The Wedding Promise (12 page)

Surprisingly, Sylvia remained outside. She hadn’t really said hello, Liza realized, and now stood with her arms folded, looking over the lawn—the piles of clippings scattered every where—and the partially weeded flower beds.

She wore a turquoise blue linen shift and large sunglasses that hid most of her face. Liza couldn’t really see her expression, but it didn’t take a mind reader to guess her thoughts.

Liza glanced at her, not sure if she should start up the trimmer again. “Would you like a cold drink?”

“Thank you, I’m fine. You realize that you’re not supposed to cut back a hydrangea this late in the spring, right? They won’t bloom.”

“Yes, I know that. I’m just going to take off the deadwood.”

“With care,” Sylvia suggested. “They probably brighten up the yard a lot when they’re in flower. What color are they?”

“Blue and lavender.”

Sylvia didn’t answer. She gave the garden one more sweeping glance, then walked toward the house and let herself in the back door. Liza put on her gloves again and cleaned the gunk from the bottom of the trimmer. She didn’t want to get her hopes up, but Sylvia’s concern for the hydrangeas seemed a good sign.

Liza had made some real progress, reaching halfway around the yard with her edging, when Sylvia and Jennifer finally came out the back door.

Jennifer waved, looking happy. Liza felt her own heartbeat quicken. She turned off the machine and yanked off her gloves. Then she remembered the baseball cap and pulled that off, too. She wished she had time to clean up, but there was no help for it.

“We’ve decided,” Jennifer said brightly. “We’re going to have the wedding here, Sunday, June nineteenth. Do you think that would be possible?”

Liza was stunned. She hadn’t expected them to show up today, and she hadn’t expected a “yes” either.

“June nineteenth?” She did a rapid mental calculation. That was just over five weeks away. It seemed ridiculously soon, but she wasn’t about to back out now. “I guess I could do that. It also depends on your decisions, with the food and flowers and all that.” She remembered the lines Molly had given her. “There are some requests I can’t fulfill on such a tight time line.”

“I understand,” Jennifer said.

“I don’t understand any of this, but go ahead. Don’t worry about me,” Sylvia cut in.

Liza wasn’t sure what to say. “Where’s Mr. Bennet and Kyle? Are they still inside?”

“We took two cars. My husband and Kyle have a tee time at a golf course in Ipswich. They left ten minutes ago,” Sylvia explained. “Do you have a letter of agreement or some sort of contract we can sign? I’ll give you a deposit.” She sighed and glanced at Jennifer, her expression softening. “If this is what Jen and Kyle really want, well . . . what can I say? When I saw the way Kyle was swooning over the place, too, I knew I was beat,” she said with an indulgent little laugh. “I’m happy if they’re happy. So here we go. The countdown has begun.”

“I do have a letter of agreement. Come inside,” Liza said, feeling almost sorry for Sylvia. It was clear that she was baffled by the couple’s choice, but for her daughter’s sake was going along with their wishes. “I’ll print out the form, and we can look it over.”

Molly had e-mailed a form letter that she thought would come in handy. Liza was happy now that she had it on hand. She was eager to get this deal settled, too.

Liza led the Bennets into the sitting room, then printed out the letter of agreement and handed it to Sylvia. “Why don’t you look this over for a minute and see if you have any questions? I’ll be right back.”

While Sylvia read the letter Liza took a moment to clean up in the powder room off the foyer. She could partly overhear a hushed conversation. The tone and the few words she was able to catch told Liza that Sylvia was making one last desperate pitch to Jennifer. But this time, Liza felt confident that Jennifer would hold fast. Claire had been right about her; she was as tenacious as a little sand crab.

Liza felt so confident that she took a few extra minutes to fix a tray with iced tea and a plate of Claire’s homemade chocolate chip cookies.

When she returned to the sitting room, the mother and daughter were not talking anymore. In fact they weren’t even looking at each other. Jennifer was paging through one of the many bridal magazines Liza had picked up to study. She looked quite calm and content. Sylvia, who was staring glumly out the window, sat up with a start when Liza set the tray on the table. “I brought you some iced tea and chocolate chip cookies.”

