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Excerpted from The Good Kind of Crazy:
Well, he
can't say I didn't warn him, Neely Mason thought. Robert had
assured her before dinner that he was marrying her, so nothing her
family said or did would affect his decision. She was holding him to
that.
Not that her
family was being unwelcoming. Far from it--they'd expressed great
gratitude that someone had finally proposed to the forty-five year old
"spinster" of the family, and they were trying to make Robert's life easier
by mapping out his wedding for him.
"You could
always getting married here," Mr. Mason offered. "This old house might
need a bit of spit-shine to polish her up, but she's a historic beauty."
"True," Neely's
mother agreed, "but too small to properly host their wedding. I
imagine you'll have one-hundred and fifty guests at least."
"What?" Neely's
head reeled. When she and Robert had started discussing wedding
specifics Monday night, they'd predicted around seventy-five people, one
hundred as the absolute maximum. "I think you're shooting a little
high, Mom."
"Nonsense.
Savannah and I started a list after you left the other day. That was
our conservative estimate, since you insisted on something 'simple.'"
Naturally,
organized and domestic Savannah had taken control of preparations.
Neely shot her older sister an accusing glare, but it crashed and broke on
the shore of Savannah's good intentions.
"No need to
thank me!" Savannah said cheerfully. "I want to help in anyway
possible. Jason and I were so young when we got married that we were too
poor for a grand affair, and I hardly think at my age I'm going to have a
daughter. So planning your wedding will be fun!"
A thrill a
minute. Neely wasn't sure how she felt about the unspoken comparison
to the daughter Savannah would never have. I'm only younger by
eleven months! Yet she supposed she'd be getting Savannah's "big
sister" treatment for the rest of her life. She couldn't imagine how
Vi must feel, being the surprise late baby in the family and nearly twenty
years younger than her sisters.
"So, what about
you, Robert?" Neely's brother asked. "Any siblings? Brothers or, God
help you, sisters?"
Robert grinned.
"Neither. Just me and my parents. My dad has a brother back in
Vermont--are you okay, Mrs. Mason?"
"Fine, fine."
Neely could see
how the harrumph her mother made whenever a place north of the Mason-Dixon
was mentioned could sound like the woman was choking.
"I have a
handful of relatives left there," Robert said. "We're not a big
family."
"And the two of
you don't plan to make it any bigger by having more little Walshes?"
Mrs. Mason asked.
"Uh--" Robert
shot Neely his first truly alarmed look of the evening.
She knew how he
felt. Her accountant's brain was already spinning. Even if they
hurried and had a baby in the next two years--which they would probably have
to do, if she wanted to get pregnant before menopause--she would still be in
her sixties before the kid could get a driver's license.
"Cornelia Mason
Walsh," her brother said absently, changing the subject. Maybe he'd
learned some tact from his courtroom experiences, after all. "That'll
take some getting used to. Are you hyphenating, ditching the maiden
name altogether or staying as is?"
"What do you
mean, as is?" Mr. Mason asked, his expression genuinely befuddled.
"She won't be 'as is,' she'll be a married lady."
"Not all women
change their last names," Vi said. "It's the new millennium, Dad.
Why should a woman give up her identity just because of an archaic ceremony?
I was reading an article about how some modern couples legalize a completely
new married name by combining syllables of their separate last names.
You guys could be Mr. and Mrs. Walson. Or Maisch!"
Savannah
blinked. "That's insane."
For a change,
Neely agreed with her older sister. But no doubt "Walson" was just one
of many helpful suggestions that would be thrown at the happy couple during
the next few months...
From the book The Good
Kind of Crazy by Tanya Michaels NEXT 03/06. Copyright by
Tanya Michaels ® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. The edition
published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A. For more romance
information, surf to:
http://www.eHarlequin.com .
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