Best Laid Wedding Plans by Lynnette Austin Page A

to look at them first. Either way, the two of them working together should have the porch up and running in two, three days at the most.
    * * *
    Enough lollygagging, Jenni Beth decided. If…no, damn it, when Richard came through with that loan, time would literally be money. Every day it took to get this place up and running was a day she’d be spending rather than making money. Time. A luxury she couldn’t afford.
    Picking up her tape measure and notepad, she tackled the job she’d been doing when Cole interrupted her. A lot of the floorboards could be salvaged with a few nails and some sanding. But the task of evaluating and measuring was downright tedious.
    When she finished the last board, she checked her watch. Still enough time to run into town. She’d order the wood she needed, cut to length, from Beck’s lumberyard, then stop by the flower shop and introduce herself to the new owner.
    And how strange was that? Brenda Freedman had run the only flower shop in town since time began. But a few months ago, she’d decided to retire and sold her shop to a Yankee. Then she’d bought herself a condo in Florida and was right now, no doubt, splashing around in the ocean.
    Too bad. It sure wouldn’t be the same without her. But when Jenni Beth opened the doors to Magnolia House, she’d need a florist, one who’d work with her. And that meant touching base—and making a personal connection—with Pia D’Amato at Bella Fiore. Both the owner’s and the shop’s names sounded too foreign for Misty Bottoms, but nothing remained the same forever. And wasn’t that, sometimes, a good thing?
    Fortunately, the new owner had decided to keep the garden center, too. Like Brenda, she’d sell plants as well as floral arrangements. The town needed that. The nearest nursery was more than twenty miles away.
    If things went well, Jenni Beth might even have time to stop by the bakery, check off another item on her to-do list. Kitty was barely out of high school when she’d baked Jenni Beth’s parents’ wedding cake. Still in business, she continued feeding the sweet tooth of Misty Bottom’s population. How much longer would she want to do that? Be able to do it?
    Fingers crossed, Jenni Beth hoped it would be long enough. A bride absolutely could not have a wedding without that special cake. And God knew neither she nor her mother had inherited any baking genes. She could plan one heck of a menu and even design the cake, but she couldn’t make them happen. Nor could Charlotte, though there’d been a time when her cakes were some of the finest in the county.
    There’d been a time when Magnolia House was the finest in the county, too. There’d been a time when her brother had been here with her, had shared the responsibilities, the fun, the laughter.
    That time was no more.
    And wasn’t she turning maudlin?
    Enough.
    Taking the stairs at a fast clip, she headed to the shower. Running grimy fingers through her hair, she cringed. Cobwebs. Yeech.
    She hit the last step and stopped. Cole. She could smell him here in her room. He might be gone, but the essence of him remained.
    It had been a huge mistake to let that man into her bedroom.

Chapter 8
    Convertible top down, dust flying behind her, and a swingy little sundress boosting her confidence, Jenni Beth shot into the lumberyard’s dirt parking lot. She refused to ruin the beautiful spring day by dwelling on the negatives. Instead, now that she’d set the plans in motion to turn her dream into reality, impatience ate at her.
    She parked and flipped up the car’s top. No sense coming out to find her leather seats dirty. Slinging her purse over a shoulder, she headed into Elliot’s Lumber and Hardware, Misty Bottoms’ small-town hybrid of Lowe’s and Home Depot. Better than both because it was a mom-and-pop enterprise. If a person had any kind of construction project in the