The Wedding Planner, page 20
The blood test came back and they were told it was twin girls, and from the sonogram, they knew that they were in one sac, so they were identical. Both Faith and Hope thought it was fantastic that she was having twins, but she hadn’t gotten there yet. All she could think of were the downsides, and in Violet’s opinion there were many. She tried to avoid thinking about it at all, by focusing on her work. Faith tried to give her all the tasks she could that involved sitting down, desk work, research, phone calls. She gave Phoebe the more active jobs that required physical exertion. Violet wanted to do more, but Phoebe and Faith wouldn’t let her. She sometimes went home frustrated at night, but she was grateful that she was still on her feet and could come to work every day. She was terrified of being put to bed and getting stuck there for months. She was going to be even angrier than she already was at the twins, if she got confined to bed because of them, but they were all aware that it could happen.
* * *
—
After Labor Day, Faith got a flood of new clients. She was already working on the big December wedding she’d had on the books for months. They were putting a full-sized skating rink on the grounds of their Long Island estate for the rehearsal dinner. There would be ice dancing with professional skaters, with figure skates for all. The setting would look like Paris at the turn of the twentieth century. And the wedding itself would look like the Russian imperial palace in St. Petersburg, worthy of a czar and czarina. The bride was wearing a white velvet gown with tiny stars on it, trimmed in white sable, with a full-length white sable cape when she arrived, and would remove for the ceremony. Faith had set designers from Broadway helping her build the décor. They were already painting it now. There were to be ice sculptures everywhere, and caviar stations every few feet. The bride’s father was Russian of dubious origins, her mother a Polish beauty. The bride was exquisite, and she was marrying a handsome young Russian who worked for her father. The wedding was to be two days before Christmas, with five hundred guests. They had another equally large traditional wedding for a senator’s daughter scheduled for New Year’s Eve. The Save the Dates had just gone out. And they had a smaller wedding on a chartered yacht.
Then there were all the normal-scale weddings, of young American couples with anxious parents, demanding mothers, quarrelsome brides, and jealous sisters. The two big weddings alone could have kept her busy for the next year, and then she had all the others.
The press wanted to cover the event before Christmas, but the father of the bride wanted no press at all. There was a faintly dangerous flavor to the family of the bride. But the price he was willing to pay made up for it. There was nothing illegal involved or for Faith to do, it was just obvious that the father of the bride had some very unusual, interesting connections. When Faith made her site visit, there were security guards armed with machine guns everywhere. They were not her typical clients, and the velvet gown with the sable cape was being made by Chanel for a million dollars. The bride was actually very sweet and the groom was a very nice young man, but Faith was convinced that the bride’s father had skills and practices she didn’t want to know about.
Faith told Edward about some of the more interesting weddings and clients, without violating any confidentiality.
“Your job is way more interesting than Wall Street.” And he was stunned by what she could charge as a percentage of the wedding. It was a highly lucrative business and always had been, and a happy one, even if stressful. Faith was artful at not getting involved in mother-daughter battles. No matter whose side you took, as an outsider you would lose, and she didn’t want to be in that position. She used extreme diplomacy to avoid it.
* * *
—
Edward and Faith had managed to keep their relationship safe from all prying eyes and tattling tongues for several weeks, despite the obvious joy they radiated. Violet kept telling her how well and rested she looked, which was laughable since they hardly slept, but they were both so happy. Faith couldn’t remember ever being this happy, and Edward knew he hadn’t been. His staid, work-driven life had satisfied him for years, but Faith satisfied him more and filled him. She nurtured all the empty spaces that had gone neglected and unfed for so long. He opened new horizons to her, they were vistas of the heart, like blue skies on a summer day.
* * *
—
Morgan and Alex came back from their honeymoon a week after Labor Day, just in time for Morgan to start work on Fashion Week. The time on the giant sailboat had been something out of a dream, with well-trained, highly efficient crew members to wait on them night and day, perfect weather in the Mediterranean, fishing and swimming, and stopping at small picturesque ports along the way, or dropping anchor in small peaceful coves. They had spent their last weekend at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, where their boat dropped them off and left them, and they flew home from Nice.
They were thrilled to find Blake thriving when they got home. He was two months old and smiled all the time. He had chubby little legs and several chins, and looked like a baby in an ad, and he gurgled and cooed all the time. Helen took impeccable care of him, and said he was brilliant. Alex could never quite get out of his mind how his mother had looked when she said goodbye to him, but Morgan had moved on. The baby was theirs now. He never thought of the past. He lived in the present. It was one of the differences between the two men. Morgan was upbeat and positive, always plunging forward. Alex got nostalgic from time to time and was more introspective. But they complemented each other.
They were eager to see Faith and Edward, and had no idea what had gone on between them, or the love that had blossomed like giant sunflowers while they were away. They invited them both to dinner, and they accepted. Faith wondered, the night before, if it was a wise decision, if they wanted to keep their secret. She thought Morgan would spot it immediately.
