Christmas Wedding Read online

  “Exactly.”

  “It’s not the wedding but the marriage that matters.”

  Said no bride ever. But he appreciated her attitude.

  He and Pepper had made a pact that this wedding would be perfect for their sweet Lisa. There was no way in hell either of them would let Mrs. Perry taint it with bad memories. As Stone had said about his fiancée: she’s not nicknamed Pepper Shaker for no reason.

  2

  Lisa

  * * *

  Mama Soto’s attempt at curing Rafael might have almost accidently killed him, but Lisa wanted to purposely kill her mother. Or at least banish her to a deserted island without any means of communication. The woman was enough to send the tamest bride into bridezilla territory. And they weren’t even in the same state yet. Although, even from a deserted island, Mom might still be able to send passive-aggressive messages. She sent them via any instrument—phone, email, text—any medium would do. If she and Rafael were to get snowed in as Stone and Pepper had when they came out to Emerson Pass to scope out the wedding venues, she might have sent smoke signals in her biting, sharp tone, perhaps in the shape of the middle finger.

  For the hundredth time, she reminded herself that this was supposed to be fun. Dwelling on her mother would only allow her to ruin everything. She would not give her that power.

  She focused on now. They were on their way to Emerson Pass from Denver in a cozy SUV. Stone was driving, with Pepper beside him in the front passenger seat. Lisa sat with Rafael in the back seat. He hadn’t taken his hand from hers since they’d begun the climb toward the mountains. The landscape out the window was draped in white, but the cloudless sky shone a bright blue.

  “It’s so Christmassy,” Lisa said.

  “That’s what we need. Christmas music,” Pepper said as she picked up her phone.

  A minute later, they were rocking around the Christmas tree with Brenda Lee. Lisa settled against Rafael’s shoulder and gazed out at the breathtaking views, feeling warm and festive and grateful. Then, from her phone in her purse, the sound of a text interrupted Brenda’s last chorus. That was her mother’s text tone. Festive mood evaporated.

  From her mother:

  Call me. I need to talk to you about this makeup situation.

  Lisa responded:

  I can’t talk right now. I’m in the car.

  Pepper’s face appeared from around the front seat. “What does she want?”

  “How did you know it was my mom?”

  “The bullhorn text alert was a dead giveaway,” Pepper said.

  “As were your fingers pounding against the surface of the phone,” Rafael said.

  Another text from Mom:

  Why can’t you talk in the car? You’re not driving, are you?

  Lisa set her phone in the cup holder next to her seat. “She’s upset because she wants her hair and makeup done for the wedding. Which is completely contrary to what she said when I booked the team for us. She could do her own face, and her hair always looks better when she does it herself, thank you very much. She said she wanted to look like herself in the photos, not some harlot.”

  Stone laughed. “Harlot? Did she really use that word?”

  “She did,” Lisa said. “And now she’s changed her mind.”

  “Why?” Rafael asked.

  “I’m assuming it’s because she found out Mama Soto and Ria are having theirs done.” Lisa didn’t think. She knew. She’d known it the minute Mama Soto had mentioned yesterday that she and Mom had chatted over the phone about wedding details. Mom wouldn’t be able to stand the thought of the others getting something she wasn’t. Without even talking to her, Lisa knew exactly how her mother’s thought process had unfolded. There should be equal treatment of mothers. If Mama Soto is having hers done, then for goodness’ sake, I should have mine done as well. I’m the mother of the bride. And Ria isn’t even related to Rafael. Lisa could almost hear Mom ranting to her father after she’d already convinced herself that she’d been wronged. “I mean, really. Who is this Ria person? She’s not even related to Rafael.”

  Her father would have replied something like, “Dear, don’t fret. And Ria’s a close family friend—like an aunt to Rafael.”

  “A pretend aunt? A pretend aunt gets the full Hollywood treatment and not me?”

  “You told Lisa you didn’t want it.”

  She blinked away this imaginary conversation when her phone buzzed again. Cringing, she glanced at the screen.

  Hello???? Are you there???

