"Sorry, Janey," Mel said when his own family had departed. "I told her it was only for the people in the wedding and she dragged along another four people who aren't part of it."
"Don't worry. It's over. And we're married. Do I have to give the wedding ring back so you give it to me again tomorrow?"
"Probably. I'll give mine back to you as well."
On Saturday morning Jane persuaded Shelley to come with her to the hotel, just to check out anything that might go wrong.
"What could go wrong?" Shelley asked.
"With Addie involved, a lot of things could go bad." Shelley shrugged. "Okay. You might have a point." They found Miss Tarlington, who was looking at Jane
rather oddly. "We've already set the tables for dinner.
Would you like to come look? There are twenty tables for
ten. Mrs. Nowack was right. Only a hundred and forty‑
nine of Mrs. VanDyne's guests are attending."
They followed her. Shelley whispered to Jane, "I think that she's worried."
Jane nodded.
When the door to the dining area opened, both she and Shelley gasped.
"What on earth are those flowers on the tables?" "They aren't what you ordered?" Miss Tarlington asked. The vases were tall and bright blue, with calla lilies
and ferns.
"No, they aren't. Where did these come from?" Jane asked. Miss Tarlington told Jane the name of the florist.
"That's not my florist. Mine is coming at two with low bowls of gardenias."
"Thank goodness, Ms. Jeffry, I knew you had better sense and taste than this. Nobody could see over them to the people across the table."
Shelley spoke up in a faint voice. "So what do we do with them? Can the wrong florist come back and take them away?"
"I doubt it," Miss Tarlington said.
"Please check,"Jane said. "And if this florist won't pick them up, can you find someone on the staff to load them up and take them to the nursing home where my mother-in-law was? I don't have my address book with me, but I'll call it in as soon as I get home."
"There will be a charge for that."
"Naturally there will be. And Mrs. VanDyne can pay it." "I suppose you'd like to also see the bridal bouquet?" "Oh no! Not that as well?"
Miss Tarlington took Jane and Shelley back to a kitchen where there was a glass house for flowers waiting to be put out. "There it is," she said, pointing to a massive bouquet of huge pink roses.
Jane put her hands over her eyes for a moment then looking again, she said, "Get rid of it. It must weigh ten pounds and would clash horribly with my suit."
"I can find somewhere in the lobby to put this monster," Miss Tarlington said. "It will have to go in a really big vase."
"Could you wait until the wedding is over so she doesn't recognize it as she comes in?"
"Good idea, Ms. Jeffry."
When they were back in Shelley's van, Shelley said, "What a hell of a nerve Addie has. She's known from the start you were doing your flowers, and probably thought that she could get away with doing them herself without your knowing in time."
"I'm so glad I had a premonition that something might go wrong,"Jane said. "You're right. If we hadn't seen them in time, it would have been a disaster."
"Are you going to rat on her to Mel?"
"No. He'd just be even madder at her. He probably forgot about the flowers after he told her the rules. But I'd sent her a copy that she must have thrown away in a fit of pique."
As soon as she got home, Jane called Miss Tarlington with the address of the nursing home.
She went back out again to have her hair done, and even asked them if they did makeup as well. It was a day spa, so she got lucky. And she didn't look like a tart or an owl. She looked like herself, but better.
Chapter
TWENTY-FOUR
J
ane and Shelley were back at the hotel earlier than they needed to be just to check once again that the right florist had brought the proper flower arrangements for the tables. As they opened the door to the room they could smell the lovely scent of the gardenias.
"You and your florist made an excellent choice," Shelley said.
"He did a wonderful job. We need to go to room 5200
for the pictures to be taken ahead of time, remember?"
"I do. But we don't have to be there until three o'clock." "Let's go get glasses of iced tea and take them with us,"
Jane suggested.
"I've already checked into a room. You need to bring your suitcase in and check in as well. I've ordered soft
drinks and iced tea and coffee to be sent to suite 5200 where the pictures will be taken," Shelley said.
"Oh, Shelley, how good of you."
When they entered suite 5200, Mel was already there, and so was his mother.
"Janey, you look fabulous," he said before he gave her a quick kiss. "And you smell wonderful."
Addie was sitting in a chair sipping a glass of iced tea and said nothing.
A moment or two later, Jane's parents arrived, with all three of Jane's children. Mike and Todd looked so good in their tuxes that Jane got misty. Katie was wearing a long yellow dress and matching sandals. Jane had never seen this outfit before. "You look wonderful. Where did you find such a pretty dress and shoes?"
"At Nordstrom — on sale," Katie answered smugly.
The pastor who was doing the service followed Katie in. "What handsome people you are. The photographer is coming along behind me."
A man loaded down with a big bag arrived a minute later. "Is everybody here? I'm not late, am I?"
Jane soothed him. "We're all early."
He set up his camera on a tripod and started with Jane and Mel alone. Then with Jane and her family, then Mel and his family. He was taking three pictures of each group just so they'd have a choice in case someone had their eyes closed.
After this, he grouped them all in front of a wall ofdraped windows and pushed them around until he was satisfied. Then he took three more pictures.
Miss Tarlington showed up and said, "It's time to go. I need to show the wedding party where to stay until the guests are all in place."
They followed her in a private elevator that took them directly to the floor where the wedding would be held. There were soft chairs, two coffee tables with bowls of mints and glasses of water.
"I'll be back for you shortly," Miss Tarlington said. Jane suddenly realized someone was missing. "Shelley, where is Paul?"
"He had an emergency in Miami. There was a fire in the kitchen and he had to take the insurance policy and some other paperwork down there last night."
"Oh, that's too bad. I really hoped he'd be here." Shelley said, "So did I."
They could hear people in the hallway outside the room chatting as they were passing through to the wedding room. Jane had seen it before. It was set up with pews like a church but without any sense of a particular religion. They waited until they couldn't hear anyone else in the hallway. Miss Tarlington came to fetch them, and line them up properly. She took Mel and Uncle Jim down a side hall, opened a door, and said, "You stand on the left side and face forward."
She went back and took Todd and Mike, and Michael and Cecily next.
Jane and Shelley were standing in the back behind a door.