Double Wedding, Single Dad Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Praise for Fleeta Cunningham

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Thank you for purchasing this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  Double Wedding, Single Dad

  by

  Fleeta Cunningham

  Dearly Beloved Series

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Double Wedding, Single Dad

  COPYRIGHT © 2014 by Fleeta Cunningham

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contact Information: [email protected]

  Cover Art by Kim Mendoza

  The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  PO Box 708

  Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

  Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

  Publishing History

  First Last Rose of Summer Edition, 2014

  Digital ISBN 978-1-62830-505-0

  Dearly Beloved Series

  Published in the United States of America

  Praise for Fleeta Cunningham

  and her Santa Rita Series

  “Well-crafted story... exciting plot... interesting characters... I am now determined to read the rest of the series.”

  ~The Romance Studio (5 Stars)

  “One of the most fantastic books I've read this year... An author of increasing distinction who will never disappoint her readers.”

  ~Two Lips Reviews (5 Lips, Recommended)

  “A warm, thought-provoking book... The best thing is she balances the build-up with a really good ending.”

  ~WRDF (rated Fantastic)

  “Delightful to read. Fleeta Cunningham slips in mores, styles, and pastimes of the 1950s era... a sparkling, enjoyable vicarious experience.”

  ~Camellia, Long and Short Reviews (4.5 Stars)

  ~*~

  Books by Fleeta Cunningham

  available at The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  ELOPEMENT FOR ONE

  BLACK RAIN RISING

  DON'T CALL ME DARLIN'

  HALF PAST MOURNING

  CRY AGAINST THE WIND

  BAL MASQUE

  HELP WANTED: WIFE

  CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH A CRUMPET

  TILL THE WORLD IS SAFE FOR DREAMS

  Dedication

  To the Thursday Girls—

  Tiffany, Lael, Pat, Patty, Phyllis, Jane, and Tonya,

  and the honorary member, Kim.

  Without you, everything I do would be

  half as much fun and twice as much work.

  Hugs all around.

  Chapter 1

  “So we’re dealing with a double wedding, for your two daughters, scheduled at the end of June?” In her twenty years as a wedding coordinator, Lucinda Parks had rarely found herself planning the ceremony with the father of one bride, and never with the father of two.

  Jeffery Sinclair shifted his elegant Armani-clad legs in the too-small, too-frilly chair, suggesting he wasn’t any more at ease with the situation than Lucinda was. “I’m afraid so. Candace is in D.C. until school is out, and Shelby has her last competition on the fourteenth of June. I know five months isn’t much time to pull this together, but the girls have their hearts set on a June wedding. They both grew up here, and most of their friends are still in the area, so they want to have their weddings in their hometown. And it just makes sense to have a double wedding instead of two weddings a week apart.” He ran long fingers through silvering hair, an uneven grin lifting his well-shaped mouth. “It might be a little easier on the old man, too.” He lifted one shoulder in a slight shrug. “Or maybe not, considering.”

  Lucinda scrolled through her appointment lists, checking for times she could arrange the usual planning sessions. “A double wedding should be less expensive than two separate ones,” she suggested. “You’re only hosting one reception, renting one venue, and probably, for the most part, the people invited would be coming to both weddings anyway, so you’re planning only one dinner.”

  “The cost doesn’t matter.” He dismissed the money factor with a shrug. “The only important thing is the girls get the wedding they want.”

  Lucinda looked up from her screen. “When will your daughters be in town? I mean between now and the wedding? We can do a lot of our discussions on-line, and I can email pictures, but I’ll have a better idea of how to proceed after I meet them in person.”

  Jeff Sinclair had an exasperated frown wrinkling his handsome brow. “I wish they were coming sometime in the next five months. Then my part in this would be just signing checks and playing host, and your job would be a lot easier. The girls won’t be here at all till they come for the wedding. I’m afraid it’s just you and me and the Internet, Ms. Parks.”

  “And the girls’ mother?” Lucinda hesitated to ask, but she needed to know.

  “Margot and I had one of those quietly nasty divorces about ten years ago, when the girls were twelve and fourteen. When we finally admitted we couldn’t stand living together, we went our separate ways, but we wanted our girls to have two involved parents. In the course of raising two teenagers, we discovered we could be friends if we didn’t try to share the same roof. She died in a car wreck three years ago, and I mourned the loss of a long-time friend. Great woman, smart and funny, but never meant to be a wife—not my wife, anyway. That’s why I have to do this for the girls. There isn’t anyone else, and in a way, I owe it to Margot to make the girls’ dream weddings happen.”

  So the father of the brides is going to have to do the mother’s part, too. “Well, the girls are close, you said, and cooperative, so this event shouldn’t be too complex.” Lucinda pulled up a new screen on her laptop. “Let’s get the basic information down and see where we’re going to have to make creative adjustments.”

