“Thank you. I’m happy with the way everything turned out.”
“Susan and Kris are thrilled. If the flowers at the reception venue are anything like these, it’s going to be a gorgeous wedding. You’ll have more business than you can handle.”
She already had more business than she could handle but she decided not to point that out.
“And look at you, Miss Lydia.” Brittany scanned the girl from the flower chain woven through her hair to the tips of her black Mary Janes. “You are the prettiest flower girl I’ve ever seen.”
Lydia hopped down from the chair and twirled around. “I look like a princess,” she declared.
“Yes, you do.”
“Can I hold Hudson?” Lydia held her arms out, clearly expecting that her almost-a-princess status came with certain perks.
Brittany gave her stepdaughter an apologetic smile. “Normally he would love to have you hold him but right now he’s sleeping. I’m afraid he gets really cranky when I wake him up.”
Lydia’s lip jutted out and she looked like she wanted to argue but Brittany gave her a one-handed hug, careful not to mess up her hair.
“After the wedding, when you’re all done being the flower girl for your Aunt Kristine, you can hold him.”
Lydia might have pressed the matter but her young cousins came into the room and exclaimed over her dress, distracting her from her disappointment.
While Lydia was busy chattering away with her cousins, Brittany sat down beside Holly. She looked striking, as usual, in a smart ice-blue dress that showed off her considerable assets.
On closer inspection, Holly saw she had smudges under her eyes and a general air of exhaustion about her.
“Are you okay?”
Brittany nodded with a smile that looked slightly strained. “Only tired. Hudson had a rough night so I didn’t get much sleep. He’s teething and isn’t happy with anything I try.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I remember those days. I imagine having his schedule upended because of travel hasn’t helped matters.”
“No, it hasn’t. I love Norm and Susan and it’s very kind of them to let us stay with them but it feels like people are constantly coming and going from their house. I’m not sure we’ve had five minutes of quiet since we arrived.”
“I’m sure things will settle down a little after today.”
“But then we have Christmas and all that chaos to deal with.”
“And joy,” Holly pointed out.
“You’re right. That’s what it’s about. But speaking of Christmas, I’m glad to have a minute to talk with you about that.”
Holly gave a surreptitious glance at her watch. The wedding was slated to start in twenty minutes. Was this really the most convenient time to discuss holiday plans?
“To speak with me about what?”
Brittany fretted with the edge of the blanket covering her sleeping son. “I was wondering, that is, Troy and I werewondering, what you might think about Lydia staying over with us on Christmas Eve at the Moores’ house.”
Holly stiffened, taken completely off guard at the request. “I thought this was all settled,” she said, keeping her voice as low as Brittany’s so the children, chattering away, didn’t overhear their conversation. “I’m planning to take her over on Christmas morning so that she can spend the entire day with you.”
“I know that’s what you and Troy talked about.”
Brittany somehow looked nervous and determined at the same time. “But I was thinking how wonderful it would be for Lydia and Hudson to be together when they open their presents from Santa. The photos would be so priceless.”
Her child was not a photo prop for her younger brother, the adorable girl with the sunny smile and the joyful heart, she thought again.
Holly swallowed hard against a host of denials crowding her throat. She wanted Lydia to have a relationship with her half brother, but not at the expense of her own relationship with her child.
“So you would have her all of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as well?”
