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couldn’t close up fast enough tonight.”
    “I can’t believe how quickly the last few weeks have passed and how much I still have to do. For one thing, I have to get into your shop before I pack for our honeymoon. I still need something to wear for sightseeing in Italy.”
    “Come in tomorrow. I just got in some darling sundresses that I was going to put in the window, but I’d be happy to hold off until you can look.”
    “I’ll be in as soon as I get home from work,” Mia told her. “I hope you have something in my size.”
    “I brought in one of everything in your size.” Vanessa grinned. “Just in case.”
    “You truly are a goddess,” Mia told her solemnly.
    “I do have my moments.” Vanessa rested back against the headrest and smiled.
    “I’m so glad you’re coming with me. It helps to have a friend to talk to. I seem to be getting more and more nervous, the closer we get to The Day.”
    “Are you having second thoughts?”
    “About Beck?” Mia shook her head firmly. “He’s the one thing I’m not second-guessing. Everything else is stressing me out. What if the florist can’t get peonies and I have to carry carnations? What if I trip going up the aisle? What if they drop the cake? What if it snows? What if—”
    Vanessa burst out laughing. “Sorry, Mia. But seriously? Snow?”
    “Miss Grace said it snowed once in May when she was a girl.”
    “No offense to Miss Grace, but that was probably back in the Ice Age. I doubt there’s been snow that late in the season here for half a century, at least.”
    “Okay, good. That’s good.” Mia nodded. “We’ll cross snow off the list.”
    “Olivia at Petals and Posies is doing the flowers, right?”
    Mia nodded.
    “So I think you can safely cross off the flowers as well. Olivia wouldn’t promise you peonies if she couldn’t get them.”
    “Good point. Right.”
    “As for the cake being dropped, isn’t the pastry chef at the Inn doing the cake?”
    “Yes.”
    “And the reception is right there at the Inn?”
    “Yes, but—”
    “I think they’ll know how to get the cake from their kitchen into their ballroom. They’ve probably done it before. Like maybe once or twice a week for the past million years.”
    “Another good point.” Mia nodded. “You’re very good at this.”
    “Now, on to the tripping-up-the-aisle thing.” Vanessa rolled down the window to better view the shorebirds that gathered on the tiny tufts of land surrounding the Bay Bridge. The sun had begun to set and the light dancing off the bridge momentarily dazzled her. “You were successful in talking both brothers into giving you away, correct?”
    “Correct.”
    “One on each side, right?”
    “Right.” Mia’s face brightened. “Oh. Right. One on each side.”
    “Twice the security.”
    “Mind if I call when the next round of anxiety strikes?”
    “That’s what I’m here for. You just let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.”
    “Well, there is one thing.” Mia glanced over at Vanessa. “There is something that I’ve been wanting to ask you.”
    “What’s that?”
    “It’s about my brother Grady.”
    Vanessa motioned with one hand for Mia to continue, trying to project Sure, Mia, anything you need , rather than the uh-oh that was causing an ice-cream-type freeze to her brain.
    “Grady is such a loner, and you’re so outgoing and you know everyone in St. Dennis and he’s going to be here for the entire week. I was wondering if maybe you wouldn’t mind taking him under your wing, so to speak. You know, sit with him at the rehearsal dinner, make him get up and dance at the reception a time or two. Maybe show him around town, give him the tour.”
    “Sure.” Vanessa hoped her smile looked sincere so that Mia wouldn’t suspect that the last thing she wanted to do at her brother’s wedding was to be saddled with a reclusive stranger. “I’d be happy to.”
    Mia breathed a long sigh. “Thank you, Ness. I can’t tell you