Chapter One
The scent ofjasmine and the high-pitched chattering in the room were nauseating. Through the slats of the shutters, Autumn saw two children playing with an orange frisbee beyond the sprawling maple tree in the front yard. Her tongue felt thick and her head pounded like someone had come up from behind and sunk a meat cleaver into it.
“At leasttryand look like you’re having a good time,” Sadie whispered while nudging her best friend.
“Why didn’t I listen to you last night? And why the hell did I ever think that martinis were the way to go? I don’t evenlikethem.” Autumn lightly rubbed her aching temples.
“That’s what Alicia, Rachel, and I were trying to figure out.” Sadie giggled.
“Open my gift next,” Barbara Davis said, a smug smile creeping over her doughy face as she handed a brightly wrapped box to Autumn.
“I can’t believe I let Bret talk me into having his ex-girlfriend’s mother atmybridal shower,” Autumn said through clenched teeth as she took the gift from Barbara.
“Me neither,” her best friend agreed. “But then Bret’s not exactly Mr. Sensitive, is he?”
Autumn clutched the box, irritation pricking along the back of her neck.What does Sadie know about Bret? Sure, he can be selfish and self-absorbed, but he’s always there for me when I need him.The memory of Bret canceling their meeting with the caterer floated through her mind.I didn’t need him for the tasting anyway.
“Autumn, are you going to open the present or just hold it?” Rachel asked.
She glanced at her friend, then chuckled. “I guess I’m a little out of sorts.”
“I bet you are.” Rachel’s blue eyes twinkled. Alicia and Sadie chortled softly.
“I think there’s an inside joke going on between the three of you,” Bret’s mother, Regina, said. “I’m still so sorry your mother couldn’t make it in from Denver to come to your shower.” Her future mother-in-law leaned over and plucked another mini quiche from the tray on the table.
“She’ll be here for the next one,” Autumn answered while ripping off the yellow paper dotted with colorful umbrellas. The truth was that she’d hadn’t told her mother about the shower until it was too late for her to make the long drive to Alina. Her mother had always been afraid of small airports, so landing at the one in Durango some sixty miles away would not have been an option.
For the past couple of weeks, Autumn had started having doubts about marrying Bret, but she didn’t tell anyone. She chalked it up to having cold feet, which she’d read was perfectly normal.
Pushing aside the glittery tissue paper, Autumn stared at a single saucer and tea cup. A narrow gold band encircled the rim of the cup and china plate, and there was something engraved on the side of the saucer:Barbara and Teresa Singer. Staring at it, she couldn’t quite process that the names on the gift were Bret’s ex-girlfriend and her mother.What the hell?She glanced up and met the determined eyes of Barbara.
“Don’t you love it?” the woman gushed.
“I… uh… am speechless.” Autumn closed the lid to the box.
“I know Bret will love it. Yellow is one of his favorite colors.” Barbara sank back into the couch and patted Regina’s knee. “Remember all the summer picnics we used to have when Teresa and Bret were dating? He always insisted on her wearing that cute yellow top he’d bought her during one of their many trips to Mexico.”
Regina cleared her throat and slightly pivoted her body away from Barbara’s touch. “Autumn and Bret are planning a beautiful honeymoon in Italy, and it was all his idea.” She bent down and picked up a large box. “Here, dear, this one is from Stanley and me.”
The awkward moment passed, and Autumn plastered on one of her biggest, most sincere-looking smiles and took the box from Bret’s mother.
“It’s so heavy,” she said.
“Only two more to go. Hang in there,” Sadie whispered as she helped Autumn unwrap the gift. A picture of a shiny black KitchenAid mixer on the box had several of Regina’s friends and family cooing.
“I don’t even bake,” she said under her breath before pushing the gift aside. “I love it. Thank you, Regina.”
“You’re welcome. I know how much Bret loves my brownies, so I’ll give you the recipe.” Regina smiled.
Bret’s mother put Suzy Homemaker to shame, to say the least. Not only did she make everything by scratch, including mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard, she made and sold beautiful and delicious cakes for weddings, birthdays, quinceañeras, anniversaries, and many other events. She also kept an immaculate house and sewed like a professional. Oh… and she spoiled the hell out of Bret. Autumn had lost count of how many times he’d compared her ineptness to his mother’s super-human domestic skills. Not that Autumn resented Regina. She wished she could be more like her future mother-in-law, but Autumn just hadn’t inherited the domestic gene. Her mother wasn’t that handy in the kitchen, but she at least could make bacon without burning the hell out of it.
Unlike Bret’s childhood of homemade sloppy Joe’s, chewy chocolate chip cookies, and freshly squeezed lemonade, Autumn grew up on takeout cartons, cookies out of a tube—her mother thought by baking them, it had meant she’d “made” them—and pitchers of Kool-Aid. Autumn was totally content with it, but sometimes when Bret made snide remarks about her domestic abilities, it made her want to enroll in a cooking class or take up crocheting. Unfortunately, with the hours she spent at the veterinary clinic, Autumn barely had time to go to the grocery store to pick up fixings for a salad. One thing shecouldmake were super salads.
The afternoon seemed like it would never end, and finally, Sadie—her best friend since she’d had moved to Alina a few years before—stood up.
“I have somewhere to be. Are you ready, Autumn?” she asked, gathering up some of the gifts.
Autumn nearly stumbled over her own feet as she jumped up from the chair. “I am.” She gripped two large shopping bags Regina had given her and began to pile the presents in them.