  “Candace and Shelby have each offered to give up cherished plans so her sister can have the wedding she wants. I don’t want either of my girls to give up a dream. I want Candace to have the old-fashioned, white-lace-and-roses church wedding she’s always wanted. And I want Shelby to have the Texas barbecue-and-barn-dance wedding she wants.” He took two folded sheets from his inner pocket and handed them across the desk to Lucinda. “They’ve each bought what they think is the perfect wedding dress. Bought before either realized there would be two weddings in the family. I just don’t know how they can work together.”

  Lucinda opened the folded sheets, pages torn from glossy magazines. “This one is the dress Candace chose?” The gown was conservative, traditional, with a lace bodice, sweeping chapel train, and tiered veil. Lucinda glanced across the desk and saw her client nod.

  “That’s Candace—sweet, classic, and never showy or ostentatious. Always a schoolteacher at heart.” He gestured to the other page. “Shelby, on the other hand…”

  The second picture gave Lucinda a better understanding of his hesitation. The dress was barely knee length, probably made up in white batiste or voile, a strapless sundress worn over frilled petticoats. With boots…white cowboy boots. And a Stetson hat. “I think I begin to see the problem.” She swallowed hard.

/>   Jeff Sinclair leaned across the desk, tapping the cowgirl-bride picture. “Shelby’s been on the back of a horse most of her life. And her dream wedding includes jeans, boots, and a country band for the dance.” One tapered finger shifted to the second magazine page. “On the other hand, Candace is thinking bridesmaids in blue and music by a string quartet. Civil ceremony and beer for Shelby, Episcopal priest and champagne for Candace.” Soft crinkles formed at the corners of his eyes. Lucinda heard the frustration in his voice. “Ms. Parks, how do we make a double wedding out of that? The girls love each other enough to compromise, but can we make a wedding that is right for both of them? Can we make it happen?”

  Lucinda saw consternation darken his grey eyes at the thought of disappointing his daughters. “Right now, I’m not sure how we make it happen, Mr. Sinclair, but together we’ll see your girls have a wedding to remember.” She stared at the standard form covering her screen for a moment, then deleted it and turned off the computer. Pulling a yellow tablet from a drawer, she gave him what she hoped was an encouraging smile. “Let’s see if we can reason this out, the old-fashioned way, no formulas or pre-set choices. Just caring and making it right for both girls.” She picked up her pen and wrote out the girls’ names and the wedding date. “Thinking about how we can keep those girls’ dreams intact, let’s put all the standard, wedding-in-a-box ideas away and give them the double wedding they’ll both love.” She felt her smile broaden as she saw her client draw a deep breath and begin to relax. This should be fun! A challenge, but fun. And an occasional consultation with this very handsome man won’t make it any harder. “I think we’ll have a lot of conversations in the next few months. You might as well call me Lucinda.”

  “And I’m Jeff.” He squirmed again in that too-small chair again. “If we’re going to be working together, getting out of the box as you said, could we do it somewhere a little easier on the male posterior? Say, over dinner in the Oak Room? It’s coming up on six-thirty, and I’d think a little more creatively over a glass of wine and a good dinner. How about you, Lucinda? Wine with wedding plans work for you?”

  “I believe it does.”

  The Oak Room was classically appointed with deep, comfortable chairs, subtle lighting, and an extensive wine list. Jeff took his time ordering an excellent pinot noir. “With the icy rain falling out there, I think we need something to warm our blood.”

  Lucinda tasted his choice and agreed. “It’s perfect.” She took a moment to savor the bouquet, then turned back to the business at hand. “Have the girls engaged any of the services we’ll need to consult? Florists, musicians, caterers, any of those?”

  She liked the way his easy smile seemed to come at any mention of his daughters. Jeff shook his head. “No, we had a three-way phone conference and talked about some of those things, but the girls said they were too far away to know what was available, and then said to talk to the lady at Spotlight Celebrations. She—I suppose they meant you—would know what to do after dealing with the Merriman wedding. They were at school with the Merriman girl.”

  Lucinda shuddered at the mention of her least favorite event. “The Merrimans were a rather special case.” She hoped she’d been sufficiently tactful if the Merriman family happened to be close friends of his.

  Jeff chortled. “I’m sure it was. I’ve known Cass Merriman for years and, unlike this wine, she hasn’t improved with age. She’s been a demanding shrew since she was seventeen, and she now has the act down pat.”

  Remembering the ear-shattering phone call from the mother of the bride at two in the morning the day of the wedding, Lucinda silently agreed. She actually didn’t know what the woman expected a wedding coordinator to do when the best man and the maid of honor eloped after the rehearsal dinner, but she’d done all she could to respond to the hysteria of the irate and slightly intoxicated society matron imagining catastrophe at her only daughter’s wedding.

  Lucinda tried for a diplomatic response. “It wasn’t exactly the way we’d planned for the fairytale wedding to unfold. Mrs. Merriman had every reason to be overwrought.”

  “Cass would have been ‘overwrought’ given only a broken fingernail. It’s her way,” Jeff answered in a dry tone and took another sip of his wine. “I suppose every wedding has its drama, and my girls will have something that doesn’t quite follow the script.”

