A Wedding on Ladybug Farm (24 page)

“We didn’t forget it,” Cici insisted, annoyed. “We just didn’t know it was
tomorrow
.  Anyway, with everything that’s been going on around here this past week, we’re lucky to remember our names.”  She pushed back her hair with both hands and winced with embarrassment.  “No wonder Dominic’s daughter sounded so surprised when I called to invite them all to dinner tomorrow.  They thought they were already invited!”

“Well, don’t look at me,” Ida Mae muttered, slamming the oven door on an herbed chicken she had just put in to roast.  “It ain’t my job to keep up with your doin’s.”  But she looked more than a little disgruntled to realize that she, like the rest of them, had been too busy preparing for the arrival of the invalid to remember something so important.

“You sold less than a hundred tickets,” Kevin pointed out.  “And they were all on credit cards or through online payment services. If we refund the money today you’ll be clear of Internet fraud.”

Bridget’s eyes grew even bigger.  “Fraud!”

“It’s not just the tickets,” Cici said.  “It’s all the people who were going to pay at the door, and the drop-ins from town, and all our friends.”

“You could put a sign at the end of the driveway that says it’s canceled,” Lori suggested.  “Don’t most people know about Dominic’s accident anyway?”

“Maybe an announcement on the radio,” Cici said worriedly.

“That takes twenty-four hours,” Bridget said.  “Remember when Paul and Derrick were trying to find homes for all those dogs?  And besides, not everyone listens to the radio.”

“Y’all got a freezer full of food,” Ida Mae pointed out grumpily.  “Two freezers.  What’re you expectin’ to do with that?”

“And,” suggested Lori hopefully, “you’ve got plenty of wine.”

“But we canceled the band,” Cici said.

“And the flowers.  And we were going to have tents for the food and rent chairs to set up in a circle around the bonfire …”

“Well, it’s too late to rent tents or chairs,” Kevin said.  “But if you just canceled the band this week they probably don’t have another gig.”

“I’ll call them,” Lori volunteered.  “Where’s their card?”

“But,” Bridget said anxiously, “we were going to have garnet tablecloths and monogrammed rose napkins, and runners made of grapevines, and candles …”

“That was for the
wedding
,” Lori pointed out.  “This is a tasting.  You don’t have to have tablecloths.  You just have to have glasses.  And I saw boxes of them stacked up in the barn.”

Bridget looked mildly insulted at the thought of serving food without tablecloths, then said thoughtfully, “The layers for the wedding cake are already frozen.  I suppose if I frosted them and displayed them separately it wouldn’t look so much like a wedding cake.”

Cici said, “We’d have to set up the parking lot and get someone to direct traffic …”

“I could do that,” Kevin said.

“And I can take the money and pour the wine,” Lori said.  “We’ll set it up in The Tasting Table just like we did for the blessing of the vines.  We’ll open both doors and the traffic will flow through directly into the gardens and the vineyard.”

Bridget closed her eyes and released a slow weary breath. “I just don’t know that I’m up for this,” she said.  “Every muscle in my body still aches from picking grapes.”

“And I don’t know if I’ll ever get full range of motion back in my shoulder,” said Cici, wincing as she rubbed her right shoulder.  “We’ve hardly slept at all this past week and you have no idea how much there is to do for something like this.  The lawn is a mess and the chrysanthemums are all dead and the paths have to be swept and the windows washed …”

“And we still have finger sandwiches to make, and the cheese straws and the harvest soup …”

“I’ll help,” Lori said.

“So will I,” said Kevin.

“And so will I.”

They turned to see Lindsay standing at the door.  Bridget and Cici exclaimed in surprise and Lindsay rushed to them, hugging them each hard.  “I left you alone to deal with the grape crisis,” she said, “but there was no way I was going to let you do this by yourselves.  Dominic’s children are with him now and they’re all going to help him pack up and bring him home in the morning. So I’m here for the duration.  Now.”  She stepped back, holding one of Bridget’s hands and one of Cici’s, looking pleased and determined.  “Where do we start?”

