Beth Albright - Wedding Belles

I wobbled to the shower with a smile on my face.

It was already a scorcher by ten o’clock, but I wouldn’t have missed this day for anything. Lewis and Vivi would be in full socializing swing as the ground breaking and renovations at the station got underway. The mayor and Kitty and all of the media would be there, including Dallas Dubois—brazen reporter, ruthless attention-seeker and, of course, my ex-stepsister.

I ran over to Vivi’s to pick her up for the event and we rode over to the mansion together, dreading the soaring temperatures outside the air-conditioned car.

The heat was hardly bearable as I set my red sling-backs onto the dirt road near the side of the dilapidated Brooks Mansion. The historic old house had been placed on Alabama’s Places in Peril list for a reason. It needed saving. Lewis was our town’s official knight in shining armor for doing just that.

Too bad he couldn’t do something about the weather. My makeup was already melting and I had only been out of the car for two seconds.

Vivi was so excited as she struggled to get out of the passenger seat, looking anything but graceful in her navy blue sleeveless maternity pantsuit, her baby belly leading the way. She spread her legs in an unladylike squat and just heaved herself out.

I watched her, smiling, and shut my door. Although I wasn’t looking forward to that part of being pregnant, for the first time in my life I started to wonder what it would be like to carry the baby of the man you loved.

Harry had never inspired such thoughts. Probably because my having his baby would have taken the spotlight off him, except if he needed us to make his campaign poster look better. But I wondered what it would be like with Sonny.

Vivi waddled over to my side of the car. “Did you see Lewis standing over there, shaking hands with everybody? He makes anything sexy. I gave him that crimson tie today, and he smiled so big, his dimples were deep enough to swim in.”

“Lewis looks fantastic,” I agreed. “And you, little momma, have never been more beautiful.”

I gave Vivi a hug, careful not to mess her updo, not sure that even Aqua Net was up to today’s soaring temperatures. I squeezed her hand for reassurance, and then we walked toward the gazebo where Lewis was standing with the mayor.

“Lewis surely is in his element today,” I noted.

“He has come such a long way, Blake. I love him so much my heart’s filled to bursting. I’m thrilled to be standing next to him, watching as all his dreams come true.”

“Can I use that?” Dallas appeared right behind us, following us like a snake in the grass. She was a long-legged bottle-blonde, wearing a hot-pink Calvin Klein skirt, sleeveless low-cut blouse and six-inch white stilettos that dug like pointy little daggers into the red dirt.

“Oh, my good God, Dallas, put a sock in it already!” Vivi, being pregnant in August in the Deep South, had even less patience than usual. “I wasn’t talking to you or your microphone, and no, you may not use that.”

The looks Dallas shot Vivi were a lot like pointy little daggers, too. She did not like being put off. The trouble with Dallas was that, even when she meant well, she came off pushy, demanding and downright rude. She had a lot to learn about class and manners, and she often didn’t care who she had to step on to get a good story. The career woman in me respected her obvious dedication and passion, but she needed to learn there were better—and kinder—ways to make your way to the top.

“Vivi isn’t feeling well right now,” I interjected. “Can you give her a minute or two? I’ll let you know when she can give you a blurb for your story.”

“Blake, it’s not a blurb,” Dallas said, taking offense. It was impossible to have a civil conversation with this woman.

“I don’t care what it is,” Vivi snapped. “You’re not getting it now. I am going over to see my Lewis. It’s his day, after all. If and when I am ever ready to talk to you, I will let you know. Thank you for backing off.”

Dallas fumed. “Fine. I’ll be right over there.” She gestured to her photographer, setting up the shot just outside the tents. Local newspaper reporters were also setting up their equipment, along with a couple of other news radio stations.

“Don’t hold your breath,” Vivi muttered as she picked up the pace and walked in a hasty beeline toward her fiancé. I raced after her, my heels spiking into the ground. Why are we all wearing high heels in red dirt?

“That woman gets on my last nerve,” Vivi growled. “She is, without a doubt, the most brazen person I have ever known. She was actually eavesdropping on us while we walked. We could have been sayin’ anything and she would have gotten it on tape. Low, low, low. She is just pure ol’ dee low.”

“I know,” I commiserated. “She is lurking everywhere these days. But that’s all the more reason to stay on her good side.”

I thought of last night, kissing Sonny on the porch, then making love in his big bed, while the stars shone in the window. What would she do with that kind of juicy tidbit? I shuddered. One of the last times I’d seen her, she’d been on my patio, giving my husband, Harry, a taste of her right breast—all in the name of getting information and some high-profile publicity. I had chased her out of my backyard like a homicidal maniac, and though we’d been playing nice, I was afraid she was out for revenge.

She wasn’t the type of woman who was a girlfriend. Even when she’d been my stepsister, years ago, she’d never had any close friends. My mother married her father when Dallas was only fourteen and I was sixteen. We were friends for about a day and then Dallas started her competition with me—for everyone’s attention. She backstabbed me at school and worked double time to steal my clothes and my boyfriends.

Kitty, my mother, and her father divorced about ten years later, but Dallas and I have never given up the battle. I’ve always wanted to see the good in her—and Meridee, for one, has always insisted it’s in there—but we’ve never been able to move past our teenage rivalries no matter how hard I’ve tried. And Vivi, it was clear, had given up trying.

In the crowd, I saw my man standing there with Bonita. My heart skipped. I wanted to run to him, but not with all the cameras around, and definitely not with Miss Dallas Dubois there. As long as I kept my cool, I knew I could talk to him without much attention since he was there with Bonita. Plus, we were now working on a case together. So we could at least have a conversation without Dallas thinking she had a story.

I caught his attention and waved at him and Bonita. They waved back as Vivi and I headed for Lewis and the mayor, Charlie Wynn. He was a former captain in the navy. He looked like Jeff Bridges, always had a cigar in his mouth and threw the best tailgating parties on the quad I had ever seen.

Everyone liked him—especially my mother, who’d started dating him a few weeks ago. So far, it seemed like a good match, though Kitty seemed to think most men matched her well enough. She had been married four times, last I counted, and if she had her way, the mayor would be number five.

Vivi and I made our way over to the men.

“Hey, you two,” I said, reaching out to hug Lewis first, then the mayor. “What an exciting day for you and all of Tuscaloosa.”

Lewis looked radiant. “Blake, so glad you could make it. Yes, it’s gonna be a big ol’ day. A new beginning. Opening my own station has been a dream of mine for a long time. This place is my baby, and today is kinda like a birth, you know?”

Mayor Charlie reached over and hugged Vivi. “Seems like there’s a lotta that goin’ around these days.”

“Speaking of new beginnings,” Vivi said, “with this heat today, I may have my ‘new beginning’ before I’m ready. I’m gonna have one of those iced teas they’re serving for the media before I melt away.”