That Man of Mine (Whispering Bay Romance 3)

It was a conceit to think that she knew Allie better than her own brother. Maybe Zeke had been right all along. About everything.

“She said no to the dress?” Lauren asked in disbelief.

“Not exactly. She just said yes to another dress.” Mimi carefully hung Buela’s dress back up in her closet. Lauren had done a gorgeous job with it. Tucking in a bit of lace and freshening up the organza overskirt. She’d even added in a small bouquet of artificial flowers that she’d sewn onto the pale lavender silk ribbon interwoven into the gown’s waistband. It was a detail that Mimi would never have thought of. That tiny splash of color gave the dress an extra oomph, making it look completely new and strangely enough, modern. In a very old-fashioned kind of way. Lauren told Mimi once that as a girl she had dreamed of living in New York and becoming a fashion designer. Lauren’s dream had come true, right here in little old Whispering Bay.

“Couldn’t we show Allie both dresses and let her pick between the two?”

“You didn’t see the look on her face when she showed me the dress she bought,” Mimi said. “I just think, knowing Allie, if we show her Buela’s dress now, she’ll be afraid to hurt our feelings and end up wearing it out of a sense of obligation. I’ve mentioned Buela’s dress a couple of times and she’s never shown any real interest in it, so…I think we should just respect her decision and go with it. I should have asked her outright before I had you go to all the work of revamping it.”

Lauren sighed heavily. “No worries. I loved working with that old fabric. And who knows? Maybe Claire will want to wear it one day.”

“Quick, take that back. Let me get Claire through high school and college before you get her married.”

Mimi ushered Lauren out into the living room and handed her a glass of iced tea. It was nice having a friend over, even if Operation Wedding Dress hadn’t turned out exactly the way she’d planned. Zeke had taken Cameron (and Toby) for an overnighter at the fishing cabin and Claire was at a friend’s house working on her senior English project. With the kids busy with their own lives, Mimi found herself, more often than not, alone most evenings. Well, not exactly alone. She had Toby and Buttercup. Cleaning up Toby’s drool was almost a full time job. She actually kind of missed having him here tonight.

Lauren sat across from her on the couch and watched as Mimi poured herself some wine. “How are things going on the college front?”

“Really weird. It’s been almost two weeks since Claire announced she’s going to community college and I’ve hardly gotten the chance to really talk to her. Between my job as mayor and all her end of the year senior activities, it’s like we’re two ships that cross in the night.”

Buttercup jumped onto the couch and began to her rub herself against Mimi’s thigh. She scooped up the growing kitten and settled her on her lap.

“So she got accepted to a couple of other state colleges, but Florida State is the one she really wanted?” Lauren asked.

Mimi nodded.

“Maybe she just doesn’t want to leave Buttercup,” Lauren teased, reaching out to pet her.

“Maybe,” Mimi mused, “But I doubt it.”

“So, what about your dress? What are you wearing as matron of honor?”

“Allie said I could pick whatever I wanted so I thought I’d go shopping next week. I just have so much on my plate right now.”

“The Spring Into Summer festival?”

“That, plus approving the city budget, and trying to make everyone in town happy at the same time, which of course, is completely impossible. I’ll be honest, I really didn’t think it was going to be this hard. Bruce Bailey made it look easy.”

“Oh, please. You’re a thousand times better than Bruce.”

Mimi smiled and sipped her wine. It was nice of Lauren to say that, and as her friend she appreciated her loyalty, but right now Mimi was pretty sure that wasn’t the case.

*~*~*

Mimi studied her proposal one last time. She was meeting Zeke at The Bistro for a late lunch, then staying for her Spring Into Summer festival committee meeting. She’d done an extensive outline: the budget for the band, the procedure for charging for concert tickets, how much security they’d need. Every detail she could think of (and every detail Bettina could think of as well) was all mapped out. She’d stayed up till three in the morning working on it and was paying the price for it today. She stifled a yawn and took another swig of her large coffee.

It was after one but the place was still packed with customers. Zeke walked in the door and everyone turned to look. Mostly because he was the chief of police, and that in itself demanded attention. But also because he looked like a god in that uniform. Mimi sighed. He spotted her and began walking toward her table.

“Sorry I’m a few minutes late,” he said, taking the seat across from her. Normally, orders were placed at the counter, but Frida herself came over to see what they wanted to eat. Probably as a courtesy, but the curious look on her face told Mimi she was more interested in figuring out what was going on with their relationship than she was being an attentive café owner.

Mimi glanced around the restaurant. Everyone tried not to stare but it was obvious all eyes were either discreetly, or not so discreetly, aimed at them.

Mimi ordered a salad and Zeke got a sandwich. He waited till Frida left to say, “Is everything all right?”

“Sure, why wouldn’t it be?”

“It’s just we don’t normally meet up for lunch. Even when we were…”

“Together?”