadn’t called her, either, but she ignored it. He had stupid pride. She knew that about him. It was something she’d decided she was willing to accept.

But she would not give up on them without putting everything she had into it.

She looked at Kayla. “One more day. That’s all.”

“I swear.” Kayla nodded. “I’ll make flight arrangements for you right now.”

Kayla disappeared before Andie could say anything else. She forced herself to breathe calmly instead of screaming in frustration, then picked up the suitcase that had been packed for two days, grumbled out a “Fine” to herself, and stomped back upstairs.

“We’ll leave right before dusk,” Kayla yelled from the other room.

Thirty minutes before Andie had planned to head back downstairs, there was a knock at her door. She pulled it open to find her mother standing there wearing a lovely, pale yellow lace tea-length dress. She was carrying another inside a clear protective cover.

“I bought you a nice dress the other day,” he mother said, not waiting to be invited to enter the room. Andie looked down at the straight skirt and top combination that was often her working attire.

“I’m fine as I am,” she said. She grabbed her purse. “Let’s go.”

“Just try this on, will you?”

Her mother held the dress up to Andie and tilted her head at an angle as if imaging what it would look like on her. It was beautiful. A peaches-and-cream color with loads of lace, but it was too dressy for work.

“Your aunt and I decided we’d wear nice dresses tonight. So we bought you one, too.”

“Stop it.” Andie pushed the dress away. She wasn’t in the mood. “I don’t want a nice dress. I just want to leave.”

She looked at her mom. “And why would you have bought me a dress for tonight? I was supposed to be on a plane to Boston two hours ago.”

Instead of answering, Cassie hung the dress on the back of the door and went to work on the buttons of Andie’s shirt.

“What are you doing?” She slapped at her mother’s hands.

“We have to hurry. Now come on.” No-nonsense Mom was back.

Andie sighed. Fine. It wasn’t a fight worth having. She’d overdress and make her mother happy. Then maybe everyone would leave her alone and let her go to Mark.

But as she slipped the dress on over her head and turned to the mirror, she let out a small gasp. It was gorgeous. It was just body hugging enough to be sexy but not overtly so. The hemline was shorter in the front than in the back. And there was a swell of a tail from the back of her knees to her ankles, ending in a scooped gathers.

Before she could comment, her mother was pulling the gold chain from around Andie’s neck.

“Don’t.” Andie pressed her fingers to the sea turtle charm against her chest. “I want to wear this.”

“It doesn’t look right with the cut of this dress.” Her mother was relentless in her pursuit, and had the necklace off and was replacing it with another before Andie could do anything about it.

“This is one of mine,” her mother said. It was an old-fashioned strand of pearls, and actually looked very nice with the lace. “It was my mother’s,” Cassie added.

Cassie pushed Andie into the seat in front of her dressing table and began fussing with her hair as Andie stared at herself in the mirror. She was being transformed. As her mother twisted the majority of Andie’s hair to the top of her head, leaving a few tendrils hanging, Andie met her gaze in the mirror.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

Hairpins appeared in Cassie’s hands and were quickly fastened to Andie’s hair. “I told you, your aunt and I wanted new dresses for tonight. It might be your last wedding with us, so we thought it would be nice to make it a little special.”

The thought that this could be her last wedding was sobering. It very well might be. She couldn’t help but wonder if that was the reason behind everything going on this week. Did they not want her to go?

She looked at her mother in the mirror again. “Are you okay with me leaving, Mom? I know we just started getting to know—”

“I’m fine with it, sweetheart.” Her mother patted Andie gently on the cheek, and then picked up a makeup brush. “I only want you to be happy.”

Andie nodded. She’d discussed her plans with her mother and aunt, but she hadn’t been convinced that either thought she was doing the right thing. “You didn’t say much about it when we talked Monday,” she said.

“Only because I was worried about you then.”

“And you aren’t now?”

Steady green eyes met hers. “Mothers always worry. I have since you were born. Even though you never knew it. But this time…” She smiled and leaned in, brushing her cheek against Andie’s. “This time, I can see that you know what you want. I’ll support anything you choose when I can see that look in your eye.”

