“Bernadette is coming. We need to impress her. If Chase is going to run for Congress, he needs her support, so we’ll polish the nut bowls and the small trays for the cocktail napkins.”

“That you monogrammed. Chase hearts Penny. I saw them.”

An Etsy find that she had succumbed to during a late-night scrollfest. They did look charming, the white type on the blue napkin. The expedited shipping fee was a splurge, but if Bernadette took the bait, the expense would be worth it. “Again, Aunt B needs to know we’re serious contenders for her column. And the mother needs to know we made an effort.”

Sarah laughed. “Boom! That’s right. Take that, Montecito! Nobody does superfluous monogramming like us Nutmeggers.”

“It’s not that—”

“It’s totally that,” Sarah said, whipping out her phone and scrolling for something. “You know what I tell my girls: Healthy competition makes everyone better.” She found what she was looking for and held up the phone for Abigail to see. “Pizza? Very Veggie?”

Abigail thought of the carbs, but she decided to let it go for one night. “Sure. Girls’ night in.” Sarah looked fine in the dress. Maybe her daughter would find somebody someday. Maybe even at the wedding. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Chapter 12
The Favor

The Mother of the Bride

“You’re still up?”

“Isn’t the question are you still up?” Alexa asked the familiar voice on the phone. She loved hearing Simon Fox’s posh voice on the other end of a call, no matter what time zone she was in. It was eight in New York and her friend was on London time. “It’s the middle of the night for you, isn’t it?”

“Actually, I got into New York two days ago, so I’m adjusted.”

Typical Simon, giving her 90 percent of the details and keeping back some critical information. “Were you trying to avoid me? Or were you attending to your secret life?”

It was a running joke between them since their university days. They had met as first-year students studying economics by day and the London music and club scene by night. They became fast friends early in the term when one night, after too many pints, they discovered they had both lost their mothers at a similar age and were sent to boarding school to grieve. Simon was banished from his bucolic home in Herefordshire to an austere place in Wales, and Alexa was forced from her island paradise to dirty, loud Athens. They both survived, but it was the scars that bonded them and their love of New Wave music. She and Simon remained dear friends, but it would be untrue to say they were only friends.