Heavenstone 02 - Secret Whispers

Heaven-stone?”
    “It’s not my home now. You just said so. It’s Lucille’s.”
    “But it’s so big. Four families could live here without ever seeing each other.”
    “Don’t you want your own home, Ethan?”
    He thought a moment and nodded. “Yes, you’reright,” he said. “I just never thought you’d want to move.”
    “I didn’t until now,” I told him.
    We didn’t discuss it again for a while. Instead, the conversation returned to the subject of our wedding. Lucille had suggested some dates. Ethan didn’t come right out and say she was basically deciding when we would get married, but I read between the lines when he talked about his work and what was being planned.
    “We can get married here,” I said as a form of compromise, “but I don’t want hundreds of strangers. As I said at dinner when we announced our engagement, let’s just have our families.”
    He didn’t argue, but I knew he was discussing it with both Lucille and my father. Finally, Daddy brought it up at dinner one night. When he spoke, Lucille kept her eyes on her plate and pursed her lips and listened.
    “We have so many close friends who would like to share in our happiness,” Daddy began. “We don’t have to have a wedding as big as Lucille’s and mine was, but we could have a modest affair.”
    “Modest? I’m sure you’ll have trouble cutting down on the list, Daddy. Look how hard it was for you with your own wedding.”
    “You just let me worry about that, Semantha.”
    Lucille glanced at me and then looked at Daddy. “If it’s really making her that uncomfortable even to think about it, Teddy . . .”
    “It is,” I said quickly.
    “Then maybe she should have a few moresessions with Dr. Ryan,” she added. “She’s still avoiding socializing.”
    I felt the blood rise up my neck and into my cheeks. “I have to go to therapy because I don’t want my wedding to become a social-political event like yours?”
    “Semantha!” Daddy shouted. “That’s an inappropriate thing to say.”
    I looked at Ethan, who was looking down, and then I rose and left the dining room.
    “Good,” Cassie said, and led me out of the house.
    I was halfway to the pool before I heard Ethan call to me. He ran to catch up.
    “Hey, hold up,” he said, taking my right arm at the elbow. “Why did you get so upset?”
    “You’re kidding. Why did I get so upset?”
    He shook his head.
    “Lucille basically just said that if I don’t want a big wedding, I need mental help, and you wonder why I got so upset?”
    He nodded and walked along slowly. “It’s just how she thinks. She can’t imagine any young woman not wanting a big wedding with all the trimmings.”
    “I’m not Lucille, and just because she can’t imagine it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with me, does it?”
    “Of course not. Your father wouldn’t send you to a therapist for that. He just told her so in no uncertain terms after you left.”
    I paused. “Did he?”
    “Yes. He feels terrible. I could see. He told me totell you that he didn’t mean to cause us any concern, and if you want to have a small family event, fine.”
    “Well, why didn’t he say so at the table?”
    Ethan shrugged. “I imagine, like any parent, he was worried you weren’t thinking it out fully, but he doesn’t want to see you upset. He’s very happy with how things have been going.”
    “I wish he’d tell me that sometimes.”
    “I’m sure he will. Right now, he thinks you have eyes and ears for no one else but me. Probably because that’s the way he is with Lucille. He thinks we’re just as much in love. Well, I have news for him.”
    “What?”
    “We’re more in love.” He turned me to him. “Right?”
    “I hope so,” I said.
    “I know so,” he replied, and kissed me. I saw Cassie standing behind him, shaking her head. “Anyway,” he continued, walking me along, “under the circumstances, with our wedding being a small family affair, I suggest we get married within a month. Lucille just admitted that because it’s such an intimate affair, the preparation time wouldn’t be that long. They went off to check on some dates for us. We can have invitations out in a few days. Gerad will prepare a wonderful wedding dinner, and Lucille thinks Mia and Catherine can handle our small reception.” He emphasized “small.”
    “It will have more meaning for us, Ethan, if we just have the people we love and who love us.”
    “I understand. I’m not