  If you only knew! Lucinda struggled to keep a poker face. “Yes, there’s always something. I tell the brides it will happen and ask them to please remember, in ten years or so, that memory will be the highlight of the day, the story told over and over.”

  Jeff tented his long fingers and sat back in his chair. “So how do you see our upcoming event working? Is it going to be a ludicrous mismatch? I’d do two weddings twenty-four hours apart before I’d make a hash of this thing, letting each girl try to make it right for the other.”

  Lucinda didn’t doubt he meant it. “No, Jeff, I don’t think it’s going to be ludicrous. Unique, yes, and certainly it’s going to take a lot of compromise in some places, but I think it can be done.” The waiter brought their dinner and, by mutual consent, they tabled the discussion until their plates were empty and taken away. Over coffee Lucinda began to develop her ideas. “I’m considering the idea of renting a very large party tent, something pretty and festive. We can create a central aisle but send the wedding parties left and right, to dual focal points at the end. Both could have fairly traditional floral arches flanked by tall arrangements. The difference would be in treatment. Candace would have more formal sprays in crystal vases, while Shelby’s side would be looser arrangements in rustic containers. You said your daughters have chosen what the attendants are wearing?”

  “Not exactly.” Jeff shrugged. “More of a general thing, I guess. Candace wants blue dresses, ‘fluffy and sweet,’ whatever that is. And Shelby said as far as she’s concerned everybody’s wearing jeans, blue jeans. They agree on blue anyway.”

  “At least they’re in sync on the color,” Lucinda murmured, but held back her shudder when Jeff said “blue.” She was superstitious about blue weddings. She’d never seen a blue wedding go off easily. Florists always reminded her no flower actually was blue in nature. And blue gowns in photographs often seemed to come out a muddy or faded color. Blue jeans? At least they photograph well. “Give me the girls’ e-mail addresses, and I’ll send them some suggestions. We’ll need to line up musicians who can handle wide variations in music, as well. Music may be one of the early compromises the girls will need to discuss if their tastes are as different there as I suspect.”

  “Oh, yeah. Music.” Jeff was visibly gritting his teeth. “Candace is Bach and chamber music. Shelby is George Strait and country swing. I don’t have a clue about making that work.”

  Country swing and chamber music? Lucinda reached for her wine glass. Looked like the next five months would be interesting. “A new avenue for me to explore, as well. Perhaps the girls will have suggestions. They must have something they both like?”

  “The only thing I remember both of them liking is ‘Candles in the Wind’ when they were about six and eight years old. Played it over and over till Margot threatened to ground them both if they played it once more. Not much since then. I’m counting on you to figure out those chasms of difference.” Jeff lifted his coffee cup. “Here’s to your ingenuity, Lucinda Parks. So far, I like the approach you’re taking.”

  Pushing aside her own reservations, she returned his salute. “Thanks. I hope you still feel the same way the last week of June.”

  He settled back, apparently relieved he’d put the complications in her hands and ready for a less worrisome conversation. “How did you get into this line of work anyway? Don’t you get tired of all the complications and egos pulling in different directions? And anticipating all the things that can go wrong?”

  Glad to focus on something besides a complex double wedding, Lucinda relaxed with a second cup of excellent coffee. “Sometimes I run into a bride whose ideas are just unwork
able. And once in a while, the mother of the bride forgets it’s the daughter’s wedding we’re doing, not hers. But for the most part, I love what I do. I started doing weddings in college when my roommate asked me to help with her wedding in the college chapel. And I was hooked.” She glanced at the elegant restaurant, the immaculate setting, and made a mental note to add it to her files for future reference. “There’s something so special about giving a woman the day she’s always dreamed about. If I’ve made her vision come to life, I feel a great wave of satisfaction as I see a bride start down the aisle.”

  He nodded, a speculative gleam lighting his eyes. “And what about a wedding for the coordinator? Did you do your own or did you take it to a colleague?”

  Lucinda stiffened and drew a breath, reminding herself it was a natural question, not necessarily a personal one. “Oh, somehow I just never had the desire to plan one for myself. Or the need. I’ve never married. Came close once or twice, but I took a second look and decided it was the wrong time or the wrong man.”

  “Beautiful woman like you? Never found the right man?” Jeff’s slight grin and appraising look said he suspected he’d not heard all the story. “Men in this town must be wearing blinders.”

  Rather than go into her private history, Lucinda took refuge in the drier aspects of her business. “I’m afraid I mostly run into fathers who are overwhelmed with writing checks to pay for their daughters’ dreams, or younger men passionately in love with the beautiful girl coming down the aisle. Most of my weekends are spent behind the scenes at other people’s celebrations. Invisibility is important in my work, but it doesn’t lead to building much of a social life.”

  Her words sat between them for a moment. “No place for meeting interested men?”

  “Afraid not.” Her laugh sounded forced, even to herself.

  One dark eyebrow winged up a fraction above his slate-grey eyes. “So I wouldn’t find a line of other men at your door if I wanted to ask you out for a movie or a drink?”

  His question stopped Lucinda’s reach for her napkin. “If you wanted to, to…?” Had she heard him correctly?