True Love Read online

  “It’s …” Izzy whispered. “It’s …”

  Alix waited but Izzy said nothing else. “It’s what?”

  Izzy sat down on the built-in seat behind the table. “It’s the best thing you’ve ever done,” she whispered, then looked up at Alix.

  “Really?” Alix asked. “You’re not just saying that?”

  “Truthfully,” Izzy said. “It’s the epitome of all you’ve worked for. It’s truly beautiful.”

  Alix couldn’t help doing a few dance steps of triumph around the kitchen, then she began pulling dishes out of the cabinets and putting food on them. “I was really fighting it. I thought I was never going to come up with new and original, and old and traditional, at the same time. I went against the well-known Montgomery creed of following the land, but I did think of it as being built on Nantucket so that—” She broke off because when she looked back at Izzy, her friend was crying—just sitting at the table, tears rolling down her face, her eyes focused on the model of the chapel.

  Alix went over and hugged her. “We’ll see each other,” she said. “I’ll only be here for a year, then I’ll be back. You and Glenn will—”

  Izzy pulled away, sniffing. “It’s not that. I know you’ll be back.”

  “Oh. Is it Glenn? Do you miss him?” Alix got up and opened a drawer to pull out a box of tissues and handed one to her friend.

  “Do you know where everything in this house is?”

  Alix knew Izzy needed time to recover and Alix was going to give it to her—then she was going to find out what the problem was. Her best friend was deeply upset over something, but Alix had no idea what it was. Her intuition told her that whatever the problem was, Izzy had been holding it in because of Alix’s recent emotional drama.

  Alix turned away to let her friend have time to recover her dignity. Using an old blender that looked to be from the fifties, she made a tall drink for Izzy. For herself, she made a rum and Coke, with lots of lime juice added. Alix pulled a serving tray from inside a cabinet, knowing just where to find it, filled it, then took it all outside. It was almost too cool for sitting outdoors, but Alix knew that Izzy loved gardens.

  She treated her friend gently as she settled her in a heavy teak deck chair and handed her a drink. Alix wasn’t going to push her friend but just waited for her to speak.

  “Glenn called and I have to leave in the morning,” Izzy said.

  “He wants you back?”

  “Yes, of course, but …”

  Alix waited in silence. Izzy and she had been friends since the first day of architecture school. By the end of that week it was clear that Alix was more talented, that she had a shot at doing something that the world would notice, but Izzy had never been jealous.

  On the other hand, everyone had liked Izzy so much that she was invited everywhere. When she’d become engaged in their third year, Alix had only felt joy. They were two different people yet they suited each other well.

  “If it’s not Glenn and it’s not me, what is it?” Alix asked softly.

  Izzy looked around the garden. The only time she’d seen it was last night when she and Alix had made their wild dash to break into Montgomery’s guesthouse. At the time it had been wonderful to think only of Alix’s problems, to feed her chocolate, to see her delight at the old house, to laugh over the portrait of a handsome sea captain. For a few hours Izzy had been able to put aside her own problems.

  “This garden is beautiful,” Izzy said. “When it flowers, it’s going to be magnificent. I wonder who takes care of it?”

  “Montgomery,” Alix said quickly. “Isabella, I want to know what’s going on. Why is Glenn demanding that you leave so soon? I was hoping that you and I could see some of Nantucket together.”

  “Me too,” Izzy said, “but …”

  Alix picked up the pitcher and refilled Izzy’s glass. “But what?”

  Izzy took a deep drink. “It’s my wedding.”

  “I thought all of that was settled. We bought you the most beautiful dress ever made.”

  “Yes, and I thank you and your mother for that.” Izzy and Alix smiled at each other in memory.

  Glenn, not surprisingly, had proposed over dinner one Friday night. The next morning Izzy was at the door of Alix’s little apartment looking stunned and not knowing what to do.

  After admiring the engagement ring, Alix took over. “I know a great place for breakfast, then we can go window-shopping. You’re going to need an entire trousseau.”

  It was an old-fashioned word and concept, Izzy had said while doing her best to look as though she was too sophisticated to care about such silly things. But Alix wasn’t fooled. She knew her friend loved the whole idea of a romantic wedding.

  In the end, they bought Izzy’s wedding dress that day. They hadn’t meant to. Alix had been the one to persuade her friend to go to a tiny, exclusive shop on a side street across town.

  “We should go to one of those gigantic places and try on fifty dresses and drive the salespeople crazy,” Izzy said.

  “That’s a great idea,” Alix said, “and I look forward to it, but Mom told me that when I get married I’m to buy my dress at Mrs. Searle’s shop.”

  Izzy looked hard at her friend. “Which just happens to be near here?”

  “So it does,” Alix said, smiling.

  The third dress Izzy tried on brought tears to both their eyes. They knew it was the one.

  The dress had a plain silk satin top with a round, low neck and wide straps. The full skirt was whisper-thin tulle over a satin skirt embellished with tiny crystals in a flower pattern.

  “I could never afford this,” Izzy said as she looked for a price tag that wasn’t there.

  “It’ll be a gift from my mother,” Alix said. “To her number one fan.”

  “I can’t take this.”

  “Okay,” Alix said, “she’ll give you a toaster instead.”

  “I shouldn’t,” Izzy said, but she did. Later she thought that at that moment she’d been the happiest person on earth. What she’d not told Alix was how, later, her wedding plans had all fallen apart. When others began to get involved, Izzy had tried her best to be firm about what she wanted for her wedding, but her future mother-in-law said, “I can see that you’re going to be one of those bridezillas like they have on TV. We aren’t being filmed, are we?”

  Izzy looked across at Alix. “I don’t want to be a bridezilla.”

  “You mean one of those spoiled prima donnas who makes everyone’s lives hell?”

  Izzy nodded.

  “That’s as far from you as could be. Izzy, who put this idea in your head?” Alix filled her friend’s glass again.

  “Glenn and I just want a quiet wedding. Small. Maybe a barbecue. The dress from your mother is the only extravagance I want. It’s so beautiful and …” Again, tears started flowing.

  “It’s a mother, isn’t it?” Alix said. “If there’s one thing I know about, it’s mothers. Well-meaning, but they can eat you for breakfast.”

  Nodding, Izzy took a deep drink and held up two fingers.

  “I take it that means two mothers?”

  Again Izzy nodded.

  Alix poured herself another rum and Coke. “Tell me everything.”

  It all tumbled out. Alix knew that Izzy was the only girl in her family, but she hadn’t known that Izzy’s parents had eloped. “My mother used to play with bride paper dolls, but then she got pregnant with my brother, and she and my dad ran off together.”

  “So now she wants you to have the wedding she didn’t have,” Alix said.

  Izzy grimaced. “But she isn’t even the only problem.”

  Alix knew that Glenn was an only child and that his parents had money, but that’s all. “What’s his mother like?”

  Izzy clenched her teeth. “She’s an avalanche of granite blocks that destroys anyone who stands between her and whatever she wants. And what she wants now is for me to have a lavish wedding that will impress all her friends. She has a guest list