Julie watched as they disappeared down the sidewalk. She leaned against the front counter and closed her eyes for a moment, taking a few deep breaths. There had been so many people in the store that it had almost become claustrophobic at times, and she wondered what it would be like to buy the space next door if it ever became available. Maybe they could expand and have even more to offer their customers. She’d even thought about having a whole cafe with trivia and karaoke nights, but she hadn’t told Dixie her ideas just yet. None of it mattered if there wasn’t a space to expand into anyway.
She turned and started wiping down the countertop. A germophobe, she constantly sanitized everything. She was cleaning out the coffee pot and refilling the water when she heard someone walk in the door behind her.
“Hey, Mom,” Meg said.
“Oh, hey, honey! I didn’t know you were coming by today.”
Her daughter looked a little nervous, and that was never a good thing. As a mother, Julie never wanted to have difficult conversations with her daughters. She wanted everything to be all rainbows and unicorns, but life was rarely like that.
“I just dropped Vivi off with Christian. They’re going to go down to the marsh to look at the birds.”
“He’s a good dad.”
Meg smiled. “Yes, he is.”
“And, he’s going to be a wonderful husband. Which brings me to something I forgot to ask you yesterday. About the centerpieces…”
Meg held up her hand. “Mom, stop.”
Julie was taken aback. “What do you mean?”
“Can we sit down?”
“Sure,” Julie said, walking over and sitting down at the bistro table. Meg slowly joined her, not making eye contact. She placed both the palms of her hands on the table like she was trying to stabilize herself.
“I want to say that I am so thankful for all of the work that you’ve done on this wedding. I know it hasn’t been easy, and you’ve been exhausted. I want to say that I’m sorry for putting so much responsibility on you.”
“Oh, sweetie, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it! My daughter is getting married!”
“That’s the thing…”
“What? You’re not getting married?”
“No, I am getting married. But we’ve made a decision about something.”
“What is it?”
“Mom, I’ve decided that I don’t want a big wedding. All of this planning and trying to make this into some grand event just isn’t me or Christian. We just want something really small with our family out by the ocean. That’s it.”
Julie stared at her for a long moment. When the shock finally wore off, she spoke. “Oh, thank God!”
Meg laughed. “What? I thought you’d be disappointed?”
“Are you kidding me? I felt like I was trying to plan a royal wedding. I’m so glad we’re not doing that because it felt like it was way too much.”
“Right? It started to feel like somebody else’s event and not mine. I don’t care about flowers and music and seating charts. I just want to marry Christian and get on with our lives.”
Julie reached across the table and held her hands. “I am so glad that you’re mature enough to know what’s right for you and Christian. So we will do whatever you need us to do, but you make your wedding your own.”
Meg smiled broadly and jumped up to hug her mother. “Thanks for understanding! All we need is to have our family there and maybe for grandma to make us a cake. Oh, and Lucy to make us some of her shrimp and grits!”
“You want shrimp and grits for your wedding meal?” Julie asked, laughing.
“Absolutely!”
“Then shrimp and grits you shall have!”
Janine stumbled, hanging onto William’s arm for dear life. “At what point are you going to explain to me why I’m blindfolded?”
“We’re almost there,” he said, guiding her. She could tell that they were on the beach, although she wasn’t sure which one. The sand beneath her feet was thick, and she could feel her calves starting to burn.
When William had showed up at the yoga studio and asked her to go to lunch with him, this wasn’t at all what she was expecting. He’d ushered her to his truck, put a blindfold on her and started driving. Wasn’t this how a lot of scary movies started?
“How much further?”
He stopped. “We’re here.” He reached up and removed her blindfold, revealing a beautiful picnic lunch right by the water. They were at a little cove just down from Janine’s cottage. She loved this area because it was quiet, although with the new lighthouse tours, there would probably be more people on that stretch of the beach very soon.
“You did this for me?”
“I just thought maybe you could use a little lunch away from all the craziness in the square right now.” She had to admit, it was nice to get away from everything. With the Spring Festival starting tomorrow, there was a lot of activity going on around her studio.
“Thank you, William. This is a beautiful gesture.”
He pointed to the red and white checkered blanket on the ground. She sat down cross legged, as any good Yogi would do.
“I picked up some of your favorites from the café. Chicken salad, potato soup, peach cobbler…”
Janine laughed. “Are you trying to make me fat?”
He smiled. “I’m just trying to make you happy, whatever that takes.”
She reached over and held his hand. “I’m happy because I’m with you. I mean, I won’t say no to the peach cobbler…”
“Janine, I’m really sorry for how things went the other night at the restaurant. I just had some things on my mind, and I pretty much ruined our romantic evening.”
“Let’s just forget about it and enjoy this amazing lunch, okay?”
“Yeah, and we better hurry up because I know you have a class in an hour or so.”
“Yes, and I also have something else important I need to do after class this
