“Where’s your dress?” Grandma Lyn asked as she studied the array of cosmetics laid out on the vanity. “Dorothy told me what happened on our drive over. Such a shame.”
I nodded and stretched my neck to either side, enjoying the last few precious minutes of free mobility before I was twisted and prodded and warned to keep still.“I’ll put it on after we’re done. I want it to be a surprise.”
“Don’t we get a sneak peek?” she asked with a teasing smile.
“Nope. You’ll have to wait along with everyone else.” I shook my head, drawing an annoyed tsk from Nan who had just started dragging a brush through my sandy locks.
“I still can’t believe the raccoon would do such a thing. I thought you said he was turning over a new leaf?” Nan added with a frown.
“Um.” I paused and glanced around the room. “Hey, Grandma Lyn, can you close that window?” I nodded toward it, upsetting Nan’s progress on my hair once more. Still, I had to make sure there was no way this conversation could be inadvertently recorded for the reality show finale.
My grandma crossed the room and pushed the window shut, locking it for good measure.“I do always love hearing about the local animal drama. So many similarities, but also so much regional flavor.” Her eyes glinted as she returned to us at the vanity.
“Well, Pringle—that’s the raccoon that lives out back—he’s always been pretty nosy. That’s how we found out about…” I was about to say that’s how we found out about her, my long-lost biological grandmother, but I didn’t want to upset Nan. “Never mind.”
I moved on quickly, hoping my faux pas went unnoticed.“He’s started watching the local AA meetings through the church window and is going through the twelve-step program.”
“That’s a good thing, right? If only all raccoons attended such meetings, the world would be a much less chaotic place. When I started renting my last house, I chose a neighborhood far from the woods, hoping it would mean fewer masked gossipmongers, but no such luck.”
“Right.” I glanced at Nan in the mirror. She appeared to be following along just fine as she began to part and pin my hair. “Well, it would be a good thing, if he hadn’t been directed to join by Alpha. He’s a seagull I’ve kind of made an enemy of. And he threatened to ruin the wedding just days beforehelping”—I made air quotes here—“Pringle get his behavior under control.”
Grandma Lyn’s eyes grew wide as she took it all in. “Oh, so you think the bird is not-so-secretly controlling the critter.”
“Bingo.” I made a finger gun and pointed to her in the mirror.
“Poor raccoon. Doesn’t know enough to know he doesn’t know much of anything,” Grandma Lyn said with a sigh.
Nan remained contemplative as she worked my tresses.“I just don’t know, sweetie. While I can’t speak to the animals personally, I feel like I know them well. And Pringle has a vivid imagination, sure, but he’d never intentionally hurt you in that way. He knows what a big day this is for you.”
I shrugged.“I don’t know what’s going on, but we’re past it now. You sent Mom’s dress to your seamstress friend already, right?”
Nan nodded while Grandma Lyn rifled through the cosmetics and selected a bottle of creamy foundation and a foam beauty blender to get her work started.
I smiled, choosing once again to focus on the positive, lest I allow the anxiety to consume me as it had for much of yesterday.“So it might not all be going to plan, but it is all going well. I’ll be fine. The wedding will be fine. At least I don’t have to worry about anything else going wrong now that Alpha’s gotten his revenge, right?”
I glanced in the mirror expecting to see twin nods of approval, but instead Nan’s face blanched right before my eyes.
“You’re mostly right, dear, but there is just one last little thing you should know,” she mumbled.
Uh-oh. I took a deep breath and braced myself for the bad news I knew I was about to receive.
“Both the rings for you and Charles… Well, they’ve gone missing, it seems. But we’ll find them! I’ve recruited Christine to help since your cousin is still working on that surprise for you. But if we don’t find them in time for the ceremony, I have other rings you can borrow, your grandfather’s and mine, actually. So see? It will still be special. And you can use your own rings when you do your renewals wearing your mother’s dress, and—”
“Nan,” I interrupted, otherwise she may have continued rambling straight up until it was time for me to walk the aisle. My heart dropped, but I quickly picked it back up off the floor. “The rings probably went missing last night, but we didn’t notice because of the dress drama. But it’s okay. I’d love to borrow your rings. Thank you for offering them.”
She studied me for a moment.“Are you sure?”
“Super sure,” I said with an enthusiastic grin. “But maybe we could listen to one of your guided meditation tapes while we finish getting ready?”
11
I blinked at myself in the mirror that hung over Nan’s antique vanity.
“Well, Angie. Do you like it?” Grandma Lyn asked with bated breath.
Nan held a hand mirror up so I could see my formal updo from all sides. She’d really outdone herself with this one. Soft curls had been worked into a stylish bouffant with sprigs of baby’s breath forming a crown around the edges.
“You two could go into business together,” I said with a huge grin as I blinked slowly to admire the deftly applied eye shadow. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so glamorous in my entire life.”
Both women clasped their hands together and cooed happily—showing they were more alike than different, just as I’d always known. Maybe they were finally starting to realize that too.
“Now if you’ll just let me fit your veil into place…” Nan jogged over to her bed and lifted the delicate lace accessory from the mattress.
“Your groom is going to lose his mind when he sees you walking toward him down that aisle,” Grandma Lyn assured me before both women got to work securing the veil beneath my bouffant.
My heart thrummed with anticipatory bliss. I couldn’t wait for the main event, but in the meantime, this moment was its own kind of perfect too. Ever since Grandma Lyn had entered our lives, I’d desperately hoped my two grandmothers could put their divisive past behind them so we could move toward a unified future.
I was just about to say something extremely profound to mark the moment—I’m sure of it—but then my phone rang on the vanity, splintering that picture-perfect moment.
“Oh, could one of you get that?” I begged, realizing I was stuck in place until the veil had been fully secured. “I have half a dozen missed calls from earlier. That’s probably them.”
Grandma Lyn fumbled for the phone as Nan continued to work with the veil. She put it on speaker, and I said,“Hello?”
“Hey, Angie. It’s Dana. We’re in route to your place now, but I realized that my assistant forgot that vegan meal you requested in the warmer. If we turn around, I’m not sure we’ll have time to complete our full set-up prior to the ceremony, which means everyone would have to wait before we could start the reception luncheon. I’m so sorry about this, but I wanted to call and check in with you before deciding what to do.”
Oof, I wasn’t sure what to do, but luckily Nan rescued me from having to decide.
“It’s fine. I’ll go pick something up,” she offered with a grunt, a line of bobby pins stuck between her lips.
“Nan? Are you sure?” I pleaded with her through the mirror, not sure what answer I wanted. I did know one thing for sure though. “I don’t want you to miss the ceremony.”
“We still have plenty of time. Got a friend in the restaurant biz who owes me a favor. Besides, it’ll give me a chance to check in on Grant. I haven’t heard from him all day, even though he should’ve arrived at least an hour ago.”