The Wishing Tree (3 page)

She made coffee. After stirring in a generous amount of
hazelnut-flavored creamer, she settled onto the couch and turned on the massive television that Elliott had bought himself for Christmas. She propped her feet up on the coffee table, wiggling the rabbits back and forth. “Don’t feel bad, guys,” she said to her feet. “It’s not your fault.”

The host of
Have a Nice Day USA’
s face filled the screen, holding a mic and bantering with the weather person. Ivy took a sip of coffee, then blew on it and sipped again. The screen flashed to Owen holding a ring box and grinning for the camera, then flashed to Shea inside her school surrounded by smiling children, also grinning. How strange to see her sister on national TV. She was probably scared out of her gourd.

Ivy turned off the mute feature just in time to hear “When we get back!” Then Owen and Shea’s faces disappeared, and the screen went to a commercial about antacids. She scurried into the kitchen to refill her coffee, which Elliott had made and left for her that morning, just as he always did. There were still parts of her marriage—little glimmers—that reminded her that it wasn’t all bad. In her heart she could make excuses for why he was over on that side of town yesterday afternoon. She could tell herself that she was jumping to conclusions without even asking.

She looked around, wishing that she’d told him to stay home this morning and watch this ridiculous display of Copeland family drama with her. Once upon a time he would’ve. They’d have laughed together over it, sipped coffee side by side, then kissed lovingly before they headed off to work, teasing each other over who had the worst coffee breath. They might even have planned to meet for lunch.

Valentine’s hearts rained down from the sky in the
Have a Nice Day USA
studios as they returned from commercial break, reminding her. It was Valentine’s Day, after all. Lunch together should be on their agenda. But there had been no card, no plans, no single rose waiting by her coffee mug … nothing to signal that a day devoted to celebrating love was a priority for him. Ivy blinked away the tears and focused on the television, her sister’s face swimming in front of her. The announcer was talking.

“We’ve got something so exciting for you today, folks! A live proposal to get your Valentine’s Day started off with a big dose of romance.”

Pictures began scrolling by as the announcer kept talking, describing how Owen and Shea had known each other all their lives, their families spending summers together at Sunset Beach, North Carolina. There was Shea on the beach as a little girl, posing proudly by a sandcastle. Owen and Shea as teens, posing on the roof deck of the beach house wearing matching braces; Owen’s dad and mom with Shea and Owen at their college graduation; Owen and Shea posing outside some European landmark. And then, the picture she’d sensed was coming, she and Michael with Owen and Shea on the night Michael proposed, Ivy proudly displaying the diamond ring he’d given her, the facets catching the light from the flash and throwing it back. She studied the photo for a second before it faded into a shot of the studio and the smiling host, Dick Byrnes. She could remember that night with such clarity, the scene playing out in her mind as crisp and large as the televised image in front of her.

Dick Byrnes turned to Owen with an artificial laugh. “Seems like you’ve known Shea forever!” His smile was plastic and insincere. But Owen’s smile
was
sincere as he agreed that, yes, he had known Shea for most of his life. He looked … excited. There was no denying it. And Ivy knew it wasn’t just because he was on TV. He was finally going to ask Shea—the great love of his life—to marry him. After the ups and downs of a teenage romance, they were going to head to the altar as adults, ready to face the future together. They were going to do what she and Michael had not.

Dick Byrnes turned to his virtual audience. “Folks, this is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Shea Copeland is a teacher in North Carolina who thinks she’s being interviewed about the importance of parental support in schools. She has no idea that waiting just outside her classroom is her childhood sweetheart, Owen Bradshaw, with a ring in his hand!” The camera flashed to Owen, who gave the thumbs-up sign with a big, goofy grin. Oh, Owen.

“Here we go!” There was a moment of silence as another camera focused on Shea, blinking and smiling, an earpiece in her ear. “Shea? Dick Byrnes here. Can you hear me?”

Shea glanced over at what Ivy guessed was a monitor, nodding. “Yes, Dick, yes, I can.”

“Good. So are you ready to talk about the importance of parental involvement in the schools?”

Shea started to say yes, but Dick cut her off. “Or, would you rather talk about love on this special Valentine’s Day?”

Ivy saw her sister’s cheeks color slightly and could feel her own heart begin to pound in time with Shea’s.

“Umm?” Shea looked around, probably searching for
some indication of what she was supposed to do next. “Sure?” she finally answered.

Ivy hoped for her sister’s sake that this didn’t turn into a nationally televised train wreck. She felt herself feeling less and less jealous and more and more sympathetic.

“Well, that’s good news!” Dick Byrnes said. “Because we’ve got the ultimate romantic surprise planned for you!”