The words meant more than Andie would have thought. “And you’ll be okay if Mark and I get married someday and I do nothing but stay home and have his babies?”

It frustrated her that she still worried about upsetting her mother with her decisions.

Cassie pulled Andie to her feet. “I’d be more proud than you could ever imagine,” she whispered.

Andie’s eyes watered. She believed her mother when she said that. She could see the pride shining in her.

“I want this, Mom,” Andie whispered. “I only hope I can help him get over his past so we can have a future. I want kids with him. I want a forever.”

Her mother’s eyes went glassy. “And I want to come visit you and those babies.”

“Oh, Mom.”

Andie reached for her mother, and they spent the next minute in a tight embrace. When she pulled back, she asked. “You think I can convince him?”

She was terrified she would fail.

Cassie nodded. “You’re my daughter. You can do anything you set your mind to.”

Pride swelled in Andie’s chest as she slipped on the jeweled flip-flops her mother handed her and brushed gloss over her lips. She followed her mother out the door. She couldn’t believe how far they’d come in such a short time, and she hated to step away from it.

But she needed to go to Mark. Plus, she imagined her mother and her aunt needed to make up for lost years themselves.

They would all visit. And life would be good.

As Andie reached the bottom of the stairs, Kayla looked up from where she stood by the front door and gave a little gasp. Andie frowned at her, suddenly remembering that Kayla was the reason she wasn’t currently heading to Mark.

“We aren’t walking over?” Andie asked. Kayla had car keys in one hand.

“We have things we need to take,” Kayla answered. She turned and walked out of the house without another word. Cassie followed.

“Fine,” Andie muttered. She slammed the door shut behind her. “Did you get my flight set up for in the morning?”

Kayla nodded. Cassie sniffled.

“What is going on with you two? And where’s Aunt Ginny?”

“She’s already over there,” Kayla informed her.

After only a couple of minutes, the car was pulling into the parking lot of Gin’s. Andie looked up at the caricature of her aunt and smiled fondly. She loved this place. Even though she didn’t plan to be around too much in the future, she was glad she hadn’t sold it. She wanted it in their lives. It represented so much of who she was.

The three of them stepped from the car as the sky was beginning to streak with purples and pinks. Andie could make out a crowd on the beach. And yes, there were a lot of older people. But if they’d needed so much help, why had none of them waited for the three of them to get there?

Plastering on her wedding planner smile, she headed toward the boardwalk.

“Let’s go in through the bar,” Kayla suggested.

“Why?” Andie motioned toward the crowd. “Looks like no one is waiting for us anyway.”

Her mother grabbed Andie’s hand without a word and tugged her to the side door of the bar. Andie gave up trying to make sense of anything and simply followed, but she noticed Kayla had headed around the outside of the building to the patio.

When Andie stepped inside and saw Maggie Walker, she got an odd sensation in her stomach. The little girl who’d been Sunday afternoon’s cheerleader was wearing a pale orange dress with a shiny sash around the middle. Her hair was a cascade of curls. She was holding a vine basket that looked to be one made in one of Andie’s classes, and it was filled with a wild assortment of flowers. The jumble of colors inside the basket looked like a florist had gone crazy. When Maggie spotted Andie, she began to bounce on her toes.

No one else was in the bar except for the bartender. He gave Andie a quick smile and ducked his head.

Andie looked at her mom. “What’s going on?”

Her mom offered her arm. “We have a surprise for you.”

She took her mom’s arm and followed her to the patio doors. When she stepped past the sheer curtains, all she could focus on was the gathering just beyond the patio. Everyone was turned in her direction.

There were small torches circling the perimeter of the crowd, and tiny white lights running along the sand on either side of an aisle. The aisle led to a white wicker arch, where a tall dark-haired man stood solemnly waiting. With three separate groupings of flowers attached to the arch, the colors were a mix of reds, oranges, and yellows. The flowers matched the ones in Maggie’s basket, and the hues were definitely not the the typical cream and pale bridal colors. The effect was more like an explosion of happiness.

