Read an Excerpt
Chapter 1: Happily Ever After 1 Happily Ever After
Peach is not my color. And silk is definitely not my fabric. But what am I going to do—boycott my own mother’s wedding? Pull a runaway bride, except it would be a runaway maid of honor? I’d be hightailing it out of here with flower petals trailing from my wheels. Actually, that doesn’t sound half bad. I wipe a bead of sweat from my forehead with the handkerchief Mema tucked into my bouquet. It’s about five thousand degrees too hot for nuptials.
“Okay, wedding party, one more shot and then we’re golden!” Coralee shouts from where she crouches on her knees in the sand by the lake. She’s trying her hand at photography. Apparently, that’s the quadruple threat in her plan to take over the world and become a famous celebrity. Now she can add photographer to her actor/singer/dancer résumé. Pretty soon, she’s going to over-qualify herself right out of the running. But that’s just my personal opinion, which I do not plan to tell my best friend. Coralee does not take criticism well. In fact, she could probably handle a live scorpion better than one word about her outfit, hair, or singing ability. One time, during a rehearsal for the spring musical at school, the chorus director told her to “maybe tone it down a bit,” and she snapped, “Excuse me? Do you even want people to come to this show?”
“Ellie, it’s not the zombie apocalypse.” She sighs. “Smile like you think somebody’s not about to eat your face.”
I blink in the hot Oklahoma sun. “Shut it, Coralee.” I give her my sweetest, most evil grin.
“Baby, you need a break?” Mom leans down from her spot two steps above me in the gazebo and tucks my hair behind my ear. Her cheeks are rosy from heat and happiness. Mema made both our dresses, but hers suits her to a T. It’s cream silk and sleeveless and stops at her knees. On anybody else it’d be plain, but on Mom it is perfection. I smile up at her, and she winks just as Coralee snaps a picture.
“Got it!” Coralee yells. “That’s a wrap, people. Now go get hitched!”
“There’s still time to make a run for it,” Hutch whispers to both of us. Coaching middle school football camp the last couple of weeks, since school ended, has given him a fierce farmer’s tan, but he still looks handsome in his white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His tie is peach, like my dress. When Mom punches him in the shoulder, he grins and she blushes and I rock back on my wheels so I do not have to watch yet another display of affection. I love them both. I do. And it is their wedding day. But come on. They’re worse than middle schoolers.
Behind us, up near the tree line, gravel crunches and car doors slam. “Come on, let’s go hide.” Mom nudges my knee with hers before letting me take the lead down the dirt path to the tent they’ve set up by the water for the reception.
When Hutch and Mom started getting serious, I thought it might be weird having my gym teacher around all the time. But then it just... wasn’t. My world expanded to three after it being just Mom and me for so long. After a while I couldn’t even remember what it was like without Hutch mowing the lawn and challenging me to knuckle-cracking contests and stepping on his own two feet while Mom tried to teach him to line dance in our teeny tiny kitchen.
So when he stopped by the trailer while Mom was at the grocery store one afternoon and asked if we could have a chat out on the porch, I knew what was coming. All the most important conversations happen on the porch. It’s the place you go to iron out the wrinkles with your people. When you live in extra-close quarters like we do, you need a spot of neutral territory.
Hutch paced the length of the porch for about ten minutes until he bumped his head on the bug zapper and retreated to the rocking couch across from me. We sat without talking for so long that I started doing mini push-ups in my wheelchair to have something to do.
“You’re getting good at those,” he said, finally.
I did my best Schwarzenegger impression. “Yeah, I’m gonna get ripped.”
He gave me a shaky laugh. “I guess I should take credit when you become a world-famous bodybuilder.”
I shook my head. Hutch has been the best physical therapist I’ve ever had. But I couldn’t let it go to his head. “It’s twenty percent coaching, eighty percent sheer willpower.” I patted his arm. “You’re all right, though. My PT back in Nashville had me take ten steps in the gait trainer and call it a day. Pretty sure she thought any kind of exercise that made me stronger in my chair was a step back. Pun intended.”
Crickets. Man, if he didn’t get on with it soon, I’d have to propose to him myself.
“I hope”—he stopped and cleared his throat—“I might become more to you than just your PT.”
“You’re a champ at lawn care.” I couldn’t help myself.
“That too, but also, I mean....” He stood and started pacing again. “Your mom and I have been spending a lot of time together, and when two people like to spend time together and, um, like each other like your mom and I do, we...” He trailed off, looking lost. “Ellie, do you know what I’m trying to say?”
“Yeah, sure. You like Mom and Mom likes you and you want to be a part of our lives permanently.”
He nodded, visibly relieved.
“Like me and Bert and Coralee. Best friends, right?”
He rubbed both hands over his face like he wished he could peel it right off. I chuckled and surrendered. There’s only so much tween torture a man can take.
“I’m kidding. You want to marry my mom, right?”
He collapsed onto the rocking couch, sending it squeaking back and forth. “Yes. I want to be part of your family in whatever way you will let me, because I think you’re pretty cool. Slightly wicked with what you just did there, but also cool and stubborn and an incredible baker, and I’d be honored if you’d let me into your inner circle.”
I looked him up and down, his shaved head shiny in the early spring air, his knee bouncing the same way mine does when I’m nervous, and I nodded.
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah, okay. We’ll let you in.”
He heaved a huge sigh and pulled out two glazed tea cakes from Mimi’s Café in town that he must’ve stashed out here earlier. Total bribery, but I didn’t care. I wonder if I still would have gotten one if I’d said no. Probably. Hutch is that kind of guy.
“Hey, man, the war’s not over yet. You’ve still got to get Mom to say yes.”
“Are you kidding?” he said, grinning and taking a huge bite of pastry. “After this, proposing to Alice will be a piece of cake.”
“Speaking of cake,” I said, and pointed to a sizable crumb stuck to his chin.
Looking over at him now, under the tent with his arm over Mom’s shoulder, I have no doubt I made the right decision. I don’t remember what it was like before my real dad left. I was just a baby. But whatever it was like, it couldn’t have been as good. Because how could you have this and ever let it go?
Dad. My stomach clenches hard like a sinkhole swallowing up all the good vibes. I roll to the edge of the tent and look out over the calm water. I cannot and will not think about him right now. That’s what tomorrow’s for. And every day after that for the next month.
“Girl!” Coralee shouts with her camera held over her head like a trophy. “You look awesome in these!”
I’m not great with compliments, so I’m still trying to figure out what to say to that when she adds, “I rock at this picture-taking thing.” I smack her arm, but it’s good. Coralee is distracting. She brings me back to the present—to the moment I get to watch my mom on the happiest day of her life, second only to when she had me, of course.