“Thank you. Just the tea for me,” Sylvia said as she watched Liza pour a glass. Liza handed it to her, noticing she didn’t add any sugar, only lemon. Sylvia obviously watched her figure and was very trim and fit.

Jennifer took both a glass of tea and a cookie, biting in with relish. “Um . . . these are great. Can we work them into the cocktail hour somehow?”

“Jennifer, really?” Her mother looked helplessly horrified.

Jennifer laughed at her reaction. “That was a joke, Mom.”

“Thank goodness. I can hardly tell the difference lately.”

Liza glanced at both of them, deciding it was best to get on with business. “Any questions about the letter of agreement?”

“It seems fine to me,” Sylvia replied, “though we may need to add a few more guests to this estimate,” she added.

“A few more shouldn’t be a problem,” Liza said. She noticed Jen looked a bit distressed by that idea but didn’t argue with her mother. She had won her big battle today and probably didn’t want to push her luck.

Sylvia picked up a pen. “What do you want me to do here? Fill in our names and the date of the wedding, I assume?”

“That’s right,” Liza said. “I’ve marked an estimate for the cost of the wedding there,” she added, pointing at the bottom of the page. “And this is what I’ll need as a deposit. Then we’ll have to meet to finalize all the details, and I’ll give you a longer contract, with a precise cost.”

“Yes, I understand.” Sylvia’s tone sounded bleak and resigned. But she signed the document, then took her check holder from a neat leather purse and wrote Liza a check for the deposit.

“Thanks. I’ll just make a copy of this for you, and then I guess we’re all done for today,” Liza said happily.

She walked over to her desk and hit the Copy button.

“Thanks, Mom. I know it wasn’t your first choice.” Jennifer leaned over and gave her mother a big, impulsive hug.

Liza glanced up to see Sylvia’s reaction. She seemed surprised, her reading glasses knocked sideways by Jennifer’s embrace. But Liza could see her tension quickly melt away and her entire expression transformed with deep love and affection as she hugged her daughter back.

“No, not my first choice,” she agreed in an amused tone. “But, what can I say? It’s your wedding day.”

Jennifer lifted her head and grinned. “Yes, it is. Or it will be.” She stood up and practically spun around. “I’m so happy. I can’t wait to tell Kyle it’s all settled!”

“Except for the other ten thousand things we have to figure out now,” Sylvia muttered. But Jennifer’s happiness was contagious, and her mother’s mood seemed lighter now, too. Liza handed her the copy of the letter and the check, and Sylvia dropped it into her purse.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Sylvia reached back into her purse. “I made a little list for you, Liza. Some of the repair issues we talked about the first time we visited? We’d like all of this done by the wedding. You don’t have to bother noting it now in this little letter. But I’d like that list in the final version, as part of our agreement.”

Liza unfolded the sheet of paper and took a quick look.

The list was long, extremely long. She didn’t remember discussing half this stuff. She was tempted to make an excuse to leave the room and consult with Molly on her cell phone. But she remembered her client-handling skills from her former life and reminded herself to stay calm.

“I really will do whatever I can to make the wedding absolutely perfect,” Liza promised. “I’ll go over this list with the carpenter who does most of the work here and see if it’s possible to have these items completed by the middle of June.”

Sylvia didn’t seem entirely satisfied by that answer but, luckily, she didn’t argue. “All right. Well, you can get back to us about it.”

Jennifer seemed eager to leave, already standing by the door, with her big handbag hooked over her shoulder.

“Good-bye, Liza. Thanks so much. We’ll be back next week to talk about all the other stuff, okay?”

“The sooner, the better,” Sylvia added in her sharp tone.

“Monday or Tuesday sound good?”

“Either day would be fine,” Liza said brightly.

“We’ll call you.” Sylvia slipped on her sunglasses and headed out the door. “Have a nice weekend.”

“Same to you.”

Liza shut the front door, then sagged against it in relief. It was a good thing there were no guests staying over this weekend. She would need the time to rest up for her next meeting with the Bennets.

But the wedding was booked! She could hardly believe it.

She couldn’t tell if she was happy or terrified. The June wedding date didn’t leave much time, and Liza couldn’t help but remember something Molly had said—if the party was a success, it would be great publicity for the inn. But if the wedding was a flop and word got around, well . . .

