Page 53 of The Glass Dolphin

Robin stood at the windows, watching the water beyond, and she wore a pretty blue maxi dress and a white jean jacket. She turned when she heard Maddy enter the room. They smiled at one another, and Maddy gave her a quick squeeze before she turned her attention to the binder and textiles Robin had laid out on the table.

“Are these the linens?” she asked.

“For here,” Robin said. “Thankfully, the manager gave me permission to bring in our own linens, so we can make the luncheon match the wedding.”

“It’s dinner,” Maddy said.

“Yes, dinner.” Robin didn’t miss a beat. “You need to finalize the menu today too.” She opened the binder, which had grown significantly in the past couple of months, and took out two laminated cards. “A or B.”

Maddy still ran her fingers down the plum-colored fabric. “I like this apricot one.” It felt very beachy to her. She’d gone with pastels for this wedding, and Robin had named the official colors plum, lilac, and apricot. Maddy’s dress was a bit off-trend and non-traditional, but she didn’t care one whit.

She and Ben were a bit off-trend and non-traditional, so she was simply fitting into her own theme. “I like the sandy one too.” Maddy touched the cloth that reminded her more of burlap than something she’d spread over a table at a wedding dinner. It wasn’t as dark as burlap, nor as scratchy, but it did have a bigger weave.

“Those are napkins,” Robin said. “Since your dress is going to be beige, we don’t want the linens competing with you.You’rethe star.”

“You’ve made me feel like one, every step of the way.” She smiled up at Robin. “I do like these for a napkin.” She draped the lilac over the light sand-colored napkin, then the apricot one. The plum was deeper and darker, with more pink, and she didn’t want pink draping her tables.

“I think apricot,” she said. “The flowers will be blue and pink and white, so that’ll bring in all the beach colors.”

“Sun, sky, sand, clouds,” Robin said. “Romance.” She finally sat down, and she pulled the fabrics toward her and began filling out a form. “Check the menu, if you would. They wouldn’t put the steak on the same menu with the kabobs without charging an astronomical amount. I had them do beef, chicken, and veggie for each one.”

Maddy picked up the first card and looked at it. She and Ben had talked about the wedding a lot in the past three months since he’d asked her to marry him. His transfer to the Coast Guard station here was complete, and he knew when he could retire. Not for five more years, but Maddy didn’t mind.

They wouldn’t have kids together, and she just wanted him.

He wanted her—and steak at the wedding dinner. The man adored red meat, and Maddy didn’t have to look past the top item on the menu to pick one. “A.” She handed the card back to Robin. “Ben wants the Wellington.”

Robin tucked the card into her binder. “Then Ben gets the Wellington.” She smiled at Maddy. “Your dress is supposed to be ready by next Monday. Terralyn from the shop should be calling you. If she doesn’t, text me, and I’ll find out what’s going on with it.”

Maddy nodded. “What do you think about the venue?”

Robin looked out the windows again. “I think it’s been a very strange winter and spring.”

Maddy could agree with that, though her heart didn’t like it. “I feel like it’s not going to be an outdoor wedding.” The calendar had just flipped to March, so they had time for the ground to warm, the leaves to blossom and bud, and the sun to come out. But the wedding sat only six weeks away, and Maddy just had a gut feeling.

“I have the Rock House on standby.” Robin lifted her eyebrows. “We will have to tell them in the next couple of weeks, and if you book it, they’ll want their deposit.”

Maddy got up and wandered over to the windows too. “The ocean never quits, does it?”

“She does not,” Robin said quietly.

Mother Nature couldn’t be tamed either, and her will asserted itself in the relentless roll of the waves, the unyielding growth of a tree’s roots through solid rock, and the fierce dance of a storm, a wild symphony that whispered of her freedom in every note.

Maddy wanted that same freedom, and she smiled to her partial reflection in the glass. “I think we should book Rock House,” she said as she turned around. “I just have this feeling that a beach wedding isn’t going to happen until June.”

“El and Aaron got married on the beach in April,” Robin said.

Maddy had heard the stories, and she smiled as she slipped back into her seat. “Rock House. We can get married there, and then perhaps walk down the beach before we pick up RideShares for dinner here.”

“It is right on the beach,” she said, reaching for her phone. “Let me see if they have the option of indoor-outdoor on your date…” She started typing and swiping, and a few moments later, she lifted her phone to her ear.

She jumped to her feet and said, “Yes, Willow, hi. It’s Robin Grover. I need to talk to Therice, please. She’s still over scheduling, isn’t she?” She paced to the windows, said, “Yes,” and faced Maddy again.

“There’s a paper on Rock House in the venue section,” she said. “Grab it for me, would you?”

Maddy started flipping through the binder, awed at how detailed and organized Robin was. She found the right section and pulled out the paper with the beautiful insignia at the top alongside the wordsRock House: Where Dreams are Cemented in Stone.

She didn’t mind if the slogan was cheesy or not. No one ever married thinking they’d get divorced, did they? Maddy hadn’t the first time, and she didn’t this time either. Life could warp reality sometimes, and sometimes people did that to themselves. Everyone handled stress and bad luck and depressing times in different ways, and no two brains functioned the same.

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