Wedding Bell Blues Read online

  There was one last picture. Kaitlin flipped the page. The man was sweeping the woman into his arms and carrying her into an attractive hotel room. Sexy, but absolutely not explicit. Kaitlin had discarded idea after idea until she and Janis had come up with this one. And she was sure they had it just right.

  But Harley was quiet for several long, long moments. Netty merely sat with her lips pursed, and it seemed that Tom didn’t dare say a word until one of them spoke.

  Then Harley slammed his hand against the table and pulled a plump cigar from his coat pocket. “I like it! By golly, I like it.” He swung around to Netty. “Well, Netty?”

  Kaitlin held her breath. Then Netty nodded slowly. “Except, of course, that I want to see these people when you’ve chosen the actor and actress. I don’t want youngsters out there, truly, I don’t.”

  “Netty, I promise, I’ll make them both thirty,” Kaitlin swore solemnly.

  “And I want to see the bathing suit.”

  “I’ve got a picture in my office.” She glanced at Janis, who didn’t need to hear a word. She quickly left the conference room, and returned with the picture while they discussed media other than television and the way the campaign might be modified.

  Netty seemed pleased, and Garrett Harley seemed pleased, so Tom seemed pleased, too. They shook hands all around.

  Samantha brought in the contracts, which were promptly signed, and everyone shook hands again. And then finally—finally!—Harley and crew were gone.

  “Blessed Mary!” Kaitlin exclaimed, falling back into the swivel chair at the head of the table, then hopping up to hug both Samantha and Janis. “We did it! No muss, no fuss. We’ve got it! The Seashell commercial! Sam, call Danny in here. We’ve got to celebrate. There’s a bottle of champagne in my fridge—I bought it just in case. Get Danny, and we’ll have a toast.”

  Sam, grinning, ran out. Danny was Kaitlin’s artist, an amazing young man who could create beautiful illusions and more—he could understand everything going on in Kaitlin’s mind and get it on paper.

  Janis shook her head. “I don’t believe we did it!” Then she wagged a finger at Kaitlin. “And you almost blew it. Boy, was Harley getting edgy when you didn’t walk in here precisely on the hour. What happened? Nothing bad, I hope?”

  “No. My cousin is getting married, too. Donna. In Massachusetts. And I’m going to be her maid of honor.”

  Janis arched a brow. “Your grandmother and your cousin, all in one day? Maybe it’s in the water,” she said, echoing Kaitlin’s original thought. Then she sighed wistfully. “Wish I could drink some of that stuff.”

  “Don’t you dare. I’m going to need you here. I’m going to have to go back and forth to Massachusetts a few times, I’m sure.”

  “Never fear, Janis is here,” she teased. Then her eyes widened. “No, wait, go right ahead, fear away. Panic, in fact! You are going to see to this commercial shoot before you leave, right? Oh, please, say right!”

  “We’ve got Harley in the bag, and I plan to shoot by the end of the week. I want to shoot right on the beach, and we’ll use Addison’s Resort. I’ve already made a few tentative arrangements. It’s elegant and has beautiful rooms. I’ll guarantee everything this afternoon. And I’ll call the talent agency and reserve the models I want. I already asked for Mark Ford and Cissy Grissom. They should be perfect. This is going to be perfect. Perfect! I don’t see a problem in the world.”

  And she believed it. When Danny came in, she hugged him fiercely, then managed a bit of a speech telling them all that they’d accomplished a tremendous coup, sweeping Seashell Products away from some really hefty competition.

  That afternoon she was able to make all the arrangements, and that night, she took the whole crew to dinner, where she drank more champagne, forgetting until she got home that champagne gave her an awful headache.

  In the morning, she awoke with too many memories.

  So, Gram was getting married.

  She, at least, was having the decency to go through a small and simple ceremony.

  But Donna’s wedding…

  Donna’s would be sumptuous. Kaitlin’s beautiful, dark-haired cousin would make a stunning bride. She’d wear a long white gown, just as Kaitlin had always dreamed of doing.

