“Oh yes, those most especially.” Sadie Evans was the middle sister, second youngest, and the most rebellious in nature of them all. She made the rest of them look like angels, and Laurel knew that was saying something. Her sister currently lived in Anchorage and still had not come home to meet her niece. The only one in the family who stood a chance at convincing her to was Cody, but no one had asked that favor of him yet. Life was chaotic enough without Sadie amplifying the storm.
That moment felt like the one to tell Mom about losing her baby.Tell her, Laurel. She’ll understand.But she hesitated too long, and just as the words were about to form, Ava and Kinley knocked quietly on the kitchen door and waved.
Haylee didn’t stir. Now that she was out cold, only Melly could wake her.
“You have good friends,” Mom said about their quiet arrival. “But if they get too excited about cake or whatever and wake Melly, I can’t save you from your sister.”
Laurel patted Mom on the shoulder in passing. “I’d stand a better chance stealing a grizzly bear’s salmon dinner.”
Grabbing sodas and a pre-prepared plate of cheese, caribou summer sausage, and crackers, Laurel led her two best friends through the kitchen and down into the basement. No one dared whisper a thing until they were in the family room, as far from Melly’s afternoon napping spot as they could get. Still, Laurel shut the door to be safe.
“Your parents basically live in a log mansion,” Kinley said when Laurel leaned against the door and let out a heavy exhale. “Melly have superhuman hearing or something?”
“Yes.”
“You look like you haven’t slept in a week,” Ava said, setting an overflowing pastel blue—her prominent wedding color—binder on the coffee table. Ava had always been the meticulous planner, but this was excessive even for her.
“Try four.” Laurel nodded at the binder as she passed out sodas. “Are we planning your wedding or buying an island and opening a resort? I bet you even have a treasure map in that thing.”
“If I see something I like, I print it and it goes in the binder,” Ava admitted with a sheepish smile.
Kinley aimed the remote at the TV and turned on a reality wedding show about multiple brides attending each other’s weddings and rating them. “Neither of you are allowed to bring scorecards to each other’s weddings,” Laurel said, only half teasing. It was bad enough that the two were getting married one week apart. Was she the only one who saw the drama that would cause?
“But it would be fun—”
“Nope.” Laurel cut Kinley off before the idea could take root. “As co-maid of honor forbothof you, I forbid it.”
“Do you think the guys would kill me if I made them wear pink ties?” Kinley asked, her attention fixed on her phone screen. Instead of a binder, she had her ideas saved on a Pinterest board.
Laurel sputtered a laugh, imagining Chase’s reaction when forced to wear pink. She could picture the sour expression on his scrunched-up face when she tried to put it on him.
“Laurel?”
“What now?”
“What do you think about this for a centerpiece?” Ava unclipped a page from her binder and held it out. “Is it too extravagant? I can make these myself, but—”
“It’s your wedding. What doyouwant?”
“I want the guys wearing pink ties,” Kinley chimed in, a mischievous twinkle dancing in her eyes. “Ryder didn’t want to make anygirlydecisions, so pink ties it is.”
For over an hour, Laurel scanned over hundreds of pictures for both weddings. She was good at multitasking, and keeping the two very different concepts separate became easier with each passing minute. Laurel lost herself in the excitement of wedding plans. These two were her very best friends, after all. For the first time in weeks, she again felt like the successful businesswoman she was.
“I could order a pizza,” she offered.
“Hawaiian!” Kinley suggested. She’d given up on her wedding Pinterest board and switched over to the honeymoon one twenty minutes ago, and it showed.
“Who puts pineapple on—”
Melly’s cries tore through the house like a tornado siren, silencing the girls. They stared at the door, then at each other.
“On second thought, maybe we could head to Warren’s instead. I’ve been dying to try his smoked salmon pizza,” Laurel suggested. Any ounce of guilt she felt at abandoning her sister was eliminated by her promise to take the overnight shift.
“You two go,” Ava said, closing her binder and standing. “I need to stop by the store and help Lydia close. It’s her first time.” Ava owned the Forget Me Not Boutique. When she wasn’t busy with wedding plans or spending time with her fiancé, Brayden, and their dog, Elsie, she was working.
“We can bring the pizza to you,” Kinley offered.
Ava waved away the suggestion. “Seafood on pizza isn’t really my thing.” Hugging her binder to her chest, she sternly looked at both Kinley and Laurel. “Friday at six. Don’t be late.”
