Page 49 of The Vineyard Bride

Chapter Twenty

That evening’s sunsetglowed with pastel pinks and lavenders, stretching out across the Vineyard sky and echoing across the clouds.The exterior of Grange Hall had been decorated blissfully with a “Summer Garden” feel, with twinkling lights that stretched around the dance floor, a long white table filled with food and drink, and a number of round tables with glowing white tablecloths.Immediately after dinner, the ten-piece band began to play big-band hits like “Sing, Sing, Sing,” which brought Amanda to her feet, tugging Sam along with her.

“We have to go,” she whispered.“Come on!”

Out on the dance floor, Sam placed his hand at the base of Amanda’s back and swung her around in time, never missing a step.Amanda’s hair flashed around her as they went, becoming the main focus on the dance floor.Audrey howled from a nearby table, saying, “That’s my cousin!That’s my girl!”and Amanda laughed, bubbling from champagne and the splendor of the evening.

When the song finished, she and Sam collapsed in one another’s arms as a small crowd around them applauded.Amanda breathed into Sam’s shoulder, “I had no idea what a good dancer you were.”

To this, Sam said, “You never asked.”

From the side of the dance floor, Amanda watched as Grandpa Wes stepped toward Beatrice, bent down to whisper in her ear, and then extended his hand.Amanda jabbed Sam in the stomach to get his attention.

“They’re at it again,” she whispered.

“It’s the reality TV show all over again!”Sam cried.“Lovewatching.”

“That’s still a temporary title,” Amanda teased.

Beatrice and Grandpa Wes stepped into the center of the dance floor, with Beatrice lifting her chin to speak to Wes as they eased from side to side.This particular song was a slower one, which allowed them to flirt and laugh easily without getting out of breath.

“They seem so happy,” Sam whispered.“I hope that I can feel that happy when I’m that age.”

“I think it’s a choice,” Amanda offered.“Something you have to wake up every day and decide on.At least, that’s what I’ve decided the past year and a half since I officially moved to the Vineyard.”

Sam lowered his head and kissed her cheek lovingly, his hand stretching across the flat of her stomach.Does he think about having children with me?Does he imagine our future?

“It’s time to cut the cake!”Audrey hollered out a few minutes later, curling Amanda’s hair around her finger as she bobbed Max toward the multi-tiered cake.

Amanda and Sam held hands and headed for the corner, where, beneath the growing darkness of the night, Tommy and Lola sliced the cake together with a single knife and then placed little morsels of cake on top of one another’s tongues.Shoving cake into mouths wasn’t exactly the Lola and Tommy way.

After the cake was cut, Sam grabbed him and Amanda's two plates and returned to the table, where Amanda sat with Noah, Max, and Audrey.Max looked wide-eyed and sleepy, and Audrey admitted that she’d have to put him to bed shortly.Noah lifted him into his arms and turned in circles until Max howled with laughter.Audrey rose up on her toes and kissed them both, first Max and then Noah.Beneath the table, Sam held Amanda’s hand delicately as her throat tightened.

“How does it feel to have Lola married off?”Amanda asked Audrey when she returned to her seat to tear through her cake.

Audrey placed a large slab of mostly icing on her tongue.Amanda adored this about her cousin: the fact that she ate dessert first, that icing was her favorite food group, and that she often laughed until she cried.

“I half-expected both of them to run the opposite directions when they got to the front of the Hall,” Audrey joked.“Maybe they both had a get-away car waiting in the parking lot.”

“No, but seriously.It must feel strange,” Amanda continued to probe.

Audrey licked a small piece of icing from her lower lip.“I thought it would feel like this big door slamming between the past and the future.Like, there’s a before and an after, and now, we’re in the after.But actually, it doesn’t feel that way at all.”Audrey’s eyes glittered knowingly.“Although if you ever leave the Sheridan House, that’s when I’ll really cry.”

Amanda’s eyes widened.She hadn’t actually considered what would happen to Audrey when Amanda “finally” moved out of the Sheridan House.

“Gosh.Moving in there was kind of an accident, wasn’t it?”Amanda breathed.

“A happy accident that I refuse to give up,” Audrey shot back.She then turned toward Noah and Sam and said, “What if we all live together in one big house?Huh?”

“Now, that’s a reality TV show,” Sam quipped.

“Oh, sure.We could do that,” Audrey said.“We’ll have to be more dramatic, though.Noah, what did you say you were mad at me about recently?”

Noah furrowed his brow.“Hmm.Wasn’t it that you, um, that played music too loudly at my house?”

“Not dramatic enough,” Audrey affirmed.“We have to think bigger.”

As the foursome laughed wildly, the bride herself appeared before them, grinning down at Amanda and Audrey.

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