A Winter Wedding(103)

“I’ll shoot for eight, but he’s coming from Sacramento. I’m guessing it’ll be nine or ten.”

“Whatever time you set up, let Riley know about it, too. I’d like to have him there, if possible.”

“I have no doubt he’ll be there. Your friends would do anything for you.”

“Yeah,” he said, but he realized he’d said it a bit too absently when she nudged him.

“I would, too. So will you cheer up? You make me feel like crying, and I never cry.”

He forced a smile. “I don’t need to cheer up. I’m not sad.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re kidding, right? You’re so devastated I almost feel I should check your house for sleeping pills or anything else you could—”

“Stop it!”

She grinned at him. “Think of the bright side. Maybe Lourdes is gone, but so is Noelle. She’s going to be punished for what she did.”

Punishing Noelle wouldn’t restore his plant. But he was happy that she couldn’t harass him anymore. In that respect, the next few months were going to be heaven... “She almost got away with it.”

“It was a close call. How’d Olivia and Brandon take the news?”

“Brandon wasn’t surprised. Olivia felt bad, but she doesn’t blame me. Noelle got herself in trouble.”

“And tried to frame Genevieve for it! That’s evil!”

“Needless to say, Genevieve’s also happy the truth has come out.”

He fielded several calls from clients who’d heard about the fire and were checking on the status of their order. Then Morgan said, “Are you all set for Riley’s wedding?”

“For the most part.” He needed to put the finishing touches on the speech that Lourdes had helped him write. And the bachelor party was this Friday, only two days before Christmas. All his friends were excited, but he was having trouble feeling much enthusiasm for anything.

*

Lourdes was grateful her mother was the one who picked her up from the airport and that Renate hadn’t allowed Derrick to talk her into letting him go instead. Apparently, he’d tried. Her mother had a big bouquet of exotic and expensive flowers she said were from him, but Lourdes wasn’t in a hurry to read the card.

Although she and Derrick needed some time alone to talk, she wasn’t ready for that quite yet. She hadn’t given him any indication that she planned to reconcile, but it was natural, she supposed, for him to think there’d be a chance. She’d been gone only three weeks. A person’s life generally didn’t change that drastically in such a short time.

“I’m so glad you decided to spend the holidays with us,” her mother said, her smile too bright as she persevered in ignoring Lourdes’s dour mood.

Lourdes nodded. It was good to see Renate. They’d always gotten along well. But she’d left the love of her life behind in Whiskey Creek, and she couldn’t get the song she’d written for Kyle out of her head. She’d drafted the rest of the lyrics while she was on the plane and couldn’t wait to finish it. She kept humming those last few bars so she wouldn’t forget them. No matter what happened from here on, she’d dedicate it to him.

“So...how’d it go in California?”

She turned to stare out the window, already missing the quaint little town. “Fine.”

“Did you see anyone we know?”

“You mean from Angel’s Camp? I didn’t get down that way. I wasn’t there long enough.”

“Will you go back after Christmas to finish the album?”

Lourdes felt a crushing sense of loss. She’d wrestled with herself the entire plane ride. She was worried she was making a terrible mistake, closing the door on what she and Kyle had started. But she knew how hard it would be to maintain a long-distance relationship, how different that was from what Kyle wanted to achieve—and how susceptible she’d be to trying to keep him happy if he wasn’t, just as her mother had her father. “No.” She cleared her throat. “Probably not. I’ll finish it here.”

They drove in silence for the next ten minutes. Then her mother shot her a cautious glance. “Will you be getting back together with Derrick?”

“Absolutely not.”

Renate lowered the volume on the radio. “He seems to expect you to.”

She studied the gray sky overhead. “We’ll have to figure out how to deal with the past.”

“Meaning you’re going to try to continue working together.”

“I hope we can.”

“And what about Kyle?”

“What about him?”

“Will you still have a relationship with him?”

“No.”

“Because...”

“Because one of us would get hurt.”

“You’re not hurt now?”

“We haven’t known each other that long, and it’s easier to move on sooner rather than later.”

“You’re that sure it wouldn’t work out.”

“I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t.”

“Okay. I’m happy as long as you’re happy.”

Lourdes managed a smile so her mother wouldn’t know she felt like crying and, thankfully, Renate talked about other, more cheerful things. They had several cousins coming for Christmas dinner. Lourdes’s groundskeeper had done a beautiful job draping her trees and shrubs with Christmas lights. Mindy had an interview at the school district where she wanted to teach, so she might finally be moving on with her life.