Penny continued because that was the purpose of the call: to tell the story. “He got down on one knee at the top of the Empire State Building. The lights of the city were amazing. Nobody else was there. It was so romantic, Mom.”

Alexa knew she needed to react in exactly the right way, or her daughter would never let her forget it. She had one chance to get this right. That was the tricky part about being an only parent: Her reaction was the only reaction. There was no backup, nobody to smooth out the rough spots, to fill in when she failed. She willed herself to smile and raised her voice half an octave. “How thrilling. Wonderful for you both. Do we need to talk about your plans now?”

She hoped not.

This was so unexpected, and she had so much on her schedule for the rest of the year. A long engagement would be ideal, twelve or maybe even eighteen months. And maybe Penny would want to get married on Patmos at her family’s hotel. It would be practically free. And then the happy couple could have a long honeymoon somewhere she could use her connections to get them a good deal, like Croatia, even though the service was terrible there. “Do you have a date yet? Or a place?”

“We can follow up on that next week, Mom,” Penny answered like a pro. Alexa knew her daughter worked the calendar months in advance, planning five steps out while everybody else was still on square one. It was what made them both so good at their jobs, and, Alexa thought, at their lives. “We want to enjoy the engagement for a bit.”

“A lot of it will depend on our work schedules,” Chase added, to Alexa’s satisfaction.

“Whatever you two decide will be the right thing, I’m sure,” Alexa said, a line she had heard one of her friends use with her adult children. She didn’t believe it, but she was committed to selling the sentiment. She lifted her coffee mug in a toast. “Welcome to our family, Chase.” She even choked up a bit as she said that last part.

Of course she did. Because what Alexa Diamandis was really thinking was, why on earth would anyone ever get married at all?

Chapter 2
The Call

The Mother of the Groom

“Mom. Mom? Are you there?”