5. Heather

I t shouldn’t be difficult. It shouldn’t be a struggle. In fact, everything about planning her wedding should be joyous. Heather Monroe was marrying an amazing, faithful, loving, and kind single dad who’d changed her life and finally allowed her to truly appreciate the biblical concept of “equally yoked.”

But the past week she’d spent in Charleston haunted her. Heather and her teenagers, Maddie and Marc, had spent Christmas with her late husband’s family, seeing them for the first time since they’d moved to Coconut Key a little less than a year ago.

And that visit had turned out to be a very, very bad idea.

“Do you want to wait for Maddie and Ava?” Jessie asked, putting her hand on Heather’s shoulder as if she somehow sensed her little sister was having a tough time. Heather hadn’t been back very long, so she hadn’t yet filled Jessie in on the details of her trip.

“Um, I don’t know.” She looked around the table at the six faces of women she loved—and who loved her. Should she pour her heart out and get advice? It was tempting, but she could end up in tears and more confused than ever.

Beck was Kenny’s birth mother, and her advice was always maternal gold. Savannah, Peyton, and Callie already felt like blood relatives, even though they wouldn’t officially be sisters- in-law until she married Kenny. And Lovely? She was like a grandmother to Heather, trusted and beloved.

And, of course, Jessie, her much older half-sister and boss, was Heather’s closest confidante other than Kenny.

The opinions of these women were a lot more valuable than… Oh. She shuddered at the thought of the woman who’d cornered her in the kitchen on Christmas Day and spit vitriol and accusations at her.

The echo of Blanche Henderson’s angry words reverberated in her head, louder than the chatter of the women around her, the splash of the surf, and the occasional squawk of a gull that provided the soundtrack to this gathering.

What on God’s green earth is wrong with you, Heather? How could you waltz off to the Keys five minutes after my brother died and shack up with some firefighter or construction worker or whatever he is! Did you just forget about Drew when you buried him? And what kind of life is that for your kids? Not to mention you’re just leaving me alone to deal with my ailing, aging father?

Heather looked beyond the railing and the water, pinning her gaze on one puffy cloud that seemed lonely in the blue skies over the Keys, but the view didn’t wipe out her sister-in-law’s words.

Or her own silent defense, the one she’d been too timid to deliver to Blanche.

Where to begin with how wrong she was? Andy Monroe was not ailing or aging! Drew’s father was barely seventy and went fishing in his outboard boat. And she hadn’t waltzed off to the Keys or shacked up with anyone! She’d come for solace and a fresh start and met a wonderful man—a man she’d barely kissed and was about to marry. A man who, for the record, owned a successful and thriving construction business.

What kind of life for her kids? They loved it here! Kenny’s daughter, Ava, was truly a sister and best friend to Maddie. Marc had made the baseball team at school as a transfer student, thanks to Kenny, who’d agreed to coach.

Blanche’s impression of Heather’s life and decisions could not be more wrong.

“Have you, Heather?”

Heather blinked at Lovely, pulled from her thoughts. “Have I…”

“Settled on a dress,” she finished, a tiny frown pulling as if she, too, noticed something was off with Heather.

“I thought you were going with the pale pink tea-length,” Peyton said. “The one we found in Miami.”

“Um, yeah. I like that, but… I don’t know…”

“Oh, you could wear white,” Savannah said, misreading her uncertainty. “You’re walking purity.”

Purity ? She was covered in guilt and shame and a whole lot of doubt.

“You’ll find a dress,” Callie said, leaning in and focusing on her. “The real question is, DJ or band?”

“And what kind of cake?”

“And how many people?”

“Have you picked the flowers?”

“And who will walk you down the aisle?”

The questions blended into chaos and cacophony, and she tried to answer.

“Um…chocolate. Hopefully not more than fifty or seventy-five people. Haven’t thought about flowers and…what else? The aisle. Yes. Well, he doesn’t know yet, but I was thinking Marc could walk me down the aisle.”

“Aww, sweet,” Jessie said. “And what will your first dance be?”

She stared at her sister, blinking as tears sprang to her eyes.

“Heather!” Jessie had an arm around her instantly, then the others seemed to lunge closer. Well, not Peyton. She didn’t lunge with that soon-to-appear baby. But Heather could see the true concern on her friend’s face.

“I’m sorry,” she blubbered, swiping her cheeks. “I don’t know why…” But she did know. She knew exactly why she was crying.

“Heather, honey, talk to us,” Jessie whispered. “Unless you need privacy or…”

Heather held up one hand and took the napkin Callie offered with the other.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated, dabbing under her eyes, though she knew her mascara was a lost cause. “I…I just…I don’t know what to do.”

