had been avoiding. And the reason for moving up the wedding would soon be apparent. Standing behind Eleanor, Ivy gave Rachel a sympathetic smile.
“How did you find me here?” Rachel asked.
“I’ve been looking for an appropriate replacement venue for you. Somewhere out of the way, but still close enough for your grandparents to attend. Three hours in a limousine won’t kill them.” She folded her arms. “It seems we’ve both been talking to your Aunt Lillian. And she told me everything.”
A look of horror filled Rachel’s face, and she gripped the arms of the chair.
“Don’t worry. Your mother is handling this—as I always do.” Eleanor snapped her fingers. “Everyone out while my daughter and I have a tête-à-tête.”
Ivy looked on in awe as Carrie and the two friends scurried from their chairs. Eleanor clearly had a fierce reputation.
“Is that coffee ready yet?” Carrie asked in a pleading voice as she brushed past Ivy.
“Follow me,” Ivy said. “Poppy is brewing a fresh pot. You can wait in the kitchen with her.” That mother-daughter conversation would probably take a while.
Ivy led the way and swung open the kitchen door. “Poppy, our guests would like to wait in here.” She showed them to the large table in the kitchen where family and friends usually gathered. “I’ll be in the library if you need anything.” That was close enough to the dining room, and she could still answer a few emails until Eleanor and Rachel finished.
“Okay, the coffee is almost ready.” Poppy threw a quizzical glance at Ivy, but to her credit, she turned a broad smile toward the three young women, welcoming them. “Would you like anything to eat?”
Carrie groaned again, and Ivy chuckled. Poppy was only a few years older than they were. She would understand.
Ivy hurried to the library. She could hear the rise and fall of voices from the dining room. She felt sorry for Rachel, who seemed like a sweet girl saddled with a self-centered, self-indulgent woman for a mother. Just when Rachel needed her the most, Eleanor was acting angry and inconvenienced. But that was none of Ivy’s business.
She sat down at the computer and brought out the check that Eleanor had given her.
Just then, an alert from her bank popped onto the screen. She slid on a new pair of leopard-print reading glasses that she kept in the library. The alert was a notice she’d set for a low balance in the inn’s checking account. Just in time. Ivy rested her chin on her hand. Where does it all go? She’d have to go to the bank today to make a deposit.
A few minutes later, Poppy came into the library. “What in the world happened in the dining room? I couldn’t help but overhear part of what Carrie and her friends were saying in the kitchen.”
Ivy quickly summarized the situation for her.
“What a disaster of a family,” Poppy said. “It’s a good thing we can choose our customers, right?”
Ivy peered over her reading glasses. “What do you mean by that?”
“If you don’t like Eleanor York, you can tell her the dates she wants are already reserved on our calendar. I’ll tell her if you want me to. I don’t think any of us want to work with someone like that. Shelly was right. Eleanor is a total Momzilla. The wedding is bound to be a fiasco.”
“If you and Shelly are against this, I suppose I could do that,” Ivy said slowly. She glanced at the check on the desk. Maybe she could wait another couple of days until the bachelorette party settled their bill.
Then she remembered the anguished look in Rachel’s eyes when she saw her mother. That young woman deserved a happy wedding. Ivy would want that for her daughters, just as she did for Shelly. A woman’s wedding day was the one day in her life she should enjoy. However, Rachel probably wouldn’t get that from her mother.
But Ivy could make a difference. Isn’t that why she loved welcoming guests to the inn? In the year since she’d arrived, Ivy had discovered that being an innkeeper was more than renting rooms; it was caring for guests and attending to their needs.
Right now, Rachel needed someone on her side to help make her wedding special. Every woman deserved that.
“Actually, the wedding is on. Rachel needs us. And I’ll handle Eleanor York.”
As Poppy stared at her, Ivy had the uncomfortable feeling she might regret her decision.
3
Ivy crouched in front of the vintage refrigerator she called Gertie, wiping