Lars swung her in front of him, one arm around her middle, while she giggled.
“Da!” she squealed. Her mop of dark curls reminded Janie of Pete. Particularly when he first woke up. Janie chewed on her lip and hoped she wasn’t blushing too visibly.
“Daisy, this is your Aunt Docia, your almost-Aunt Docia, that is.” Lars grinned up at them blissfully.
Daisy stared at them with the same laughing black eyes Janie had seen with Lars, Cal, Pete, and, of course, Asa. “Da!” she said.
Docia dropped to her knees in front of her. “In the ballpark, sweetie. Can you say ‘Docia’?”
Daisy gave her a wide-eyed look, then extended a dimpled hand toward Docia’s red curls. “Da!”
“Close enough.” Docia leaned forward and gave her a hug, while Daisy giggled, running her fingers through Docia’s hair.
“Do you mind if I bring her to the wedding? I know she wasn’t invited. I didn’t know if you were allowing children.”
“Are you kidding?” Docia swung Daisy up in her arms. “I’ll invent a new role for her. We can all waltz down the aisle together.”
Lars shrugged. “Oh, that’s okay. I mean, since I can’t be in the wedding anymore, I’ll just hold her.”
Docia stared at him blankly. “You can’t be in the wedding? Since when can’t you be in the wedding?”
Lars glanced at Janie. The creases in his forehead became more pronounced. “Well, I mean, since the tuxedo got…ruined, I just figured…”
Docia turned to stare at Janie, her expression stony.
Janie sighed. “You’ll need to have a margarita in front of you before I explain this one.”
They left Lars to finish checking out the few customers who were still in the shop. Daisy had discovered Docia’s cat, Nico, and was rapturously in love. Nico, in residence on top of one of the bookcases, was playing hard to get.
Janie positioned Docia in a booth at the Dew Drop and brought her a margarita, then gave her a summary of what she’d found in Sherice’s motel room. It probably wasn’t as good as Pete’s, but she figured nobody’s summary would make Docia feel happy about the whole thing. “It’s not that bad, Docia,” she lied. “We’ll work something out.”
“Absolutely.” Pete slid into the booth beside her. “As far as I’m concerned we’re already ahead here. We traded Sherice for Daisy. You can’t tell me that isn’t a great exchange.”
“Daisy’s here?” Cal slid into the other side of the booth with a wary glance at Docia’s stony expression. “How did that happen?”
“Dad brought her.” Pete waved two fingers at Ingstrom, who slid a couple of beers across the bar for him and Cal.
“Dad?” Cal stared at him blankly.
“Oh, man, let me guess—you’ve been hiding in the clinic all day.”
“I’ve been
working
in the clinic.” Cal humphed. “I’m trying to make up for the amount of time I’m going to be gone for the honeymoon. Dad’s here?”
Pete nodded. “He’s with Mom. The general message is, butt out for now.”
Cal took a long pull on his Dos Equis. “Gladly. So the crisis is over, right?”
“Wrong.” Docia drained her margarita. “Tell him.”
Pete did. Cal’s eyes widened as the story unfolded. He set his bottle down sharply on the table.
“What the hell was that all about? Why take it out on Lars? He didn’t put her into that truck!”
Pete grimaced. “Oh, it gets even better. Sherice made a stop on her way out of town.”
When he’d finished speaking, Pete and Cal sat staring at each other.
“So why did she stop to talk to Mom? Does she want to get back with Lars?” Cal shook his head. “But if she does, why shred his tuxedo?”
Pete shrugged. “I don’t think she wants to get back with anybody. I think she just wanted to stir things up a little more before she left. And she knew Mom was her best bet for doing that.”
“Okay,” Docia snapped. “Good riddance.” She turned to look at Cal. “Did you tell them what we decided last night, Calthorpe, in case there were any further disasters?”
Janie leaned forward so that she could look Docia in the eye. “This isn’t a disaster. It’s minor.”
“Minor?” Docia narrowed her eyes.
Janie shrugged. “So you’re down one attendant, so what? You’ve still got Allie and Bethany.”
Cal closed his eyes. “Okay, go ahead. Tell her.”
Docia waved at Ingstrom for another margarita. “The wedding’s off. We figured we should tell you before we told anybody else.”
Beside him, Pete heard Janie catch her breath. “No, Docia, don’t. Please. You’re perfect for each other. All this other…stuff. It just doesn’t matter.”
Docia shook her head impatiently. “That’s not what I mean, Janie. The marriage is on, it’s the wedding that’s off.”