Six women stared at her, silent.

Jessie inched closer. “To do…about what? We don’t understand.”

Heather didn’t understand. How could they? Wiping her eyes again, she glanced at the door. She could tell this group of women anything. But not her daughter. “If Maddie comes…” She sniffed. “I don’t want her to know any of this.”

“Do you want me to go out front and watch for them?” Callie offered gently. “I can detain the girls, if you like.”

Heather sighed and shook her head, taking Callie’s hand. “Thank you, sweetie. No. I’ll tell you guys what’s going on, but if they walk out here?—”

“We’ll wedding plan,” Savannah said. “Dive right into flower arrangements the minute that door opens.”

“If that’s what you want,” Jessie added.

“Of course it is, but…” She dug deep for composure, swallowing and knowing her tale of woe wouldn’t take long.

“Don’t worry.” Beck lifted her phone. “Ava just texted me, Heather. They’re still twenty minutes away. I believe there was a shopping detour, but they told us to start without them.”

“Maddie is a fine and responsible maid of honor,” Savannah said. “Knowing exactly when to be absent.”

Heather managed a smile. “I gave her my credit card and told her to go shoe shopping.”

“Whoa.” Callie leaned back. “You did want to get rid of her for a while.”

“I just needed time to think and talk.” She looked at Jessie. “I guess, deep inside, I wanted to fill you in. All of you,” she added quickly, taking a sip of the water that Jessie slid in front of her. “Okay. I will, now.”

They all scooted a little closer, quiet while she gathered her thoughts, letting the tropical air and dear friends fill her with strength. Closing her eyes, she mentally prayed what Kenny called the “big three-worder”— Help me, God.

She needed strength and wisdom that she believed came from the Lord. To be honest, neither felt like they were in great supply after that trip to Charleston.

“It’s about my sister-in-law, if I can still call her that, I mean, since Drew has passed. So, former sister-in-law, I guess.”

“Doesn’t matter what you call her,” Jessie said. “I know Blanche. She’s harsh. The woman doesn’t mince words, and is a walking martyr who thinks the world owes her a favor.”

“Not the world,” Heather corrected. “Me. She thinks I need to get back up there, help her with her father, and end this…this ‘childish rebellion’ of ‘dragging my kids to the Keys’ and…and ‘shacking up’ with Kenny.”

“Shacking up?” Savannah choked. “Have you ever slept under the same roof?”

“Childish rebellion?” Peyton’s brows shot up.

“Dragging the kids?” Beck asked.

“What a bunch of unfiltered stupidity,” Lovely finished the outpouring of support with a dose of her common sense, while Jessie just shook her head in disbelief.

“Thank you,” Heather muttered, a little overwhelmed by the love. “Obviously, she’s wrong about all that. Of course we’ve never spent the night together. I started my life over after being widowed, moving to finally live near my sister.” She put a hand on Jessie’s shoulder, the person she’d leaned on so many times since Drew died eighteen months ago, taking another breath before she continued.

“The fact is, if anyone dragged anyone, it was Maddie who begged to make this move—and in her senior year, too. But Blanche thinks I’m a monster for taking the kids out of their school, and a fool for selling my café up there, and a criminal for not mourning her brother for a decade before I so much as dated again, let alone marry.”

She let that sink in, and turned to Jessie, whose slightly freckled face was pink with fury.

“How dare she?” Jessie ground out. “She didn’t lift a finger to help you when Drew was sick! She was always too busy with her important pharma sales job, marching from doctor to doctor, but never so much as offering to pick up the kids or bring you dinner.”

Heather waved off the criticism. “She loves her job, and she’s very good at it, and believes in what she sells. And she’s divorced and doesn’t have kids, so I don’t think she really understands my life. She’s consumed with the responsibility of helping Andy.”

“I didn’t know your father-in-law was sick,” Lovely said gently. “He’s younger than I am, isn’t he?”

“He’s seventy,” Heather said. “And he’s not sick. He’s had a few health issues—high blood pressure and some sciatica—since Grandma Winnie died, and that was before Drew passed. No surprise, he took Drew’s death very hard. If anything, he’s sad and lonely.” She groaned and shuttered her eyes. “And that’s why I feel so guilty. Grandpa Andy glommed onto Marc while we were up there this past week, and those two have always been close. He cried when they said goodbye and…” She grimaced. “So did Marc. He tried to be strong, but that boy has the softest heart.”

