Lib Novel Page 12
Sighing, Beth threw her pencil down on the desk. “Fine, when do you two want to do this?”
“How about right now?” Sarah answered, waiting for Beth to scream into the phone.
“Fine. Let me go into the conference room. I’m sure my boss will be thrilled that I’m talking flowers, music and food instead of interrogating a murder suspect.”
Sarah ignored the sarcasm and added Becca to the call.
“So, Mom is stressed over the planning of this wedding which is no surprise to any of us. She asked me to get in touch with the two of you and see if you both would work together to make things a bit easier for her.”
“I’m all for that. I’ve been worried about her handling this ever since she announced that she wanted to have the weddings on Captiva. What does she need?”
“You and Becca have made impossible choices for Mom to carry out. You need to pick one florist, one DJ or band, and one photographer, and anything else that you want that keeps things different from the other, I think you should handle yourself. You guys have Mom jumping through hoops with so many requests. You’ve got to simplify things.”
“I had no idea,” Becca said. “I’ve been so busy with school and work, I just gave Maggie a list of things that I preferred and assumed Beth did the same.”
“Yeah, I basically did the same thing, but what we really did was dump a bunch of stuff in Mom’s lap and walked away thinking she should handle it all. I feel awful.”
Sarah wanted to scream. “Are you two telling me that you never sat down to run all this by each other?”
“We always planned to, but…” Beth said.
“We tried, but I’m pretty sure I canceled once or twice,” Becca responded.
“Four times,” Beth corrected her.
“Really? Four? Huh,” Becca said.
“It all makes sense now,” Sarah said. “No wonder Mom has lost her mind. You two are worse than Bridezillas. At least a Bridezilla has major input. You guys haven’t put in any work on this at all.”
“Poor Maggie,” Becca said. “What should we do?”
“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do. There’s only six weeks before the wedding and Mom and Crawford have to commit to these vendors. They’ve already put money down, in some instances to two different vendors for the same service. So, I need the two of you to agree on the music, the flowers, the photographer, and the menu. When we hang up, I’m going to email you the people Mom has already been in touch with and by the end of the day today I want a response. No more putting things off because you’re too busy. Got it?”
“Got it,” Becca said.
“No problem,” Beth answered. “Becca, how about we video this afternoon after we look at these vendors. I can find an hour free if you can.”
“How about four o’clock?” Becca asked.
“Great. I’ll call you then.”
“Perfect. I’ll send out the email as soon as we hang up. Thanks, guys. You’ve just made Mom’s life so much better. She’ll rest easier with your help. I’ve got to run. I’ll be in touch.”
Sarah ended the call and called her mother to update her on her progress.
“Thank you so much, Sarah. I’ve got so much swimming in my head right now, I don’t think I could even handle a phone call with Beth and Becca.”
“Not to worry, Mom. Listen, can you do me a favor? Will you please keep me in the loop going forward? I know you, and although we might have fixed one problem, another is bound to pop up. Stop trying to handle everything on your own. I’m here, Chelsea is ready to help and Crawford and Ciara have offered as well. Will you promise me?”
“I promise. If I’ve learned anything from this wedding, it’s that I’m not a superwoman. Thanks, honey. I’ve got to run. I’ll talk to you tonight and we’ll get this stuff organized once and for all.”
“Sounds good. Love you, Mom.”
Sarah ended the call and smiled, knowing full well that whatever her mother promised to do, her old habits would be hard to overcome. It was surprising to realize that her mother could be more trouble than her three children put together.
* * *
Trevor Hutchins found his father in his office watching the weather reporter’s projections for the path of what was now called Hurricane Allan.