“Right.” She’d managed to nod. “See you tomorrow.”

He’d started down the sidewalk, walking backward the way he’d done on Thursday. “Go on in, now,” he’d said. “You know I can’t leave until I know you’re safely inside your house.”

“What do you think could happen between now and the time you get into your car?”

“Old habits die hard,” he’d told her, and she’d gone in and locked the door behind her.

From the dining room window, Vanessa watched him get into his car and back out of the drive, then onto Cherry. She watched until the tail lights disappeared halfway into the next block. She listened to a few voice-mail messages-Nan reminding her that she would be leaving the shop early on Saturday, so she hoped Vanessa had found someone to lock up-and Steffie thanking her again for the deep discount on the dress she’d be wearing to the wedding because “I realized just how hot I look in that dress and I saw Wade MacGregor this afternoon when he hit town, and if I ever needed to look spectacular, tomorrow would be it. To celebrate, I named a flavor after you… which Mountain Man sampled when he stopped by, you should know. Just sayin’…” There were two hang-ups then, and she checked the caller ID, but both calls were from private numbers.

She kicked off her shoes near the bottom of the steps and left them there, then went into the kitchen. She checked the glaze on the cookies and found it had hardened to an acceptable degree.

She ran upstairs and changed her clothes, then came back down and slipped on her apron. She looked amid the clutter on her kitchen counters for the lemon-glaze recipe. She found it, but before she started to gather the ingredients, she flipped through a box of CDs. She wanted something she could sing along with, something with a little bit of beat. She decided on Keith Urban, slipped the disc into the little Bose system she kept in the kitchen on one of the wide windowsills, turned up the volumn, and began to sing.

Tomorrow, before she went to the Inn, she would box the cookies and tie them up with the pink grosgrain ribbon Mia had picked out, then load them up and drive them to the Inn, where they’d be placed on the table with the guests’ name cards.

It was almost two by the time she’d glazed every last one of the cookies and turned out the light on her bedside table. She lay back against her pillow, closed her eyes, and raised her fingers to her lips to touch the place where Grady’s lips had been. Judging by that one kiss, she’d have to rate him pretty high on the kissing scale. It had been, she’d decided, a pretty damned fine kiss. She tried to remember the last time she’d really, really wanted to be kissed, and realized that she couldn’t. She fell asleep wondering whether she’d get the chance to kiss him again.

Diary-

Daniel has been beside himself getting the Inn ready for Saturday’s wedding and reception. I’ve been telling him for the past year that he needs to hire an event coordinator, but he says he just hasn’t gotten around to it. I say he isn’t willing to hand over control of anything connected to the Inn to anyone else. For example, I said that he could ask his sister to come home and do her wedding-planning thing right here at the Inn, but no. “Lucy will come back when she’s ready, and apparently she isn’t ready yet.” Says he. Hmmph, says I.

Anyway-earlier this evening I just happened to be on the balcony off my suite enjoying my after-dinner coffee when the bridal party arrived to rehearse! Mia looked so tiny walking up the aisle between her two brothers-Hal said their father died last year, so it’s nice that she has them to accompany her. I just happened to be in the flower shop today when the flowers for the wedding arrived-such glorious colors! Oh, the shades of pink! The peonies! The roses! The hydrangeas! I can’t wait to see what magic Olivia performs with those blooms!

I daresay this will be a wedding everyone will be talking about for a long time to come!

– Grace

NOW, just you calm down there, honey.” Hal stood in Vanessa’s foyer watching her run around to gather everything she needed before they left for the Inn. “We’ve got plenty of time. I promise the wedding won’t start without us.”

“I need to get there a little early.” She ran past him on her way upstairs for the third time since he arrived. “I have all these favors to take with me so they can be put out on the table with the place cards, and I have to run back upstairs for my dress and I can’t find my shoes.”

“Take a deep breath, slow down, and put one foot in front of the other.” Hal looked amused, and in spite of herself, the sight of the older man in his tux, a silly smile on his face and the box of prettily wrapped cookie boxes in his arms, made Vanessa smile, too. “I swear, even Beck didn’t seem to be as excited as you this morning.”

“Beck doesn’t have an appointment to get his hair and makeup done in fifteen minutes,” she called down the steps as she ran up them.

“Well, it would be a first if he did.”

“What?” she asked as she flew down the steps, the dress over one arm, shoes in her hand, and a tote over her shoulder.

“I said, Beck didn’t mention having made an appointment to have his hair and makeup done this morning.”

“Oh, you…” She swatted at him with her free hand. “I think I have everything.” Mentally she went through her checklist.

“Does this mean we can leave? This box is getting heavy.”

“Oh, you could have set that down, but yes, I’m ready. Let me just find my keys. You go on out, I’ll be right with you.”

Hal went out through the front while Vanessa searched her bag for her keys with her free hand. She found them in the pocket of her jeans where she’d stashed them while looking for her shoes. When she joined Hal outside, he was in the middle of the yard, looking over the debris that had been her carefully planted tulip bulbs.

“What the heck happened here?” he asked.

“I’m not sure, but I think Cujo might have gotten out last night and gone on a tear.” She locked the door and dropped the keys into her bag. “It was like this when I got back from Lola’s. I picked the ones that had a stem and a flower still attached to it and brought them inside and put them in a vase, so at least they’ve gone to good use. First thing this morning I gathered up the loose leaves and petals that were scattered around and trashed them. It actually looks better than it did.”

“Jason is going to have to do something about that dog.” Hal frowned. “I know he isn’t vicious, but he’s fast, and he could hurt someone, or at the least, give someone one hell of a scare if he bowled them over. You should say something to them.”

“I really don’t want to do that.” She shook her head as she walked to Hal’s car. “For one thing, they’re good neighbors except for their dog occasionally taking a shortcut through my yard. For another, I don’t know for sure that the dog caused the damage. It could have been some kids up to mischief.”

Hal opened the trunk of his car and set the box of favors inside. “That’s vandalism, not simple mischief.”

“I don’t know if little kids would see it that way.” Vanessa carefully placed her dress across the backseat and got into the front passenger side. “Anyway, some of the bulbs hadn’t bloomed yet, so there will still be a little bit of a show over the next few weeks.”

Hal slammed the trunk and got into the driver’s seat. As he backed onto Cherry Street, Vanessa said, “Thanks for picking me up this morning.”

“Well, I thought it would be nice if we got to ride over to the Inn together. It’s a family sort of day.”

“It is.” She returned the smile, and wanted to say something like, Thank you for letting me be part of your family, Hal. But the words wouldn’t come, so she simply said, “Anyway, I appreciate the ride.”