He helped her clear the table and was about to kiss her when Ellen dashed into the kitchen. “Hurry!” she cried.
“Hurry?” Anne Marie repeated, noting the disappointed look in Mel’s eyes. “Why?”
“Come and see,” Ellen said urgently.
“See what?”
“The wedding. Come on!” She wore a white sundress and a lace-trimmed pillowcase as her veil.
Anne Marie dried her hands on the dish towel and followed her daughter down the hall. Mel came, too. Standing in the doorway of Ellen’s bedroom, she leaned against the door frame, Mel beside her.
“These are the church pews,” April said, gesturing at the books laid across the carpet in two even rows, with a center aisle wide enough for Ellen to walk down.
“Who’s the groom?” Anne Marie asked
“We haven’t decided yet,” Ellen said. “Baxter’s going to be the best man, though.” The girls had affixed a black ribbon to the dog’s neck to resemble a bow tie. However, he didn’t look pleased with his role.
“What part does Iris play?” Anne Marie asked April.
“She’s the maid of honor.”
“Of course. I should’ve guessed.”
“We need someone who can sing the wedding march,” Ellen said. “We’re wedding planners so we have to arrange it. April and I don’t know the words. All we know is ‘Here comes the bride.’”
Anne Marie was about to tell them she couldn’t sing it, either, when the doorbell rang.
“That must be April’s mom,” Anne Marie said. But even before she opened the front door she knew it wasn’t. Her intuition told her it was Tim.
The way Mel felt about him would make this awkward. Mel, nothing! Her own feelings were as tangled as any yarn she’d ever snarled. She didn’t want to face him, not yet. She hadn’t had time to absorb what she’d learned or the hurt he’d caused her. Still, her heart seemed to speed up as soon as she saw him and she was instantly annoyed with herself.
“Hello again,” she said without any warmth, standing on the other side of the screen door, which she kept closed, aware of how rude she was acting, yet unable to stop.
“Hi.” He held the handlebars of Ellen’s bike. “I brought this back. It had a flat tire.”
Anne Marie continued to leave the screen door shut. “I didn’t know you’d taken it.”
“I promised to repair it for Ellen.”
Mel came up behind her, placing a possessive hand on her shoulder.
Ellen joined them, wearing her white dress but having discarded her “veil.” “My bike’s fixed already?” she squealed. “Thank you, Daddy!”
“I did it this afternoon,” he said, smiling at his daughter. “Where would you like me to put it?”
“In the garage,” Anne Marie told him.
“Come and see the wedding,” Ellen said. “April and I are wedding planners. Baxter’s the best man but he keeps running off. We couldn’t decide who should be the groom.
Will you, Daddy?”’
“Ah, sure,” he said, but Anne Marie sensed his hesitation.
She opened the screen door, walked down the steps and over to the garage, which was located behind the house. Mel went with her; she could feel his disapproval every step of the way. No one spoke, which made this all the more disconcerting.
“Will you tell Ellen I’ll play groom some other time?” Tim asked once he’d finished securing Ellen’s bicycle.
Anne Marie crossed her arms against the evening chill. Thankfully, Tim realized she didn’t want him there.
“That would probably be best,” she murmured.
“I agree,” Mel added.
Anne Marie could have done without his comment but didn’t bother to object. At least he wasn’t contradicting her opinion or her request.
Tim had started to leave when the back door flew open and Ellen came out. “We’re ready,” she shouted. “April and I are going to hum the song ‘cause we don’t know the words.” She dashed toward Tim and grabbed his hand.
Tim threw Anne Marie an apologetic glance as he walked slowly toward the house.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about Tim,” Mel said, not hiding his irritation.
“About what, exactly?”
“Well, for one thing, he turns up far too often. Do the two you have a parenting plan?”
“Not … really.” At this point their agreement was pretty loose.
“That might be something to consider,” Mel said. “Tim seems to think he can come by anytime he pleases. For obvious reasons, that’s not a good idea.”
Anne Marie turned back to the house. She didn’t ask what those obvious reasons were, but she had to admit Mel was probably right. However, she wasn’t in any mood to hear it. If she limited Tim’s access to Ellen, he’d assume she was punishing him because he wasn’t interested in her. “Can we talk about this later?”
Not waiting for his reply, she hurried inside. The instant she did, she was greeted by the sound of the girls giggling delightedly. Unable to resist, she had to look for herself.
Sure enough, Tim had taken on the role of the groom. He wore Ellen’s black velvet hair bow clipped to the top button of his shirt.
“We need a preacher,” Ellen said. “Mel, will you be the preacher?”
Mel shook his head. “Trust me, Ellen, I wouldn’t make a good preacher.” The ten-year-old’s face fell with disappointment.
“What about your mom?” April suggested.
“She can’t,” Ellen insisted. “Mom’s the bride.”
“Oh, right.”
Anne Marie opened her mouth to protest but no one noticed. Wasn’t Ellen the bride? She most definitely wasn’t willing to pretend to be Tim’s bride. “Hold on, you two—”
“I’ll be the preacher,” Ellen volunteered, ignoring Anne Marie.
“You’ll need a Bible.”
“Got it.” Ellen stood on tiptoe to get her children’s Bible from the top bookshelf.
“Can girls be preachers?” April sounded unsure of this.
“Girls can be anything they want,” Anne Marie assured her firmly. Despite her discomfort, she couldn’t let a comment like that pass unanswered.
“Even a firefighter?”
“Even a firefighter,” Anne Marie said.
Now that she’d resolved that issue, Anne Marie seemed to lose control of the situation. She was handed a plastic flower and the pillowcase was pinned to her hair as a makeshift veil. As the two girls hummed “Here Comes the Bride,” Anne Marie carefully marched down the aisle between the rows of books. Holding her Bible, Ellen went to stand in front of Tim. Mel remained in the background, looking disgruntled and ill at ease.
When Anne Marie reached Tim’s side, he tucked her arm in the crook of his, staring straight ahead. The best man had returned but clearly hadn’t understood his role. He stretched out on the floor, knocking over several “pews.” Iris, the