A Ring For Christmas. Joan Elliott Pickart

Robert’s shindig?”

      “At least six months,” she said, “and that’s going full speed ahead.”

      “Really? That long? Grim, very grim. Well, if that’s the best you can do…Okay, let’s aim for a Christmas wedding. How’s that?”

      Sure, Maggie thought, feeling the threat of tears again. Merry Christmas to Maggie Jenkins. She could watch Luke St. John get married. Hooray.

      Darn it, what difference did it make? Why was she falling apart because Luke suddenly realized he was in love with one of the high-society women he dated and wanted to get married and live happily ever after? It had nothing to do with her beyond being a real coup for Roses and Wishes.

      So why did she feel so sad?

      Why did she want to crawl into bed and cry for a week?

      Forget it, just forget it. She wasn’t talking to herself about this anymore because she was being absolutely, positively ridiculous.

      “Maggie?” Luke said. “Does that work for you? A Christmas wedding?”

      “Yes,” she said softly as she looked at a spot in space a couple of inches above Luke’s head. “A Christmas wedding will be just fine, very beautiful and…special. Definitely a Christmas to remember forever.”

      Chapter Five

      Luke nodded and rubbed his hands together. “Actually this schedule will work out perfectly. A holiday wedding. That’s really romantic, don’t you think?”

      “What? Uh, yes, very romantic,” Maggie said with a rather wistful sigh as she shifted her gaze to the opposite wall. “It’s a magical time of year as it is. And to be getting married then, too? Goodness, that’s over the top or however you want to put it.”

      “Yep.” Luke paused and looked at Maggie intently. “I’ll tell…them…the good news.”

      Maggie snapped her head around to stare at Luke. “Them? Them who?” She paused. “You mean the families?”

      “Nooo,” Luke said slowly. “I was referring to the bride and groom.”

      “Pardon me?” she said, obviously confused.

      “Oh,” Luke said, snapping his fingers, “I didn’t make myself clear on this at all, did I? I do apologize, Maggie. The wedding we’re discussing is for my cousin and his fiancée.”

      “What?” Maggie blinked. “You mean you’re not…What?”

      “Let me start at the top,” Luke said, lacing his fingers on his chest. “My cousin…Clyde…”

      Jeez, what a name, he thought, inwardly groaning. He should have given thought to the identity of these people before he got here. The bride, the bride. What was the bride’s name?

      He looked frantically around the room, his gaze falling on the cover of a thick photograph album imprinted with the words Precious Memories in gold.

      “…and the love of his life…Precious,” he went on, “are in London working for the State Department.”

      “Clyde and Precious?” Maggie said, raising her eyebrows.

      “Yep, good ol’ cousin Clyde. Anyway, they decided they’d best get married here in Phoenix to keep the families from murdering them. However, they agreed to stay on in their positions as long as possible to train their replacements before returning to the States.

      “They did stipulate to their boss, though, that they definitely wanted to be back home for the holidays. So, you see, a wedding at that time of year keeps everybody happy. Are you happy, Maggie?”

      “I’m ecstatic,” she said, smiling. Because Luke wasn’t getting married. He wasn’t. Thank goodness, because…Because why? She didn’t know, but there was no denying that the dark cloud that had settled over her was gone, poof, just disappeared, because Luke wasn’t talking about his wedding. “Ecstatic because…Yes, because this is wonderful news for…for Roses and Wishes.”

      “Of course,” Luke said, nodding. “Now let me make something very clear. Precious is a rather unusual young woman. She’d much prefer to just go to City Hall in her jeans and marry her beloved Clyde, but the mothers would freak and Clyde and Precious would never hear the end of it.

      “So when I spoke with them on the phone yesterday I suggested that they hire you to arrange the whole shebang and all they have to do is show up. They’re thrilled. Precious said she’d go along with any decisions you make. Clyde? Hey, guys don’t care about this kind of stuff. It’s a woman thing.”

      “You mean I get to plan the whole wedding, make it the way I want it to be and…What about the mothers? The mothers will never let me do that. They’ll want to step in and put this production together.”

      “No way,” Luke said. “They’re as different as day and night, those mothers. My aunt and Precious’s mom together are a war waiting to happen. They’re not going to know a thing about it.

      “They’ll get an invitation in the mail, just like everyone else who is invited. They’ll pout for a while, I suppose, but then they’ll jump right into fast-forward and start thinking about becoming grandmothers, and all will be well.”

      “This is crazy,” Maggie said, shaking her head.

      “No, this is exactly the way it should be done.” Luke leaned forward, only inches from Maggie as he looked directly into her eyes. “You pretend this is your dream wedding, Maggie. Make the decisions based on what you would want if you were getting married.”

      “Oh…my…gracious,” Maggie whispered.

      “The thing is, Clyde and Precious feel they’d better be kept up to date on what’s what, you know what I mean? Just in case the moms quiz them later on why they decided on something. For example, if you have them get married in a hot-air balloon, they want to be prepared with a solid story about how they have this thing for hot-air balloons. Get it?”

      “I…”

      “Therefore, I’ll be sticking pretty close to you through this whole endeavor so I have all the details straight to pass along to them as we go. My father will take up the slack for me at the office to free up some of my time because Clyde is his favorite nephew. My dad is semiretired, but for this occasion he’s willing to put in extra hours.

      “So I’d say that about covers it. Remember, no expense spared. Oh, and Precious is about your size, so there shouldn’t be any problem about your picking out her wedding dress—if you want a traditional wedding dress. That’s up to you. Any questions?”

      “I-I’m stunned,” Maggie said, shaking her head. “I’m having difficulty comprehending all this because it’s so…I can’t even think of a word to describe it.”

      Try brilliant, Luke thought smugly. The Plan was nothing short of brilliant. Maggie would produce the wedding of her dreams. He had set it up perfectly to be able to stick close to her through the whole thing and he’d be chipping away at those walls of hers little by little, brick by emotional brick.

      She would come to love him, just as he loved her. God, she just had to fall in love with him, want to marry him and spend the rest of her life by his side. Ah, please, Maggie.

      “Will you do it?” Luke said. “I mean, take on this project?”

      “Well, yes, of course I will. Yes.”

      “Great. That’s even more than great. Thank you, Maggie, from the bottom of my heart. I’m really grateful. That is, Clyde and Precious will be very grateful to you for doing this.” Luke paused. “I realize that you don’t wish to ever marry, but that doesn’t mean you haven’t thought about the kind of wedding you’d like to have if you intended to marry, even though you don’t…intend to marry. Right?