Bridget looked at Cici. Cici looked at Bridget.  They both looked at Lindsay, and their faces broke into reluctant smiles.  “Well,” said Bridget, “maybe we can do this after all.”

~*~

They mowed the lawn and raked the leaves.  Lindsay drove into town for fresh chrysanthemums to replace the dead ones and spruced up the ravaged flower beds with mulch and colorful decorative cabbage plants.  They dragged out two big iron kettles from the barn and filled them with ivy and yellow daisies, and placed them on either side of the entrance to the winery.  Paul and Derrick drove over with their cars loaded with the outdoor candelabra they had used at the engagement party, a box of leftover candles, and the surprise delivery of garnet-colored tablecloths and rose napkins, monogrammed with Lindsay’s and Dominic’s initials entwined like vines.

“They were ordered too late to return,” Paul explained.  “We were going to save them for your first anniversary party, but this is so much better.”

Kevin cut grapevines and dug a fire pit.  Lori moved the tables in The Tasting Table to form an L-shaped buffet, and Paul arranged coils of grapevines and candles in miniature terracotta pots down the center of each one while Derrick carried the big serving dishes down from the house and placed them just-so upon beds of colorful autumn leaves.  Dominic’s two sons arrived on orders from their father, and pitched in hanging lights and flower baskets, washing windows and cutting vines for the bonfire. 

They washed glasses and unpacked two cases of wine.  Lori made a display at the pouring table describing the virtues of each bottle and clearly quoting the price per case.  Kevin remembered the cash box and they pooled their resources for change.  Bridget set out the frozen layers of the cake to thaw, and unpacked the decorations.  Tomorrow each layer would be frosted and decorated with white chocolate roses and fondant grapes.  Trays of frozen delicacies were set out to thaw in the cold pantry.  A hundred fifty finger sandwiches were assembled, wrapped in damp paper towels, sealed in plastic bags and stored in the refrigerator.  Everyone grated cheese for the cheese straws, which needed to sit overnight before being sliced and baked in the morning.

When all that remained were the last minute details that had to be put together before the guests arrived the next day, they all shared a supper of roast chicken and potatoes with green beans, and Ida Mae’s ice box lemon pie.  Derrick and Paul left to return to the Hummingbird House, along with Dominic’s sons.  Lindsay talked to Dominic on the phone.  Kevin went upstairs to take a shower while Lori helped Ida Mae clean the kitchen.  And because they all knew the danger of cluttering up Ida Mae’s kitchen once she had declared the day was done, Cici, Bridget, and Lindsay were left with nothing to do except pour themselves a glass of wine, pull on their sweaters, and go out onto the porch to bask in the last pale shades of a setting sun.

“Oh, Lindsay, I do like Dominic’s boys!” declared Bridget.  “I can’t wait to meet their wives.”

Lindsay beamed as though they were her own.  “All his children are wonderful,” she said.  “Wait until you meet Cassie.  She’s the kind of person you want to give your house key to and say ‘make yourself at home.’  And so smart.  Lori’s going to love talking to her about the wine business.  Of course,” she added easily, settling into her rocking chair, “I should have known I would like them.  After all, Dominic raised them.”

“All that energy!” Cici said, smothering a small groan as she sat down.  “Not just the boys, but Lori and Kevin too.  Were we ever that young?”

“Not in recent memory,” said Bridget.  “But my goodness, look how much we got done in one afternoon!”  She smiled at Lindsay as she took her chair.  “It was like old times, all of us working side by side again.  I’m so glad you were here.”

“It feels strange to be away from Dominic,” Lindsay admitted, and she smiled as she sipped her wine. “But my, it’s good to be home.” 

“It was awful without you,” Bridget said.  “And Dominic, too.  The night the grapes froze—I’ve never felt so helpless.”

“We’re all lucky Lori and Kevin were here to help,” Lindsay said.  “Maybe even luckier than we know.  Dominic seemed to think that Lori’s idea for ice wine could save the winery.”

