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Meg rolled her eyes, drained her mojito, then kicked them all out so she could finish her paper on eutrophication. After that, she dashed off to supervise the undergraduate art major she’d hired to help fill the orders that continued to come in from New York. Over the outraged protests of Ted, his parents, her parents, her brothers, the library committee, and the rest of Wynette, she was still paying her own expenses, although she’d relaxed her principles long enough to accept Ted’s engagement present of a shiny red Prius.
“You gave me a car,” she said to him, “and all I have for you is this lousy money clip.”
But Ted loved his money clip, which she’d fashioned from a rare Greek medallion of Gaia, the goddess of the earth.
Ted wasn’t able to spend nearly as much time in Austin as they’d originally planned, and even though they talked several times a day, they desperately missed being together. But he needed to stay close to Wynette. The group of carefully selected investors he’d been assembling to build the golf resort had finally come together. The members included his father, Kenny, Skeet, Dex O’Connor, a couple of well-known touring pros, and a few Texas businessmen, none of them involved in plumbing. Amazingly, Spence Skipjack had resurfaced all full of bluster about putting the “misunderstanding” behind them. Ted told him there was no misunderstanding, and he should stick to making toilets.
Ted had maintained controlling interest in the resort so he could build it exactly as he envisioned. He was jubilant about the project but overworked, and with construction scheduled to begin soon after their wedding, it would only get worse. Although he frequently talked about how much he needed someone who shared both his vision and his trust working at his side, it wasn’t until Kenny drove to Austin and cornered Meg for a private conversation that she realized the person Ted wanted working with him was herself.
“He knows how much going back to school for your master’s degree means to you,” Kenny said. “That’s why he won’t ask you.”
It didn’t take Meg more than five seconds to decide her master’s degree could wait. Working with the man she loved on a project like this was her dream job.
Ted was jubilant when she asked if she could work with him. They talked for hours about their future and the legacy they intended to build together. Instead of poisoned land, they’d create places where all families, not just wealthy ones, could gather to have a picnic or throw a ball—places where kids would be able to catch fireflies, listen to birds sing, and fish in clean, unpolluted water.
She ended up scheduling her wedding for exactly one year, minus one day, from the date Ted was to have walked Lucy down the aisle, a decision Francesca hotly protested. She was still complaining about it when Meg—diploma finally in her possession—returned to Wynette three days before the ceremony.
While Ted raced into town to unveil a new display at the reopened library, Meg plopped onto a counter stool in her future mother-in-law’s kitchen for breakfast. Francesca passed a toasted bagel across the counter. “It’s not as if you didn’t have plenty of dates to choose from,” she said. “Honestly, Meg, if I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were trying to jinx the whole thing.”
“Just the opposite.” Meg slathered blackberry jam over her bagel. “I like the symbolism of bright new lives arising from the tragic ashes of the past.”
“You’re as odd as Teddy,” Francesca said in exasperation. “I can’t believe it took me so long to realize how perfect the two of you are for each other.”
Meg grinned.
Dallie looked up from his coffee mug. “People round here like that she’s a little odd, Francie. It makes her fit in better.”
“She’s more’n a little odd,” Skeet said from behind his newspaper. “Hugged me yesterday for no reason at all. ’Bout gave me a heart attack.”
Dallie nodded. “She’s strange that way.”
“Sitting right here,” Meg reminded them.
But Skeet and Dallie had moved on to discuss which of them was better suited to give her golf lessons, disregarding the fact that Meg had already chosen Torie.
Francesca once again tried to get Meg to spill the details about her wedding gown, but Meg refused to talk. “You’ll see it when everybody else does.”
“I don’t understand why you let Kayla see it, but not me.”
“Because she’s my fashion consultant, and you’re merely my nagging future mother-in-law.”
Francesca didn’t bother to argue the second point, only the first. “I know as much about fashion as Kayla Garvin.”
“More, I’m sure. But you’re still not seeing it until I walk down the aisle.” She gave Francesca a sticky kiss on the cheek, then ran off to the inn to meet her family. Not long after that, Lucy arrived.
“Are you sure you want me there?” Lucy had said over the phone when Meg had asked her to be part of the wedding party.
“I couldn’t get married without you.”
They had so much to talk about, and they drove to the church where they could catch up without anyone eavesdropping. Ted eventually found them lounging at the side of the swimming hole. The initial awkwardness between the former lovers had vanished long ago, and they chatted like the good friends they were always meant to be.
The rehearsal dinner was at the country club, just as it had been the first time around. “I feel like I’ve stepped through a time warp,” Lucy whispered to Meg not long after they arrived.
“Except this time you can relax and enjoy yourself,” Meg told her. “It’ll be entertaining, I promise you.”
And entertaining it was, as the locals cornered Jake and Fleur to sing Meg’s praises. “Your daughter was the best executive employee I ever had at the inn,” Birdie told them with all kinds of earnestness. “She practically ran the place. I hardly had to do anything.”
“She’s quite bright,” her mother replied with a straight face.
