Remembrance (The Mediator #7)(111)

“Oh,” I said, sipping my champagne. “The timing wasn’t right. Jesse and I had some things to sort out first.”

What was I supposed to say? Well, the truth is, Mom, my husband—how I loved thinking, let alone saying, the word—died and was a ghost in this house for a while. He needed to work through that. And I needed to work through some crap that was haunting me.

But it’s all good now. Well, all good for now.

“But how much did you pay Paul for it, if you don’t mind my asking?” Mom looked around nostalgically. “Please tell me you didn’t blow all your savings.”

“Well, I won’t lie to you, the taxes are going to be a bitch, but nothing I can’t handle. I got a really good deal on the place, though.” It wasn’t hard to keep a straight face. “Paul practically gave it to me, as a matter of fact.”

Mom seemed impressed. “Well, wasn’t that sweet of him? See, I knew you two could work out your differences.”

“Yeah,” I said. “You weren’t wrong about him.”

“Simon!” A familiar male voice startled me from behind. I turned around to see Adam MacTavish, accompanied by one of my bridesmaids, CeeCee. “Or is it de Silva now?”

“We’ll see,” I said, and hugged him. “I haven’t decided yet. Wow, don’t you look like a young urban professional.”

“You don’t look so bad yourself, Simon. May I admire you?”

“You may.” I handed CeeCee my champagne glass and curtsied in my couture gown. Adam applauded.

“Love. Big fan of the sweetheart neckline and mermaid skirt, always have been, it’s a classic for a reason. Now spin.”

I spun. CeeCee pretended to be bored and studied the clouds overhead, which had turned orange and lavender as the sun sank into the western sky.

“Gorgeous,” Adam said. “Love the lace, and the corset back does amazing things to your boobs, Simon. You look like a Victorian hooker.”

“Geez, Adam.” CeeCee handed my champagne glass back to me, then took his from him. “You’re cut off. Her mother is standing right over there.”

“I don’t think she heard you.” My mother had become involved in a conversation with Debbie Mancuso’s parents, whom I’d noticed shaking their heads earlier at how little furniture Jesse and I possessed.

We didn’t care. We had each other (and Spike and Romeo, who’d settled into an uneasy truce), and that was all we needed.

Plus the sizable gift certificate Mom and Andy had given us to one of the home-furnishing stores Andy represented. He’d said I could use his employee discount. I already had new curtains and carpets picked out.

“Mrs. Simon didn’t hear me,” Adam was saying. “And it was a compliment. By Victorian hooker, Suze, I meant, you know, one of those virginal-looking hot ladies from a vampire movie, or an old Western.”

“Just the look I was going for,” I said. “Will you two excuse me? I spotted some people I want to say hi to.”

“Of course,” CeeCee said. As I walked away from them, I heard a muffled thump, and Adam cry out in pain.

“What?” he asked CeeCee defensively. “I said it was a compliment!”

“You’re such an idiot,” CeeCee replied, but there was affection in her voice. Since the story on Jimmy Delgado’s “suicide” broke, CeeCee had gotten a lot more confident about her professional prospects. The subsequent story she’d done on Father Francisco’s arrest—and the arrest of the several other prominent Monterey Bay area residents who’d been members of Delgado’s “private client list”—had been picked up by the Associated Press. CeeCee had been offered a promotion at the Carmel Pine Cone that she still claimed to be “mulling over.”

This was a far greater gift than any I could have purchased for her online, although I was still looking for the perfect way to thank her.

She’d said, however, that my having had my wedding a year early—and in such a rush as to have no time to select bridesmaid gowns—was thanks enough.

I hurried down the steps from the deck, toward the newcomers I’d seen striding down the walkway from the front yard—or at least I hurried as quickly as someone in a tightly corseted, mermaid-skirted couture wedding gown could hurry.

“Becca. Kelly. Mr. Walters.” I still could not bring myself to call him Arthur. “Hello. I’m so glad you could come.”

“We wouldn’t have missed this for the world.” I saw Kelly’s gaze flick quickly over my waist and abdomen. I knew she was trying to see if I looked pregnant, and if this could be the reason for my hastily thrown together nuptials. “Don’t you look nice. Is that a Pnina Tornai?”

“No, Galia Lahav.”

For once I had the pleasure of seeing Kelly struck speechless.

“I don’t know if you girls are speaking English or what,” her husband said in a jovial tone, “but you look stunning, Susan.”

“Thank you, Mr. Walters.” I smiled at Becca. “You look nice, too.”

I wasn’t lying, for once. Though it had been only a week since Lucia had left her, Becca looked like a different girl, standing with a newfound confidence, and wearing her dark hair away from her face. Her skin was clearing up, and the cream-colored dress she wore actually fit her. She still had a ways to go, but she no longer seemed frightened of the journey.