Nantucket Weddings - Pamela M. Kelley Page 0,60

seen the last of Rick.

Chapter 25

The rest of the summer seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. Before Mia knew it, August had arrived and she had two weeks of back-to-back weddings. Bethany was up first on the fifteenth and a week later, it was time for Angela and Philippe’s wedding. Izzy was still living in Mia’s spare bedroom and planned to stay at least until the end of the year before looking for her own place. Mia wasn’t in any hurry to see her go. She liked Izzy’s company and felt she was safer for now, living with Mia.

Rick, as predicted, didn’t take Izzy’s leaving well. He alternated between ranting and raving and sending flowers and apologizing. But this time, Izzy wasn’t having any of it. She was devastated, but remained strong, and Mia was proud of her for it. Finally, after more than a month, Rick finally seemed to accept that Izzy wasn’t coming back, and he stopped calling.

Things were going well with Sam. They both agreed that it was best to take things really slow and to hold off on telling the girls that they were dating. Sam wanted to wait until some time had passed and they were really sure about the direction that things were going before he told them, and Mia understood that. Neither one of them was in a rush. They were enjoying their Monday and Wednesday nights out, and now they added in either a Friday or Saturday night on most weekends. Mia knew that Sam’s mother was rooting for them and that she was thrilled that Sam had found someone.

Bethany’s wedding went off without a hitch, although there was one glitch when the goats almost didn’t make it in time for yoga. The woman who booked goat yoga had an event in Chatham and they were due to come back on Saturday, but the boats stopped running because of high winds. Fortunately, the seas were calm in the morning and they made it onto the first ferry over and there was goat yoga after all at Bethany’s brunch. Mia smiled, picturing all those tiny goats running around on the Fast Ferry. She got some funny pictures for Bethany at the brunch of the goats hanging out on people’s backs while they held various yoga poses. She thought it was the strangest thing, but it was all the rage evidently.

Ben brought Alexis to Bethany’s wedding, and it seemed like the two of them really were hitting it off. Alexis flew over most weekends and usually stayed with Ben. And now he was talking about heading back to Manhattan after Labor Day weekend instead of staying until October.

Angela’s wedding was a size and scale that Mia had never seen before. No expense was spared. They decided to offer a unique wedding favor that also in a way made things easier for everyone, too. The six hundred and fifty blue and white folding director style chairs that were carried down to the beach were the wedding favors. They told each guest to take one home when they left. There were a few stray ones left behind, but overall the chairs were a huge hit.

And Angela was a beautiful bride. She looked elegant and effortlessly beachy in her white JCrew slip dress. Philippe looked great in his purple tux, and it seemed like all of Nantucket was there. Mandy did a fantastic job overseeing the catering and the food, as usual, was delicious. They got married on the beach, with all their friends and family around them and Philippe had buses shuttling people to and from his house, because there wasn’t nearly enough parking anywhere for a wedding that big.

Sam came as Mia’s date, though she wasn’t able to spend much time with him until the ceremony and meal service was over and the dancing began. A few hours later, platters of mini burgers and fries were brought out, and they were a huge hit. People were hungry again after dancing and drinking.

It was a wonderful night and Lisa and Rhett were among the last to leave the dance floor.

“This was spectacular. You and Mandy did an incredible job,” Lisa said. Mandy and Mia were relaxing with a glass of wine. Mandy still had the catering clean-up to oversee, but she had time to take a short break.

“Angela and Philippe look so happy,” Mia said. Angela was glowing and Philippe couldn’t stop smiling.

“Won’t be long before it’s Beth and Chase’s turn and then