By Invitation Only Read online

  “Excuse me? For your information, I am perfectly capable of providing a very nice dinner for the people I am obliged to feed. And maybe they don’t want to have a royal wedding? Have you considered that?”

  “So it looks like you’re going to have to come to Chicago in the dead of winter. Great.”

  “Have you even heard one word that I’ve said?”

  “Thank you, Diane. Thank you very much. You’ve ruined my wedding.”

  “I’m sorry, are you and Alejandro renewing your vows?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “Well, if you and Alejandro aren’t renewing your vows, it’s not your wedding.”

  “It most certainly is my wedding. It’s my damn wedding and I am not going to sit here and let you and your son brainwash my daughter and ruin the whole thing without telling you how much I don’t appreciate it.”

  “You know what, Susan? I have the feeling I’m not getting all the facts. I’m going to call my son. I’ll get back to you.”

  “You do whatever you want. The damage is done.”

  “One other thing, Susan. In my world we don’t speak to each other this way.”

  The phone went silent. Susan disconnected me.

  I looked at my mother and said, “I think she hung up on me.”

  “Maybe it was a bad connection,” she said.

  “I doubt it.”

  “You want to tell me what happened?”

  “I don’t know what happened. I’m calling Fred. Apparently, they’ve moved the wedding to January.”

  “She’s pregnant.”

  “Who knows? Maybe she is. But I just got an earful from Susan about how moving the wedding up ruins her life.”

  “Her mind’s unstable.”

  “And how it’s my fault.”

  “It is not. She’s overreaching by even thinking you should go along with her plan to feed the world. And pregnant or not, Shelby’s right to have a hand in her own wedding plans. Six more months of listening to Susan go on like she does would put everyone in a nuthouse.”

  “She thinks it’s her wedding, not Shelby’s. She actually said that it’s our financial situation that caused Shelby and Fred to change their plans. Can you believe she said that?”

  “I believe anything these days. People have no manners. It wouldn’t matter who’s in the White House, the people say such awful things that in my day would’ve been considered treasonous.”

  “It’s true. I’ve got a dollar that says they changed the date because she was so overbearing and obnoxious they couldn’t stand it for another minute.”

  “Well, I’ve got a couple of thoughts. One, I think Shelby has better sense than I thought, and this makes me like her more. And two? Susan with the two last names is a spoiled, superficial nobody dying to impress the world with her husband’s money.”

  “No argument from me. Boy, she was really rude.”

  “After the wedding you hardly ever have to see her again.”

  “Of course I will. There will be babies and holidays and graduations and all sorts of reasons I’ll be stuck in a room with her.”

  “Well, maybe. Just try to keep it to a minimum.”

  “I have the feeling she feels the same way.”

  I tapped Fred’s number into my phone and got his voice mail. My first thought was that he was avoiding me. And then I realized he might be busy. It was a workday, after all. I didn’t leave a message because I knew he could see that I called. And I told myself that of course he knew why I was calling. Perhaps he wanted to have that discussion away from the office. For all he knew I could be as out of my mind as Susan was.

  “Let’s get these pies ready to go in the oven, shall we?” Mom said.

  “We shall,” I said and giggled.

  Strangely, I was not as insulted as I probably should have been. The truth is, I knew what she thought of us the first time I met her. She was horrified. And seeing her home in Chicago only underscored my thoughts. Our lives were worlds apart. We had almost zero in common except that our children were in love and about to be married. And it was the children I really cared about.

  The day seemed to go quickly, as they always did when I was very busy. I wondered if Susan would tell her husband about her phone call to me. I wondered what he would think if she did. Was Shelby given to this kind of behavior? Not so far as I knew. Susan was not only rude, she was irrational. What sane adult speaks to another adult, a prospective in-law no less, that way?

  It was just after six when Fred called.

  “Hi, Mom. What’s going on?”

  “Well, I had a phone call from Shelby’s mother this morning.”

  “Yeah, I was going to call you tonight anyway. So good. Um, so . . .”

  “You’re moving your wedding to January.”

  “Yeah, we are. Look, Shelby and I just want to get married. We don’t want to be on the front page of the newspaper for having held the most extravagant wedding ever. Mrs. Cambria had all these crazy plans and it just got out of control.”

  “I see.”

  “Shelby was crying all the time and fighting with her mother, like, every day over one thing or another. She just couldn’t stand it. I wasn’t as opposed to the plans as Shelby was, but I didn’t want us to be dragged into a wedding neither one of us really wanted.”

  “And she’s not pregnant?”

  “Good grief! No! She’s not pregnant! Why is everyone asking that? Do we look that stupid?”

  “It’s a legitimate question given the circumstances.”

  “I guess.”

  “So do we have a date?”

  “Saturday, the twenty-eighth.”

  “Okay. I just wrote that down. How’s she going to get a dress that fast?”

  “You don’t know Shelby. She’ll have a dress by this weekend. And Mom? Shelby and I want to help with the rehearsal dinner. You know, we each have a pretty big chunk of money in our savings accounts.”

