One Wish (Thunder Point #7)(40)

“It’s spring. I’m dressing my bridesmaids in all the spring colors—lavender, pink, baby blue and yellow. I want a colorful wedding! I want their bouquets to match their dresses and mine to represent all of them. I want spring colors in the altar arrangements, then we’ll take them to the farm for the reception. The groom’s dinner is Scott’s responsibility and he’s chosen a hotel in Portland that can cater in a banquet hall and I offered flowers, which his mother snapped up immediately. There will be at least thirty people at the dinner.

“There will be about two hundred people, all arriving in cars, RVs, trucks with camper shells and fifth wheels. My mother thinks the tent for the reception is uppity, and my father complains it will block the sky, but he already contacted cousins in the old country to send him crates of their best wine. We always have to rent tables so at least no one is complaining about that. But I want a waitstaff and bartenders for this event, if only to help with the cleanup. My family should celebrate and enjoy the fruits of their labors.”

“It sounds positively wonderful,” Grace said somewhat dreamily. “I can’t imagine having that many family members around to celebrate.”

“Oh, there will be arguing, too,” she said. “Fights, even. Big families—big control issues. They’re very opinionated, very strong, very nosy. There is always lots of laughter, lots of yelling.”

“I’d love to do this,” Grace said. “But I’ll be honest, I’ve never done a wedding this big or this far away. The people I worked for before coming here to open the shop are in Portland. I know they could do it...”

“Get them to help you, if you want,” Peyton said. “I only want two things from you—flowers and to see you dance at my wedding. I hope a lot of people from Thunder Point will be there.”

Grace gave the situation some thought. There were many different ways this could be accomplished. She could order the flowers and even make the bouquets and arrangements and drive up with them—the van was refrigerated in back. Or, she could transport the flowers and make them into bouquets and arrangements once there. Or, she could have Ross and Mamie order the flowers and she could go up a day early, visit with them and make up the flowers in their shop. They’d be thrilled. She ran over all these possibilities with Peyton and Peyton left the final decision in her hands.

“And now, what can I do for you?” Peyton asked.

“Oh. That.” Grace cleared her throat. “A checkup, I guess. I haven’t had one in a while, like too long. Oh, don’t make that face—it’s only been a few years!”

Peyton’s black eyes grew huge. “A few years?”

Grace leaned toward her a little. “I’ve had lots of physicals over the years, all with good results, but only a couple of those exams. But now it seems I need to be on the pill.”

“Ah,” Peyton said. “Gotcha.”

“Your first thirty-year-old virgin?” Grace asked with a smirk, though she was not thirty yet.

“No,” Peyton said, laughing. “I’m very happy to oblige.” She glanced at her watch. “Can you come down to the clinic this afternoon at around two? That’s a really slow time. Scott will be at the hospital and I can arrange with Devon to get you in right away so we don’t take too much of your time. But I’m going to want to do a blood panel to make sure everything is in order.”

Grace hadn’t been exaggerating—she’d had a ton of physicals. A competitive skater had to be in peak condition, couldn’t risk anemia or vitamin deficiency or, God forbid, some lurking condition like a heart or kidney problem. But this was different.

“I can do that. Two o’clock.”

Nine

Although they didn’t talk about it, Grace realized that she and Troy were having a standoff. She wanted to hear some words of love before she told him the whole story of her life and he wanted the story of her life before there could be words of love. She might be very vulnerable to the promise of first love, but she wasn’t an idiot.

She had kept her appointment with Peyton.

When Grace had visited Peyton and asked her about birth control pills, she told her they’d only been using condoms for protection. “I’m not worried about it,” she said. “But Troy is getting a little nervous about depending only on that when the pill is safer.”

“Perfectly understandable. Are your periods regular?” Peyton asked.

“No, unfortunately. I’m pretty sure I’m due any day now. Seems like it’s been a while.”

“Well, let’s do a physical exam and blood work and then I’ll give you a prescription for birth control pills. You can start taking them the first day of your period, but stick with your other protection until two weeks on the pill. I’ll also give you a pregnancy test to take home just in case that cycle doesn’t arrive—you can check to be sure you’re not pregnant.”

Troy hadn’t even asked her about it. She decided she was going to tell him everything about her past before his friends visited on the weekend. If there was anything about her he no longer liked, he could just sleep on his own couch while they were in town.

She put the morning mail on her desk, went about her work, put together a few floral arrangements for Justin to deliver later. She went upstairs to fix a sandwich for lunch, then cleaned up the shop, made a list of flower orders for the week and visited with customers. It was late afternoon and Justin had already picked up his deliveries before she went through the mail. She leafed through the usual ads and bills, then came across a letter. Her name and address were typed on the envelope and she expected an offer of cheap insurance or something similar. But inside was one folded slip of paper. She opened it and read what was typed across the page.