Page 57 of The Secret to a Southern Wedding

Imani frowned and sat up. “What about her dying would tear the family apart?”

Linda shrugged. “People act stupid around weddings and funerals. It could be several reasons.” She reached over and patted Imani’s hand. “Which is why I wanted you here for my wedding. You’re my baby, Imani. I want you to be here to celebrate with me.”

“I’m here and I do want you to be happy.”

Linda raised a brow. “But you’re still not convinced this is a good idea.”

“It’s still sudden to me. We used to play games after dinner with dad. Particularly Uno. Then we stopped after everything happened. Now you’re acting like everything is okay and we’re doing the things you used to do with Dad. It’s a lot to get used to.”

It’s why she’d been so upset at dinner earlier. She’d tried to pretend as if things were good, but they weren’t. No matter how much she hated her father and the consequences of his actions, she wasn’t ready to insert Preston in his place and pretend as if everything were great.

“I let your father have control over my life for long enough. Just because I didn’t talk about what happened didn’t mean I wasn’t living under the pain of everything he put me through. This is me starting over on my terms. Creating new memories to erase the old ones.”

“And Mr. Preston is the man you want to start over with? You really want to get married again?”

Her mom stared down into her glass of water. After a few seconds she took a long breath and gave a determined nod. “This time will be different. I can trust Preston. He’s never lied to me. We’re both recovering from painful pasts. I think we’ll be good for each other.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“You can still do the background check on him if you don’t trust him.”

Imani hadn’t started a background check because she’d expected to easily prove that Preston was some sleazy scam artist who wanted to take advantage of her mother. Nothing he’d shown her so far had set off any alarm bells. Then there was Cyril. He seemed just as sincere and caring not only about her mom but the town and the people in it. She wanted to believe in them. The feeling was new and unnerving. She hadn’t believed in any man in so long.

“I think he’s okay, but I want to be sure. You understand, right?”

“I do. But believe me when I say that Preston isn’t hiding anything from me. I believe him when he says he only wants to make me happy—make all of us happy. He’s missing a piece of him after his wife died. We’re filling that piece.”

Imani couldn’t say anything to that. She finally understood why Cyril had backed away from her after their kiss. Their parents were finally healing after being heartbroken. If she and Cyril did something that ruined that, she’d feel guilty for the rest of her life. The joy of seeing her mom happy again was something she wouldn’t trade, but how could she also suppress the disappointment of knowing she could never find out if the spark between her and Cyril could actually turn into a flame?

twenty-two

“You need to tell Ms. Kemp about what happened after Mom died,” Cyril said the following morning.

His dad spent the night at home the night before but hadn’t given Cyril the time to talk to him about what happened after dinner or what he’d said to Ms. Kemp when he’d followed her out of the room. He’d claimed he was tired and gone straight to his room when they’d gotten home.

Cyril typically didn’t like to ambush his dad, but this morning he wasn’t giving his dad the opportunity to skip out on this conversation. He’d caught Preston just as he’d poured his first cup of coffee and was slathering the homemade muscadine jelly one his friends at the VFW made on his toast.

“What are you talking about?” his dad asked mid spread.

“Exactly what I just said. You need to tell Ms. Kemp the entire story.”

His dad frowned. “She doesn’t need to hear all the details about what happened. That’s behind us now.”

“It’s behind us because we moved away, but it’s not exactly some trade secret. If she goes looking, she’ll find out.”

“Why would she go looking?” his dad asked as if Cyril were making up wild conspiracy theories. “There’s no reason for her to go looking for anything. She knows I don’t like talking about what happened to Vera. Just like I don’t press her to talk about what happened with her ex-husband.”

“But you know what happened right? Imani told me last night. His mistress tried to kill her.”

His dad scowled before taking a bite of his toast. “I know about that. That situation was terrible.”

“And you still didn’t tell her about Mom?”

“I told her enough. When she first mentioned what happened with her ex-husband, I wasn’t about to tell her that I was originally a suspect in your mom’s murder. She would have turned away from me. So much time has passed now, it doesn’t even matter.”

Cyril couldn’t believe his dad would think that. “It does matter, Dad. You saw how she reacted to him calling last night. They don’t talk about it, but what happened because of him still affects them.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Preston snapped back. “That’s exactly why I’m keeping the suspicions about me quiet. I don’t want to make Linda feel as if she’s got to worry about me.”

---