“So what if he does?” Edward shrugged as they lay naked in bed and he admired her body. She was in flawless shape, with her ballet workout on Skype nearly every day. Edward went to the gym as often as he could, when he had time, but wasn’t as dogged about it. He was impressed by how disciplined Faith was. If she said she would do something, she did.
“I just don’t want everyone talking about us, and telling us what they think, or interfering,” Faith said.
“What are you afraid of?” he asked her gently. He had a way of always cutting to the heart of the matter, and laying her worries bare.
“I don’t know…maybe they’ll tell you that you can do better, or you should have someone younger, or I’m weird because I’ve never been married. Maybe I am weird,” she said, looking up at him with huge eyes, “but I love you. I don’t want anyone messing with that.”
“They can’t. What we have belongs to us. They can’t touch it. And I don’t want anyone younger, or older.” He was two years older than Faith, they were on level ground. “I want you. I’ve never loved anyone as I do you, and nothing is going to change that. I don’t want to change you, and you love me as I am. And I don’t give a damn what anyone thinks, who approves or who doesn’t,” he said with confidence.
“Then they’ll all start pushing us to get married, and that would ruin everything,” Faith said, worried.
“Would it ‘ruin everything’?” he asked. “Why? I wouldn’t mind being married to you. I think I’d like it.” He had been thinking about it lately, and wondering if they should at some point. He already knew he wanted to be with her forever. “But I’m perfectly happy staying like this, if that’s what you prefer.”
“I’m afraid of marriage. It screws everything up. It ruins everything.”
He laughed. “That from the number-one foremost wedding planner in the world?”
“Yes, every time my mother got married, it destroyed the relationship. It killed it. And half the people I do weddings for don’t stay married. Some of them have me do their second and third weddings.”
“What makes you think the relationship would have lasted any longer if they didn’t get married? Maybe those relationships were flawed in the first place. I don’t think ours is.”
“Neither do I. Let’s keep it that way and be lovers forever,” she said, and kissed him.
“As long as you don’t marry someone else and keep me as a lover on the side. I would not like that.” He kissed her neck and sent chills down her spine. They made magic in bed, as never before for either of them, but they loved each other in a simple wholesome way too. Sometimes they laughed like children. It was interesting realizing how afraid she was of marriage, and how against it. He always had been too, but he wasn’t afraid of it with her, and he was willing to do whatever she wanted, including keeping their relationship from his brother, but knowing Morgan, he was sure it wouldn’t last long. He had a sixth sense about people, and he knew Edward well, and he had never been as happy in his life. That was hard to hide. Why would he? Just to keep her happy, he agreed.
* * *
—
They were invited to Alex and Morgan’s home for dinner two days after they got home. Morgan called his brother, and Alex called Faith. It was going to be a simple pasta dinner in their kitchen, which was always fun, just the four of them.
They arrived at the appointed hour separately, Edward five minutes after Faith. They looked surprised and pleased to see each other. Alex and Morgan were full of their trip, with gorgeous pictures of all their stops, and the tiny villages where they went. They had sailed down as far as Sardinia, and back up again, with time to fish and swim in Corsica. They sailed a lot at night, so they didn’t waste time in the day. It sounded like a fantastic trip.
During dinner, Morgan asked his brother what he’d been up to, and Edward said he’d been settling in at the office, and it was always challenging when a new senior partner took over. He bored him to death with work details and looked innocent. Faith had been telling Alex about some of the new weddings they had booked, especially the more extravagant ones.
Edward was innocently eating his pasta carbonara, which they had prepared because they knew it was his favorite, when Morgan narrowed his eyes and stared at him. “You’re lying to me!” he said to him.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Edward said, laughing. “What am I lying about? I just told you your pasta is delicious, and it is, that’s no lie.” He didn’t dare look at Faith. She was laughing too. Morgan was uncanny. He could sense a secret faster than anyone alive, and he knew Edward too well.
“You touched your ear. You always touch your left ear when you lie. You’ve done it since I was a kid. You’re lying about something,” he accused his older brother with a Sherlock Holmes look, determined to find out what it was.
“Let’s see, what could I be lying about? That work is a little boring right now? No, that’s not a lie. Unfortunately, it’s true…the food tonight is excellent, you’re such a good cook…that’s not a lie….”
“What have you been doing lately?” Morgan said to distract him.
“Not much. I’ve been home every night, I don’t have any good friends here yet, except you two.” As he said it, he touched his left ear, and Faith almost choked on her food. Morgan was right. He had a tic he was unaware of. Morgan screamed and pointed at him.
“That’s it! You’re lying. You’ve been out getting laid every night. Who is it?”
“First of all, I was not ‘getting laid,’ and second of all,” Edward said, grinning, “it’s none of your business.”
“Then I’m right!” They were all laughing. “Are you in love?” Morgan loved knowing all the news, and everyone’s secrets. They both knew that about him.
“No,” Edward said firmly, shaking his head, and then he touched his right ear, and Morgan screamed even louder.
“You touched your right ear. That’s only for JUMBO lies…. You’re in love! Tell me who.” Edward was trying to keep a straight face, and Faith was nearly having convulsions, laughing. She hadn’t expected Morgan to conduct the Spanish Inquisition. She thought he’d be nosey, not possessed.