Cici looked surprised, and impressed, and cautiously proud.  But then she frowned a little.  “You know, though, Bridget’s right.  We were completely unprepared.  And when Lori started asking all those questions about the wine, and Kevin was asking about which papers were where and what forms had been filed with which agency … we didn’t know the answers.”  She glanced at Lindsay, then at Bridget, looking embarrassed.  “It’s our winery, our business, and we didn’t know. It was just so easy to let Dominic take care of things.  That’s not like us, and we can’t do it anymore.  If we’re going to be a team, we all have to pull our weight.  We can’t depend on Dominic to take care of us.  It’s not fair to him, or to us.”

Bridget nodded.  “I think it’s a bad habit women fall into, whenever there is a man around.  To just let him take care of things.”

Lindsay said, “I think we all took Dominic for granted, and I’m no better than either one of you.  Or at least I was.  I know better now.”  She slid a glance at Bridget.  “Speaking of guys who take care of things, that Kevin sure is a hard worker.”

“Who knew he could drive a tractor?” Cici put in.  “Or swing an ax?  I always thought of him as the kind of guy who didn’t like to get his hands dirty.”

Bridget smiled.  “There’s not much Kevin can’t do.  He just never showed much interest in doing it around here before.”

Cici sipped her wine, watching the sky fade to a pale winter yellow over the dark profile of the mountains.  “I wonder what changed his mind?”

Lindsay said, with studious innocence, “You know what I was thinking this afternoon?  What a cute couple Kevin and Lori make.”

Cici laughed. “Seriously?  All they did as kids was fight.”

“Lori used to pester him to death,” Bridget remembered fondly, “and Kevin tormented her.  Of course, she was half his age, and no boy is going to put up with a baby girl following him around all day.”

“Well they’re not fighting now,” Lindsay pointed out.  “And when you’re six and twelve the age difference is a lot bigger than when you’re sixty and sixty-six. Or twenty-four and thirty.”  

Cici and Bridget exchanged an amused look.  “Well, that I’d like to see,” said Cici.

Bridget added, chuckling, “We could be grannies together.”

The door opened and Lori came out, a notebook in one hand and a pen in the other.  She shivered in her tee shirt and jeans.  “It’s cold out here,” she said. 

“Oh, honey, will you go inside and put on some clothes?” Cici said.  “Weren’t you supposed to get your things down from the attic today?”

“No time,” said Lori.  She pulled up Dominic’s rocking chair so that it closed in the circle with the other three chairs and sat down.  “Now,” she said, “this is how I see it going.  The band sets up at three, we open the gates—figuratively speaking, that is—at four.  Aunt Lindsay, you’re going to get some signs directing people to parking, right?  They need to be up by two at the latest.  And I called the girl at the newspaper. She said she’d try to get out to take some photos and do an article so will one of you
please
study up on what’s going on at the winery so you can do an interview?  I just don’t think it’s right to ask Dominic, it being his first day home from the hospital and all.”  She paused then and shivered, rubbing her bare arm with one hand.

“Lori, at least go put on a sweater.  There’s one hanging by the door.”

She waved a hand, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.  “That’s okay.  So we should start bringing the food out a little before four—Uncle Paul and Uncle Derrick said they’d help, so you guys can act like hostesses and you don’t have to get all sweaty and flustered at the last minute.  It’s going to be sixty-five tomorrow afternoon, which is perfect for an outdoor event, but fifty after the sun sets.  So I figured we’d light the fire around five-thirty …”

The door opened again and Kevin came out, his hair still damp from the shower, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and carrying a sweater in his hand.  Lori smiled when she saw him.  “Hey, Kev. We’re just going over the details.”

He came over to her and draped the sweater over her shoulders.  “Seriously, kiddo?  It was right by the door.”

And there it was for anyone to see: the tenderness in his touch, the warmth in her eyes.  The way he looked at her, the way she smiled at him.   

He added, with a look that none of them could understand  because they were too nonplussed by what they had seen—or imagined they’d seen—pass between the two young people only a moment before, “Do you think you could finish this later?”

Lori held his eyes for a moment, nodded, and said, “Sure.”  She stood.

Kevin turned to Bridget, his expression somber.  “Mom, there’s something I need to tell you.”