Page 41 of The Best Man Problem
Reaching out to her nightstand, she slapped her hand around until it encountered her phone. Normally, she was a morning person, but she had stayed up a bit later than usual last night. The reason for her rare night-owl behavior made her lips curl up into a satisfied grin. Maybe it was Lincoln calling to start the morning off with a little upgrade to phone sex. She could handle that. Still not in person; technically, still not breaking her rule.
The logic had fault in it somewhere, but she’d reason it out after she woke up more.
She glanced at the screen, and all her hopes of morning nookie vanished. Her libido took a crashing dive into nonexistence as she accepted the call and put the phone to her ear.
“Hi, Mom.”
Speaking of people who believed in all that soul mate nonsense.
“Lilly, baby, you didn’t call me back.”
She winced, remembering the message Mo had given her last week. “Right, sorry, Mom. I’ve been…busy.”
Not true. She’d simply forgotten her mother was getting married. Again. Or blocked it out. Possibly a bit of both.
“Not too busy to help your mother plan her wedding to her one true love, I hope.”
Considering the woman had had several “one true loves” over the course of her lifetime, Lilly wondered how her mother managed to find time for anything else. She certainly hadn’t found time for her daughter.
Not entirely fair. Her mother hadn’t been neglectful or abusive, she’d just been…very occupied with her own life. Lilly always had food to eat and clothes to wear, but there was never any help with homework. No parent at her school events to cheer her on. No one to talk to about friend drama, struggles with insecurities, boy troubles.
Though spending her childhood watching her mother go through men like tissues, she’d never been all that big on dating anyway.
“Aren’t you living in Napa right now?” Her mother’s location always changed with her latest man.
“Yes, but Stavros wants a Rocky Mountain destination wedding.” Her mother’s light laughter rang in her ear. “The man likes to pretend he’s a Wild West cowboy. We were thinking something in the fall, when the leaves turn those brilliant gold and ruby colors. When I told him my daughter puts together little weddings in Colorado, he insisted we hire you.”
She didn’t “put together little weddings.” She ran a very successful wedding planning business with two other competent and professional women. To hear her mom tell it, they were little girls running around playing dress up in their mothers’ wedding gowns. You’d think a woman who’d had multiple weddings over the years would understand how much work went into planning one.
“He’s such a sweet man,” her mother continued. “He treats me like a princess.”
So did all the others, right before things went to hell and they up and left.
“That’s great, Mom.”
It wasn’t that she didn’t want her mother to be happy; she just wished the woman wouldn’t base all her happiness on the love of someone else. Love, passion, romance—they all fizzled out in the end. For most people. There were the lucky few who somehow stumbled upon that other human who completed them in every way.
“How about it, baby? Do you think you can help create your mother’s perfect day?”
She’d done it twice before. No reason she couldn’t do it again. All she had to do was smile and nod and listen to her mother profess her undying love yet again. So what if every one of her mother’s marriages pushed her further down into disillusionment? At least her mom was happy. That young girl, the one who spent hours wiping the tears from her mother’s face after yet another man left her heartbroken, still lived inside Lilly. And that part of her would do whatever it took to see her mother smile, even if she knew it likely wouldn’t last.
Talk about mommy issues.
“Let me talk to Pru and Mo, but I’m sure we can work something out.”
“Wonderful! Stavros will be so pleased. I’ll call you later with more details. Love you, Lilly. Bye, baby!”
“Love you too, Mom.”
But her mother hung up before she’d even finished the sentiment. Typical.
Her mother wasn’t cruel, but the woman did tend to be a bit self-absorbed. She hadn’t even asked how Lilly was. Not that she would have shared much with her mother. They didn’t have that kind of relationship. They had more than some people did, and for that Lilly assured herself she was grateful. And on the plus side, she’d get to spend a little quality time with her mother when she came out for the wedding.
If you counted dress fittings and rehearsals as quality time.
A tiny sliver of sunlight peeked in through the long black curtains covering her window. The early-morning sounds of light traffic, barking dogs, and the faint peals of sirens in the distance filtered into her quiet room. No rest on the weekends in the city. Denver woke every day, a hub of activity, a rush of people off to enjoy the sights and pleasures of the city or escape into the peaceful, serene nature of the mountains. Or, for the non-nine-to-fivers, off to work.
Normally, her weekends were filled with the hectic rush of one or two weddings, but not this weekend. The only wedding they had in the next few weeks was Marie and Kenneth’s. Still, Lilly did not do well with idle time, so she’d probably grab her calendar and some files and fit in a little work. They had plenty of upcoming weddings in the spring she could start on. Prep work to make the rush of April through June easier on them all. And no doubt her mother would be calling her much more often now that she’d agreed to help with the wedding. The woman had a single-minded focus she’d passed on to her daughter. But where Lilly used it for work, her mother used it for men.