  Well, Kaitlin told herself, that dream was over now. She could never dress in white, that was certain. And she had no right to envy Donna; she had already been a bride. She’d never had the wedding of her dreams, but she had been a bride.

  What were dreams, anyway?

  Nothing but crystal illusions to be shattered. The wedding she and Brendan had promised one another had never come about. Brendan’s cousin had been killed in an automobile accident, and the wedding had been called off.

  That hadn’t mattered then. To all of them, Sean had been all that mattered.

  She would never forget going to see Brendan the day after Sean had died, and she would never forget the funeral. Brendan’s cousin Sean would have been his best man; the two had been best friends forever. Brendan hadn’t cried. He had just stood there in the pouring rain, in the gray of the day, staring at the coffin where Sean lay. She’d been there. At his side. She’d cried for Sean, and she’d cried again that night. Her father had held her and told her that that was the worst part of growing up, the death of love and friendship and innocence. The death of dreams. Meeting the reality of life.

  For Brendan, it had been a death of innocence indeed. After that he hadn’t wanted to see Kaitlin. He should have been clinging to her; she should have been comforting him. But no one could reach him.

  And then she’d gone away to school, while Brendan had stayed at home. She’d never stopped loving him, but she hadn’t been able to reach him. And when he had enrolled in January, he had been different. Brooding, quiet, angry. Always angry. But she hadn’t stopped loving him….

  He had hurt her, though, and she had wanted to hurt him in return. He’d said that he was ready to plan the wedding again, but even as she called the caterers and tried to make arrangements long distance, something was unraveling on her. They nearly lived together. They continued to make love, wildly, passionately. But she didn’t seem able to touch him anymore.

  And then one night he didn’t show up when he was supposed to. James Brager did, though. James was one of Brendan’s best friends, and that night he was so sweet and so good to her that she found herself pouring out her heart to him. And then James kissed her. There was no passion in it, just friendship.

  But Brendan, who had shown up at last, didn’t see it that way.

  She would never forget how his eyes had looked that night. Fierce. Burning. There had been something about his face that had reminded her of the day he had stood by the grave, at Sean’s funeral. Another death of innocence, Kaitlin’s father might have said. She could have given him an explanation, but Brendan didn’t want it. Not after he’d walked in and found them together. His rage had been terrible, and the fight that followed even worse. The shouting, the things they said. Until he had tossed her on the bed and made love to her in a frenzy. She had fought at first, but then she had clung to him, praying that they could get back something of the love they’d known….

  But they hadn’t. He had left. And the next thing she knew, he had volunteered for the Navy.

  And then she found out about the baby.

  Kaitlin rose, ignoring her headache, suddenly more aware of the agony of memory than of any present pain. She staggered into the bathroom, took two aspirin and decided that she looked every bit of her thirty years. No, she looked more. Much, much more.

  She called the office and said she would be late. Sam sounded unhappy—as if she wished she could have called in late, too.

  Oh, well, there were some advantages to being the boss, Kaitlin thought.

  She started perking coffee, planning the shoot in her head. Then the phone rang, and she answered it. It was another one of her cousins, this one local. Soon after Kaitlin had graduated, Barbara had come south and l
ived with her for several years before falling in love and eventually moving in with her beloved down the street. Joe was another transplant from Massachusetts, and he had gone to the university, then fallen in love with the sunlight and the South and stayed on. He was a musician with one bad marriage behind him, but Barbara stayed with him, believing in her heart that one day Joe would realize that she was a very different woman from his ex-wife, and marry her and raise a family with her.

  They had been living together for six years. Kaitlin had to give Barbara credit for tenacity. It had taken Joe two years to let her move in, another two for him to allow her to bring in any furniture. Now it seemed they were married, they were such a normal couple. They were happy, and Kaitlin knew that Joe really loved her cousin. He just had difficulty with the marriage idea.

  “Hey, Barbara, how’d you know I’d be home?” Kaitlin asked.

