Page 47 of The Magic of Sea Glass
Dave gathered his equipment. “Let’s set up a conversation over by the fire and you can talk about the wedding with the happy couple.”
Lauren plastered on one of her polite smiles. While she’d expressed to Brody that she didn’t know how to just hang out with people, suddenly she wanted nothing more than to be left alone with her new friends, not performing for the TV crew. The next week should be interesting…
TWELVE
Fall, 1960
Fairhope, Alabama
Unable to get a breath, Phillip bent over, his hands on the knees of his tuxedo trousers, in the middle of the storeroom floor.
The tailor who’d been measuring his inseam leaned into his view. “Are you all right, sir?”
“I just need a minute,” Phillip replied with a gasp, lightheaded as he looked at himself in the three-way mirror. Instead of his reflection, he saw Penelope’s gorgeous smile flash across his mind and squeezed his eyes shut. Beads of sweat formed along his hairline and at the back of his neck. When the tailor left the room for more straight pins, Phillip tugged at the stiff collar of his pressed shirt, feeling strangled.
“What is it, darling?” Phillip’s mother asked, her heels clicking closer to him. “Are you ill?”
Phillip righted himself and stared into his mother’s concerned eyes. “I can’t do this.”
“Can’t do what, dear?”
“I can’t get married.”
His mother pressed her red lips into that straight line she’d gotten so good at whenever she was disappointed in him, which seemed to be a lot in the past year. It used to make him feel guilty, but now he was indifferent to it.
Then she produced the strained smile, which always came next. “You just have cold feet.” She rubbed his back. “It’s normal for a young person. You’re moving from being a bachelor to a family man, with responsibilities and a wife to take care of. It’s a big step. It’s only natural to feel nervous.”
He looked his mother square in the face, fear mounting. “I don’t love Alicia.”
Her smile fell to an angry frown. “She isperfectfor you.”
“She’s a very nice woman,” he said, his mouth dry from anxiety over the situation. “But I don’tloveher.”
Then her face softened. “You will,” she said gently. “It takes time.”
He shook his head defiantly.
“Phillip,” his mother snapped, “you can’t still be hung up on that insignificant little girl from Kill Devil… whatsit. The town’s name itself should be a sign to you.”
Phillip looked up. “Kill Devil what?”
His mother sucked in a breath of annoyance. “It doesn’t matter.”
“How do you know where she lives?”
His mother’s lips were suddenly sewn shut and she glared at him, clearly not wanting to say.
He took a step toward her, trying to keep his cool. “Tell me.”
“We did a little research on the young lady before we kept you away from her for good.” Her shoulders fell, empathy showing on her face. “She doesn’t have anything to offer financially, Phillip. She would drag you down and drain you of your inheritance.”
“Or, given our resources, she would flourish,” he said through his teeth.
“Our family isn’t a charity, son. We found you someone who will make a wonderful wife and community member. She has a string of courters waiting in line for her, but she acceptedyourproposal. She adores you.”
“And whatIwant means nothing?”
“You don’t know what’s best for you.”
