No Groom Like Him

“How could I forget? You hid so we missed the ferry back.”

Camille giggled and Lily Susan ruffled that white-blond head fondly.

“You’re such a little squirrel,” she said. “It just feels like forever since I’ve seen you.”

While Lily Susan laughed and chattered cheerily, she seemed to be hanging on to the twins for dear life, unable to stop touching and kissing them. Did she see her brother in them? Max remembered how close she and Mike had been.

“Well, it’s about damned time,” a loud voice boomed from the doorway. Joey appeared with his wife, Sarah, behind him, and shoved open the screen door so hard the hinges groaned. “Your father’s about to disown you because he can’t remember what you look like.”

Actually, Joey was the one about to disown his baby sister, as Max well knew.

“Then he must be getting senile since I saw him two months ago,” Lily Susan replied.

Angelicas poured onto the lawn calling out greetings. That was the last Max saw of Lily Susan as the family converged on her. He knew they would all wind up in the kitchen, so he broke from the crowd and headed to the car to unload the luggage.

Madeleine didn’t want any part of leaving the chaos. She stuck like glue to Camille, who stuck like glue to her aunt. He wasn’t surprised his daughter was so caught up in the whole Wedding Angel craze. Lily Susan was the family celebrity, and Madeleine had been listening to everyone discuss her long-awaited return. Particularly Camille, who idolized her aunt and with whom Madeleine spent a good deal of time.

Riley’s twins were the youngest of all the Angelica cousins, so Madeleine was a welcome addition at family gatherings as the one person who was younger. For Camille anyway, who enjoyed sharing girl things like manicures and hairstyles—the types of activities mothers and daughters shared, but daddies were uncomfortable with, no matter how hard they tried.

And try though Max might, the nuances of shimmery nail polish escaped him.

He’d barely reached the car when he realized that Scott had caught up with him.

“Need a hand?” he asked.

Max nodded. “Anyone but Lily Susan, and I’d think she was moving in for good.”

Scott eyed the hatch and backseat stacked with suitcases and nodded. “Sure looks like it.”

Max liked Scott Emerson. He was another honorary Angelica family member. He’d been Mike’s partner on the vice squad before Mike had met Riley. Scott was now the chief of detectives, and if Max’s sources were correct—which they usually were—Scott was being groomed to become Poughkeepsie’s chief of police.

Once he married Riley, he wouldn’t be an honorary member of the Angelicas anymore. He’d be the real deal.

Between them, they managed the luggage with one trip and headed inside by way of the garage. They couldn’t escape the chaos, which had started trickling in by the time they’d stowed the bags in Lily Susan’s old bedroom upstairs. Max got trapped on the staircase behind Scott, unable to make his way into the hallway through the crowd burrowing to get in from the cold.

An expectant hush fell over the noisy family when Lily Susan approached the stairs. While she’d known of the relationship developing between Scott and Riley for a long time and had agreed to plan the wedding, Lily Susan hadn’t actually seen Scott in person since the engagement.

“Finally, here’s the groom. I wondered where you were.” She stopped the flow of traffic and smiled at him, obliging him to step off the stairs for a hug.

Max heard her whisper, “Couldn’t ask for anyone better to be dad to my little twinnies.”

Her gracious acceptance smoothed over a tough moment, and the effect was visible. Scott gave her a hug that practically lifted her off the ground. “Welcome home, Lily Susan. Thanks for making the trip.”

“Wouldn’t miss your wedding for the world.” When she was on her feet again, she winked at him. “Even if I didn’t need to plan the whole thing.”

With a laugh he moved to let traffic pass, and Max caught sight of Riley and her suspiciously misty gaze.

Bravo for Lily Susan. She might have been away from the family for a while, but distance didn’t mean she couldn’t come through for the people who loved her when it counted.

And that was a very Angelica trait.

