The Wedding Circle Read online

  Maura Beth had been waiting for this moment for a long time. Perhaps she could finally explain who she was to her mother in person, since all the phone calls, cards, and e-mails over the years had not put a dent in Cara Lynn’s stubborn misconceptions. “Do you remember when you took me by the hand and enrolled me in the New Orleans’ Library’s summer reading program?”

  “Yes, of course I do.”

  “Why did you do that? Do you remember?”

  Cara Lynn looked more surprised than puzzled. “I don’t know. I guess I thought it would help you read better and that would help you do better in school. I’m not sure I really give it that much thought at the time. The other mothers in my crowd were doing it, so I went along with it, too.”

  Maura Beth managed a gracious smile. “Well, I’m glad you did, regardless of the reason. As you know, I loved reading. I loved all my little picture books and read as many as I could get my hands on.”

  “Yes, I loved reading to you just before bedtime. It was sweet when you looked up at me and tried to repeat some of the words. Every time you tried to say, ‘Once upon a time,’ it came out, ‘One tie tie.’ ”

  Maura Beth detected a softening of her mother’s attitude and decided to proceed. “And I loved it when you read to me, Mama. Things were so simple back then. I miss that simplicity. Can’t we get back to that again?”

  Cara Lynn put her hands on her hips, briefly looking up at the trees. “That all sounds nice, but I think you’re the one who’s made everything complicated. You won’t budge on your wedding plans. Well, I guess that’s not quite true. As you just said, you did agree to wear my dress down the aisle. There is going to be one, isn’t there? An aisle, I mean.”

  “Yes, of course, Mama. Just not in a church. But please try to understand. The entire New Orleans experience, The Three-Hundred Club—it was all pleasant enough growing up. And I know it means a lot to you. I’m just not sure it means nearly as much to me. To be honest with you—well, it was almost suffocating at times.”

  Cara Lynn looked astonished as she brought her hands down to her side. “Having access to the finer things in life is suffocating? Having friends from nice families is somehow a burden?”

  “No, that’s not what I meant.” Maura Beth took a few moments to work it all out in her head. She had never put her feelings into words quite this way, and she wanted to be careful not to make things worse. “It was just that you and Daddy seemed to have everything planned for me—from ballroom dancing class to where I should go to college to my debut—you never asked me, you just told me. What I might want never seemed to enter into the equation. And somewhere along the way, I decided that what I wanted was to be a librarian. To be around books and literature and all kinds of information. I liked the idea of having the answers, or at least helping people try to find them. Maybe that doesn’t make a lot of sense to you, but it’s the best I can do.”

  Cara Lynn threw her hands in the air, but it registered more like resignation than annoyance. “Well, I don’t know who you take after with this business of doing things your own way and the rest of us be damned. I remember in the first grade when Miss Katie Hyde told you everyone was going to color with blue crayons that day, and she called me up later and said you refused to cooperate and were going to color in red. And you did, too. But she wouldn’t even give you a bad deportment grade because she said you were so cute with all that red hair. She was sure that was why you wanted to use the red.” Cara Lynn paused to reflect with a strange smile on her face. “It’s that red hair of yours, you know. That recessive gene, wherever it came from. I’ve come to the conclusion that you redheads answer to no one but yourself. But you weren’t content with that. You had to go and be a redheaded librarian to boot!”

  Maura Beth was certain she sensed a significant crack in the armor and immediately seized the opportunity. “Aren’t I just awful?”

  Finally, they both laughed. Gentle laughter, to be sure, but a genuine release of much-needed tension.

  It did not stop Cara Lynn from giving it one last try, however. “So there’s absolutely nothing I can say or do to convince you to have your wedding in your own church in your own hometown? You’re going to insist on having people traipse up here this long way for this little fishing lodge to-do?”

  “Mama, it would mean so much to me if you and Daddy would go along with it. And I know for a fact that Connie will cooperate with you in any way you like. She only wants to please us. She’s made that clear from the beginning.”

