Page 13 of Wedding Season
“It was part of my past,” she told her friend. When she’d shown up at the inn knowing she must look like a woman well beyond the verge of a nervous breakdown, Emma had bundled her into a back bedroom then called Angi. The two of them had taken turns sitting with her until Angi left to go home only a few minutes earlier. Mariella knew she needed to do the same. She couldn’t hide out at the Wildflower indefinitely, pretending like her world wasn’t imploding.
“You probably thought that ruining my life in a viral YouTube video was my low point. In fact, that was nothing. My life doesn’t mean a thing compared to the life of the daughter I gave up. And now she’s here.”
“Don’t you think it would be a good idea to figure out why?”
Mariella met her friend’s concerned gaze. “Well, sure,” she said, not bothering to mask her sarcasm. “I should invite her for tea and she can tell me how my decision when she was an infant ruined her life.”
“You don’t know that it did.”
“Of course I do. My mom didn’t give me up, but I know what it’s like to not be wanted by a parent. Why else would she be here? Hell, she and Alex have probably compared notes. She works for him. Maybe Luann Bowman knows her, too. Maybe this is all just one big giant joke on me.”
“You won’t know unless you talk to her.”
“That is not going to happen. Heather is better off without me, and nothing good can come from it. Plus, I’m not giving Alex a chance to see me weak and broken. I’ve worked hard to rebuild my life. I succeeded in making something of myself when I went to New York and I found a way to remake my life in Magnolia when that one blew up in my face.”
She gave a harsh chuckle. “You might call me the queen of second chances. Or maybe I’m on my third or fourth chance by now. Who’s really counting?”
“It sounds like you are.” Emma reached for Mariella’s hand, but Mariella jerked it away. She couldn’t be touched right now. She couldn’t allow herself to be comforted even though that’s exactly what she’d come here for. She loved her friends. She loved her store and the business they were building at the inn in their tiny little corner of the wedding industry. It was different than the company she’d created in New York City. It felt real and right but that wouldn’t stop her from leaving.
“Do you think I can rent my house fully furnished? I don’t need much from there. You and Ang can pack up—”
“No one is packing up anything.” For all of Emma’s sweetness, she had a backbone of steel and that was on full display with the way she was staring at Mariella.
“You can’t possibly think I’m going to stay here.”
“You bet I do. You and Angi and I have been through this. Magnolia is your home. We are your people. The family you chose.”
“I didn’t say I was moving to Antarctica,” Mariella countered. “I’ll have Wi-Fi and phone service. We can text and talk and I’ll do long-distance consultations for gowns. I’ve always wanted to spend more time on the west coast. Maybe San Francisco. I bet I could work at a clothing store there.”
“You own a clothing store here,” Emma reminded her.
“I can still own the store here. I’ll just give Jasmin a raise so that she can manage it. A single mom would appreciate the extra income.”
“That’s why you’re so good to her,” Emma murmured. “You take care of that girl the way someone should have stepped in to take care of you.”
“She’s a great employee. She works twice as hard as anyone I’d hired before her. As long as she can manage the baby and her hours, it doesn’t matter to me what’s going on in her personal life. Don’t make me out to be some sort of Mother Teresa.”
Emma’s smile widened. “No one would ever do that. Although I did think it was strange that you hired a girl to help you in the shop when she was eight months pregnant.”
“She told me she didn’t want to take maternity leave. And she’s not like me. Jasmin is twenty. I was barely sixteen. She’s taking college courses in the evening. I was lucky to scratch out my GED.”
“You’re helping her.”
“I need to go home.” Mariella took a step toward the door then stopped. “What if she knows where I live?”
“She’s the daughter you gave up for adoption, not an ax murderer.”
“I think I’d rather take my chances with the ax,” Mariella said. It was impossible to think about facing Heather again.
“I doubt she’s going to be waiting for you in the bushes. Yeah, she’s in Magnolia, but she didn’t specifically seek you out.”
“She knew I was here. I still think Alex has something to do with this.”
“Just promise you won’t do anything rash and certainly nothing that could be recorded.”
“I learned my lesson.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Emma said in her bride whisperer voice, the one she used to calm frantic nerves and make people believe in happy endings.