“Maybe Andy could move here,” Beck said. “He could be near his grandkids and there are enough of us to help you keep an eye on him if he needs it.”

“I begged him to do that,” Heather said. “I honestly made the most compelling argument. But he was born and raised in Charleston and lives out in the Lowcountry, where he loves it so much. He can’t even seriously talk about leaving. And Blanche would have a cow!”

“Why?” Peyton asked. “She wants you to take care of him.”

“She wants his beautiful waterfront property when he dies,” Heather said, then cringed. “I don’t mean to gossip but I know what she wants and if he moved, he’d have to sell.”

“If you won’t gossip, I will,” Jessie said. “That woman is awful. She’s manipulative and deceptive and greedy.”

“Tell us how you really feel, Jess,” Savannah cracked.

Jessie sniffed, refusing to back down from an opinion Heather knew she’d held for years.

“Listen to me, Heather,” Jessie insisted. “You grew up far away from me, a half-sister that Josh and I barely knew after Dad left us and married your mom. You deserve to be near family, and so do your kids. And we deserve to have you as much as anyone. And as far as Kenny? He’s just?—”

“She says it’s too soon,” Heather interjected. “And it’s hard to argue with that. We’ve only been completely committed to each other for about seven months, so maybe we are rushing this.”

A chorus of disagreement rose.

“You two were made for each other,” Beck said, louder than the others. “From the moment you met, we could all see it. There’s no reason to wait. Your kids love each other, you love each other, and both of you have prayed and are certain about this.”

Heather couldn’t disagree. “Blanche says we’re just rushing it so, you know, we can be with each other physically.”

She didn’t want to repeat or even think of the ugly words Blanche had said, accusing Kenny of marrying Heather just to get a good Christian girl in bed with him.

“As far as the kids?” she continued. “I’m afraid Marc doesn’t feel quite as gung-ho as Maddie and Ava do.”

“Marc’s happy here,” Jessie said. “He’s playing baseball and every time I see him with Kenny, he’s laughing.”

“He loves Kenny,” Heather agreed. “But he spent five solid days with Grandpa Andy, who is a good man. It was clear Andy’s depressed, and he told Marc openly that he wants us to come back. He took Marc fishing, and they spent hours out on the water, and every night Marc came home a little more blue. He’s a compassionate boy, and he thinks we should all move back there. With Kenny, of course.”

All of them seemed a little stunned by that.

“Is that a possibility?” Beck asked. “Have you talked to Kenny about it?”

“Briefly. You know Kenny—if I want to go, he’ll pack.” She laughed softly. “He’s the definition of the man who’d get the moon for his woman.”

“Do you?” Jessie asked softly. “Do you want to move back to Charleston?”

“No, but…” She swallowed. “I always want to do the right thing, you know. I always listen to what God’s will is, and try to follow it. Andy is my late husband’s father, and they loved each other. Marc adores him, and it’s mutual. Maddie will be going to college in the fall, and…I don’t know. There are more people’s feelings involved than just mine right now. In fact…” She took a slow, deep breath. “I’m wondering if I should get married at all.”

All six of them stared at her in complete shock.

“It feels fast and…scary,” she said softly. “My husband died eighteen months ago. Is it right to do this so quickly?”

“Honey, you’re the only person who can answer that.” Jessie wrapped a loving arm around her. “Just know that we’re here for you.”

“Thanks.” She swiped under her eyes and leaned back, taking in their surprised, worried, and broken expressions.

She didn’t want to leave these people, but she did owe something—many things—to her late husband. She had absolutely no doubt what he’d want her to do. What he’d insist she do. Drew Monroe, for all his “seize the day” bluster, would be on Team Blanche and utterly furious if Heather didn’t go back to Charleston.

That knowledge, and his memory, made her the most uncertain and uncomfortable.

Beck cleared her throat. “Maddie and Ava just texted that they are parking and will be up here in two minutes. What do you want to do, Heather?”

“Proceed…with caution.” She smiled. “So, back to planning. Yes, I love the pink dress, but deep inside? Savannah’s right. I do want to wear something white. Simple, clean, and maybe cream or eggshell. Unless that makes me a hypocrite.”

“It makes you an angel,” Jessie whispered, giving her a loving squeeze. “A dear angel that we all adore.”

She sighed and dropped her head into her hands. “I don’t know what I’d do without all of you.”

And one thing she was certain about? She didn’t want to find out. But she would if that’s what God wanted her to do. He’d open doors to lead her where He wanted her to be. She just hoped it was the same doors she wanted to go through…but sometimes God’s plan was far, far different than hers.