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  Teagan was wandering around the place. “What’s this?”

  “Those are nameplates that haven’t been engraved yet.”

  “Cara, what if you guys make this about twice the size and engrave it with their vows and the date and exact time.”

  He answered, “We could do that. Ya know what you might want to do, is we can attach this…” He reached under the counter, moved some stuff around, then held up a beautifully etched box with a clear lid “We could stand it up or lay it down, whatever you want, and you could buy one of those pocket watches, we could engrave their names on the inside of the watch, then we could display it open, stopped on the exact second they got married.”

  I almost hugged him.

  That would work for me.

  We headed back to the mall.

  I looked everywhere for a pocket watch with three time zones. I figured I’d stop it on one when Liam said his vows, another when Morgan said her vows, and if they didn’t have Jordan say anything, I’d figure out something else to do with the third.

  Turns out, in that whole huge really high-end mall, not a single pocket watch with three time zones. I did find a really nice one I could kind of fake it with. It had two time zones and a second hand. Problem was it was thirty-nine hundred dollars.

  Teagan needed sustenance.

  Turns out that right by the food court, there is a clock shop. I went in and they had a big selection of clocks appropriate for your office desk, with three time zones. There was a beautiful one that caught my eye. Three brass clocks in mahogany, I was tempted, but then I saw one that was basically a big glass nameplate, with three clocks across the bottom. The sales clerk said they could send it out to have it engraved. I figured my biker guy could engrave something outrageously beautiful, maybe their names, or the date, or something, maybe even a picture.

  We went straight back to the engraving place, asked if he could engrave it. Definitely. Asked if he could have it done by tomorrow morning, or better yet, if we could pick it up on the way to the rehearsal dinner, he looked at me like I’d grown another head.

  I went with the only thing I had, “I can’t guarantee you any extra business, but I can tell you that I come from a really big family, we have family members working in just about every area of every industry you can think of, and I promise every single one of them will know what you did for me.”

  “I appreciate that, but I want to give you my best work, and I gotta try a few things, I can’t just go for it on the clocks the first time. Besides, do people really open their presents at the wedding? Don’t they wait until they get back from their honeymoon?”

  “I’m not sure. We’ve done it both ways in our family. I think my cousin actually opened his at his Mom’s after the rehearsal dinner.”

  “Then what you’re sayin’ is that your family can be flexible. It don’t matter if it’s a couple days late, if they can enjoy it their whole married life. You know exactly what you want printed on there?”

  “Yes. Their wedding vows.”

  “You know what they are gonna say?”

  “They are going to recite the traditional Irish vows, I’ll write them down for you.”

  I had him read it back to make sure he could read my writing.

  I actually have very good penmanship, thank you Sister Dominic Mary.

  We got to Jordan’s school with plenty of time to spare. Headed for Mom and Daddy’s house so that he could try on his tux.

  “I forgot my shoes.”

  “That’s okay Sweetie, you can still try on the tux.”

  “Can I use your phone to call home and see if either one of them is there? I want to see the tux with my shoes.”

  “Sure.”

  I handed him my phone. He phoned home. Explained to whoever answered that he’d forgotten his shoes. It was obvious that whoever answered assured him that his shoes were safe and sound and on the way to Grandma’s. He relaxed.

  When we got back to Mom’s there were about a gazillion cars parked everywhere.

  Wedding central was humming.

  Jordan bolted in the front door. Liam caught him on the fly.

  “Did you bring ‘em?”

  “I did.”

  “Can I put ‘em on?”

  “Not till you have your suit on.”

  “I thought we were wearing tuxes.”

  “That is a kind of a suit. Grandma said you could get dressed in her room with me and Grandpa. You ready?”

  “I’m ready.”

  Liam, Jordan and my Dad walked toward the bedrooms. Mom had a huge smile on her face. “Girls, come in the family room.”

  On the couch were Morgan’s parents; a lovely older woman I assumed was her grandma and Morgan, barely contained, sitting on the ottoman.

  “Hey.”

  Introductions all around.

  Teagan ran down the list of things we’d gotten done. Morgan took a deep breath and thanked us. Teagan explained that we had invited a couple of people to the wedding, then explained who and why. As always, Morgan was gracious. We were grateful.

  Jovana was hovering and taking pictures and sounding more southern every second.

  AJ and Jessie showed up at about the same time.

  The flashes started popping; it looked like the guys were being pursued by paparazzi. Jordan, never shy, was loving it. His grandparents, all four, delighted in him. It was great.

  I’m sure they got some really great pictures.

  A friend of Morgan’s showed up with her little girl. She’s going to be the flower girl, but had already tried her dress on, so we wouldn’t get a preview.

  “Now Pa?”

  “Ask Mom.”