“You mean the ceremony?” Pete asked carefully. He was slightly dizzy all of a sudden.
“This whole misbegotten…mess. Yes. The friggin’ ceremony.
That
is off.” Docia took a swallow of her drink. “I am not doing this dog and pony show anymore. It’s over.”
“We’re going to Vegas.” Cal’s voice had a hollow quality.
Pete stared at him. “You hate Vegas.”
Cal shrugged. “Better than the Ozarks.”
“We’re going someplace where this whole wedding business can be taken care of in an hour or so,” Docia explained. “No dresses. No cakes. No family. Just us.” Her mouth compressed to a thin line.
“You could come with us,” Cal mumbled. “We could go to some shows or something. Maybe even gamble.”
Pete tried to picture Cal gambling. It didn’t compute.
“Docia, please.” Janie’s voice was soft. “Your mama’s worked so hard on all of this. You’ll break her heart.”
“Mom will be very…disappointed,” Pete added, carefully. In fact, of course, their mother would make their lives a living hell for the foreseeable future.
Cal didn’t look at him. Bad sign. “She’ll get over it.”
Pete exhaled in a sigh. Cal obviously was dealing with his own large order of denial. “I’m not sure I will.”
“Docia, why do you think you have to cancel?” Janie took a long sip of her own margarita. “What exactly is the problem?”
“The problem? What’s the problem?” Docia’s voice crackled, and then suddenly her face crumpled, her eyes swimming. Cal reached for her, pulling her against his chest.
Pete’s hands fisted on the table, helplessly.
Damn Sherice. Damn Otto. Damn everybody.
“The problem,” Docia continued, her voice thick, “is that this whole thing has spun out of control. It’s a train wreck. Everything we plan goes wrong. Every time we try to fix something it gets worse. I’m tired of it. I’m just…” she waved a hand, helplessly, “…tired of it.”
“What if we could fix it?” Pete heard himself say. He had no memory of planning to say anything like that. Maybe he was possessed.
Janie turned toward him, nodding. “Yeah. We can fix it. You just relax and trust us.”
Cal stared at her for a moment, then turned to Pete. “Fix it how?”
Oh, good question.
Too bad he had no answer whatsoever. “We’ll take care of it. Tell us what the problems are and we’ll make them go away.” Whatever spirit had possessed him clearly wasn’t finished yet.
Docia’s brow was still furrowed. “Take care of it how?”
“Give us a problem.” Janie leaned back against the booth. “Any problem.”
Docia blew out a breath. “The last I heard, Mama had the guest list up to around four hundred, and that’s just for the ceremony. She may be up to eight hundred or so for the reception. I’m not going through with this whole Hollywood wedding idea. Make this less of a grand opera and more of a country wedding that fits in Konigsburg. Get that guest list down to under a hundred and make it our friends and relations.”
Janie nodded again. “We can do that.”
Pete had a feeling she was going to nod at everything Docia said. He forced himself to open his fists. “Okay, simplify the wedding. We can work on that. That strikes me as enough for one day, but, of course, you can always call us if you think of something else.”
“I’m not done.” Docia turned back to Janie. “You’re my maid of honor. Period. End of discussion. I need you back in the wedding.”
Janie closed her eyes. “Docia, there’s no way we could get another bridesmaid dress here in time, let alone the maid of honor dress. I can run the guest book or something. It really doesn’t matter.”
“It
does
matter.” Docia’s voice cracked. “I’m not doing this without you.”
“Couldn’t you just wear a different dress?” Cal asked innocently.
Docia and Janie both stared at him.
“No, no, of course you couldn’t, what was I thinking!” Cal took a hurried swallow of Dos Equis.
“Wait a minute.” Pete’s brow furrowed. “Why couldn’t you wear something else? What’s stopping you?”
“Because it’s a wedding.” Janie looked at him as if he’d taken leave of his senses. “Everybody has to match.”
“Why?”
“Because…they just do, that’s all.”
“Look—” Pete leaned forward, “—Docia says she wants to get out from under this train wreck. Well, why not change its direction? Who says this has to be the second coming of Di and Charles—hell, just look how well that one turned out, anyway!”
“So, I get to stand up there in my prom dress, while everybody else wears those luscious bridesmaid dresses?” Janie grimaced. “Excuse me, but I don’t see how that’s going to help.”
Pete shook his head. “Not just you. Me too. And Lars.”
“You’re going to wear a prom dress?” Cal raised an eyebrow. “Good entertainment value, but mixed messages.”