  “So now she’s bugging me to see if I can get the team to sneak her in,” Lisa said. “Pepper, this exchange is reminding me why I had to have you take over the wedding. Someone might have been dead by this point.”

  Pepper clucked her tongue. “Don’t worry, sweetie.” She turned back to face the front as she tapped Stone on the shoulder. “Stone and I will take care of everything.”

  Stone raised his gaze to the rearview mirror and shot her a sympathetic look. “Don’t let her ruin this for you.”

  “He’s right, honey. This is about us,” Rafael said. “And we have Pepper Shaker to keep her in line.”

  Pepper’s head reappeared from the front seat. She flashed an evil grin. “I knew I had a purpose in this life.”

  Lisa gave them all a smile to reassure them she was fine. Even though right this minute she wished they’d eloped in Vegas. Guilt nudged that thought aside. To deprive Rafael’s mom and Lisa’s best friends, Pepper and Maggie, of a wedding would have been completely selfish. Still. She was tired already, and her mother wasn’t even in the same state. Yet. Four more hours and she would be.

  She jumped when her phone rang with a call. “It’s her. Hang on.” She pushed the accept button, then put it on speaker. “Hi, Mom.”

  “Lisa, I’ve been waiting for a text back from you for like five minutes. Nothing but crickets.”

  “Sorry. What do you need?”

  “I need a status on the hair and makeup team.” This was her impatient mixed with why are you such an idiot tone. In the background, Lisa could hear the voice of an airline employee over the loudspeaker, announcing flight information.

  “I haven’t heard back from her. I’ll let you know when I do.”

  “All right. Well, I’m about to get on the plane. I’m going to worry about this the entire flight. Why didn’t you tell me I’d be the only one in the wedding party without professionally done hair and makeup? I’ll look like a hick. And I’m the mother of the bride.” The last four words were given great emphasis.

  “Mom, it’ll be fine. You can have my appointment. Pepper and Maggie can help me with my hair and makeup like the old days.”

  Pepper’s head whipped back around the seat. She mouthed, “No.”

  “That’s not an option. You have to have your hair and makeup done,” Mom said. “These pictures will be the only thing you’ll have after the big day. You don’t want to look washed out like you did on that talk show the other day. Especially next to Rafael’s dark skin.”

  Lisa didn’t say anything, other than to exchange a look with Rafael. He tightened his grip on her hand.

  “I called David three times this morning and couldn’t get him,” Mom said.

  “He was on the same flight as us. He’ll be there by the time you arrive,” Lisa said.

  “Why isn’t he with you in the car?”

  “I told you Maggie and Jackson brought their nanny. She’s helping with Lily and David’s kids, so the adults can enjoy themselves.”

  “How is he affording that?” Mom asked.

  “Maggie pays the nanny a salary.”

  With two toddlers and a four-year-old coming on the trip, Maggie had suggested it would be easier for David if he had help with the kids and offered to share her nanny with him. Lisa had wanted to cry in gratitude when she offered. Since David’s wife had been killed last summer, he rarely had any time to himself, let alone a night to have fun and let loose a little.

  “I’m sure the kids won�
��t know me,” Mom said.

  “It’s only been four months. They might.”

  “I’m warning you right now that I plan to have a heart-to-heart with David this weekend. He needs to come home.”

  “Go for it,” Lisa said, already exhausted. “I have to go now. Have a good flight.”

  Without a second of pause, Mom continued. “How is Rafael’s mother getting there?”

  “Our friends Trey and Nico are with them on a flight this afternoon.” They’d offered to fly with the older ladies and drive them up to Emerson Pass from Denver.

  “Fine. I’ll call you the minute we land. Your father made the rental car arrangements, so who knows if we’ll have an appropriate car for all that snow. Having it in the middle of nowhere is so like you. Making it difficult for everyone else.”

  “Bye, Mom.” She hung up before her mother said anything else. Fighting tears, she looked out the window, breathing through the pain.

  “I always forget how awful she really is,” Pepper said softly. “Or has she gotten worse?”