  “Oh, this isn’t about her,” Cara Lynn insisted. “She’s been a wonderful hostess. It’s not even about the testy words I had with Susan McShay. This is about you and me. Your father will do what I tell him to do. At least most of the time.” Cara Lynn wiped her brow with the back of her hand. “Look, let’s head on back into that air-conditioning before we both burn to a crisp without a drop of sunscreen on. Especially since you can now say I’ve seen where your new library is going up. And, yes, I think it’s nice that you’re responsible for it. I get it—concrete evidence of your life here in Cherico. Are they at least going to name it after you?”

  They began to retrace their steps, this time with a little more urgency. “No, they’re not. It’s going to be called The Charles Durden Sparks, Crumpton, and Duddney Public Library.”

  “What? Who are all those people?!”

  Maura Beth chuckled under her breath. “Rich benefactors.”

  As they reached the steps, Cara Lynn had her nose out of joint once again. “Well, you ought to insist that your name be in there somewhere. That is, if this library business means as much to you as you say it does.”

  “Of course it does. But never mind that. I’ll be given sufficient credit when the time comes.” Just before they reached the deck doors, Maura Beth gave her mother a brief, impulsive hug. “Can we at least say we’ve reached a truce on my wedding plans? I need to know that.”

  Cara Lynn pulled away slightly, and Maura Beth was relieved to see that there was a smile on her face. “Well, it’s nice to know you need your one and only mother for something.”

  “Yes, yes, I do, Mama, and maybe this wedding is not exactly what you envisioned, but I want you and Daddy there. And I’d like very much for you to feel good about it all.”

  “But the truth is, I just don’t know if I really can. You’re asking me to turn my back on my upbringing. It’s what I know. It’s what I’m comfortable with. That’s asking an awful lot of someone as set in my ways as I am,” Cara Lynn said, a definite note of defiance in her tone. “I might as well be honest with you. I came up here fully expecting to wear you down or talk you out of all this. And even though I haven’t succeeded yet, I usually get my way, sooner or later. You’re very much mistaken if you think I’m going to let up on you the least little bit. And I mean what I say.”

  Maura Beth took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Oh, Mama, I was so hoping you’d at least try to be more flexible than this. I absolutely hate this feeling of being at war with you!”

  So far, Maura Beth had had very little time alone with her father over the hectic weekend. He always seemed to be bonding with the other men over stiff drinks and stale jokes, but she was very pleased that Jeremy had been included in these macho huddles more often than not. It was a very good sign that father-in-law and son-in-law were getting along so well. In fact, Jeremy had gone out of his way to tell her so in the privacy of their apartment.

  “He’s a really good guy, Maurie,” he had said. “Not at all the way I pictured he would be after everything you’ve been telling me. I think maybe you’ve been underestimating him.”

  But it was now less than an hour away from her parents’ departure to Louisiana, and there were things Maura Beth needed to say to the first man in her life she had ever loved and admired.

  Fortunately, the opportunity for a one-on-one conveniently arose when William Mayhew announced that he needed to run into Cherico at the last minute to gas up the Escalade. “Come on and
go with me, Maura Beth,” he told her just as he was about to exit the front door.

  Once they were on their way to town, Maura Beth lost no time in catching up. “I hope you understand a little better what my life is like up here, Daddy,” she began, testing the waters. “Maybe it doesn’t make much sense to you, but it’s what I’ve chosen for myself.”

  William turned briefly to flash a smile and then trained his eyes once again on the winding road. “The most important thing for you to remember is that your mother and I aren’t always on the same page. I think it’s exciting that you’ve struck out on your own the way you have. I should have told you that sooner.”

  “Yeah, I kinda wish you had. Mama’s always made it seem like she speaks for both of you.”

  “She doesn’t, though.”

  They hit a bump in the road that caused them both to lurch forward a bit. “Oops! One of our Greater Cherico potholes that Councilman Sparks is always fretting about,” she said with a weary inflection.

