Sylvie sighed and followed, but she would watch everything her mom gave her to drink or eat.
Not that she believed in love spells. Just to be careful.
* * *
* * *
“Are you sure we don’t have more time? I hate the thought of you getting married in this old building. I always imagined you getting married at our church.” Rene’s mother was dressed in her best suit, the one that always made her look like a Southern Queen Elizabeth, with a little hat on her head.
She’d woken up and been excited about the wedding, humming with an energy he hadn’t seen in her for months. Louis Sylvain had shown up this morning to drive her to city hall so Rene could run the errands he needed to. Louis had commented on how happy his mother looked. It was good for her to have a friend to rely on.
And sometimes Louis had been a second father to him. It felt right to have him here.
“It likely wouldn’t be at Our Redeemer.” Rene fought the urge to pace. They’d walked in not ten minutes ago, and he’d already had to answer too many questions about why he was at the courthouse at ten in the morning. “Sylvie’s family goes to First Methodist.”
They’d been optimistic when they’d named that church. He wasn’t sure there would ever be a second.
His mother clutched her purse, her chin tilting up in that stubborn way that told him she found him slightly annoying. It was an expression she’d employed for as long as he could remember. “First Methodist would be perfectly fine with me. Their choir is better than ours. And they have a lovely sanctuary. Either place is better than here. This is a place people go to pay parking tickets. There aren’t even flowers here.”
The fact that his soon-to-be bride wasn’t Catholic hadn’t fazed his mother at all. The lack of pomp and circumstance, however, had been a sticking point. She was right about the décor. It could use an updating. He doubted anything had changed here since the mid-nineties.
“I don’t think we need flowers to make this a beautiful day,” Louis announced in his smooth tone. “Who notices flowers when there are such beautiful ladies around?”
“I sent a bouquet to her office. She was planning on going in before she came over here. She had a few things on her schedule that she couldn’t move around.” He glanced down at his watch. She should have been here by now. Had she changed her mind? He’d avoided calling her because the night before had gone so well, and he didn’t know how he would handle it if she changed her mind this morning.
His mother’s eyes lit up. “Did you get her roses? The florist in town makes a beautiful bouquet.”
“No, Mom. I went out to the garden and I stole some of your irises. When we were children and Sylvie and Dre would come over, I would find her staring at the irises. She told me she thought they were the most beautiful flowers in the world.” The idea had hit him in the early morning hours as he’d stared out the kitchen window with a mug of coffee in his hands. He’d looked out over the big garden and a wistful sense of nostalgia had come over him. Would she have preferred something from a florist? He wasn’t an expert. He’d tied them up with some white ribbon and they’d looked nice to him. “Do you think I should have called the florist? I could probably still make it happen.”
He’d found throwing a bunch of money around solved most problems.
His mother looked up at him. “No. You shouldn’t do that at all. You did exactly what you should have. You thought about her. That’s what will make you a good husband.”
Louis nodded his way. “That was a wonderful gesture.”
When he’d told his mother he was marrying Sylvie, she hadn’t even blinked. She’d clapped her hands together and started planning the wedding. It had been the courthouse ceremony she’d had a real problem with.
It wasn’t romantic. It wasn’t proper. It wasn’t enough.
He hated the fact that he’d had to combat his mother’s romantic sensibilities with logic.
The truth was he wished they’d gone through all the steps. Dating, getting to know each other again, a real engagement. Sylvie deserved a fancy engagement party followed by all the trappings that came with a big wedding.
And he wanted a honeymoon where he got to take his gorgeous wife to bed three times a day and spoil her like crazy.
He wasn’t going to get it anytime soon. He was hoping she let him kiss her again. There had been no doubt in his mind that she’d felt the chemistry between them.
He might not get any affection at all if she didn’t show up. Had her mom talked her out of it? Had she called her brother and would he show up here to kick Rene’s ass?
“She knows about Charles?” his mother asked.
“Don’t you worry, Cricket. Rene is going to handle Charles,” Louis replied.
Rene had filled his mother in on everything that was happening. She could be a good sounding board, especially when it came to the family. “I told my mom about what’s going on, and I told Sylvie as well.”
And Sylvie had plans he intended to put into motion. He’d already called Seraphina Jefferys in order to rent out her entire bed and breakfast for the weekend of his aunt’s birthday. He’d made sure Sera knew about his cousins’ many dietary restrictions. Lena was a vegan, but mostly she survived on caffeine and cigarettes. Cheryl’s children were all sugar-free, and given how they behaved without it, she was probably smart to restrict it. Cheryl also drank an unholy amount of Pinot Noir, likely because of the aforementioned children. He’d already promised to replace anything the rambunctious brood managed to destroy. He’d felt bad bringing his problems to Sera’s doorstep, but he would make up for it with a nice fat check.
“I’m going to spank that boy’s hiney,” his mother said with a resolute look on her face. “I do not believe in physical discipline, but I could take a switch to that boy.”
“Of course you don’t believe in spanking a child, Aunt Cricket. No one would ever have to discipline Rene,” a silky voice said. “After all, he was perfect.”
Rene felt his jaw clench as he turned and saw his cousin standing beside the door that led to the permits office. He held a folded paper in his hand that could have had COINCIDENCE written all over it, but there was nothing coincidental about this. “Who told you?”
“Told me what, cousin?” Charles held up his paper, a perfectly innocent look on his face. “The boy and I are going to do some fishing this weekend. Had to make sure my license is up to date. You didn’t get my note about reserving the fishing cabin? Family time is important.”
Louis had moved in beside his mother, letting Rene know he had his back.
He went through all the possibilities. His assistant dealt with scheduling the family’s many shared assets. She dealt with all of his appointments, but she hadn’t known about this morning’s wedding until he’d called her an hour before to tell her he wouldn’t be in the office today. It might have given Charles enough time to come up with an excuse to get to city hall. “I hadn’t looked at the schedule. I don’t have time for vacations.”