Page 1 of The Wedding Twist

Prologue

July 1, 1980

It’s Canada Day,a statutory holiday. Newlyweds Jeannie and Everett McCarthy consider it an auspicious occasion to sign the deed to Jeannie’s grandparents’ lakefront lodge, a former boarding house for seasonal ski instructors in the small town of Keystone Ridge, nestled in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta. The lakeside property will soon be reborn as the Butterfly Lake Lodge, and Jeannie and Everett have dreams of it being one of Canada’s most iconic vacation destinations.

They sit with Jeannie’s grandparents at the local diner over fried eggs, bacon, and hot coffee and sign on the dotted line. Duke and Sue Carmichael are bursting with happiness at being able to give their beloved granddaughter, and her new husband, the place that has been their business and home for over forty years.

After breakfast, Jeannie and Everett bid Duke and Sue farewell and drive to their new home overlooking Butterfly Lake. Jeannie is eight months pregnant with their first child, so instead of carrying his wife over the threshold, Everett takes Jeannie’s hand, and they walk through the doorway they’ve passed through so many times, the entrance to the place that’s nowtheirs.

In the weeks that follow, they bicker about paint colors and disagree about the nightly rate they’ll charge for the lodge’s rooms, but every day at one o’clock, they eat lunch together in the kitchen at the windows overlooking the Three Sisters Mountain Range, never tiring of the view, minds whirling with excitement and uncertainty. They sink the small fortune Everett made writing high school science textbooks into making the Butterfly Lake Lodge the perfect vacation spot.

A baby is born. A girl.

The lodge opens, and they receive modest bookings. They take out ads inAlpine Adventuresand theCalgary Heraldand this helps a bit, but when the reservation-desk phone quiets down in the offseason, Everett pitches a new nature guide to his publisher to make ends meet. He doesn’t want to write about nature anymore—he wants tobein nature, but he has a family now.

A second baby is born. Another girl. Another mouth to feed, and without steady income, Jeannie and Everett busy themselves with the lodge’s operation while silently wondering if they made the right choice.

Everett strategically plants the gardens so nature’s revolving splendor will be on display, whatever the season. Larkspur and geranium in the spring, bluebell and mariposa lily in the summer, and Woods’ rose and white gentian blooming into the fall.

Jeannie cooks and bakes no matter how many rooms are booked. There’s dessert, even for breakfast, just as seasonal as Everett’s gardens. Sticky toffee pudding in the winter, lemon cake in spring, peach cobbler with clotted cream in the summer, and pumpkin scones drizzled with white icing in the fall. Jeannie is a big believer that when you’re on vacation, anything goes.

Visitors leave the lodge with happy hearts and full stomachs, but the word of mouth only travels so far, and tourists continue to pass them by in droves on the way to the grander hotels in the area.

On a quiet Monday in early June, a travel-weary couple stops by the lodge’s front desk. They’re on their way to the famous Keystone Ridge Resort but took a wrong turn.

Everett patiently writes out directions for them, and the man realizes his wife has disappeared to the window in the lodge’s restaurant. The man approaches his wife. She turns to him and whispers, “Can’t we stay here instead?”

There will be a one-night cancellation penalty from the Keystone, but the man feels the pull as well. They borrow a canoe and paddle through the lake’s turquoise waters. They indulge in Jeannie’s happy-hour snacks and cocktails. They make the short walk into town to shop and dine at a local restaurant. After making love in their room, they sit on their patio and gaze up at the twinkling stars.

While his wife sleeps, the man does what he promised he won’t do on vacation: he writes.

He is a travel writer forThe New York Times, and he can’t help himself. The modest majesty of this place, the pristine beauty…he has to share it with the world.

Two weeks later, the article is published: “A Sparkling Jewel of the Canadian Rockies.” It’s syndicated by papers around the world. The phone rings. And rings. And rings.

Almost overnight, the Butterfly Lake Lodge is booked a year out.

In the leadup to the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, three major hotel chains make aggressive offers on the lodge, but Jeannie and Everett decline. This is their home.

A third baby is born. A girl.

The influx of bookings means they can hire a staff, build additions, upgrade linens and flatware, and install hot tubs outside the walk-out suites.

A fourth baby is about to be born, and for a moment, Everett wishes for a boy…until the doctor hands him another perfect girl and he, once again, feels like the luckiest man in the world. He has four daughters.

Celeste, the eldest, is cautious, obedient, and intuitive.

Elodie, from day one, loves being outdoors and always seems to be covered in dirt.

Ava throws the most adorable temper tantrums, and Jeannie and Everett have to stifle their laughter so as not to enrage her further.

And Quinn, the baby, has no trouble growing under the tidal wave of her family’s love.

Years pass, knees are skinned, report cards are proudly stuck to the fridge, staff come and go, many welcomed into the fold of the McCarthy family. Keystone Ridge is alive with tourists.

After graduating from university, Celeste takes over the lodge’s front desk, and Jeannie and Everett watch in admiration as she, with her gift for anticipating the needs of others and making them feel special, makes their perfect spot even better.

A grandchild is born. It is, of course, a girl.

---