  “’Cause I called the office,” Barbara said. There was an edge of excitement in her voice, but Kaitlin’s head was pounding and she was busy plugging in the coffeepot, and she didn’t hear it. “You delinquent,” Barbara accused. “What did you do? Go out drinking champagne?”

  “Precisely.”

  “You landed Garret Harley’s account. Congratulations. And now, guess what?”

  Kaitlin leaned against the kitchen counter. “I don’t know, but don’t tell me you’re getting married.”

  There was silence on the other end.

  “Barbara?”

  Then she heard her cousin inhale and exhale. “But, Kaitlin,” she said, and her voice sounded hurt, “I am getting married.” Then all the tremendous excitement returned. “Kaitlin, believe it or not—finally!—he wants to get married. I thought you’d be ecstatic for me. I know you’ve been with me through thick and thin on this one. Kaitlin—”

  “Wait, wait, wait!” Kaitlin said. “You’re serious? Joe proposed?”

  “Proposed, put a diamond on my finger and even got us a church date.”

  “Oh, Barbara! That’s wonderful. I really am happy for you! It’s just such a—a surprise.”

  Barbara giggled. “I guess it is. After the week you’ve already been having.”

  “You heard about Gram?”

  “I have.”

  “She called you already?”

  “No, Donna called me already. So I know about Gram. And Donna. And Donna knows about me. And I know that you’re going to be her maid of honor, but I want you to be mine, too. You should be mine, actually. I mean, we live so close, it seems we spend half our lives together.”

  “I’d—I’d love to be your maid of honor, too. When is the wedding?”

  The pang, the stupid little nasty pang, struck her again. Hard, this time. Like a knife right to the heart. She clenched her teeth and ignored it. No one deserved this kind of happiness more than Barbara. It was just that Joe and Brendan were friends, and thinking of one man made her think of the other, too.

  The past seemed to be crashing down upon her.

  Go away! she screamed in silence. Then the pain faded, and she was truly happy, happy for Barbara.

  She listened to Barbara, trying to think. If Donna’s wedding was in October and Barbara’s was in November, it could work. She would just have to do a lot of running back and forth, but she loved them both. How could she turn down either one of them?

  And then there was her grandmother…but that would be over very soon. While she was listening, she scratched a note on her wall calendar to buy something nice for dinner that weekend. If Gram loved this nice Mr. Rosen, than Kaitlin was going to do her best to make him happy, comfortable and well-fed.

  “Well?” Barbara prompted.

  “Everything sounds fine,” Kaitlin told her. “Oh, Barbara! Finally! After all this time! And he really wants a big wedding, the whole works?”

  “He said that he’d do it however I wanted to do it.” She laughed suddenly. “Don’t forget—my parents still think I’m living with you.”

  Kaitlin was certain that Barbara’s parents didn’t really think so—they just wanted to—but she couldn’t see any reason to remind Barbara of that now, when she was about to become legally wed—and totally legitimate.

  “There’s more to tell you,” Barbara said. Then she was suddenly in a rush. “But I’ll have to call back. Just promise me that you’ll do it. You won’t back out if things get a little sticky?”

  “Sticky? What should get sticky?” Kaitlin asked.

  “I’ll explain later. But if you can handle it for Donna, then you can handle it for me.”

  “Handle it? What—”

  “Oh! Donna didn’t tell you? We’re sharing more than a maid of honor. I can’t get into it now, though. Just promise me you’ll do it. Be my maid of honor. Promise me! I just realized I’m late as heck for work, and I’m not my own boss. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

  “Fine,” Kaitlin said. “I promise.” Then she hung up and stared out the window. “Damn!” she whispered aloud. “It must be something in the water.”

  She did make it to work by late afternoon. As she strolled through the attractive outer office she paused by Sam’s desk. “Screen my relatives for me, will you, Sam?”

  “Your family?” Sam said, amazed.

