Chapter Six

"So,” Willa said, closing the door against the autumn chill. “Looking at all that blue sky, I’m guessing that it’ll be an outdoor wedding?”

“For sure.” Zoe gave Keira a kiss on her shining blonde curls, set her down next to the round dining room table. “No rain in sight for the whole day.” She looked down at her daughter. “You know what that means?”

“What what means?” Keira said as she clambered onto the chair.

“The wedding being outside instead of in the hotel restaurant means that we’ll need to stay warm. We’ll be in that heated marquee thing, but still… we’re way up in the mountains, remember.”

“Ohhhhhh.” Keira brown eyes – so much like her mother Hailey’s that it sometimes made Zoe catch her breath – sparkled. “I get to wear the fur over my princess dress!”

“You sure do,” Willa said, bringing Zoe another coffee and Keira another hot chocolate. “You’ll look fantastic.”

“And what will you wear, Mommy?” Keira sipped daintily at her sweet chocolate. “Over your dress?”

“Ah, well.” Zoe shrugged as she deposited her butt in the chair next to Keira. “I just planned to wear my favorite, beat-up jean jacket. Keep it casual.”

Her best friend and her daughter stared at her, and then at each other, totally non-plussed. Zoe hid her smile behind her cup, watched as Keira’s face got all scrunched up in that way that it did when she was trying hard to hold her words back. However, she was as outspoken as her mother – both of her mothers, Hailey and Zoe – and it was a battle that she’d never won, not once in her five years on earth.

“But,” Keira began now. “But noooo. You can’t wear an old thing over your dress! It’s so pretty! It will be ruined!”

Zoe grinned at her daughter’s outraged expression. “I know, little flower. I was just teasing you.”

Keira’s indignation relaxed a fraction. “So – you have a thing to wear? A not ugly thing?”

“I do. Do you want to see it?”

“Yes!”

Keira and Willa spoke in stereo and Zoe laughed as she got up from the table. She went down the hallway, past the guest room that Willa was occupying – just temporarily, as Zoe and Scars were going to honeymoon at the cabin after the wedding – and down to the larger room that Zoe and Keira had shared the night before. Like every room in the cabin, it boasted incredible views of the mountains in vibrant autumn color. Zoe paused, admiring yet again the blazing golds, the fiery reds, the brilliant yellows, the crackling oranges, then she went over to the closet, plucked the item from the back where she’d hidden it.

“Ohhhhh-kay,” she said, entering the open kitchen and dining area again. She held the emerald green wrap up for inspection. “What do you think?”

“Oh, wow,” Willa murmured, taking in the softness, the jewel tone, the sweeping elegance. “That is gorgeous, Zee.”

“It matches your eyes!” Keira blurted, clearly delighted. “It matches exactly!”

“It does,” her mother agreed. “Do you want to try it on?”

“Yes!” Keira repeated, shooting off the chair and almost upending her cup. “Yes, please!”

Zoe stepped forward, wrapped the thick cashmere around Keira’s slim shoulders, and the little girl instinctively clutched the open ends together in her hands. The material fell over her body in a green waterfall, fell all the way to the floor. Zoe smiled, then showed Keira the fastening at the throat.

“Here,” Zoe said gently as she attached the silver hook to the shining eye. “You can let go now. The wrap will stay on.”

Keira dropped her hands with a look of trepidation on her face, then grinned.

“It’s staying up!” She looked over at the living room mirror, blinked at her reflection. “I’m wearing a princess cape!”

“You sure are,” Willa said, biting back a laugh at the never-ending royalty theme. “It’s beautiful on you. Maybe a tad long.”

Keira looked at the material pooling over her feet. “Yes. A little tad.”

The women laughed, then Zoe carefully unfastened the hook and lifted the wrap off her daughter.

“So,” she said, folding the thick material over her forearm. “Will this do? I can wear it over my wedding dress?”

“Yes,” Keira said emphatically. “It’s perfect.” She paused, looked at the wrap again. “It might be more pretty than your dress. Maybe just a bit.”

Zoe laughed again, tousled her daughter’s hair. “You have breakfast with Willa, OK? I’m going to go have a shower and get ready for Melissa to come and do our hair and makeup.”

“Can I wear some makeup, Mommy? Please?” Keira wheedled, this last battle still to be won; her mother had not been receptive to it, but the day before Melissa had shown Zoe the cosmetics for kids, and they were surprisingly subtle and delicate. “Just for today?”

“Yes, you can.” Zoe winked at Willa, knowing that Keira had been dying to wear some pink lipstick. “A tiny little bit, OK?”

“OK!” Keira kissed her mother, then bounded back into her chair and picked up her cup again. “Thank you!”

“I won’t be too long,” Zoe said to Willa, who was already melting butter in the frying pan for pancakes. “Maybe ten minutes.”

Willa flapped the spatula at her. “Take your time, Zoe. It’s your wedding day.”

“It is,” Zoe said quietly, as the wonder of it all just rolled over her yet again in a wave of total love and disbelief. “It really is.”