  “I’ve noticed you haven’t taken the time to introduce us to him. Maybe that’s for the best?”

  “I think so. Although I’ll probably invite him to the wedding. That is, if he doesn’t mess with me and my library too much until then.”

  “That’s my girl,” William said, the pride clearly reflected in his tone. “You’re a fighter.”

  “I think I probably get it from you, Daddy. You’ve argued and won a lot of cases in your time.”

  “That may be, but the truth is, I haven’t been nearly as adventurous with my life as you have,” he continued. “I fell in love with your mother, the ultimate Uptowner from State Street through and through—as you well know. Of course, I let her call the shots socially, and life has been pretty good for the most part. I never even thought about moving anywhere else—certainly not the way you have. I remember how your mother carried on so when you told us about getting your job here in Cherico. ‘Now, where on the face of God’s green earth is that?’ she said. Then she never stopped shaking her head when she located it on a road map and gasped. You would have thought you’d been exiled to Siberia or some third world nation.”

  Maura Beth managed to find the humor in it all and then concentrated on the scenery in silence for a short while. There were pastures full of grazing crows passing by on either side, and it all brought a smile to her face. Those lucky, cud-chewing, milk-producing beasts! Never having to plan weddings and walk down the aisle and such. All they ever had to worry about was clearing a path to the nearest salt lick and wading into the nearest pond when the temperature soared!

  “Daddy, do you think I’m doing the wrong thing by having my wedding up here? Am I annoying you and Mama no end? The truth now.”

  William actually looked surprised as he turned her way. “I don’t think there’s any right or wrong about it. It’s your special day, and you should be entitled to have things the way you want, even if it’s unconventional.”

  Maura Beth reached across and patted her father’s knee. “The thing is, Mama acts so hurt and betrayed—even after I agreed to wear her dress. And, yes, I realize she’s been doing her dead-level best to make me feel guilty. It’s almost like a political campaign to her.”

  “Has she succeeded?”

  “Well, no, not really. I have past experience on my side. I’ve been to lots of receptions at The Three-Hundred Club, and they’re just so overwhelming. I mean, all of our distant cousins and family friends—like Cudd’n M’Dear, for instance—they’d be coming at me and gushing the way they always do. And not meaning a tenth of it, by the way. Mama just can’t get enough of that ‘darling, you just look divine tonight’ stuff, but it turns me off—always has. I just don’t want that. I want something quieter and less stressful.”

  He leaned her way and lightly chucked her on the shoulder. “That’s just who you are, sweetheart. You’re your own librarian without a pretentious bone in your body, and you should be very proud of that.”

  “Wow, Daddy! I suppose you know we should have had this conversation a long time ago.”

  “Yep, probably should have. I guess I just took it for granted that you knew I supported you.”

  “Sending me to school was one thing. Not giving me any positive feedback on my major was another. Oh, well, better late than never, but the timing’s just perfect,” Maura Beth admitted, feeling a new surge of confidence. “I’m glad you needed to pump some gas so we could talk this out.”

  “Actually, I have a full tank, sweetie. I wanted this time together just as much as you did.”

  Maura Beth’s first impulse was to leap across the seat and throw her arms around him, but instead settled for blowing him a big kiss. “Oh, I love you, Daddy!”

  “I love you, too.”

  After another half mile or so of grazing cows and the occasional field of corn to break the monotony of it all, she said, “But what are we going to do about Mama? The way we left things this morning, I could tell she was still upset. There was . . . well, an uneasy truce. No, not even that. I know she’s still plotting.”

  “That’s to be expected, I guess. But you just let me handle your mother. I’ll make her see the light. I’ll come up with something, I promise.” Up ahead, William spotted a gravel road, turned onto it, and began a series of reverse maneuvers to head back to the lodge.

  Halfway there, Maura Beth broke the contented silence they were both enjoying. She simply had to know. “There’s just one other thing I need to ask you, Daddy. It’s very important to me. What do you think of Jeremy?”

  He did not answer right away, but eventually said, “Hmmm.”