“No, wait, I see what you mean.” Docia leaned forward. “As long as we’re not going with tradition here, let’s take it to the limit. No bridesmaid dresses. No tuxes.”
“Right.” Pete nodded. “You and Cal can wear your finery, and the rest of us will wear stuff that will make us fade into the background.”
“Speak for yourself,” Janie cut in. “Even if I’m not going to get to wear that dream dress, I’m still wearing something nice. It’s Docia’s wedding.”
“No.” Docia stared down at her margarita, her forehead furrowed.
Janie blinked at her. “No, you don’t like it or no, you prefer me to fade like Pete?”
The corners of Docia’s mouth quirked up slightly. “No, I’m not wearing any finery. Why should you guys be the only ones who get to wear what you want?”
“Oh, but Docia, it’s such a beautiful dress!” Janie sighed.
“It’s a beautiful dress for someone who isn’t me,” Docia said gently. “For me, it’s like playing dress-up. I’ve never wanted to be Cinderella, even when I was a kid.”
“Okay, hold up a minute.” Cal frowned. “What do we have here? No wedding clothes I get. But what about the rest of it? We’ll look pretty weird wandering into this extravaganza dressed in jeans and boots.”
“Oh, god, Mama,” Docia moaned. “I forgot all about the wedding of the century part of it.”
Janie narrowed her eyes, thinking. “You wanted to cut the guest list, right?”
“Right.” Docia grimaced. “Four hundred isn’t a wedding, it’s a convention.”
Janie shrugged. “So your mama’s production becomes the reception. And we have the wedding someplace else. Maybe even sometime else.”
“Such as?” Cal was leaning forward now.
“I don’t know.” Janie’s eyes danced. “Maybe in the morning. Or even the night before. But we’ll have to clear that with Reba.”
“You know where I want it to be?” Docia leaned back, her eyes meeting Cal’s. “Morgan Barrett’s winery. The patio outside the tasting room. I’ve always loved that place.”
Cal looked slightly confused. “Then why didn’t you suggest it for the wedding when your mama was doing the planning?”
“I did. She vetoed it because it won’t hold four hundred guests.” Docia was grinning now. “Which means it’s currently perfect for our purposes.”
“
If
your mama agrees,” Janie cautioned. “I’m not going to get into this if it’s going to upset Reba too much.”
“Oh you can explain it,” Docia said airily. “Mama listens to you.”
Janie looked as if her stomach had suddenly dropped to her toes. “Me?”
“You.” Docia nodded in Pete’s direction. “And him. Your impossible mission, should you choose to accept it.”
“Is the alternative Vegas?” Janie croaked.
“It is.” Docia gave her a faintly feline grin. “The two of you are still invited if we go.”
“In that case we accept.”
“Huh?” Pete’s head whipped toward her.
Janie sighed. “I mean we accept the mission. We’ll talk your mama into it, Docia.”
Chapter Seventeen
“So explain to me again why we’re doing this,” Pete murmured as he wandered up the street behind Janie.
“Well, Docia wanted a smaller wedding, and we’re down by a dress and a tux, and…”
“No.” He shook his head. “Explain to me why we’re not just letting them head for Vegas.”
Janie paused, leaning one hand against a live oak tree.
Why weren’t they?
“Well, Reba would be upset.”
“She’d get over it eventually.” He placed a hand on the tree trunk above her head, angling over her.
“Your mother would be upset.”
Pete didn’t say she’d get over it. Janie was willing to bet Millie Toleffson didn’t get over very many things. She probably had a memory like an elephant on ginko.
“We’d survive.”
“Docia would be upset. Once she realized what she’d done, she’d be unhappy.”
“She’s already unhappy. You think she’d feel worse than she already does?”
“Right now all she can think about is the fuss and the disasters.” Janie leaned her head against the tree trunk. “But the thing is, every time she and Cal have talked about getting married for the past few months, Docia has said her one nonnegotiable demand is that the wedding happens here with all her friends. If she bolts off to Las Vegas, she’ll lose that. And she won’t be happy when she understands what she’s done.”
Pete’s mouth edged up in a grin. “So you’re saving her from herself? You’re being a nice girl again? I’d say this isn’t going to help you in your ambition to become a bitch.”
“Oh well, I’ll have other chances.” Janie grinned back, then her grin turned into gritted teeth. “And if we do this, we keep that true bitch Sherice from screwing everything up like she planned to. We
will
make this wedding happen.”