Then they both laughed, because they knew there was no guarantee about that, not on the Vineyard, the most magical place in the world.
“At least it would give me time to buy a pair of proper wedding shoes,” she said with a smile. “On the other hand, the flowers and the caterer are already paid, and people are already planning to come . . .”
“Hmm . . . ,” he said.
“Then again, by spring Abigail will have fixed my wedding dress. And if we set the date for sometime in April, there will still be time before Francine and Jonas’s baby is born . . .”
“So it sounds like you’re saying you want to postpone it.”
“I’m not sure. If we have to eat the cost of the flowers and caterers, would that be okay?”
Before John could answer, Annie sat up straight, suddenly no longer tired. “Wait! I have an idea!”
Technically, the idea might have come from Murphy, but Annie decided not to share that tidbit with John.
Instead, she started to prattle while John nodded, smiled, and even laughed. She literally formed the plan while she was speaking, and John threw in a boatload of suggestions, and Annie knew that everything would be fine, it really would.
Epilogue
Friday, December 24
A Vineyard Wedding
On Christmas Eve, the great room at the Inn glowed in candlelight; it was filled with scents of lavender and freesia and hydrangea and was packed with family and friends dressed in their finest Vineyard attire. Before the ceremony started, Annie moved among the chairs that Kevin and Earl had set up and Lucy had decorated with white and powder blue lace bows. She greeted every guest—from up-, down-, and even off-island; from Winnie and her clan to all the folks on Chappy and other towns, all amazingly caring people who’d been part of the search for Bella. Which meant that there were way more guests than they’d originally planned for.
Kevin sat down, squeezed in next to Rex, as if they were good buddies, which maybe they now were. Taylor was in the back corner, cello between her knees, poised, ready to play enchanting music for the bride and groom.
Claire was in the front row; Francine’s aunt and uncle were next to her. Annie was happy they had stayed. Their presence was going to make Christmas extra special for Francine and Bella.
Looking at her watch, Annie began to thread her way to the back of the room for a last-minute check to be sure the guests were all seated and it would be okay to begin the ceremony, when someone in the last row caught her eye: Trish. Sitting next to her was Louisa. The two women Annie had dissed by her actions. She smiled; apparently they hadn’t given up on her, after all.
She gave them a quick wave, then ducked into the reading room for the final preparations. Everyone seemed ready and was awaiting the cues; Bella was positively adorable in the powder-blue dress that matched Lucy’s, with its overlay of glittering silver. Both girls wore crowns of fresh flowers that Abigail had made—in between helping Lucy and Annie put together the wonderful, overflowing gift baskets and deliver them to the women’s services group in time for Christmas delivery. And Annie was beginning to feel that she might make a decent stepmother, after all. Whatever the future might hold.
Poking her head back into the great room, she signaled for Taylor to start to play; the groom and his best man, Earl, walked up the aisle and stood in front of the fireplace. Across the mantel, white lights twinkled among evergreen boughs.
Taylor began the prelude; the bride smoothed her hand across the midriff of her dress and nodded that she was ready.
So Bella started walking—toddling, Lucy would have called it—down the center aisle, a basket of ivory rose petals on her wrist. As she had practiced, she tossed three or four petals with every step, her little teeth sunk into her lower lip, her brow scrunched in concentration. Annie was glad that she and John had decided to give Bella a kitten for Christmas. Rose had been right; little girls did love them.
Then it was Lucy’s turn. Annie watched her younger almost-stepdaughter grip her nosegay of lavender, blue, and cream-colored blossoms, align her shoulders in the perfect posture of a young lady, and move in sync with Taylor’s music toward the fireplace, toward the man who had filled out the necessary paperwork to be the one-day marriage officiant, toward the groom, toward her grandfather, up to the makeshift altar.
And then, the wedding march began. Annie inhaled, then slowly let out her breath. And then, with a mother’s love, she watched as Francine—looking so beautiful in a sparkling white dress that Abigail had designed and made in less than a week—moved down the aisle toward her beloved Jonas.
* * *
After the “I dos” were exchanged, after the chairs were moved out of the way and the group of well-wishers mingled among their friends, the chatter was over-the-top joyous for the newly-wedded couple.
“What happened?” more than one guest asked Annie.
“Did you and John split up?”
Questions were fired from all directions, so Annie and John went to the fireplace and stood at the altar where Francine and Jonas had just exchanged vows, following the instructions of the officiant, Edgartown Police Detective Sergeant John Lyons.
“We’re going to do this again in the spring,” Annie said.
“And that time,” John added, “we promise, Annie and I will be the bride and groom.”
They had agreed not to tell anyone that they’d rushed Francine and Jonas to Judd’s office late last Friday and convinced him to rewrite the license for the young couple instead of Annie and John. But even Judd could not work miracles—he said the marriage couldn’t happen until Monday, the twenty-seventh, or even the day after, because he wasn’t sure if they’d count the holiday as within the waiting period. They decided that because all the arrangements had been made, no one needed to know that little glitch. So, come Tuesday after Christmas, they would do this again—with only Lucy and Annie as witnesses, and Bella. John would need to do the paperwork to be the officiant again, but that, too, would be easy. And then there’d be no doubt that Francine and Jonas were legally married.
