Connecting (Lily Dale #3)(39)

What if she never finds out what really happened to Mom?

I have to do this. It’s that simple.

She slips the framed photo of her mother and Darrin into the beaded evening bag Odelia unearthed from the bottom of a cedar chest. It was the same bag, she told Calla, that Mom carried when she wore this dress to her high school prom. On Calla’s wrist is a familiar emerald bracelet. It doesn’t match the dress, but who cares? It was Mom’s . . . and a reminder that anything is possible. After all, it miraculously came back to Calla here in Lily Dale after dropping into Mom’s grave that rainy July day in Florida.

Passing Miriam, who gives her an admiring glance, Calla heads for the stairs, her feet trying to get used to walking in a pair of high-heeled satin pumps that also turned up in the cedar chest. They’re probably a size too small, but Calla chose to wear them anyway. They match the dress perfectly, and they were Mom’s.

The mirror, every time she’s glimpsed her reflection tonight, is like a window into the past.

Thanks to Leslie, who couldn’t have known, Calla looks exactly like her mother does in the picture with Darrin.

Odelia was bowled over when she first saw her earlier.

“You could be her, Calla,” she said tearfully, and hugged her hard. “I can’t believe it.”

Calla can’t, either.

Because there are no coincidences.

So, what does it all mean?

It means I probably shouldn’t be doing this, that’s what it means.

Increasingly unsettled about what might lie ahead, Calla reminds herself that nothing bad is going to happen to her with Jacy around.

Something about him just makes me feel safe.

But when she reaches the top of the stairs to see Jacy standing below in the front hall, “safe” is pretty much the last word that comes to mind.

“Dangerous” is more like it.

Wearing a dark suit and tie, white dress shirt, and polished dress shoes, he looks about five years older—and so handsome she stops dead in her tracks.

Wow.

Calla reaches for the bannister and descends the first few steps. Her feet wobble in the heels, and she remembers her mother on the steps back home, walking, falling . . .

No. Not tonight. Don’t think of that tonight. Not now, anyway.

She reaches the foot of the stairs and Odelia is there, too, fluttering around, obviously thrilled to think that “romance might be blossoming,” which is how she cringe-inducingly phrased it earlier, between Calla and Jacy.

“Peter got ahold of Jacy and bought him a new suit,” she announces. “Doesn’t he look great, Calla?”

“He does . . . you do.” At last she finds her voice. Daring to look him in the eye, she sees a gleam that makes her heart beat even faster.

“You look good, too,” he says simply, and holds out a florist’s box. “This is for you.”

“Thank you.” She hopes he can’t see how badly her hands are shaking as she takes it.

This isn’t supposed to be happening.

Tonight is . . . well, it’s kind of like a business appointment.

Oh, who are you kidding? You’re into Jacy, no matter what else you’ve got going on, and you know he’s into you.

Maybe when this is all over, and things are back to normal, the two of them can actually go out on a real date.

“Aren’t you going to open the box?” Odelia prods.

Calla lifts the lid and the distinct floral scent hits her immediately.

Lily of the valley.

She looks up at Jacy, surprised and touched.

Looking over Calla’s shoulder, Odelia says, “What an exquisite corsage—white roses and lily of the valley? Those were your mother’s favorite flower, Calla.”

Yeah, no kidding.

“I know, Gammy.” And so does Jacy. She told him all about it.

“Did Peter pick out the corsage, too?” Odelia asks, and Jacy shakes his head.

“Walt, then?”

“No. I did.”

“Really? I’m impressed. I think that’s a sweet coincidence.”

“What is?” Jacy asks, as Calla slides the elastic band of the corsage over her wrist.

“That you happened to pick out a corsage with flowers— out of season, too!—that happened to be my daughter’s favorite. Every time I smell lilies, I think of Stephanie.” Odelia exhales shakily, then waves a limp hand in front of her face, as if to stave off tears.

“Gammy, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

Hearing a car door slam outside, Calla looks out the window to see Russell Lancione arriving at the Taggarts’ house. He’s wearing a dark suit like Jacy’s—though looking nowhere near as grown-up and handsome—and carrying a florist’s box.

He hesitates at the curb beside his car, obviously nervous. Then he looks at his watch, visibly takes a deep breath, and heads up the walk.

Calla wonders how Evangeline is doing. Ordinarily, the two of them would have had a couple of phone conversations while they were getting ready for the dance. But Calla didn’t feel right calling Evangeline under the circumstances, and the phone didn’t ring here.

“We should really get going,” Calla tells Jacy, not wanting the two of them to walk out the door at the same time as Evangeline and Russell.

“Let me just snap a couple of pictures first, and you guys can be on your way.”