  “She’s gotten worse.” Lisa couldn’t keep the tears out of her voice. “Since everything with David, she’s even more mad at me. Plus, I didn’t let her take over the wedding. She’s lost control, and she doesn’t like it. I can tell she’s going to make everyone miserable for the next four days.”

  “Not us,” Pepper said. “We’re going to have the most magical weekend ever.”

  “We have everything planned,” Stone said. “Down to the last detail. My fiancée did an amazing job.”

  Pepper beamed up at him. “We did it together.”

  “We’re grateful for all your hard work,” Rafael said. “And I for one am excited for every moment.”

  Pepper’s face appeared between the seats once more. “I cannot wait to see my best friend walk down the aisle. Rafael, when you see Lisa coming toward you in that dress, just hang on to Stone when your knees buckle.”

  “He’s a former Navy SEAL,” Lisa said, laughing. “I don’t think the sight of me in my dress is going to take him down.”

  “Trust me, Stardust,” Rafael said as he brought Lisa’s hand to his mouth. “You already took me down the moment I met you. Seeing you in that dress might be the end of me.”

  3

  Mama Soto

  * * *

  Mama Soto had a name before Mama, but the memory of the girl she’d once been was like that of a friend she’d outgrown. She remembered her fondly yet felt sorry for the insipid, trusting little twit.

  She’d been baptized Rosa Marie Soto by Father Paul as an infant and raised by her single mother into a good Catholic girl. At nineteen, she’d married Javier Rojas, her heart overflowing with love and hope for the boy and their imagined future together as husband and wife. Tragically, their union had been as doomed as her mother’s and grandmother’s marriages. Days after she told Javier of the blessing growing inside her, he left with his clothes, the money she’d stashed in her jewelry box for a rainy day, and her best friend, Regina Luna, tucked under his cheating arm. Her ex-best friend Regina.

  Heartbroken, she’d changed her name back to Soto and moved in with her mother. There were many nights she cried herself to sleep, praying to God to please take her to heaven. She stumbled through her days as the youngest lunch lady at the local elementary school. The children’s smiles and innocent round eyes staring up at her as she tapped their trays with the lunch of the day distracted her, reminded her that better days were surely to come her way. She gained her second name there—Rosa the Lunch Lady. Still, even with her three-feet-tall adoring fans, she ached in places she didn’t know existed, as if there were crevices and holes inside her that opened to absorb the pain of loss. Her skin became thin and sensitive. It took only a whisper of a breeze or muted morning light to sting her bare cheeks and the hollow of her neck.

  As her stomach grew rounder, her only comforts came from the gentle touch of her mother and sitting in the front-row pew of Father Paul’s church on Sunday mornings. When Rafael finally came and they placed him in her arms, he looked up at her with the eyes of an old soul. Like magic, she no longer ached for the boy with the shiny shoes who’d wooed her on the scuffed bleachers of their high school gymnasium. She became Mama. Rosa Marie and her vulnerable, lovesick heart no longer existed. Her son was her life now. His presence made her strong, like a warrior queen. Nothing would keep her from giving him everything he needed to grow up to be a fine man. A man who would stay. A man who would fight for those he loved.

  Little had she known that he would grow up to be a warrior. A Navy SEAL who served his country and fought a war against evil. He’d exceeded her every expectation. She loved him as fiercely as she ever had but with a pride that bordered on sin. He was a great man, her son. She’d done her job.

  Her mother had taken care of baby Rafael while she was at work. However, she was growing frail and without the energy to raise a little boy. One day, she’d come home from work to find her mother weeping. She’d dropped the baby. He was so strong and physical that he’d suddenly jerked and fallen from her arms. She knew then that for all their sakes she must move out of her mother’s house. By the time Rafael was a year old, she’d saved enough to move to an apartment of her own. Next door, Ria was also a single mother with a young son. They became a team. Ria worked a night shift, so between the two of them, they were able to raise both babies into young men.