  “Oh, come on, now. Please don’t do that to me. You’re making me very nervous here.”

  William shot her a playful glance. “I was just kidding around. I think he’s a very forthright young man. He speaks his mind. He talked to me about his interest in literature and writing, and I could tell he was sincere about all that. Not my cup of tea, this business of teaching the classics, but you can’t fake that kind of enthusiasm. I guess I don’t have to tell the both of you that there’s not a lot of money in what you’re doing, though. But I see what you’re trying for. I played it safe as an Uptown New Orleans lawyer and never lacked for anything from the very beginning. Maybe I’m a little envious of the risks the two of you are taking. You don’t have much now, but it doesn’t seem to matter to you. Your mother and I always seem to be acquiring more things and going all over the map to find them. Well, she certainly does.”

  Maura Beth wondered if she looked as surprised as she felt at the moment. Why, the things two intelligent people could discover and reveal just by taking a short drive together through peaceful green pastures! “But I thought you and Mama were deliriously happy with your lives. You’ve never given me the slightest impression that you weren’t.”

  “Oh, we are, for the most part,” he told her. “Don’t get the wrong idea. I just think this trip up here has truly made me understand what my daughter is all about for the first time in my life. That old library you love and fought for so hard that’s just about had it, this new library going up because of you, all the ideas that you and Jeremy embrace. And what I mean by that is, you’re more interested in discussing ideas with your friends in the book club instead of accumulating a lot of things. I think it’s pretty refreshing, and I want you to know that your old man gets it, even if your mother doesn’t. At least not yet.”

  “Oh, Daddy, I think that’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me. If you weren’t driving, I’d give you the biggest hug.”

  “Plenty of time for that before we leave. We’ll sneak one in,” he told her as the lodge came into view ahead. Then he pointed emphatically toward it. “Well, there’s your mother, already hauling out the suitcases. I guess she’s made it pretty clear that she didn’t want to stay a minute longer than she had to. But for the record, if she starts making noises long-distance about not wanting to pay for the wedding the way you want it, you just ignore her. Now, I don’
t really think she will, but just in case, you’re golden with me.”

  Maura Beth and Jeremy were tallying up their triumphs as they lounged on top of her purple-quilted bed after the weekend had finally come to an end on Sunday evening. They were both pleased with themselves for the most part—especially Jeremy, who hadn’t had to contend with a difficult parent the way Maura Beth had. The one thing they had been able to count on from the very beginning was the support they had received from Paul and Susan McShay, who were treating them to the Key West honeymoon.

  “I just wish Mama had been more pleasant and not such a diva about everything,” Maura Beth was saying at one point.

  “It is what it is, but the most important thing we accomplished was to actually pin down a date there at the end,” he reminded her. “I don’t know who else has ever scheduled a wedding the third week in September, but it sure looks like we have. So Aunt Connie and Uncle Doug can start planning everything with you and your parents over the next three weeks.”

  Maura Beth, who was in the midst of painting her toenails their customary pink, tried to keep the skepticism out of her voice but failed miserably. “It may just be mostly me, though. Daddy’s made it perfectly clear his pockets will be deep—which I appreciate no end—but he’ll leave the planning to us women. And I have the feeling Mama will continue to be on the standoffish side.”

  “You’re not suggesting your mother will have to be dragged screaming to the ceremony, are you?”

  Maura Beth laughed in spite of herself. “No, she’ll do the socially acceptable thing in the end, but there’s a part of me that really likes that image. I probably shouldn’t be saying something like that, but the idea of my mother not getting her way for once does tickle my funny bone.”

  Jeremy started fanning his face and then slid to the foot of the bed. “Those fumes. I think I’m getting high!”

  “Don’t be such a baby. I’m almost through,” she told him, briefly sticking her tongue out as she put the finishing touches on the little toe of her right foot. “Anyway, I wish we could come up with something else to win Mama over. Looks like wearing her wedding dress isn’t going to be enough. We should put our heads together.”