Exactly as it should be.
Tonight they were celebrating a love between soul mates who had waited nearly a lifetime to finally find their way back to each other. They had known each other most of their lives, but until recently, fate had had other plans for them.
Over the years, when Gigi, whose real name was Wiladean, had been free, Charles hadn’t been. Then Gigi had been happily married to Kate’s grandfather, and Charles, ever the gentleman, had respected the bonds of holy matrimony and buried his feelings for Gigi. Though it hadn’t stopped him from naming his restaurant in downtown Savannah Wila, after her.
That little love note was one of those obvious tells that had been right out in the open, in front of everyone’s faces, but no one had ever talked about the Wila and Wiladean coincidence until after Gigi’s husband passed. And a few years later, Charles had confessed his love for her and had proposed.
Gigi had managed to find two great loves in the eighty-five years that she had been on the earth. She wanted nothing more than for her three granddaughters to fall just as happily in love.
In fact, she had said as much at her eighty-fifth birthday earlier that year, when she had announced that the only thing she wanted for her birthday was for all three of her grandgirls to find happiness with their soul mates. Elle had gotten a head start with Daniel and was the first to tie the knot. Jane, who had fallen in love with Liam, was next.
Kate was the lone holdout—
Her heart skipped a beat—and not in a giddy, romantic way—when she realized that, actually, she wasn’t the holdout. She was married. All day long, the reality had been hiding behind her normal day-to-day activities, only to jump out and scare the bejabbers out of her. She’d be going about her business, cutting a client’s hair, talking about their kids or their recent trip to a theme park, when—BAM!—the realization would wash over her that she and Aidan were married. She’d been busy and engrossed in her day but startled suddenly by the memory of what had happened.
And because of Gigi’s birthday wish, it was going to be all the more difficult if the family found out about the Vegas wedding only to learn that she and Aidan were trying to get an annulment.
She gave her head a firm shake. She was not going to think about that tonight. She actually wanted to forget about it for a while. Tonight belonged to Gigi and Charles. It was about true love and infinite happiness.
Gigi and Charles had insisted that there be no wedding presents, wanting only the gift of their family’s time to help plan the wedding in Vegas and attend it. So the greatest gift Kate could give them was to be emotionally present for them tonight.
She would do that. She would be present and attentive and joyful—even if she felt shackled and weighed down by her big mistake.
In addition to the newlyweds and six of their immediate family and Aidan, the guest list that Elle and Zelda had drawn up included sixteen of Charles and Gigi’s closest friends, who’d be here for the surprise welcome-home party.
Kate and Elle had handled the decorations, which were simple and festive. Jane and Liam were in charge of the food, which would be upscale and delicious, no doubt.
Kate had made several more trips to the kitchen to set out more appetizers that Jane and Liam had prepared—pâté with toast points, a cheese and charcuterie board, mozzarella and cherry tomato kebabs speared with a sprig of rosemary, homemade sweet potato chips with Liam’s famous hot mustard and sweet chili dipping sauce.
Even though she and her sisters were as different as their respective hair colors—blond, brown and red—they completed each other, as evidenced by the way they had come together to pull off this party for their beloved Gigi.
Kate glanced at her watch. The guests would begin arriving in the next few minutes. She needed to get out of her head and into party mode, and help with the finishing touches of the surprise.
Kate walked through the butler’s pantry that connected the dining room to the kitchen. She pushed through the swinging kitchen door and into another world where Jane’s husband, Liam, was barking orders at a skeleton staff that he had brought in for the night from Wila, the restaurant he and Jane now co-owned with Charles. It was fortuitous that the restaurant was closed on Mondays and the sous-chefs, who were eager to make a little money of the side, were available to help take some of the burden off Liam.
Jane was a pastry chef and had baked an elegant two-tiered wedding cake that looked like a work of art you would see in a Parisian bakery. She truly was an artist, and the masterpiece she had created for the occasion was a rosewater-champagne confection with an arrangement of white roses and flecks of edible gold leaf cascading off the top tier. Jane had already mandated that when they served dessert, they would set aside the top tier for Gigi and Charles to freeze until their first anniversary. The gorgeous cake was sitting safely off to the side, well out of the way of the maelstrom swirling around in the kitchen.
Kate’s heart melted a little when she thought about how Jane and Liam were putting heart and soul into this post-wedding feast.
She couldn’t remember what she and Aidan had done after Elvis had pronounced them husband and wife. Her cheeks heated at the thought. They hadn’t even fed each other cake.
It seemed like there was something a little shameful about that. About not remembering, and about the absence of cake.
Every bride and groom deserved a wedding cake.
Just as fast as the thought popped into her head, she blinked it