  “I see. That’s awfully nice. Well, why don’t you and Shelby choose a restaurant, figure out who’s going to be in your wedding party, and then we can see what it all looks like.”

  “We even had a thought about having it at our apartment.”

  “Probably too small if you go over twenty people. But y’all decide and I’m right there with you. Look at a couple of options, Fred. And then y’all choose.”

  “After all, we’re not exactly kids.”

  “That’s right. You’re not. I think the most important thing is that you have the wedding you want. Please tell Shelby I admire her personal restraint. It’s a greatly undervalued quality in today’s world.”

  “I will. Can I ask you something?”

  “Of course.”

  “How terrible was her mother on the phone?”

  “She has no personal restraint. Whatsoever. At all.”

  “That bad?”

  “Yes, it was very ugly. No filter.”

  “What did she say?”

  “Son? They were the words of a very angry woman who feels cheated. Let’s not go there. I prefer to forget it ever happened.”

  “And so now I have to admire your personal restraint.”

  “Love you, Fred. With all my heart. We will get y’all through this unscathed.”

  “Families are crazy, Mom. But you’re the greatest. Gosh, I love you so much.”

  “As you should.”

  We laughed and said good-bye.

  Later that night, after the supper dishes were all washed and dried and my mother had gone to her room to read, I went outside to have a look at the sky. It was a quiet night, the air crisp and cool. I sat down on the front steps. Gus the cat appeared from the shadows and rubbed up against me, asking for a scratch, which I gave him.

  “Come here, you furry old thing.”

  Gus purred and crawled onto my lap. I had a clear view of a nearly full moon that was hanging up in the heavens, something not quite fully formed. I thought about Fred. I had not lost him to Shelby’s family.
In fact, he was a bit like the moon, quickly becoming a fully realized man. I was so proud of him. I loved that he supported Shelby when she wanted to stand up to her mother. I loved that they insisted on having control of their lives.

  Susan was a real humdinger, like my father used to say. Maybe she could manipulate everyone else in her life, but she wasn’t going to do it to my son and his fiancée. Or me. I surely did not like the terrible things she said to me, but she had no business having the expectations she had of me in the first place. Still, it took her bullying for Fred and Shelby to pull the ripcord. Her plan had backfired. And I was surprised and happy that Fred and Shelby wanted to be a part of planning their rehearsal dinner. After all, it was their wedding, not Susan’s.

  And what of Alden? What was there to be done, anyway? I was having trouble sleeping at night. Between Dad’s death and having Alden snatched away from right beneath my nose, how was I supposed to sleep? What exactly did I want from him? I thought again, as I had a thousand times, about the night we were together at Fred’s rehearsal party, dancing. I remembered feeling his breath on my neck. I missed him. Then I thought about Betsy Beyer. How was I supposed to compete with her? Younger. Prettier. Stylish. Gregarious. Obviously available. Yale. I hated her guts. Did that mean I was in love with Alden? Had I ever really been in love?

  The screen door slammed behind me. My mother was on the porch.

  “You going to bed? It’s almost ten. I want to lock up,” she said.

  “I’ll be along directly,” I said. “You go on. I’ll close up the house.”

  She ignored that and sat down next to me. Gus left me and climbed on her lap.

  “Come here, Gus baby. Our Fred,” she said and sighed her signature sigh. “How do you like our Fred?”

  “He’s got spine. He’s not going to be railroaded by anyone. I like that very much.”

  “Miss Susan Two Last Names doesn’t know who she’s dealing with. He gets his courage from us.”

  “We are a determined tribe, aren’t we?” I said.

  “Yes. Some of us are more determined than others.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “If you want something, you go and get it. If you don’t want that thing, you let it go and stop brooding.”

  “I’m not brooding.”

  She stood up and Gus jumped from her lap.

  “Come on, Gus. I need you to warm my bones.” She patted my shoulder. “Who’s going to warm yours, Diane? Who’s going to warm yours?”

  “Maybe I’ll get a dog,” I said.

  “Well, you’d better decide before it’s too late,” she said.

  She went inside and left me sitting there in the dark. For the next few minutes I contemplated my options. I had been so surprised to see Alden at Pop’s funeral with a woman. I was thrown off guard by Betsy’s unexpected appearance and her proprietary attitude. The rest is history! That’s what she’d said. Really? She was too pushy for my blood. And Alden was being led around by the nose. What happened to him? Soon she’d have Alden eating out of a dog bowl. I couldn’t stand by and let that happen. He was too good for her. No, she had to go.

  Chapter 16

  Chicago Fire

  “Was I so terrible?” Susan said.

  “Yes,” Judy CQ said.

  When Alejandro came in from work that night, I put a glass of wine in his hand and started to tell him about the unfortunate conversation I’d had to have with Diane earlier that day.

  “You said what?” Alejandro said.

  “I told her I was not happy about moving the wedding up to January. Because I’m not.”

  “And what else did you say? I know you said something terrible, because you have that twitch in your cheek you always get when you’ve done something regrettable.”

  “Oh, God. I might have said the children’s rebellion was her fault because she wasn’t willing or able to properly entertain our guests the night before. You know, the rehearsal dinner.”

