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“Well, yeah, because it all worked out!” Her mom smiled but Avery could see the sheepishness behind her grin.
“What did you do?” Avery asked.
“Well see now, do ya remember when those gals got poison ivy?”
“Mom, no.” Avery shook her head. “You didn’t.”
“No.” Her mom lifted her hands in the air. “No, no, no. I didn’t. But now well, I might have encouraged Doris, Pearl, and Betsy to go ahead and send those gals bouquets of poison ivy. But they came up with the plan, I swear.”
Doris Weathersby, Pearl Chen, and Betsy Dobrinski aka The Needlepoint Mafia were famous, or should she say infamous for playing cupid to single adults in Whisper Lake. They had appointed themselves the town matchmakers, but sometimes, like this time, they went too far. No one had ever had actual evidence of their shenanigans, and Avery worried they might put a hit on her mom for snitching. Not really, but she would definitely not accept any flower deliveries if she was her.
“Anyhoo, it’s been weighin’ on my conscience, ya know because they didn’t get to go on the show and all.”
Before Avery could respond, the door flew open, and Jacob ran inside.
“You ready mom?!” Jacob asked excitedly.
“Yes.” She stood and hugged her mom.
At first, Blanche froze. They didn’t really do hugs. But after a few seconds, she relaxed and wrapped her arms around Avery. “I love you, baby girl.”
“I love you, too, Mama.” Avery pulled back and wiped the tears that had sprung up in her eyes away.
She took her son’s arm, but he stopped. “Why are you crying? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, I’m crying because I’m happy.” That and she might be a little hormonal thanks to the pregnancy.
Jacob didn’t look totally convinced, so he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly and told her how beautiful she was and how much he loved her. That didn’t help with the tear situation.
Avery needed to face facts, today was the happiest day of her life, and she was probably going to spend most of it crying. And she was okay with that.
* * *
“Hello everyone, my name is Blanche Bardot. I’m the mother of the beautiful bride.” Blanche smiled and waved to the two hundred plus people seated at the reception as she spoke into the microphone. Keaton had tried to keep the guest list short, but that was impossible in Whisper Lake. “Now, I have a story to tell that same beautiful bride might not be too pleased about, but I’m gonna tell it anyway. Most of you know that Avery and Keaton filmed a little show calledFairytale Lovelast summer, but I don’t know how many of you know that Keaton and Avery met long before that.
“Six years ago they spent a beautiful two weeks together fallin’ in love. Then, life happened, literally, and they went their separate ways. Now, before last summer I didn’t know anything about this love affair, mind you, not a thing, But I had heard Keaton’s name before. Ya see about, mmm, four years ago, Avery had to get her wisdom teeth pulled.”
“Mom, no! Don’t!” Avery shouted beside him. Keaton looked at her and saw her face turn bright red. He had no clue what Blanche was about to say but from Avery’s reaction, he was all ears.
Blanche did not heed her daughter’s warning as she continued, “Now I volunteered to drive my baby girl home after the dentist, and let’s just say she was feeling good. They gave her thegoodstuff.”
Avery buried her face in her hands as she shook her head back and forth and muttered no over and over.
“Color me confused when we were drivin’ back from the dentist, and she kept giggling and repeating a name over and over. Do y’all wanna guess what name that was?”
Keaton looked at Avery as several people in the crowd shouted his name. Her hands were still covering her face.
“That’s right, it was one Mr. Keaton Savage. And the thing is, my baby girl wasn’t just sayin’ his name y’all, she was sayin’ that she loved him, that she was going tomarryhim. She even made me sing “Going to the Chapel” over and over again, until she fell asleep.”
There was a mixture of clapping and laughing in the crowd.
“Now, in case you don’t believe me, I have proof. Please enjoy this never-before-seen footage.”
That got Avery to stop hiding.
“What?!” she asked as she looked up in time to see herself on the large white screen that had been playing a photo montage of them on loop go black. Then a video started of Avery laying on a couch with cotton in her mouth with her eyes shut. In the background of the recording, Blanche was singing “Going to the Chapel.”
“Keaton Savage, I love him!” Avery declared loudly, her mouth stuffed with cotton. “I’m going to marry him. Keaton Savage. Keaton Savage. I’m going to marry Keaton Savage.” Blanche finished the song and Avery’s eyes opened. “Sing, Mama! Sing!” Blanche started the song over and Avery smiled and closed her eyes. “Keaton Savage. Keaton Savage. Keaton Savage. I love him. I’m gonna marry him.”