Right on cue, the children around Shea started singing “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You.” The children’s voices added a sweetness and innocence to the song that brought tears to Ivy’s eyes and, she could bet, everyone else watching. The camera kept panning from the faces of the children to Shea’s face as she covered her mouth, her eyes widening and filling with tears as the children made room for Owen to enter the room, carrying red roses and a black velvet box. He wasted no time getting down on one knee as the camera angle widened to show the children’s smiling faces and Owen’s parents and Margot fanning out behind them, the picture of solidarity and support. Perhaps, Ivy thought, if things had been different, she’d have been there too.

Owen opened the ring box, the diamond glinting in the light, like it was winking at the viewing audience. “I can’t help falling in love with you, Shea,” he said. “I never could.” Ivy leaned forward to watch as Owen told her sister how much he loved her, how he wanted to make her happy, and how he’d spend the rest of his life doing so. The sincerity in his eyes as he spoke was real and so intense that Ivy found herself wanting to look away. It hurt to see that much love in someone, especially when she didn’t have it. Not anymore.

As Shea nodded vigorously in answer to his proposal,
Owen slipped the ring onto her finger. The camera panned the tear-streaked faces of her mom, Owen’s parents, then Owen and Shea as they kissed and embraced. Ivy raised her now-cold coffee in a toast to her sister and Owen, the ones who had made it this far. “You did it,” she said aloud in her empty house. “Good for you.”

On the way to the office, Ivy turned off her cell, knowing her
mother, and probably April, would call. She also turned off the radio after she heard a few too many references to Valentine’s Day by overly enthusiastic announcers. As she drove she wondered about Michael, if he’d watched Owen propose and if he felt saddened by what he saw. Or if his life was happy, wherever he was, whatever he was doing, whoever he was with. Her heart clinched at the thought of him with someone else, and she had to laugh at herself. This whole proposal nonsense had clearly messed with her head.

She pulled into the parking lot and steered her car into the parking space with the sign marked “Ivy Copeland.” The day the sign had gone up, Delores had come into her office with a confused look on her face. “Ivy? I think the sign people made a mistake.” Her voice had sounded almost apologetic.

“Yeah?” She got to her feet and followed in the direction that Delores waved her. She stood beside Delores and peered out the window at the sign bearing her former name.

“If you’ll excuse me.” She turned on her heel and marched back to her office. Picking up the phone, she punched the phone buttons with unnecessary force as she dialed her father’s number. When his secretary answered for him, she had said, “It’s Ivy. Put me through, please” with none of her usual pleasantries.

“Ivy?” Her father sounded concerned, tipped off by his secretary, no doubt.

“Would you please explain why you had the sign people put Ivy
Copeland
on my parking-space sign?”

Her father sounded genuinely puzzled. “Because that’s your name?”

She growled, “Dad, my name is not Ivy
Copeland
. My name is Ivy
Marshall
. It’s time you respected my marriage. I won’t have my family continue to treat me with this kind of disrespect.” Her face was flushed, her heart beating. This confrontation had been long in coming and she was ready for it. This was the sand she’d plant her flag in.

Now her father was getting a little angrier. “Ivy, I simply forgot. You’ve been a Copeland to me all your life. You need to give me a chance to get used to this … this change. I wasn’t trying to make some sort of statement. If you’d like, I’ll call and have a different sign made. But let me remind you that I started this branch of the company for you, so that you could stay involved in the family business even though you insisted on joining
him
in Asheville.”

She interrupted him. “
He
has a name, Dad. It’s Elliott.
I know you’d rather it be Michael but it’s not. I suggest you learn his name because he’s going to be around for a long, long time.”

Her father was silent on the other end. “Well,” he finally said, “if his name was
Michael
, you’d still be with us.”

She’d hung up on him, but for some reason, she’d never followed up on changing the sign. Maybe because some part of her—however small—wanted to hang on to Ivy Copeland as much as her father did.

Now as she got out of the car and walked into the building, she felt a little surge of pride in the sign, a little “take that” to Elliott.
I’m Ivy
Copeland,
after all. How ya like me now
? She dropped her keys in her purse and entered the office, her face immediately assuming the penitent expression that she had been wearing around her colleagues since her father’s call.

Delores was not at her desk, but her desk calendar was turned to the new day and new Bible verse. Today’s, Ivy noticed, was Psalm 84:5, same as the verse she’d seen on Twitter, the one about finding strength in God and going on a pilgrimage. It seemed God didn’t want her to miss the message. God often spoke in stereo so she wouldn’t miss what He had to say.

