Page 36 of Gray Hair Don't Care
She shrugged. “Mom is Mom. I just want to get through the ceremony tomorrow. I have a feeling she’ll loosen up quite a bit after we’re over that hurdle.”
“We had a good conversation at dinner. She’s glad you and I are working together. I told her how much I love it. How much it means to me.” With every word, his voice cracked with emotion a little more, but he figured he would only have so many opportunities to tell her these things. “I feel so lucky that you gave me the chance to be a part of your life in this way. Most dads don’t get this time with their adult daughters.” Tears stung the corners of his eyes, but he held it all in. He didn’t want to upset her. This weekend was about her, not him.
“I love it, too, Dad. I really do. We work well together. And I think Lela has been an amazing addition to our team.”
“I’m so happy to hear that.”
She spread her arms wide. “Coming in for a hug.”
He wrapped up his baby girl and held on to her tight. She was the most important thing in his entire life. He’d found his way onto the right path with her and he wasn’t going to step off it for anything. In twenty-four hours, she’d be married. And everything would change once again.
Chapter Seventeen
“I knowmy grandmother is calling this a Hen Party, but I think we should refer to it as the HenPecking,” Echo muttered under her breath as she and Lela walked downstairs on Saturday morning for the ladies’ brunch.
Lela let out an unflattering snort. “What would make you call it that?”
“Well, let’s see…” She came to a stop on the staircase. “My mother is in a terrible mood. Grams is behaving strangely, which I’m guessing you’ve figured out is quite a statement. Plus, I’ve been feeling for months like I was bullied into this whole thing from the beginning.”
“Bullied? Into the wedding?” Lela jutted out her lower lip. As someone who loved Echoandweddings, that seemed incredibly sad. “But this is your big day.”
“Lucius and I didn’t want any of this.” She flailed her arms. “Getting married here at the estate was the compromise. We wanted something quiet at City Hall, just the two of us, but my mom had a hissy fit. She wanted a fancy wedding. First in England, then she conceded to the U.S. It was months of negotiating. Between you and me, I think she was trying to make up for what she and Dad didn’t have. They had a quickie ceremony because my mom was pregnant with me.”
Lela grasped Echo’s arm. “Hold up a second. I thought you were born a little less than a year after they got married.”
She shook her head. “Oh, no. It was a huge controversy. My mom’s parents are extremely religious and they were furious that she’d gotten pregnant. She was almost four months along when they tied the knot.”
Lela felt as though her head was swimming, suddenly presented with a whole new view of a defining event in her life. Not that she’d been entitled to know any of this, either at the time or now, but if she’d been aware of this one detail—that Genevieve was pregnant when she got engaged to Donovan—it might have softened the blow.
Lela had long theorized that the timing of the marriage was a reflection on her. Genevieve and Donovan were broken up when Lela had sex with him that first time, but he got back together with her days later. The sequence of events had nearly shattered Lela. Of course, it was quite likely that Donovan had been head over heels for Genevieve the whole time, and it was only after sleeping with Lela that he realized his mistake.
“You seriously didn’t know that?” Echo asked as they resumed their walk downstairs. “I think my dad thought everyone on that whole campus knew what was going on. But he’s super paranoid, so there’s that.”
“It’s hard to know what’s going through his head. Your dad can be pretty secretive.” He’d been exactly that when he and Genevieve got engaged. He didn’t tell Lela. She heard about it from a mutual friend. It was days before graduation and Lela was knee-deep in exams, so she’d shut herself off from everyone, just so she could finish the school year. The night of graduation, he had a small gathering at his apartment. Lela dragged herself to it because she felt like he deserved in-person congratulations. But there’d been no way to ask a single question about what had really happened—Genevieve was there, as well as two dozen other grads and mutual friends. Everyone was blowing off steam, drunk and having fun, and Lela felt as though her entire life had narrowed to a very dark point. The guy she loved was out of reach, but she was also losing her best friend. That was what prompted the pivot to cosmetology school. There was no way she could return to NYU.
“He does like playing things a little too close to the vest,” Echo said.
“Indeed, he does,” Lela agreed.
Outside the formal living room, Echo’s three girlfriends, Ola, Neely, and Kendra, were waiting. Lela had met them last night, right after the dogs disrupted cocktail hour. From her vantage point, Lela spied Genevieve and Eileen inside, working away.
“Echo,” Lela said. “I’m going to help your mom and grandmother.”
“Sounds good,” she replied, quickly returning to her conversation with her friends.
Lela found Eileen trailing behind one of the caterers who’d helped serve dinner the night before, double-checking each chafing dish as it was set out. Genevieve was hovering over a large side table, putting out supplies for what appeared to be bridal shower activities.
“Can I help with anything?” she asked Genevieve.
Genevieve straightened and granted Lela the faintest of smiles. “I think I have it all ready, but thanks.”
Lela surveyed the impressive spread. There were adorable games, like a jar of foil-wrapped chocolate kisses and notecards for guests to guess, “How many kisses?” as well as a silver bowl labeled “Wishes for the couple” with small slips of paper for anyone to add their happy tidings. One activity in particular grabbed Lela’s attention—a stack of clipboards with silver grosgrain bows tied at the top, each with a piece of brown craft paper featuring a simple line drawing of an undressed woman wearing a veil. In white scrolled typography, “Guess the dress” was scrawled across the page, serving as the instructions.
“I’m so impressed. You’ve really gone all out.” Lela couldn’t help but remember what Echo had said about her mom taking this too seriously. There was another side to that observation—Genevieve had put a great deal of thought into her daughter’s big day.
She arranged a spray of silver and white pens in a jar. “She’s my only child, and if everything goes right, this will be her only wedding. I want her to remember it fondly.” She turned and looked out over the room. Eileen was busy chatting with Lucius’s mom and aunt. “We didn’t quite have the start I hoped for yesterday. Cocktail hour went all to pot with the dogs. Hopefully today will be better.”
“I’m sure it will be.”