  A dull pain throbbed at the back of her throat at the thought of Paulo. Ria’s dear little boy had loved baseball and mint chocolate chip ice cream. His favorite pastime was to stare at the vintage baseball cards displayed at their local pawnshop. He was a dreamer, living in his fantasies rather than in the world. Who could blame him? The neighborhood she and Ria were able to afford was no place for an innocent.

  He and Rafael had been like brothers until fate drew them apart. Paulo hadn’t made it long after high school graduation. Rafael had joined the military, but Paulo was color-blind and unable to enlist. There was no money for college, so Paulo went the way of so many young men in their neighborhood. One of the local gangs recruited him. For those who weren’t from that world, it was easy to judge, to say, why didn’t he just keep out of trouble, keep his nose clean? Most people couldn’t understand what it was like to live in a neighborhood where hopelessness was sold on every street corner and in any flavor of ice cream.

  Several years after graduation, Paulo was dead.

  Often, she imagined Paulo up in heaven, playing baseball with the men featured on the vintage baseball cards. In heaven he would be strong, and his eyes would see in every vivid color.

  Ria had turned inside out and disappeared for a while. Only faith in God and her belief that he was in a better place and that one day she would see him again kept her from going mad with grief. Over ten years had passed since that awful day. Ria had come back to life, slowly. And now Rosa’s son had made it possible for Ria to have a new start. She would no longer have to walk past the corner where Paulo took his last breath.

  “Are you ladies all right back there? Are the curves making you queasy?” Nico Bentley asked from the front passenger seat. Poor Nico and Trey. They’d been stuck with the old ladies. Rafael had asked them to escort her and Ria to the airport as well as sit with them on the flight, then drive them from Denver to Emerson Pass. During the drive to San Francisco, Ria had felt sick from all the curves in the road. They’d had to stop several times for her to take in some fresh air.

  That airport—so busy with rude people pushing and shoving and acting important—had made her stomach flutter with nerves. They’d had to take their shoes off at security. She hadn’t minded terribly, although she’d been worried about slipping in her stocking feet. Ria, however, had minded quite a bit, mumbling about the barbaric nature of airports these days while looking down her long, thin nose at the security staff. Rosa had smiled to herself. Ria seemed to have momentarily forgotten that neither of them had been on a plane more than two times in their entire life,
including the one today.

  “I’m fine. Thank you for asking.” Ria, sitting directly behind Nico, folded her hands primly on her lap and gave a weak smile. “A little tired. I’ll need a nap when we get there.”

  “I love naps.” Nico’s broad shoulders settled against the back of his seat. “I’m going to need one too.”

  “Mama Soto? How about you?” Trey asked, catching her eyes in the rearview mirror.

  “I’m fit as a fiddle.” Mama Soto. This was her latest name. Her third-act name, according to Lisa and Pepper. Being actresses, they would think of life in this way. She and Ria loved every story and bit of gossip the girls threw their way. In a million years, she would have never imagined Rafael would marry a famous actress. She and Ria had to pretend to be cool when Lisa casually talked about the famous Genevieve Banks and the movie she and Pepper were going to film with her. She’d almost fainted when Lisa and Pepper had promised to take them to the premiere when it opened. Genevieve Banks was their favorite actress. They’d followed her for years and had sighed with relief when Lisa told them she was just as sweet in real life as she appeared in interviews.

  “I’m starving,” Nico said. “I wish I had one of your chicken salad sandwiches, Mama Soto.”

  “Oh, dear. I should’ve packed a lunch for you boys.” Upon moving into Rafael’s apartment building, she’d become a den mother to the other residents of the Victorian. God knew they needed one. All of them broken, even her son and his beautiful bride. Rafael and Lisa might look like a couple on a wedding cake, but under the exterior perfection, they were two damaged souls who found love and solace in each other. She shivered, remembering the curse, and said another of a thousand prayers. Please, bless this marriage. Keep the devil away.

  She reminded herself that it would only be a darkness spread by the devil himself that could pull Rafael and Lisa apart. Which was why she’d been forced to torture her sweet son with the rituals. She just hoped they’d worked.