It was perfect.

It made Andie’s heart happy.

Under the arch stood Mark in a tailored black suit.

His jaw was tight, and he seemed nervous. Andie could have helped him out by giving him a smile, but she hadn’t yet decided if she liked what appeared to be happening.

She noticed Vanilla Bean and Chester Brownbomb standing together in the crowd. Vanilla beamed at her. Surrounding Vanilla and Chester were Andie’s other students from the senior center, and in front of the adults were the kids she made a habit of playing with each week. Several of them waved at her with their whole arms, grins spread across their faces.

Other locals filled in the crowd, and Ginger stood to one side of the arch. She was dressed in an orange similar in color to what Maggie was wearing. She looked gorgeous against the backdrop of the approaching dusk, but Andie wondered why Roni wasn’t beside her.

On the other side of the arch stood all three of Mark’s brothers. His parents and sisters-in-law lined the front row.

Tears began to well in Andie’s eyes.

“Why is Aunt Ginny standing with Mark?” she whispered to her mother. Ginny looked brilliantly amazing in a dress similar to her mother’s, only hers was a very pale green.

“She’s going to perform the ceremony.”

Andie jerked her head around to her mother. “What do you mean?”

“If you want her to.” Cassie patted Andie’s arm where it still rested against hers. “She spent Tuesday filling out the paperwork to get ordained. Mark called Monday night. He asked if I would walk you down the aisle, and if she would perform the ceremony.”

“That was his idea?”

Her mother nodded. She gave Andie a tentative smile.

Maybe Mark had paid a bit of attention to what meant the most to her after all.

“He called and invited all the guests himself. We helped him with names, but he set it all up.”

“He called me, too,” Maggie chirped. She grinned at the adults, showing two overlarge front teeth.

Andie smiled down at the girl. She was going to miss her a lot.

She peeked back at her mother. “So I’m just supposed to walk down there and marry him? After not talking to him for almost two weeks?”

Her mother lifted a shoulder. “It’s kind of romantic.”

Yeah, Andie thought. She supposed it was. Especially for someone terrified of marriage.

“Are you sure it’ll be official if Aunt Ginny does it?”

Cassie nodded. “Unbreakable.”

Would serve him right if she did marry him, then. That way he couldn’t get out of it.

And then she really got it. Whatever had happened since he’d left, he was letting her know that she could count on him. He would marry her whenever she wanted.

They would no doubt still have issues arise occasionally, but they had a ton of love for each other. Given that she’d been about to chase him down so she could stick by his side anyway, it suddenly seemed silly to stand there one minute longer.

“He also said to tell you that he doesn’t want to push you,” her mother said. “If you don’t want this yet, we’ll simply turn this into a beach party. No one will mind. But he wanted to let you know that he’s ready.”

Andie looked at her mother, at the love shining from her, and was thankful to have her in her life. “I’m going to miss you, Mom,” she whispered.

Her mother kissed her on the cheek. “I will never be far away again,” she promised.

A single tear slipped down Andie’s cheek.

Kayla appeared from nowhere and held out a document. “Sign here. It’s your wedding license.”

As Andie signed beside Mark’s signature, Kayla wiped the tear from Andie’s face and smoothed out her makeup. She applied more gloss to Andie’s lips. The bartender stepped onto the patio, and he and Kayla signed the license as witnesses, then Kayla thrust a bouquet of white orchids into Andie’s hands and pressed something small into Cassie’s.

Andie’s heart began to race. She was about to get married.

“One more thing,” her mother said. She turned her hand over and opened her fingers. “Your aunt and I bought you an ankle bracelet to match ours.”

A thin gold chain lay in the palm of her mother’s hand. It held a moon charm, a star charm, and the sea turtle her mother had taken from her neck earlier. It represented all three of them. Several more tears slipped out and Kayla sighed at her side.

She once again fixed Andie’s makeup before taking the bracelet and stooping to lock it around Andie’s ankle. When she stood, she gave Andie a wavering smile. “Now quit making a mess of yourself and go marry that man,” she whispered.