Page 67 of Save the Date
“Have the wedding proofs come back yet?” Cara asked. She really wasn’t in the mood to listen to one of Lillian’s rants this afternoon. “Please be sure to let me know when I can see them. I’d love to use some of them on my website. That photo of you and Torie, together on the dock, just at sunset, has to be great.”
“The proofs aren’t back, which is just so annoying,” Lillian started. “I can’t even get into that right now. Listen, Cara, I’m calling about the silver.”
“Silver?” Cara was hot and tired. And her mind was a blank.
“My silver. The things you used for the wedding. The candlesticks, the bud vases, the punch bowl, and the epergne. They were all supposed to be returned to me after the wedding.”
Cara noted that Lillian referred to the silver as things “youused.” They had, of course, used the Fanning family silver at the mother of the bride’s insistence.
She closed her eyes and tried to think back, to the night of Torie’s wedding, and the Sunday afterward. She remembered rounding up all the pieces and checking them off against the inventory she’d taken, as she always did, when they used a client’s own pieces for an event. She’d done it the morning after the wedding.
And she even remembered loading them into a large plastic bin lined with towels, to keep the pieces from being scratched. She could see the bin in the back of the van. But what she could not remember was taking the bin back to the Fannings’ home.
“Hang on a minute, Lillian, please,” she said. “Let me just check something.”
She put Lillian Fanning on hold and turned to Bert.
“I heard,” he said. “Her silver.”
“Did we return it?” Cara asked, her voice urgent. “I guess maybe I was a little buzzed that night. I remember packing it up and putting it in the van, but that’s it. Please tell me we returned it all to her.”
“I tried,” Bert said, already defensive. “I’ve been over there three different times in the last month, while I was out on deliveries. But nobody was home, and I definitely wasn’t gonna just leave it sitting on their doorstep.”
“They were in Bermuda for two weeks..”
He was unmoved. “Tell Lillian to take a chill pill. The silver is all still out in the van.”
“The van?” Cara cried. “Half a dozen cars on this block have been broken into over the past six months. Why wouldn’t you bring it in here, where it would be safe?”
“Here, where?” He gestured around the tiny, cluttered workshop.
Without another word, she got up, hurrying toward the back of the shop, to where the van was parked. “Please let it be therepleasepleaseplease.” She felt acid rising in her throat. She unlocked the wrought-iron courtyard gate and stepped into the lane. The van was in its parking slot, which was boldly markedPRIVATE PARKING FOR BLOOM FLORAL.
Her fingers were trembling so badly she had to hold the key with both hands to unlock the back tailgate. Finally, she flung the doors open, and with her heart in her mouth, shoved aside a packing blanket to uncover the plastic bin, filled with the Fanning family silver.
Cara sank down on the tailgate to catch her breath, then jumped up quickly, the heat from the bumper searing the exposed flesh on her thighs. She grabbed the heavy bin, relocked the van, and went back inside.
She picked up the phone. “Lillian?”
“What on earth!” The older woman’s tone seared almost as much as that overheated bumper. “I was just about to hang up and call back.”
“I am so, so sorry,” Cara exclaimed. “The silver is all right here at the shop.” No need to tell Lillian that her priceless family heirlooms had been riding around in her van since the wedding.
“We did try to return it to you, after the wedding, but nobody was home, so we just decided to leave it here, for safekeeping, until we heard from you.”
“You’re hearing from me now,” Lillian said pointedly.
“And I’ll bring the silver back to you immediately. I’ll deliver it myself. Is now a good time?”
“Now’s fine,” Lillian said.
27
“I’ll go.” Bert jumped up from his seat at the worktable. He pointed at the finished flower arrangements in the cooler. “It’s my fault Lillian’s pissed at you.”
“I’ll do the drops at Candler and Memorial. There’s a funeral arrangement to go to Gamble Funeral Home too. Then we’ve got a delivery on the south side. I’ll head out to Isle of Hope after that, and personally deliver Lillian’s treasure right to her door.”
“No, that’s okay. Just take care of the other deliveries. I’ll use my own car and take the silver back. Ultimately, it’s my responsibility.”
