A Groom wirh a View

pack.”
    Iva flung her croissant on her plate and got up and walked out.
    “Well! I never—“ the helper exclaimed. “What’s wrong with your sister’s eye?“ Jane asked Marguerite.
    “It’s nothing. Nothing. She just ran into a chair.“
    “You’re sure it wasn’t a door?“ Shelley asked wryly.
    “No, she tripped getting into bed and fell against the chair,“ Marguerite said. “The back of the chair, the upright bit, hit her in the eye. It was just a freak accident. Nothing to worry about.”
    Marguerite sounded like a carefully rehearsed parrot.
    “Lucky she didn’t put her eye out,“ the helper said cheerfully, apparently believing the story. “I had a cousin got hit in the eye with the top end of a hoe. Never could see out of it again.”
    Nobody knew how to respond to this and a silence fell over the group.
    “I think I better call the table and chair people,“ Jane said, having lost interest in Iva and still obsessing about her schedule.
    As she left the room, she met Dwayne coming in. He looked as fresh and cheerful as new paint. “It’s the big day,“ he said. Apparently he’d gone all “groomish“ and forgotten about his room being trashed and holding Jane to blame.
    “It is, indeed,“ Jane said.
    “What was all that noise last night?“ he asked. “People tromping up and down the hall at all hours.“
    “I don’t really know,“ Jane said honestly. “I think there might have been a ghost at large.”
    He looked at her for a moment as if she’d lost her mind, then laughed. “Oh, I get it. A joke.“
    “Right,“ Jane said, trying to assemble a smile.
    There was, naturally, no answer at the chair and table place. Jane told herself briskly that she shouldn’t worry. It was too early for the secretary to be in the office and the truck was surely well on its way by now anyway. Still, she had visions of the truck sprawled on its side on a highway shoulder, tables and chairs scattered far and wide in the mud, perhaps a few curious cows browsing through the wreckage.
    When she returned to the kitchen, the crowd had swelled. Marguerite had left, but Kitty, Eden, and Livvy had joined Shelley and Dwayne at the big table. Livvy looked wan and drained. She obviously hadn’t gotten much sleep and was going to need some of Iva’s concealer to cover the faint blue circles under her eyes. But as always, she was well put together in her rather starchy white blouse, black skirt, and stylish gray striped silk scarf as a belt. Jane suspected Livvy was probably even wearing panty hose.
    Livvy smiled wanly at Jane. “Everything in order?“ she asked politely.
    “As far as I know,“ Jane said as confidently as she could manage. She hoped Livvy just wasn’t a morning person and would perk up a whole lot as the day went on. Brides really shouldn’t look like they needed to go back to bed—alone.
    Dwayne was watching Livvy with concern, too. And Kitty looked upset as well, glancing back and forth between the two of them as she picked nervously at her breakfast. This annoyed Jane. Bridesmaids were supposed to rally around the bride, petting and encouraging them. Instead, Kitty looked like she herself were about to go to pieces. Jane thought of brisk, refreshing slaps that were sometimes delivered in movies to shape somebody up. Too bad it wasn’t acceptable in real life.
    Eden was another matter entirely. She’d come down in what might well have been her sleeping garments, an enormously oversized electric blue t-shirt with a Tweetie Bird logo on the front and baggy matching sweatpants. Her hair was un- combed and she looked tousled and sexy and was clearly the most cheerful person in the room. She was humming “Here Comes the Bride“ as she tucked into her food and giving Livvy big, encouraging smiles.
    Uncle Joe wandered through to pick up a free meal. He piled a plate high with croissants and a quarter of a stick of butter and then, to Jane’s astonishment, he gave Livvy an affectionate little pat on the shoulder as he left. Livvy turned and smiled at him.
    Jane couldn’t believe Uncle Joe harbored a secret liking for anybody in the family. She wouldn’t have thought he’d much more than barely noticed Livvy’s existence, and yet the pat on the shoulder was clearly supportive. Could it be Uncle Joe who disapproved of Livvy’s marriage to Dwayne? Might he have been the one who wrecked Dwayne’s room in some hopeless attempt to make him feel unwelcome and possibly even drive