CHAPTER FOUR

MAX CAUGHT UP with his daughter again, and they made their way through the kitchen to the adjoining dining room, where so many chairs had been jammed around the table people would be practically sitting on top of each other. Sturdy card tables had been added on both ends to eliminate the need to separate adults and kids. This made Madeleine happy, but there were so many place settings another fork couldn’t be set between them. He wondered where Rosie intended to put the food.

“Come on, come on. Find a seat.” Joe herded everyone into the dining room impatiently. “Lily Susan, you sit there.”

Max watched Lily Susan head to her honorary place at the center of the table, knowing he didn’t stand a chance at getting close. The best he could do was grab a spot across from her, where he had a decent view.

He was surprised by how much he wanted a view. Lily Susan had changed into casual sportswear, the fabric clinging to her every lean curve.

Thankfully the chaos distracted him from thoughts that were traveling in unexpected directions. Everyone knew the drill and was soon crammed elbow-to-elbow. Joey and his wife Sarah and their three kids. Caroline and her husband Alex and their three kids. Riley and Scott and the twins. Only Joe didn’t sit. He was the pulse of the family, with his bald head and hearty laughter—the one who roused everyone into action, the one they all went to for advice or opinions.

And if Joe was the pulse, then Rosie was the heart. She set the tone with her hugs. When she was happy, her nicknames for everyone were happy. Her husband was Joe and her son Joey. When she wasn’t, though, those nicknames were warnings. Joe and Joey became Old Man and Little Boy or Fat Joe and Healthy Joe when she was on a tear about someone’s eating habits.

Still, Rosie managed to keep everyone close with her nurturing kindnesses. A thousand kindnesses.

Max didn’t know what he would have done without her through Madeleine’s recovery during the long months after the accident. And he didn’t understand how Lily Susan could have spent so much time away from this warm and gregarious group.

“Close your eyes, honey-bunch,” Joe commanded Lily Susan in his booming voice. “Jake, make sure she doesn’t peek.”

Jake, who had claimed the spot to his aunt’s right, crawled to his knees in the chair, stretching his hands over her face. She laughed good-naturedly, and Joe made a production of going to the refrigerator then returning to the table. He plunked down a glass jar in the middle of her plate.

“Good job, kiddo. Let her look.”

Jake sprang back, and Lily Susan glanced down. Her lush lips parted then broke into a smile. A real smile. Not the kind she’d been giving Max. Instead of warm and happy, she gave him cool and professional. He wondered why he noticed that she seemed to save her warmth for children and preserved vegetables.

“Aunt Nellie’s pickled beets?” She laughed. “Daddy, you remembered.”

“Of course I remembered. They’re your favorite.” Joe handed her a fork. “You don’t even have to share.”

There was no missing how his expression blurred around the edges when he dropped a kiss onto the top of his youngest daughter’s head. Lily Susan’s eyes fluttered shut for the briefest moment, a rare sign of emotion for a woman so skilled at keeping up appearances.

Taking his seat at the head of the table, Joe said, “Let’s eat.”

The meal began with a blessing then conversations erupted randomly as kids vied with adults to steal Lily Susan’s attention with stories of what was happening in Pleasant Valley. There was a lot to relate. Phone calls could never take the place of Sunday dinners for filling in the details.

Lily Susan fostered the conversations with her questions, asking far more than she shared. But there was one subject that was noticeably avoided by everyone: her broken engagement.

No one asked, and she didn’t offer. Not a word about how she was doing although every adult asked leading questions. Lily Susan skillfully deflected them all. So he wasn’t the only one who got the professional treatment. She was closed with the people who cared so much about her.

And why did that thought make him feel better?

Why was he so aware of her?

She was a beautiful woman, no question. Photos of her crossed his desk all the time, but Max had to admit that no photo came close to doing justice to the real woman. She was a media darling for good reason with a sweet, heart-shaped face. Her Italian heritage lent her an interesting blend of earthiness and wholesomeness with her light olive skin, whiskey-gold hair and caramel-colored eyes.

And that mouth of hers played so well to the camera, whether she was talking, laughing, smiling, kissing…