She was pondering what the verse meant as she passed by the conference room to find Delores waiting with Pete and Beck and the temp, all smiling. They moved out of the way to reveal a table full of breakfast goodies—fresh-squeezed orange juice, a dish of cheese grits, a plateful of bacon, and an egg casserole. “Surprise!” they all sang out in unison. Delores reached for her, and Ivy let her wrap her in a hug. “We knew
you wouldn’t have eaten this morning, so we fixed up this nice little Valentine’s Day celebration to share.”

Tears filled her eyes, threatening to engulf her as the emotions of the morning rose to the surface, ushered there by this unexpected small kindness. “Thanks, everyone,” she managed to say. She caught Beck’s eye and he winked. “Let me just put my things down.” She hurried out of the room and into her office, where she put her purse on her desk, sat down, hung her head, and let the tears flow, knowing it was useless to try to blink back the torrent waiting to be released.

After a good cry and a good breakfast, Ivy was ready to face the day—even the unpleasant parts. She talked to clients and contractors, explaining the demise of the business, spouting like a seasoned pro the platitudes that had escaped her the day before. It was amazing what you could accomplish when you put your heart aside and ran on autopilot.

She mostly forgot it was Valentine’s Day, mostly forgot that she hadn’t heard from her husband, mostly tried to forget the proposal altogether. She also ignored the second call from her mother, a desperate message from April, who was worried about her, and she tried to ignore her aunt Leah’s call too. But her aunt was smarter than everyone else and bypassed her altogether, choosing to sic Delores on her.

“Your aunt called again,” Delores said. She stepped into Ivy’s office waving a piece of paper in the air before plunking it down on Ivy’s desk. On it was written Aunt Leah’s name and number, as if Ivy didn’t know it by heart.

“Okay, thanks, Delores,” she said, not looking up, a nonverbal cue that she didn’t feel like talking at that moment. A cue that Delores chose to ignore.

“I saw your sister on TV this morning,” she said. “That was exciting.”

Ivy refrained from groaning out loud. “Yeah, it was great.” She hoped she somehow sounded convincing.

“So you know that young man she got engaged to?”

“Yeah,” Ivy replied. She looked up from her computer screen to find Delores’s filmy hazel eyes fixed on her intently. “We all grew up together. His family had the beach house next to ours for as long as I can remember.” In her mind’s eye she could see Owen in blue swim trunks running along the sand to catch a Frisbee, his blond hair flopping over one eye.

“That sounds nice,” Delores replied. “I love the beach. What beach did you all go to?”

Ivy sighed. “Sunset Beach. On the coast, kind of near Myrtle. If you’ve ever been to Calabash—”

Delores interjected, “Yes, I’ve been there. We ate seafood there once, I believe.”

Calabash, North Carolina, was the self-proclaimed Seafood Capital of the World. She forced herself to make a joke. “I’m sure the seafood was fried.” Her laugh was fake but Delores seemed not to notice.

“No, no, I can’t have fried. Not good for my cholesterol. I got broiled. It’s just as good.”

“Uh-huh. Well, I’m going to call my aunt now.” Ivy didn’t want to get into a discussion on the benefits of broiled fish—not when she had so much else on her mind—so she
picked up the phone message and waved it like a ticket out of the conversation.

Delores smiled. “She seems to really want to talk to you. So much excitement over that proposal this morning. I guess there’s lots to do now that you all have a wedding to plan.”

“I’m sure there is.” Planning a wedding was the last thing Ivy wanted to think about, but Delores didn’t need to know that. In another few weeks they wouldn’t even be seeing each other anymore. The thought made her sad.

Delores paused before she left the room. “I wanted you to know I’m not going to look for another job.” She clasped her hands together. “I’m going to retire.”

“That sounds nice,” Ivy said. Part of her wanted to retire too. Forget her MBA, her years of experience. Just retreat from the world of commercial real estate and corporate success and do something mindless. She thought of dancing in the kitchen as she frosted Delores’s cake the other night.

“Well, it’s time. Now I’ll let you get to your phone call.” Delores gave her a little wave and ducked back out of the room, leaving Ivy alone to stare at the phone message bearing her aunt’s name and number.

Ivy loved her aunt Leah, who had managed to stay neutral in spite of everything that had happened. Leah had encouraged Ivy to mend fences, to forgive, to remember why she loved her family even though she was angry. But she’d also understood the hurt she felt and let her process all of it without pushing. She’d been the mediator who ultimately led Ivy to talk to her mother after several months of silence, the one who’d urged her to enter into business with her father as a way of mending the rift.

Ivy sighed heavily as she looked around the office at the things she would have to box up. Did that mean she should blame Leah for where she was now? She smiled at the irony and dialed the phone to the bakery, figuring that was where she would find her.