Liza didn’t even want to think about it.

She wouldn’t think about it either. Just positive thoughts, Liza reminded herself. It did feel like a victory of some kind just to secure the commitment, and she was bursting to share the news. A few names came to mind—Claire, Audrey, Molly.

Daniel.

Most of all, Daniel. He was always at the top of her list lately, and Sylvia’s list provided the perfect excuse. The long, nitpicking document did have an upside.

Liza quickly dialed Daniel’s cell. She was pretty sure he would be out on a job somewhere. The noise in the background when he picked up confirmed that.

“Hello, Liza. What’s up?”

“Wedding news . . . The Bennets, complete with the father of the bride and the groom, made a surprise visit and decided to have the wedding here. I thought for sure when they left the last time, I didn’t stand a chance.”

“Wow, that’s exciting! I knew you would reel them in. You’ll do a great job for them, too, I have no doubt.”

“Thanks. I’ll do my best. The bride’s mother is a tough customer. She handed me a laundry list of repairs she’d like done before the party. An ‘or else’ kind of list. I told her I had to speak to you about it. The wedding date is June nineteenth. There’s not very much time.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out. Listen, I’m in the middle of a roofing job and I have to get back to the crew.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to go on about it.” Liza felt self-conscious now about calling him.

“Don’t be silly. I’m glad you called. Why don’t you come over tonight, and we’ll go over this laundry list? I’ll make you dinner.”

“To your house?” Liza had never been to Daniel’s house. She didn’t even know where he lived.

“Yes, my house. That’s where I usually cook dinner.” He laughed and paused. “I know it’s short notice. You must be busy,” he backtracked.

“I’m not busy. I don’t have any guests booked this weekend. What time should I be there?”

They quickly set a time and Daniel gave her directions. His house was on the other side of the island, which was largely unpopulated, except for a cluster of cottages that was once a fishermen’s colony. She guessed that Daniel must live in one of them.

“I don’t know that side of the island very well. I always wanted to go inside one of those cottages,” she admitted.

Daniel laughed. “Don’t get your hopes up. My place isn’t much, and neither is my cooking.”

She hung up, dazed by the unexpected invitation. Two
real
dates with Daniel in one week? That was a new record.

Feeling happy and energized, Liza headed outside again to pick up where she had left off in the garden. She worked her way around the yard with the edger, then weeded a few more beds. By the hottest part of the afternoon, Liza felt she’d done enough. She gathered up the clippings and watered everything, adding some plant food to give the flowering plants a boost.

Finally, she put the tools away and sat in the cool shade of the back porch with her bottle of iced water.

Not bad for a day’s work, Liza thought. She felt encouraged and thought the garden did, too. The roses, hydrangeas, tiger lilies, and daylilies already looked refreshed, ready to spread and burst into flower now that the choking weeds had been cleared.

With some consistent attention, there was no reason why the garden would not look great by the time of Jennifer’s wedding and provide a perfect backdrop for a beautiful ceremony. It might even pass Sylvia’s meticulous inspection.

Liza didn’t need to be at Daniel’s house until seven, and had plenty of time to clean up. Even enough time to make dessert, she realized. She did want to contribute something to the dinner.

What to make was the question. She wandered into the kitchen and opened the fridge. She hadn’t eaten a thing since breakfast and tore open a yogurt, spooning it up as she looked over the rest of the shelves.

She spotted a few containers of berries. Claire mentioned that she’d picked them up in the market just in case there were some last minute check-ins. Before she left on Friday, she’d urged Liza to use them before they went bad.

Claire would have put them in muffins or maybe pancakes. But they would be perfect for a dessert. Something easy. Liza wasn’t up for a complicated recipe or even capable of pulling one off. She considered calling Claire for advice but didn’t want to bother her on her day off.

The next best thing was Claire’s recipe collection—practically a sacred text, Liza thought with a smile. Claire sometimes consulted recipes from standard cookbooks, like
The Joy of Cooking
. But Liza knew that was just to refresh her memory, or strike off in a certain direction. Claire never followed a recipe to the letter, even when she had all the necessary ingredients on hand, and she rarely made the same dish twice the same way. The only constant was that the food she cooked was always delicious.