  Morgan smiled, “Yes, now.”

  Jordan grabbed Liam’s hand and dragged him into the other room. A few minutes later, Jordan and Liam reappeared wearing their matching wedding tennis shoes. Not just any tennis shoes, matching custom made shoes. They’d gone online, designed and ordered the shoes. Liam likes shoes. Jordan likes to look like Liam. Morgan was beaming. It was good all the way around.

  “Everyone ready to head to the ballroom?”

  “Just need a few minutes to change.”

  Morgan and Mom called out at the same time “Liam, hang them up carefully!” which brought a whole new round of laughter.

  The ballroom was empty. Made it look even bigger than I remembered. Morgan showed her mother and father around, including the area where she would get dressed tomorrow.

  The rehearsal was short and sweet.

  They would have the ballroom divided into two areas, one area where the wedding itself would take place, with chairs set up on either side of an aisle.

  The flower girl practiced walking down the aisle. Liam moved to the front to wait for Morgan. As is custom, Mom was escorted down the aisle first, followed by the bride’s mother. Then the best man walked down the aisle. Then Morgan’s dad escorted her down the aisle. The usual blah blah blah. You may now kiss your bride. We all cheered. Morgan, Jordan and Liam came back down the aisle. It was great. Whole thing took less than half an hour.

  I was trying to figure out how to ask the obvious, when Sinead beat me to it. “What time are we supposed to be here to decorate?”

  Jovana answered, “The girls at the bar are gonna take care of that. They’ve all just fallen in love with Morgan. It is their wedding present to the happy couple. There isn’t a thing to worry about, we’ll take care of it all.”

  Morgan was obviously surprised. “But I didn’t even invite them to the wedding. I can’t ask them to do that.”

  “Darlin’ most of them will be workin’ while you’re getting married. Don’t you worry about a thing. I already told them that if you ever have a chance to return the favor, or you could use them in your brochures or whatever you’re creatin’ you’d be sure to give ‘em a call.”

  “I promise.”

  “Then let’s go over to get us some of that rehearsal dinner.”

  We all caravanned back to my parent�
��s. As we got out of the car, Mom handed me some oven mitts and a couple of hand towels and told me to go get the roast. She repeated the directions several times. Each of the O’Flynns was headed to one neighbor or another to collect our dinner.

  I think it took Morgan’s family back a little to see so many of us swarm and I know a couple of her girlfriends just shook their heads, but it seemed pretty normal to us.

  My parents were among the first people on the block and most of my neighbors have been my neighbors since before I was born. It’s like a family. We do the same kind of stuff for them. When I was younger, I spent a lot of time feeding fish and watering grass and running to the store for eggs or milk or whatever was needed. That’s how a neighborhood is supposed to be. I miss it.

  When we got the food back to the house, Morgan’s dad started to carve the roast, Daddy started in on the ham, Teagan and I drained and mashed potatoes, rolls were put in baskets, veggies were steamed, it was like both halves of the family had been working together for years.

  It can be dangerous in a small kitchen with everyone holding something hot or something sharp, but without a single injury, the buffet was arranged, kids were served, everyone was settled, and the dads were joking around about a summer BBQ.

  We had a nice time. Ate too much. Got things cleaned up and got home early enough for me to take a shower and find just the right gown to reintroduce AJ to my evening rituals.

  In the morning, AJ and I went out for breakfast.

  Great minds think alike, we ended up in the same place Teagan and Jessie did. Probably only because Teagan lives so close, and it’s the closest place that serves breakfast, but I prefer to look at it as kismet.

  We sat at the same table. Of course things turned to Jerkface and friends. Nothing new on that front. Jessie explained that he talked to his sister, a lawyer, and she said that things in the legal world move pretty slowly. Don’t expect anything earth shattering. It might be months, or even years, before we have any involvement again.

  I liked the sound of that.

  We talked about our upcoming cruise. AJ and Jessie decided they would go deep-sea fishing while we were gone. Good, cause that doesn’t appeal to me at all, so I won’t feel like I missed out on anything.

  I desperately wanted to ask Jessie if he was going to relocate, and how he could do that to my sister, and why was he still in town, but Teagan would kill me, and I don’t mean that in the empty threat kind of way most sisters would say they would kill their sister, I mean she would actually kill me. The girl has been reading about serial killers for a while now, she probably has it all figured out.

  Teagan pulled a beautiful necklace out of her purse. She said she’d been carrying it with her because she forgot to give it to me last night.

  It will go perfectly with my dress.

  I asked what she was wearing, but she played it coy. Told me that Sinead was wearing a royal blue V-necked dress with a chiffon overlay with beading at the empire waist. Hair up. Silver heels.

