“I can help you plan everything,”Evelyn insisted.“Oh, I can already think of ideas for the centerpieces on the table and decorations to make it feel like a vintage wedding.”
“Take her up on that, Mom. You know Aunt Evelyn is the best event planner in Moonbeam. Probably in the whole state.”
“I’ll take all the help I can get.”
“When do you want to go dress shopping?”Olivia asked.“You don’t have much time.”
“I was actually thinking of wearing Grace Parker’s wedding dress. We still have it carefully sealed up and packed away. It was so beautiful and simple. I just think I’d love to feel like…like the history of our family was there with me at the wedding.”
“That’s a lovely idea.”Evelyn nodded.“We’ll drag it out of storage and you can try it on. I’ve heard of this wonderful seamstress on Belle Island. Her name is Ruby. If it needs to be altered, we’ll contact her.”
“And you two could pick out whatever dresses you’d like.”Because they both were better at choosing clothes than she’d ever be. She trusted their judgement.
“We’ll find something simple that fits in with your vintage feel, won’t we, Evelyn?”Olivia’s eyes lit up.
“Yes, we’ll go shopping as soon as possible.”Evelyn smiled.“Donna, I’m just so very happy for you. You deserve this happiness and Barry is a great guy.”
“Thanks, Evie. I should get back to work. But I wanted you two to be the first to know.”Elation still clung to her, warring with her desire to plan everything and her responsibility to her job. How was she ever going to balance everything in the next few weeks?
“First to know what?”Heather walked into the kitchen.
“Mom, show her.”
Donna held up her hand self-consciously.
“Whoop.”Heather rushed over and hugged her.“Aunt Donna, that is great. Fabulous.”
“And her wedding is in six weeks at the pavilion at The Cabot.”
“It looks like we Parker women have a lot of planning to do.”Heather grinned and hugged her again.“Gosh, a wedding. That’s just fabulous.”
“Come on, I’ll pour us all another cup of coffee and we’ll make more plans.”Evelyn got up to grab the coffee.
Maybe work could wait for just a bit. It only made sense to get as much planning done as possible as soon as possible. She convinced herself that was the right decision as they sat for more than an hour making lists of guests and planning food and flowers. And laughing. Lots of laughing.
She looked around at the faces of the Parker women. A feeling of incredible rightness and luck flowed through her. There was nothing in the world like being part of this incredible family.
Though there was still one minor hurdle she had to pass…
She—orsomeone—still needed to tell her mother the news.
Chapter 8
Olivia and Austin met at The Destiny on Monday evening as planned and waited at the end of the pier for Heather.“Do you think we did the right thing? You know, with conspiring for you and Jesse to just happen to show up at Jimmy’s?”
“Neither Jesse nor Heather thought it was a coincidence.”Austin laughed.“But I think they eventually had a good time.”
“And he walked Heather home, there is that. And they agreed, albeit grudgingly, to come on The Destiny tonight.”She looked down the pier.“Sh, here comes Heather.”
Heather looked a bit wary, but beautiful, as she approached. She wore a simple yellow dress and teal flats, with her hair swept back in a clip.“I made it,”she said.
“You did.”Olivia hugged her.“We waited to board with you.”More to the truth, she was afraid if they didn’t wait here, Heather might chicken out.
“Let’s go aboard.”Austin led the way to the gangplank.
“Wow, look at this.”Olivia looked around in surprise as they entered the boat.“Jesse has really fixed this up nice.”
“It…it is nice,”Heather said as if she was surprised herself.
