The Sometime Bride

and finding excuses not to do.
    “Now, now, honey,” her grandmother said, reassuringly patting her hand. “Don’t go blowing things all out of proportion like you sometimes do. I swear, you must get that from your Aunt Nellie.”
    Grandma Russell leaned forward and lifted her china teacup off the low tabletop in front of them. “Drink your chamomile, dear. It will make you feel better.”
    Carrie wrung her tissue in exasperation. Her grandmother apparently hadn’t heard a word she’d said. She’d come here first to confess and secondly to beg moral support. Possibly even to seek approval—and forgiveness—for her new choice. But all she’d received thus far had been tea and crumpets with some prattle on pre-wedding-day jitters.
    “You don’t understand,” Carrie sniffed. “Tonight’s the big night.”
    “The reunion. Very sweet.” Grandma Russell smiled as if in fond remembrance. “Dear Wilson told us all about it. He was so very proud at the prospect of having you on his arm. Never knew that New York man of yours had such local roots.” She shrugged with a thoughtful smile. “Well, I suppose that does explain the accent.”
    Carrie set down her teacup and rummaged through her purse for her aspirin.
    “If you ask me,” her grandmother offered, unsolicited, “you keep popping those things, you’re gonna get a hole in your stomach.”
    Carrie ignored that bit of advice and downed two tablets with her, by now, room-temperature tea. “It’s not just the reunion, Grandmother. It’s looking serious. He’s taking me to meet his father!”
    “Wonderful!” Grandma Russell said, clapping her hands together. She paused a moment, looking puzzled. “Are you saying you’ve not yet met him? And what do you mean by serious. Of course it’s serious. You’re getting married, aren’t you?”
    “No,” Carrie said, dropping her eyes to the sofa and wishing with all her might she could sink right between its cushions. “No, Grandmother, I’m so sorry. There isn’t going to be any wedding.”
    Grandma Russell set her cup down so firmly on its saucer the two pieces rattled. “Nonsense, Carrie girl! That’s just pre—”
    “Grandma,” Carrie said, looking up through streaming eyes. “No. I’m sorry. Really, really sorry I waited until now to tell you. But I…”
    Her lower lip began a violent tremble that prevented her from finishing.
    Grandma Russell turned sideways and swept her into her arms. “There, there, child. Everything’s going to be all right. I promise it will. Nothing at all that Wilson could have done could merit all this. There is always a way—”
    “He left me, Grandmother,” Carrie said, finally finding her voice. “Just like that. No warning at all. And,” she said, her voice taking on a renewed tremble. “For another woman.”
    Grandma Russell stiffened in shock. “That letch! I never in a million years would have believed that charming man capable of—”
    “Not that charming man,” Carrie corrected with a shake of her head. “Wilson.”
    Grandma Russell’s ebony eyes went wide as saucers. “Wilson? What are you saying, child? That the man you brought home—”
    “An imposter,” Carrie admitted, hanging her head.
    Grandma Russell straightened her spine. “Well, he looked real enough to me.”
    “No,” Carrie said, forcing herself to press ahead. “It was all a ruse. We met at the Sawyers House.”
    “That local inn you financed?”
    Carrie nodded and kept going, lest she lose her nerve. “It was really kind of funny, in fact. When I met Mike—his name is Mike, by the way.”
    “Good, solid, masculine name,” Grandma Russell interjected.
    Carrie gave her grandmother a twisted smile. No matter what the rest of Carrie’s story, Grandma Russell had quite obviously made up her mind.
    “Mike Davis. Guess you like the Davis part too?”
    Grandma Russell smiled warmly. “It does have a certain ring to it. Listen, sweetheart, you can fill me in on the particulars you’d like to. But it really isn’t necessary. Like the television commercials say, life happens.
    “So Wilson was a creep and left you. Good riddance to that one, I say! And this Mike—Mike Davis, the man who not only can’t keep his eyes off you in a crowded room but also wowed your family, just happened to be at the right place at the right time. I think it’s beautiful. It’s fate. And he’s a hunk. You’re three for three on this one. Looks, tenderness, compassion… What on