“I am not in love,” he said, holding up both hands so he didn’t touch his ears, and as he did it, he shot a guilty side glance at Faith, and Morgan jumped up from the table and stared at him. “Men my age don’t fall in love,” Edward said firmly, and Morgan rolled his eyes.
“Touch both your ears for that one. That’s the biggest lie of all. You’re only ten years older than I am. That’s nothing.” He looked intently from Faith to Edward, then narrowed his eyes and stared at them after he sat down again. “Oh my God…what have you two been doing while we were gone?”
“Nothing,” they said in unison, and Morgan looked at them even harder. All four of them started laughing again.
“Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my GOD! Are you dating, or just sleeping together? What are you doing? It’s you two, I know it.” Edward and Faith exchanged a look, and they both looked happily guilty, as she reached out and took Edward’s hand.
“Okay, Sherlock. You win. I’m in love with your brother. There. Are you happy?”
“EXTREMELY happy.” He beamed at them, and Alex was stunned. Morgan was right. “When are you getting married?”
“Never,” she said firmly. “I love your brother and I am never going to marry him, because I love him. And that’s not a lie because I said it.”
“Why not?” Morgan looked disappointed.
“Because I don’t believe in marriage,” she said.
“Oh my God, what are you? Like those drug dealers who sell it, but don’t use it. You do the most divine weddings on the planet and you don’t believe in marriage?”
“Nope.”
“You’re a very sick woman…cruel. He’s my brother. He’s a respectable man. He comes from an honorable family, and you’re sleeping with him and won’t marry him? What kind of woman are you? You’re just using him for sex, and taking him lightly? I’m shocked.”
“Absolutely.” She grinned at her friend, and Edward was smiling broadly at her, enjoying it. Morgan had met his match. “He’s my sex slave.”
“You’re a very loose woman. If I had known you’re just toying with my brother, I wouldn’t have made you my best carbonara. I would have given you hamburgers, or dog food.” He came around the table then and hugged them both. “I love you. You are my two favorite people in the world. Please get married, and have babies. Then we can all go to the park together.”
“No babies,” they said in unison again.
“Okay, you can come to the park with us anyway. We’re looking for a house in Connecticut and thinking of giving up the house in the Hamptons, although we’d miss it,” he said, changing the subject. “I’ll hate the commute, but I think it would be good for the kids.” Alex agreed. “You’d better get married, you know. If you don’t, your clients will think you’re a slut,” he said to Faith.
“Only if you tell them,” she responded with a grin.
He hugged them both again when they left, and told them how happy he was that they had found each other. Alex said the same.
In the cab going home, Faith turned to Edward. “See what I mean, everyone is going to bug us to get married.”
“No, just Morgan. He’s a little crazy that way. He’s wanted to get married and have children of his own since he was a kid. I’m glad he is now. It completes him.”
She looked at Edward then and whispered, “You complete me.” He kissed her, and as soon as they got back to her house, he raced her up the stairs to her bedroom, took off her clothes, and made love to her. Afterward, they laughed about Morgan again.
“In thirty-four years, he has never told me that I have a tell when I lie. I hope no one has figured that out in business.”
She rolled over again and kissed him. “I like being the loose woman in your life.”
“So I noticed.” He grinned at her. It had all been in good fun. So now Morgan and Alex knew about them. It was bound to come out sooner or later. Hope knew about him too, and that Faith was in love with him. Their mother didn’t. Faith didn’t feel ready to tell her yet. She’d want them to get married too.
* * *
—
Alex and Morgan had Blake christened in September. It was nice for Faith and Edward to be godparents, and even more appropriate now that they were together. But they were good about keeping their secret. Blake looked beautiful in a long lace christening gown from Morgan’s family. They had invited a few friends and had lunch at a nearby restaurant, and Helen took the baby home for a nap. He’d had a big morning, and was very well behaved. He slept through his christening because Helen had fed him beforehand.
* * *
—
Marianne and Jean-Pierre were leaving on a cruise at the end of September, and Faith had dinner with them the night before they left. Hope came to town too. She was six months pregnant, and looked bigger by then. She had big, healthy babies. Faith admitted to her mother that she was “seeing” someone, but not that he was turning out to be the love of her life. It seemed like too much to share, and she still felt protective of the relationship.
Marianne questioned her about it, but dropped the subject after a few minutes. She was easier to convince than Morgan that it was nothing serious. Faith didn’t want her mother hounding her from now on about getting married.
Jean-Pierre seemed in good form. He looked healthy and rested. His heart was fine. They were going on a monthlong cruise in South America. It was spring there, and they were excited about it.
When they said goodbye to them after dinner, and wished them a good trip, they all hugged one another. And when Jean-Pierre hugged Faith, he whispered to her, “I don’t know who he is, but you look so happy…keep him…don’t let him go.” He smiled at her again over his shoulder as they left. She wondered how he knew. It was as though he had a sixth sense.
