Chapters (45)
- Cover
- Blame Iton Paris
- Copyright Notice
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- Book One
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Book Two
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Thirty-nine
We cleared away the last branches Wednesday before the wedding, just in time to head to the Atlanta airport to pick up Sébastien’s family. Many giant logs still waited to be split, but we had rolled them into positions to act as seats and tried to pretend they were deliberate.
Despite their insistence on a wedding in France, all the major organizers of the French wedding had decided to fly over for the U.S. version, too. My belief that we might have to choose one country or one culture over another was something they just kept refusing to accept. I liked their attitude, but it seemed to take a lot more energy and flexibility than I suspected I had. I had been insane to take on a wedding in both cultures. Trying to juggle two weddings and families on two continents in one month might be my breaking point.
Sébastien’s Aunt Martine and her family joined Claudine, Jean-Charles, Titi, Bruno, and Pierrette for the trip. “Wait a minute,” I said when I first heard their travel plans a few months before the wedding, eyes narrowing. “Weren’t your grandmother’s tears over her inability to travel one of the reasons we’re having another major ceremony in France a month after the U.S. one?” I was already getting a little stressed by then.
“Laura,” Sébastien reproached. “Can’t you just be happy she can make it?”
“Sure,” I said, “I can be happy.” I could, too, because it would be good for Pierrette to travel with her family. She had taken the loss of her husband hard.
I looked at the list of things still to be done before the Georgia wedding and, next to it, the dartboard to which I had pinned various photos of bridal magazine editors. “I have a major wedding, a road trip with ten in-laws, an intercontinental flight, and another major wedding to do in less than four weeks; but with sufficient medication, I’m sure I could be happy with anything. Has your mother found a priest in France yet, or does she still want us to manage that?”
“She found one. She went and talked to the bishop, who said he had been getting all our messages, by the way. I guess he just didn’t feel like responding. Anyway,” he brushed away the question of a priest for the ceremony, “those are minor details. My family will be here soon, and I can’t wait to show them the U.S.!”