  “Sinead can wear blue, because blue is the color of purity. That’s why you can’t wear blue. Red maybe Teagan?”

  “Don’t start. Besides, those rules apply to the bride, not the guests. Mom’s wearing blue. She has eight kids.”

  “True, but she’s pure of heart. Ask her. She’ll tell you.”

  We all laughed.

  We chatted about nothing, ate our breakfast, and headed our separate ways.

  AJ took off early. He was in jeans and a t-shirt, with a suit bag, and his shoes thrown in the trunk and more camera equipment than I can lift with help.

  He’s meeting Morgan and her parents at her condo for the before pictures. Jovana will go over to my brother Rory’s house, that's where Jordan and Liam are getting ready. Then, Morgan and her parents will head over to the ballroom early, my parents will meet them there, lots of pictures, each of us O’Flynn kids has an assigned task, then we’ll all meet at the ballroom and go from there.

  Normally, it would be all hands on deck for the decorating and cooking, but Jovana and the girls from the bar, with the help of a couple cooks and such, are taking care of all those details. That’s why Jovana is taking the guy pictures and AJ is taking the pictures of Morgan. Jovana will have more time to whip around the kitchen and make sure the details of the ballroom are all taken care of.

  I admit it openly, this whole experience is a little more she-she pooh-pooh than I am accustomed to. Normally it is the O’Flynn way to rush around and do everything at the last second, doing the cooking and the cleaning and everything else that needs to be done, so sitting around with little to do makes me nervous.

  I puttered around the apartment, then decided to go ahead and get ready.

  I took a shower, put all kinds of chemicals Teagan has supplied me with into my hair, blew it dry with the diffuser thing, it was nice and fluffy. I spritzed my hair lightly with more chemicals, put small hot rollers in, and went about putting my face on.

  I did a whole face, unusual for me, and short of false eyelashes, because I am not even going to try that, I think I did every bit as well as a professional could. Pink and gray eye shadow always makes my eyes pop, and I did more eyeliner than usual, deep gray on top, and deep purple on the bottom. Three coats of Falsies mascara, and I was good to go.

  I remembered to put some rice paper in my purse, in case my nose gets shiny, put the Bernie brooch in there as well, since I got busy and forgot to ask Mom about it. In went all the other wedding necessities. A lovely hanky, lip stain and gloss, a few bobby pins, a few safety pins, some Band-Aids, travel size deodorant, one of those little disposable tooth brushes, some peppermint Lifesavers, a pen, a packet of modeling tape, a tiny mirror, a tiny clear nail polish, emery board, a couple of earring backs, and a couple of dryer sheets. Sounds like a lot, but really doesn’t take up much room. I had just enough space to cram my phone in there, took my car key off my key ring and put it in the zipper section. I’d leave the rest of my keys in my car.

  My hot rollers were cooled. I pulled the rollers out, fluffed with my fingers, sprayed with lightweight hairspray and left it to calm down.

  I put on my dress, my shoes didn’t hurt at all, grabbed a pair of ballet flats to keep in the car just in case, and went back in to finish my hair.

  I sprayed it again, waited for the spray to dry. I took a section at the crown of my head, and did a big pin curl to get it out of the way. I then took a chunk of hair from the right nape, swept it under the rest of my hair, up to the left crown area just under the pin curl and pinned it. Took a chunk of hair from the nape area on the other side, swept it under the rest of my hair, attached it on the right side, just under the pin curl. Took out the pin curl, teased it a bit, sprayed the teased part so it would stay there, broke the curls up, and let it mingle with the part that was now forming a loose updo. Sprayed it almost to the point of petrification, but since it was all loose curls it still looked age appropriate, not helmet-like. Looked great.

  Put on Teagan’s necklace and some simple hoop earrings, and called myself stunning.

  I wanted to get to the ballroom early-ish, but not too early. I’d already been told that we were going to be allowed in the bar, or in the reception area downstairs, but no one was going into the ballroom until Morgan and Liam had seen it all put together.

  Wonder if they’re going to see each other before the ceremony. I hope not.

  After they see it, the doors to the wedding area will be opened. The area used for the reception will be differentiated, not sure how they’re going to do that either. This being on the outside looking in, sucks. A lot less work, but still, it sucks.

  I jumped in my car, got the assistance of my Australian GPS friend, and hit the road.

  “Dear, you look lovely.”

  “Thank you. You look fabulous. Is it that you are back to one hundred percent healthy, or is it the hair, dress, and skillful makeup? No wonder AJ is a photographer, look at who he has had to study all these years.”

&nbs
p; “Cara, what a lovely thing to say.”

  “Good, cause now I’m gonna stomp all over it and point out that you’ve set a rather high bar to meet. Look at you. On my best day…”