Page 7 of I'll Be There
“Yeah, they never solved the case, and for a long time it haunted Conner. I think he’s made peace with it, but...”
“So, that’s why you planned this little party.”
“I thought that getting together with his friends from Team Hope, his old SAR team, before all the chaos started would remind him that this is his special weekend, too.”
Her phone vibrated, and she got up to retrieve the text. “Super. It’s the florist. They said the arrangements are delayed because of the storm.”
“We don’t need them until Sunday,” Raina said. “And we’ll order cupcakes from Lucy at World’s Best Donuts for the overflow of guests.” She got up. “You’re getting married. That’s all that is important here.”
Liza pressed her hand against her stomach. “You’re right. I just wish this weekend was already over, that we were back from our honeymoon...and settled in here.”
“I wondered why you weren’t packing. He’s moving to Deep Haven?”
Um. “I don’t know.”
Raina frowned and picked up Layla, who had found a sippy cup in her diaper bag. “You don’t know.”
“He wants me to move to Montana, but I have a number of orders I needed to fulfill, and I don’t exactly have a kiln or a throwing table in his fifth wheel.” She sighed. “He told me he had it figured out, so I’m hoping that means he’s planning on living here.”
“He could join the fire service here,” Raina said.
Liza’s hand went to her upper arm, traced the ugly scar that traversed it, the puncture wounds in her shoulder that still throbbed sometimes, an echo of the trauma from last summer. “Yeah, maybe.”
She sighed.
“What?” Raina said.
“I just...what if...what if we’re rushing into this. It’s only been ten months since...um...”
“Since you survived a terrible trauma? Since you and Conner saved a girl’s life? Since you became the bravest person I’ve ever met?” Raina raised an eyebrow.
“Since he panicked over nearly losing me to a grizzly attack and asked me to marry him?” Liza slipped the phone into her pocket. “He never actuallysaidhe was moving here. I just...oh, no.” She probably needed aspirin for her pounding head. “What are wedoing?”
“Hey! Catering services here.” Grace Sharpe, formerly a Christiansen, opened her door. She’d cut her blonde hair chin-short, wearing it down. She wore capris and a white T-shirt with the words “Bride’s Side” in pink.
Liza didn’t know Grace well, but the moment Raina suggested she hire her as her caterer, Grace had stepped up to save her. And with her husband, Max, away on so many week-long hockey trips for the Minnesota Blue Ox, Grace had spent way too many hours preparing.
Yes, with Grace at the helm, it would all work out.
“I come bearing freshly baked muffins. And look who I found outside.” She held the door open for Mona, as Liza’s oldest and dearest friend came in carrying four cups of freshly ground, home-roasted coffee in a tray, direct from her bookstore and coffee shop.
“Liza’s getting cold feet,” Raina said.
“What?” A headband captured Mona’s blonde hair, and she looked put together, exactly how a matron of honor should, in a pair of white jeans and a purple T-shirt. She set the coffee container on the table and tugged out two cups. “You just need a white chocolate mocha.” She sat next to Liza. “Snap out of it.”
Liza offered a slim smile. Took the coffee. “I’m not getting cold feet—okay, maybe a little. I just realized how little Conner and I have prepared for this. Sure, I love him and he loves me,but...I don’t know. Maybe it’s not enough. I’ve been single for a long time. And so has he.”
“So? Even better—Conner is worth the wait.” Mona winked.
For a moment Liza sank into the memory of his arms, those wide shoulders, and the thought ofknowinghim—okay...she took a sip of her coffee. Another.
Mona laughed. “I felt the same way about Joe on our wedding day. Terrified, overwhelmed, delighted—”
“But you two knew you’d live in Deep Haven, happily ever after. Conner is...well, he’s not Reese Clark, penning adventures. Conner actually, well—helivesthem.”
Mona raised an eyebrow.
Oh, she was in rare foot-in-mouth form today. “I didn’t mean that Joe is boring. He’s amazing. A best-selling author, right here among us.”
