Page 71 of Halstead House

Tomorrow, I told myself for the millionth time,tomorrow she goes back to Providence. I was going to have my work cut out for me apologizing to every person who lived and worked in Halstead House. I was only hoping that list would still include me.

The tables were dressed, and we were working on final decor around the ballroom where there would be dancing after dinner. Eliza and the couple celebrating had met several months before and decided on colors, floral arrangements, and music. All I needed to do was execute the detailed plan I’d been left.

Oh, how I missed Eliza. I was expecting her home any time, but I would have given anything for her to be here now. Then again, I couldn’t picture her and Mother working together in any way, so perhaps it was for the best. I didn’t need a blizzard on top of everything else.

“Imagine choosing magnolias for your main flower,” Mother scoffed as she passed by a large arrangement on the side table.

“I think they’re lovely,” I replied, head down, looking over my notes.

“Of course you do. You also thought this new haircut of yours would be lovely...” she trailed off, letting me remember her heated words from the day before, when she’d come out of her hotel room to discover this “strange hippie island girl” standing there in place of her daughter.

I had watched in silence as her lips had pursed and she’d run her gaze over me. She’d wanted to know what on earth had possessed me to do something so unflattering to my face shape. Then she’d wanted to know how I expected myself to be taken seriously as a professional woman when I looked so interchangeable with all the other young women in the world.

I hadn’t raised to the bait then, and I didn’t now. She disappeared into the dining room to retrieve another arrangement that would be added in the ballroom. I could hear her grumbling under her breath, but I didn’t care to know what she was saying.

“How are the lovely Burke women today?” Lucas reappeared just as Mother entered the room, her arm full of flowers.

He’d changed out of his suit and was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, his feet in sandals. He looked like a life preserver, and I took back everything I’d thought about him just minutes ago.

“We’re just fine, I’m sure,” Mother replied with a stiff smile. She’d long ago given up on schmoozing him.

“What can I do to help?” he asked me.

Surprise stole my thoughts, and Mother replied before I had a chance to. “Well, I suppose since you’re here you could carry those two large floor arrangements into the ballroom and place them on either side of the doorway,” she said. “They’re too heavy for me, and Grace is more intent on checking her lists than on actually doing the work.”

Lucas shot a look at me and opened his mouth to reply, but I shook my head, letting him know it was pointless. His polite public mask slid into place as he nodded to my mother and walked toward the far side of the dining room, where the florist had left them.

I understood something in that moment. That mask was his armor. A short two weeks ago when we’d decided to be friends he’d said we had more in common that we’d realized. At the time I hadn’t totally understood, but now a little part of me did. We both dealt with difficulties in life, and we both had our coping strategies. I was just so grateful to know Lucas without the mask.

“Who chose these arrangements?” Mother asked after a moment.

“Eliza did,” I replied.

“I question her taste,” she harrumphed.

“I don’t believe it’s good manners to badmouth the lady of the house,” Lucas said as he passed through the room, his arms wrapped around a huge pot full of flowers and greenery. His tone said he was teasing, but his eyes told a different story.

“I’m sure you’re right. Still, these are definitely not something I would have chosen,” Mother said.

I put the list down on a table and moved to face her. “It’s not your party, though, Mother. The couple celebrating worked with Eliza to make the choices. Our job is to facilitate what the customers want, not the other way around.” Yeah. Take that. Verbal jujitsu for the win. From my victory stand I couldn’t resist adding with a saucy chuckle, “Be glad you weren’t here for the fuchsia and rust wedding.”

Mother’s entire face was pinched with displeasure. “You’re right. I wasn’t here, because I was back in Providence worrying over my wayward daughter and where she’d gotten off to.”

Oops. Fatal miscalculation.

Lucas left the room again to get the second large floor piece. Our eyes caught, and he offered me a nod of encouragement. I took a deep breath and nodded back. I wasn’t in this alone. Lucas had come back down and was braving the firestorm. I only hoped he wasn’t a casualty of the war.

“I’m returning to Providence tomorrow, you remember?” Mother’s voice pulled me back into the ring.

“Yes, I remember.”

“When we finish here, the two of us need to get a start on packing your things.”

Even though I knew her plan all along had been for me to return with her, this was the first time she’d said the words out loud since the day she’d arrived. Ice crawled from the top of my head down to my feet, freezing me in place.

“What?” I asked through numb lips.

“We need to get you packed. I’ve purchased us seats together on the return flight first thing in the morning.”

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