Three Times a Charm (Second Chances, Band 3) - Softcover

Stone, Jean

 
9780553588521: Three Times a Charm (Second Chances, Band 3)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0553588524 ISBN 13: 9780553588521
Verlag: Bantam, 2006

Inhaltsangabe

Thanks to a high-profile wedding extravaganza for a media mogul, the wedding-planning business created by four longtime friends is really taking off. Not surprisingly, each of the friends is handling success in her own special way–and one is about to get her very own, very special second chance. . . .

The irony of being a never-married wedding planner isn’t lost on forty-three-year-old Sarah. But that doesn’t mean the free-spirited single mom hasn’t known love–and, most recently, heartbreak. And while the butter- cream sweetness of wedding rituals strikes her as somewhat silly, work is a welcome distraction–as are her friends-turned-colleagues: pragmatic Elaine, dramatic Lily, and newly in love Jo. Yet Sarah is about to get even more distracted by a visitor from her past, one who holds the key to a mystery that has shadowed her life. But to face the truth, she’ll need a little help from her friends–old and new.

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

JEAN STONE ran her own award-winning advertising agency for fifteen years before becoming a full-time writer.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

1

It was absurd, Sarah knew, that she, of all people, was caught up in the business of planning second weddings. She had turned forty-three last fall and had never had a wedding of her own (not even a first), had never wanted one. Not to mention that she'd just said good-bye to the man with whom she'd lived for many years.

It was absurd, this I-do, 'til-death-do-us-part stuff.

"Cream puff?" It was Lily, offering a miniconfection topped with frosty icing and silver sprinkles in keeping with the theme of the New Year's Eve glitzy wedding--white and silver, snow and ice.

Sarah shook her head. "I want to get home."

Lily didn't ask why on earth Sarah would want to; she didn't mention that no one was waiting there. Instead, she popped the cream puff into her mouth and said, "This was great. We really pulled it off."

Glancing around the ballroom of the eighteenth-century Stone Castle, hearing remnants of the last-to-leave people-chatter, catching sight of high-heeled shoes abandoned near the dance floor and midnight-buffet dishes scattered across the tabletops, Sarah had to agree that, yes, they'd pulled it off. The mismatched, former college roommates had orchestrated quite a spectacle disguised as a second wedding for media mogul John Benson and his lovely wife, Irene. It hadn't mattered that the first time the Bensons were married it had been to each other. What mattered were the cameras and the coverage and the bling of it all. What mattered was that Second Chances, the wedding-planning business for second-time brides, had now made it to the big time, hip-hip-hooray for them.

"Our phones will ring nonstop," Lily giggled, waving her shimmering chiffon scarf as if it were a magic wand. "Oh, this is so divine. It's just as I imagined."

Divine? Sarah considered Lily's drama-queen description. Perhaps the wedding had been that for her. From the tiniest of cream puffs to the chorus of fireworks, they'd planned every detail together, sometimes working as a single, enmeshed unit, other times like clawing, mongrel cats. Their goal had been the same: to create an extravagant second wedding that the world would notice, an event that would put Second Chances on the wedding-planning map.

Perhaps, for Lily, that had been divine. For Jo, it had surely been a business deal. For Elaine, a minor miracle. For Sarah, it had been a job, a break from her silver-jewelry-making, from the free-form earrings and the shining hair clips and the thick cuff bracelets that accessorized her days, the company of her friends a welcome distraction from the recent unsettledness that now tarnished her life.

"Excuse me, are you a guest?" A group of wilted-haired, wrinkle-shirted cable-TV people had converged around them; a microphone was aimed at Sarah's mouth. The fact that she was the tallest of the former roommates often mistakenly conveyed that she was the one in charge.

She sighed. She hoped this was a final, annoying ploy for one last, delicious, Benson-wedding morsel for the late, late news. "Sorry," she said, "I'm just the hired help."

Lily stepped out from Sarah's shadow. A rush of media, after all, had also been part of the public-relations plan. "Lily Beckwith," Lily chirped, her delicate hand extended with the practiced elegance of a lady used to frenzied spin. "I was married to Reginald Beckwith--the Third--remember him?" She withdrew her hand and gently cupped the reporter's elbow. "Let me help you find a yummy story." With a quick, false-eyelashed wink at Sarah, Lily led the troupe of cameras and reporters through the maze of leftovers across the ballroom floor.

No, Sarah thought, she would not call this divine.

Divine would be if she went home tonight and found Jason and their twelve-year-old son, Burch, waiting for her by the fireplace, telling her they both decided they'd rather stay sequestered with her in the safety of West Hope in the Berkshires instead of living in New York City. They hadn't broken up--not exactly. But Jason's accelerated pursuit of the musical spotlight was not what Sarah wanted for herself. She didn't want her solitary happiness to give way to the kind of farcical existence that she'd witnessed that night at the Benson wedding.

Unfortunately, Jason did not feel the same. "I'm forty-five," he'd complained a month ago. "I'm tired of being on the road. But I need to be in the city, Sarah. Singing is my life."

They hadn't fought about it; they loved each other, didn't they? But they knew each other's truths: He would not survive in West Hope, and she would not survive the noise, the crowds, the clutter of the city, where she would not be free to wander in the forest and gather wild herbs, to sit outside at night and be one with the stars. She would not be at peace; she'd become one of them, an ordinary member of the urban flock of sheep. The remnants of her heritage would slowly dissipate.

So, after more than fifteen years together, they'd decided on a trial separation. She only wished that Burch had not chosen to live his father's life instead of hers. A true Cherokee would have stayed with his mother's clan, if she'd had a clan.

She plucked her truck keys from her purse and readjusted the handmade silver clip that held up her long, black hair. She caught Lily's eye and waved. "Happy New Year," she called out. "See you tomorrow." The main event was over, but this was a weekend celebration; tomorrow the women of Second Chances would continue to feed and entertain the Benson's famous guests.

"Happy New Year, my darling friend," Lily sang, her voice dancing across the room, the theatrics quite in keeping with the presence of the cameras. "Here's to a grand and glorious year."

Yes, Sarah thought, with another, halfhearted wave, here's to a grand and glorious year that I'll be starting off alone.



Two hundred miles away, in a sprawling co-op on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Laura Carrington squinted at the television. She had been sipping tea, watching the ball drop in Times Square. But she was not tired, so after the raucous ritual she'd kept the picture on to watch the late, late news, the clips of revelers from New York to the West Coast, where it still was last year, as if L.A. were stuck in a time warp on an old Hollywood set.

Though her glamour days were over long ago, Laura watched with interest: The glitter, the gowns, the make-believe evoked the same nonsense today as it had back then.

And then, she saw her.

At first it didn't register. But as the dark-haired woman in the crowded image on the screen turned from the camera's lens, a silver hair clip flashed against the light. Laura blinked. She blinked again. The off-camera reporter mentioned something about a wedding, John Benson's New Year's wedding, somewhere in the Berkshires.

And then Laura knew. Her hand slow-motioned to her mouth. Her teacup slid down the hand-woven blanket tucked around her legs and tumbled to the floor.

She had seen the silver hair clip. The clip that matched the one that sat atop her bureau in the other room.



2



I have a room upstairs," Andrew said to Jo, as they stood beneath the staircase at the far end of the ballroom.

She deflected her reluctance and accepted his embrace, felt his body working closer, felt his warmth press eagerly against her silver sheath. She'd known that it would come to this when she had gone to him, after the wedding vows were vowed and...

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Verlag
Bantam
Erscheinungsdatum
2006
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0553588524
ISBN 13 
9780553588521
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
320
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

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