  “Good grief, Susan. That’s really rather low.”

  “Well, it’s the truth,” I said.

  “My dear, some truths are better left unspoken. We’ve been down this road before when your sharp tongue gets the better of you.”

  “Perhaps.”

  “You know you must apologize to her.”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “Yes, absolutely you will. Do you want our daughter to begin her married life with an alienated in-law?”

  “She’s not going to be unkind to Shelby. She might resist my charms, but she’s not the kind of woman who would punish a child because of something her parent did. Besides, Frederick and Shelby will be living in Chicago. It’s not like his family is next door.”

  “Out of sight, out of mind? Please, Susan. Pick up the phone and apologize. She really had nothing to do with Shelby and Frederick changing the date. You shouldn’t blame her.”

  “Well, then, whose fault is it?”

  Alejandro’s eyebrows were arched as high as they would go. He said nothing. That was the moment I saw that perhaps I had gone overboard. But I still loved the butterfly idea, even if they were endangered. They were bugs! Okay? Bugs! Phillipe, my floral designer from Ashland, and I had another idea to build an indoor garden with a bridge over a koi pond for photo ops. He was researching the cost of full-size peach trees laden with fruit to be in the background. Or we were considering building a faux rain forest if Shelby and Frederick were considering someplace like Costa Rica for a honeymoon, which is very popular these days. We could bring in those red macaws that are so incredible. But Africa? Should we think about giraffes and other animals? Maasai dancers from the Maasai Mara? Monkeys? I had not told Alejandro about the alternatives and I couldn’t bring myself to do it then. Okay, maybe it was because it was all a bit much. Maybe. Oh, what’s the use, I thought, I can’t be at odds with everyone.

  “All right. I’ll call her in the morning.”

  “There’s a good girl. Now, what’s for dinner?”

  “I booked a table at the Palm.”

  We had a lovely dinner and turned in early that night.

  “I have a conference call at six in the morning,” he said, sitting on the side of the bed, setting the alarm clock.

  He got under the covers and turned off the lamp.

  “When don’t you have a conference call first thing in the morning?” I said, climbing into bed.

  “Well, the fund isn’t performing as well as I had hoped this quarter. This Brexit business is throwing a wrench in the European markets, so I’ve got to move things around. Otherwise, I’m going to have a real mess on my hands.”

  I never understood what he meant, because finance wasn’t my thing. Volunteer work was my thing, and at least I could usually work from home.

  “What can I do to help?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. A dozen new investors would be wonderful.”

  “Well, I don’t know a dozen, but you do have several people waiting for an opening. Remember, the problem was always that your minimum to buy in was too high. Most people don’t have five million in cash lying around. They’ve got it all tied up.”

  “I’m aware. But most people don’t see returns like I can produce.”

  “I love your gorgeous brain.”

  “Maybe I’ll lower the minimum until this storm blows over.”

  “Excellent idea!”

  He was quiet, and I looked over his shoulder to see that he was already asleep. How he could fall asleep just like that was another mystery. It was as though he just pressed a button and boom! He was in dreamland. Not me. I had to mentally organize my next day and reevaluate the one I’d just lived, which of course brought me back to the problem of Diane. I would call her and simply apologize. She couldn’t help it that she wasn’t as wealthy as we were.

  Chapter 17

  Onions Make You Cry

  “I would have told her to stuff it,” Virnell said.

  “She’s terrible! What can you do?” Diane said
.

  It was December twenty-third. I still had not worked up the courage to call Alden. I’d been busy, as I always was around the holidays. I’d call him when I could think of an excuse to that wouldn’t give him a chance to reject me. And I’d be nonchalant and just sort of test the temperature of his waters. He could also be on his honeymoon by now for all I knew.

  My cell phone rang. It was across the room on the counter by the sink, where Mom was washing up the breakfast dishes.

  “It’s the queen of Chicago calling,” she said, looking at the caller ID. “Probably to bow and scrape in shame.”

  “Well, I doubt that,” I said, and took the phone from her, tapping the Accept button. “Hello?”

  “Diane, it’s Susan.” She sighed. “I’m calling to say I’m sorry for my unforgivable bad manners. I truly regret the things I said.”

  I didn’t say a word. I just waited for her to continue.

  “Are you there?” she said.

  “I’m here,” I said. “I’m listening.”

  Did she think I was going to gush all over her? This wasn’t high school.

  She cleared her throat and continued.

  “I think I was just so upset by the children’s change of plans. Anyway, I’m sorry.”

  “I accept your apology, but I think you should know something.”

  “And what should I know?” She said this with a trace of frost.

  “My son is not a child, and neither is your daughter.” I said it nicely.

  “I imagine you’re right. It’s so hard, this business of letting go.”

  “It is, but I raised Fred to make good decisions. If he says he wants to get married tomorrow, it’s all right with me. I trust him.”

  “Well, that’s nice. But I’m deeply disappointed. But you were right. It is their wedding. Not mine.”

  “Well, please let me know as their new plans come together so we can make arrangements for our side. And by the way, they are organizing their rehearsal dinner by themselves. So you and I can stop stressing over that one.”