  Kaitlin nodded dryly. “If they’re calling to ask me to be in a wedding, tell them I’ve disappeared. Even if they’re only calling to ask me to a wedding, you can still tell them I’ve disappeared.” She walked into her office and managed to get some scheduling done. She reached the director she wanted for the Seashell commercial, and she got Sally from the agency to verify that she had the actor and actress Kaitlin wanted.

  That night she tried to reach Barbara, but all she got was the answering machine. She left Joe her congratulations and Barbara a message to get back to her. Knowing that she would be at the beach shooting all the next day, she left the resort’s phone number.

  The day of the commercial dawned beautifully.

  Kaitlin arrived at Addison’s Resort, on the Key, to find that her director and her actors had already arrived. Netty was in the coffee shop, and Janis drove up just as she did, bringing the swimsuits, the accessories and, of course, the product, Seashell Sunblock.

  Kaitlin met Janis in the suite she had rented for the shoot and smiled. “So far, so good,” she told her, then ran through her checklist again. Danny was on his way to set up the scene. He should arrive by the time Mark and Cissy were dressed and ready to go.

  “Let’s leave the suite to Mark and Cissy. We’ll start with the beach scene. We’ll meet Lenny down by the pool and grab some coffee ourselves. How does that sound?”

  “Great,” Janis said. “Why do I feel so jittery? As if something’s bound to go wrong?”

  “Nothing is going to go wrong,” Kaitlin assured her. She herself felt great. Things seemed to be moving perfectly.

  Lenny was already downstairs at one of the huge umbrella tables by the pool overlooking the beautiful white sands of the private beach. He pointed out his cameramen by the water, busily checking light levels and their equipment.

  “I just hope we finish today,” Lenny told her. He was thirty-three, blond and balding, and possessed of a definitely artistic temperament, but he was quick to laugh at himself and able to work well with Kaitlin’s ideas. She used him as often as she was able to get him.

  “Why shouldn’t we?” she asked him with a frown. The wind was picking up by the water. She was wearing sunglasses, a big, droopy straw hat and a candy-striped sleeveless dress cinched at the waist with a wide red belt. It had been a mistake. Even as she sat at the table, the wind whipped at her skirt.

  “Mark is having some problems.”

  With his lover? Kaitlin wondered. Mark Ford was a gorgeous male. Tall, dark, extremely hunky. He was also gay, but he was usually dependable and wonderful to work with. Kaitlin had chosen him very carefully. She liked him a lot, knew he liked her, and couldn’t believe that he would jeopardize such an important job.

  “It’s been
touch and go with one of his favorite aunts,” Lenny told her. “Cancer. He was just on the phone in the hallway.”

  “Oh,” she said softly. “I’m sorry.” She was sorry. And she hoped that God would forgive her if she prayed that Mark’s aunt stayed alive until after the shoot.

  She realized how horrible she was being and told herself that they would just have to reschedule. Even as she did so, the waiter came up, and handed her the phone. “Call for you, Ms. O’Herlihy.”

  Kaitlin thanked him and picked up the receiver. It was Barbara.

  “Barbara!” She had wanted to talk to her cousin so badly, and she had thought that she’d have plenty of time, waiting around the set.

  “I’ll check on things. I see Cissy coming,” Lenny whispered to her.

  “Thanks!” she said and watched him walk toward the model. “Barbara, I may have to get back to you—” she began. Then she noticed that Cissy was pouting at something Lenny said. The model stamped a foot.

  “Kaitlin? You okay? Got a second? I just wanted to get back to you about what I was saying the other night.”

  “Yes, yes, of course. This mystery thing,” she murmured. What was going on? Cissy was shouting about something.

  Cissy, unlike Mark, was not easy to work with. She was stunningly beautiful, and she knew it. She thought that she should have been discovered for big-time movies by now.

  Barbara was saying something. Kaitlin, watching the exchange between Cissy and Lenny, wasn’t really listening.

  “We share the same best man, too.”

  “Really?” Kaitlin murmured politely.