“That wasourorder!”
“No, I have it clearly written here. Order for the Kent/Peters wedding …” Her voice trailed off. “Oh my.”
“We need those other flowers,” Eliana said desperately.
“I wish we could help, but the funeral already started. And I made the wedding bouquets and boutonnieres with the roses and lilies. Even if I could get the other flowers, I wouldn’t have enough time to do a wedding arrangement.” She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice brightened. “But roses and lilies are so much prettier for a wedding anyway—”
“My sister is allergic.”
Trent looked up from where he was crouched on the cement, finishing the flower arrangement. He really had done a wonderful job—if not for the fact that it was all the wrong flowers.
“Well, the wedding is outside, right?” Carrie continued. “Hopefully it will disperse the scent—”
Eliana ended the call, the first time she’d ever hung up on anyone in her life. This was a disaster. She lightly banged her fist against her head as she groaned.
“Maybe she’s right.” Grandma pulled her hand down. “We don’t have any other options.”
Without the flowers, the arch was just rusted wrought iron. With them, it was gorgeous and lush, but not what she had planned.
She let out a frustrated huff. “I guess there’s nothing we can do about it now.”
“I may go sit down.” Grandma looked a little pale.
Eliana immediately took her grandma by the arm and walked her to her seat in the front row. Grandpa chatted with Uncle Dave and her cousin Eric. Uncle Dave gave her a hug first, and then Eric, who was her favorite cousin and the one closest in age to her. “How long has it been?” she asked him.
“At least two years, which is about two years too long,” he said. “How are you? I saw the video.” They both cringed.
“I’m forever going to be known as The Flamingo Girl.”
“It’s a meme now. I should know”—he shook his head regretfully—“I made it.”
She laughed, something she didn’t think she’d be able to do just moments ago. “You would.”
He nodded toward the elephants behind her. “Is this the famous Lulu from Julia’s book?”
“It is,” Eliana said. Julia had written a series of books about animals, and her latestLoving Lulu, had hit the bestseller list. It was part of why she was taking a break from teaching to write full time—the other part, of course, being that she didn’t want to be away from Logan for four months.
“Elephants were my favorite animal growing up.”
“I remember,” she said. “You couldn’t pronounce elephant for a long time.”
“My parents didn’t want to correct me, because it was cute.” He chuckled and gave a self-deprecating eye roll. “Super cute when you’re in sixth grade and everyone’s mocking you.”
“I was team Don’t Correct Him!” she teased. She checked her watch. The wedding was starting in less than an hour. She’d been running around all afternoon, and hadn’t had time to even think about getting ready. “I’d better go finish all this.”
“Okay.” He leaned closer before she could leave, and lowered his voice. “Is Grandma okay?” He indicated the very obviously burnt hair.
“I don’t know. She’s off tonight.”
He frowned, but nodded, sliding his gaze back to Grandma. Confident that Eric would help Grandma if needed, she ran to the conference area they’d set up as a wedding dressing area, completely out of breath when she got there. Before she could open the door, her mom grabbed her by the arm and yanked her toward the tiny staff kitchen.
“We have a problem,” Mom said.
Of course we do.“What’s wrong?”
Mom just shook her head. “Follow me.” She opened the kitchen door, and Eliana gripped the doorframe to keep from falling over in shock.
“What happened to the cake?” she squeaked out. The three-tiered almond cake had sunk into itself, creating something that looked more like a recreation of an atom bomb drop than the gorgeous wedding cake she and Julia had picked out.
