The Perfect Wedding. Arlene James

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СКАЧАТЬ of that scowl, that his face remained exceptionally attractive, even handsome. Like the rest of him, his features were large but lean, the skin drawn tautly over prominent cheekbones and a squared chin. His nose was long and straight, his brows golden slashes above deeply set eyes, his mouth wide and finely sculpted with sharp peaks in the center of his upper lip. A lock of sandy brown hair fell over his forehead, golden at the very tip, a single strand of silver shot through it. Yes, a decidedly handsome man. Layne wondered what sort of woman would send a man like this into a shop like hers. Obviously he could not know what he was letting himself in for. She extended a hand, ushering him toward the gracious sitting area, where she preferred to stage her consultations.

      “What sort of wedding are you interested in?” she asked as they seated themselves on padded wicker chairs situated around a table bearing flowers, a crystal lamp and a number of books and magazines.

      He looked out of place and uncomfortable, his hat in his lap. He cleared his throat. “It has to be a proper wedding,” he said.

      Layne waited for further explanation, but none came. She straightened and smiled sympathetically. “Perhaps we should simply start at the beginning,” she said. Reaching down into a box hidden by the tablecloth, she extracted a thin, vinyl-clad notebook embossed with flowers and banded with a strip of paper. A white pen was clipped to the paper band. She broke the band, slipped the pen from it, flipped open the notebook and poised the pen above it. “Your name?”

      “Rod Corley.”

      She began to write in the proper space. “That’s C-o-r-l-y?”

       “L-e-y.”

      She penned in the final letters. “What size wedding are we talking about, Mr. Corley? How many guests do you expect will attend?”

      He shrugged. “I don’t know. Quite a few.”

      She flipped the notebook pages until she came to the one she wanted, then she laid the pen in the fold of the book and turned the book to face him. “I suggest that you begin making a list, Mr. Corley. Take a few days to do it. Be sure to get the bride’s input. It need not be complete at this point, but as nearly so as possible. Then we’ll simply count, and that will give us a ballpark figure to begin planning with.”

      He nodded. “All right. What else?”

      She sat back and folded her hands, elbows resting on the arms of the chair. “Actually, Mr. Corley, there is a great deal else. Weddings are complicated affairs customarily planned by the bride and her mother.”

      A spasm of irritation passed over his face. “Does it have to be the bride’s mother?”

      She lifted her hands in an expansive gesture. “No, of course not. But the bride certainly should be involved.”

      He nodded and slid his feet back, leaning forward. “Excuse me.” Without another word he stood and walked out.

      Layne closed her mouth and shook her head. Now she’d seen everything. After eight years in this business, which she had started right out of college, she’d encountered just about every kind of customer possible, those who knew what they wanted no matter how wild or silly, those who hadn’t the vaguest idea, those who could afford just about anything, those who couldn’t afford the license, those floating with excitement, those dismayed to the point of tears. But Rod Corley was a first. She didn’t have a category in which she could fit him—yet. She pressed her hands together and lifted her eyes heavenward. “I don’t know what’s going on here, Lord, but I’ve the feeling it’s nothing I’ve dealt with before, so I really need Your help this time. I’m trusting You to give me everything I need to serve Rod Corley and his bride. And thanks for the help. Amen.”

      Just when she had decided he wasn’t going to return, the chime on the front door sounded, followed by the muted clump of booted feet on carpet. She swiveled to the side and put on a welcoming smile. Rod Corley stood in the arched doorway of the room, a girl with a baby in her arms at his side. Layne felt the smile dying on her face and quickly bolstered it, coming to her feet. This could not be his bride! She was hardly more than a child herself. Small, waiflike, delicate to the point of frailty. The young mother had a short, neat cap of fine, dark hair that swept in wisps toward a pixieish face overwhelmed by large, dark, frightened eyes. Layne’s first reaction was dismay, her second sympathy. She extended her arm in an oddly protective gesture of greeting.

      Rod Corley began the introductions. “Miss, or is it Mrs. Harington?”

      “Miss.”

      “Miss Harington, this is Dedrah March.”

      March. The name sounded vaguely familiar. Oh, no. She remembered a snippet of gossip she had overheard many months earlier. Before she could check them, her eyes went to the little one perched on Dedrah March’s hip. The child gazed back at her with her mother’s large, dark eyes, but her hair was both lighter and thicker, very nearly the color of Rod Corley’s. Layne felt a sharp sense of disappointment. What kind of man would allow a teenaged girl to bear his child out of wedlock, then show up here wanting to plan a “proper” wedding? It didn’t make sense. But it wasn’t her job to make sense of such things. She forced the smile back onto her face and decided how she would address the girl.

      “Dedrah, I’m Layne. Won’t you have a seat?”

      The girl nodded and hitched the baby up higher on her hip before crossing to the chair recently vacated by Rod Corley. Layne pulled her own chair around for Rod and another away from the wall for herself, noting that he waited until both women were seated before folding his tall frame into the center chair. Layne pushed the notebook resting on the table closer toward Dedrah. Immediately the baby reached for the ink pen. Dedrah gently pushed her hand away, saying, “No, Heather, you don’t need that.”

      Heather put her hand in her mouth and shrank against her mother, her cheek pressed to the swell of Dedrah’s small breast. Dedrah stroked the baby’s silky hair and began to rock gently. Layne felt a stab of envy. She was at least a decade older than this girl, and weddings were her business, but somehow marriage and motherhood had eluded her. Reminding herself that God had a purpose for everything, she forced her mind to form the necessary question and began.

      “Now then, Dedrah, what sort of wedding did you have in mind?”

      The girl shrugged. “I don’t know.”

      She certainly didn’t sound very excited about the pending marriage, which made this situation all the more unlikely. Layne tried another approach. “Mr. Corley said something about a ‘proper’ wedding. Does that mean a church wedding with all the trimmings?”

      “I suppose,” Dedrah mumbled.

      Layne glanced at Rod Corley, who nodded. She then took a deep breath. “All right, a church wedding. Did you have a church in mind?”

      “No,” Dedrah said carefully. “There’s this little church in Davis where I used to go, but I suppose that’s too far away.”

      Rod agreed. “Something here in Duncan would be better. I’ve attended a local church, but it’s too small.”

      “I don’t see why,” Dedrah said. “My whole family can’t add up to more than twenty, and there’s just you on the other side.”

      “There’s just me and a couple hundred other people on the other side,” he said. “They may not be family, Dedrah, but they’re important.”

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