The Seaside Bakery was started by her aunt and mom after her parents’ divorce. Her mom had gotten a lot in the settlement and didn’t really know what to do with it, so she invested it in her sister’s crazy dream of starting a bakery in the place they all loved most—Sunset Beach. It gave Leah and Margot a chance to live there year-round and helped them become more a part of the community instead of mere summer guests. They were full-blown citizens now, even though her mom had become less and less involved in the bakery in recent years. The shop was her sister’s dream, and she’d been happy to fund it.

“Seaside Bakery,” an unfamiliar male voice answered.

“Umm, I’m looking for Leah?”

“Yeah, she’s around here somewhere. Hang on.” She heard his muffled voice calling out for Leah.

Leah picked up the other extension, the one in the kitchen where she was probably rolling out a batch of cinnamon rolls or icing some eclairs. Ivy’s mouth watered at the thought. “Hi, Aunt Leah, it’s Ivy,” she greeted her aunt.

“Ivy, I’m so glad you called! It’s been crazy around here and none of us could get you!” By “none of us,” Leah meant her and Margot.

“Well, I don’t know if you’ve heard but Dad had to close the Asheville office. So I’m pretty busy here with that.”
The world doesn’t stop just because Shea gets engaged
, she thought but held her tongue.

Leah was unfazed. “Yeah, I was sorry to hear about that, but actually the timing is kind of good, don’t you think? It’ll free you up to be involved in planning Shea’s wedding.” Leah was trying to sound confident, but Ivy detected the doubt in her voice even as she said it. Leah was engaging not in just wishful thinking, but wishful talking.

“Oh, Leah, I doubt I’ll be able to be involved from long distance. I mean, I’ll have to find another job.”

“Well, if it’s a job you need, I could use you here at the bakery. You always were my best employee.”

This was more wishing on Leah’s part, yet her words brought back the smell of sugar clinging to her as she left work each day, dashing out of the bakery and into Michael’s arms. She closed her eyes until the image faded away.

“Well, that would be kind of hard considering I live across the state.” She worked at keeping her voice light and carefree. She was just fine, all was well. The last thing she wanted was for her family to figure out how bad things were with Elliott.

“Ah, yes, but I can dream, can’t I? You know we’d love nothing better than for you to decide to come home.”

Home
. The word struck her with its power. How long had it been since she felt at home somewhere? From Charlotte to Sunset to Asheville, she’d traipsed around the state of North Carolina, chasing love and happiness … and come up empty. She felt a pull toward the coast she hadn’t felt in a long while, just as sure as if Aunt Leah had tugged at a string tied to her heart that she hadn’t known was there. And yet, Elliott was in Asheville. Her home should be wherever her husband was.

“Well, I can’t very well do that, Aunt Leah. I have a life here.”

Her aunt laughed, but Ivy knew better than to think the matter was settled. Aunt Leah had an intuition where Ivy was concerned, and she knew that her offer to return home wasn’t offhand. “So you do, so you do.” Aunt Leah’s voice was nearly melodic. “Well, I called to tell you some news. I’m sure you saw the big proposal this morning.”

“Of course. Very exciting.” Ivy played along.

“The part you don’t know is that the producer of the show had some sort of flash of brilliance and decided that it would be wonderful if they followed up on the happy couple.” She was silent for a moment. “By broadcasting their wedding.”

“What?”

“Yeah. Apparently he was taken by the Southern charm of the location and the story of these two kids growing up together. He said it sounded like a storybook. So he asked Shea and Owen if they would consider, and apparently Owen agreed right then and there.” She snorted. “Men. He has no idea what it takes to pull a wedding together. There’s just not going to be time to do it when that show wants them to do it.”

Ivy could feel her heart begin to speed up on her sister’s behalf. “When are they talking about doing it?”

“Apparently they’re wanting to broadcast the wedding in June.”

“That’s less than four months away! And it’s a morning show. Do they expect them to get married that early in the morning? On a weekday?”

“No, it would be taped, then played back. If you ask me, it’s the last thing your sister needs to deal with. Planning
a wedding is hard enough without the added craziness of putting the thing on TV.” Her aunt knew about planning weddings. She worked with brides on their wedding cakes all the time.

“How is she going to plan a whole wedding that fast? Don’t they know weddings take a long time to plan?” She felt a twinge as she thought of her own speedy wedding, but mercifully her aunt did not point that out.

“That’s what I told Shea. But she doesn’t want to make Owen look bad by declining the offer.”

“What about her students? Is she going to finish out the school year?”

“Thankfully, her principal is giving her a leave of absence the last week of school, so she’ll have two weeks to focus exclusively on the wedding. And she’ll need it. With her teaching schedule, she’s not going to have time to do much before the wedding. Personally, I think she’s going to live to regret it.”