A Wedding on Primrose Street (Life In Icicle Falls Book 7) Read Online Free PDF Page A

surprise.
    “Are you in town for a visit?” Muriel asked.
    Daphne shook her head and got busy watering Roberta’s ficus plant. “I’m up here to make a new start. I’m getting divorced.” She studied the ficus, then moved it to the other side of the room, setting it next to the philodendron.
    Muriel looked properly sympathetic. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
    Daphne shrugged. “It’s for the best.”
    Which was more than Roberta could say for the new location of her houseplant. “Daphne, dear, what are you doing?”
    “Hmm? Oh, I just thought this plant would look better over here beside the other one, in a group.”
    “That’s a charming idea, but the ficus needs full sunlight,” Roberta said.
    Daphne’s cheeks grew pink. “Oh.” She picked it up and returned it to its original spot.
    “Do you know what you want to do?” Muriel asked her.
    “I figured I could help my mother with weddings.”
    “What a good plan,” Muriel said, beaming with approval.
    Yes, wasn’t it? The very thought had Roberta reaching for a cookie.
    “I’m sure your mother’s delighted to have you home,” Muriel said and helped herself to some cookies, as well.
    “Oh, yes,” Roberta lied.
    “So, your daughter’s was the first wedding held here, wasn’t it?” Muriel asked, bringing them back to the interview.
    Daphne gave a snort of disgust.
    Roberta ignored her. “Yes, and then, a generation later, my granddaughter was married here.”
    “That was a beautiful wedding,” Daphne said, her voice wistful.
    “And you’ve had many in between,” Muriel said to Roberta. “I still remember the lovely reception we had here when I married Waldo,” she added.
    “It was lovely. And who knows? Maybe someday you’ll get married again,” Roberta suggested. Muriel’s longtime admirer, Arnie Amundsen, would marry her in a minute if she ever gave him any encouragement. So far, though, she hadn’t.
    “I suspect not. After Waldo...” Muriel’s smile faded.
    “He was a sweet man,” Roberta said.
    “He was,” Muriel agreed. “And you know how rare a good man is.”
    “You can say that again.” Daphne tipped her watering can over Roberta’s spider plant. The water spattered onto the antique music cabinet beneath it and Roberta tried not to grind her teeth.
    Daphne frowned and mopped up the spill with the sleeve of her sweater.
    “You never remarried,” Muriel said to Roberta. “In fact, I remember when you first moved to Icicle Falls. You were a widow.”
    “I lost my husband in a car crash.” Oh, how easily the lie slipped out after all these years.
    Muriel looked at her with compassion. “I remember that. You never found another man to measure up.”
    Roberta was suddenly aware of her daughter’s gaze burning into her. How many times growing up had Daphne wanted to know about her father, wondered why they didn’t have any pictures of Daddy?
    “Daddy’s dead,” Roberta had replied. Learning the truth when she was older hadn’t sat well with Daphne, not until she heard the whole story. But even after that, she’d longed for more, tried to find a way to make what she had into more. Of course, it hadn’t worked.
    There were so many times Roberta had wished she could give her daughter a happy Ward and June Cleaver experience. Instead, Daphne’d had to settle for just June. But they’d done all right, the two of them. Anyway, family wasn’t always what you were born into; it was the people in your life who cared about you, and in Icicle Falls they’d found plenty of people to care.
    As for a man... “There wasn’t exactly an abundance of single men in Icicle Falls back in those days,” she said. “All the good ones were taken. Anyway, I’ve been happy on my own.”
    “Well, you’ve been an inspiration to a lot of women,” Muriel said. “And your beautiful house is always in demand. What’s the most memorable wedding you’ve ever had here?”
    “Not mine,” Daphne said bitterly.
    Her daughter was