A Groom wirh a View

wishes. Jane bestirred herself. There was a lot to do now and very little time. As she came down the stairs, she saw that the table people were already scurrying around like a school of very organized fish to fold up the chairs and stack them in preparation for putting up the long buffet table.
    Larkspur was standing by, practically dancing with impatience and holding a big flower arrangement. At least Jane assumed it was Larkspur. All she could see were his legs behind the vase, flowers, and foliage.
    Likewise, Mr. Willis was hovering at the kitchen door with an enormous silver chafing dish and his local assistant was weighed down with a stack of dinner plates.
    Shelley was doing her best to dislodge the few guests who hadn’t yet moved outside. “I’m tempted to jerk their chairs out from under them,“ she said as she passed Jane. “Ladies, would you like to come outside now?“ she cooed sweetly to a pair of the trophy wives who were comparing their jewelry.
    As soon as the last of them were driven outdoors, chaos broke out.
    The long tables were slammed into place in the center of the room, tablecloths snapped and billowed and before they were even all in place, Mr. Willis and Larkspur were fighting for space on the long white expanse. Mr. Willis thought the beef Stroganoff should have pride of place in the very center of the table with appetizers and salads on one side and bread and desserts on the other. Larkspur felt strongly, and was not loath to express the view as if it were gospel, that the enormous vase of tulips, ferns, and agapanthuss must be the center highlight with smaller arrangements in the spots Mr. Willis had marked out for the plates, silverware, and napkins at the far end.
    “Centerpiece flowers in the center,“ Jane snapped. “Small arrangements between the plates and appetizers and another between the bread and desserts and stop squabbling! Larkspur, the drinks table is almost ready. You work on that and then fit things around what Mr. Willis sets out.“
    “No flowers near the glasses,“ Mr. Willis shrieked. “They’ll drop petals and bugs in the glassware.“
    “My flowers do not have bugs!“
    “Flowers in the middle, glasses around them. Flower petals in champagne look pretty,“ Jane declared.
    “You’re getting this bossy stuff down,“ Shelley said from behind her. “What was the big delay between Layla’s entrance and Eden’s? People were beginning to mutter among themselves.“
    “Livvy was pleading with her father to cancel the wedding,“ Jane said with a heavy sigh.
    “No!“ Shelley exclaimed. “She wanted to bolt at the very last second?“
    “Yes, it was ghastly. Eden was encouraging her, Kitty was weeping, the musicians were eavesdropping, I was considering pretending to faint, and in the end, Jack prevailed.“
    “Of course he did.“
    “And Livvy’s stuck with Dwayne,“ Jane said grimly.
    Shelley thought for a minute and said, “Jane, maybe it was just momentary panic on Livvy’s part. A burst of quick hysteria that she really didn’t mean. If she really and truly didn’t want to marry him, surely she’d have brought it to a halt a lot sooner. When you got married didn’t you have just a second when you thought, ‘What am I doing!’ “
    “ No, I thought I knew exactly what I was doing. I was wrong, of course, but I didn’t have a second’s doubt.”
    Shelley patted Jane’s arm. “Well, I hate to be hard-hearted, but it’s done now and it’s not your problem. Livvy had a decision to make and she made it. Period. Now she’s Mrs. Dwayne Hessling, whether she likes it or not. You’re neither her mother nor her best friend and you couldn’t have interfered.“
    “But the sad thing is, she doesn’t have a mother or a best friend,“ Jane said. “And she needed both.”
    The food was in place and smelled divine. The flowers were on the serving tables and Larkspur had placed small arrangements on some of the end tables as well. The furniture people had completed their work and slipped out a side door. They’d come back tomorrow at their leisure and Uncle Joe would let them in to pick up all the rental furniture and linens. The wedding cake, all four tiers of it, sat in solitary splendor in the side room, among the gifts on display.
    Jane took one last look around. Perfection. And best of all, this was the last stage of the process. Everybody would be fed and the bride and groom would be seen off to their honeymoon and Jane could go