“I’m not surprised,” she said. “Pauly forbid me to even have a dog around his trees. But this is bad. Mrs. Carl will throw me out of the practice. And Vera won’t leave, so I’ll take away more of her life.” She looked at him. “The wedding to be planned should be yours and Vera’s. She’ll wear a long white dress and you’ll be married in a church with lots of flowers. Then you two will jet off to Bali or wherever.”

“Do you even know your sister? If she marries me, she’ll wear whatever she’s traveling in and tell the minister to hurry up because we’re going to miss the plane. There won’t be any cake cutting or champagne drinking. There’ll be no sharing with people we’ve known all our lives. None of that.”

She was looking at him. “But what about you?”

“There are photos of my parents’ wedding, and I’ve always assumed I’d have a ceremony like theirs.”

“Me, too. I know what my dress will look like and the cake and the flowers. All of it.”

“How many legs does your ring bearer have?”

“At least four.”

Adam gave her a hard, serious look. “I’m an old-fashioned guy. I want a legal marriage. If I did get Vera to agree to a wedding, she’d turn it over to you and your mother to plan. Am I right?”

“Yes.”

“So you work it all out for you and Paul. Then you break up, and...” He raised his eyebrows at her.

“You and Vera take over the wedding.”

Adam nodded. “With a few lies, we might both get what we want.”

“I don’t know if I can pull this off,” she said. “But if Mom gets one of her daughters married, she’ll be happy.”

He could tell that she was leaning toward the idea. “You’d get to pick out cake and flowers and—”

“I’d have to buy a dress, but maybe I’ll be able to use it later. And I can get Vera into something nice. My dad left me some money and I’ve saved it.”

“Don’t worry about money. I can—”

“No! You are not going to pay for my wedding dress.”

“But if this whole thing is eventually for me, I should pay for things.”

“The bride’s family does all that. I think the theory is that you pay for everything after the wedding.”

They were quiet for a moment, thinking about their plan.

Kelly spoke first. “If you leave in September, will Robbie be running the farm? While he’s still in college?”

Adam hesitated. “He can’t do that and I don’t think he wants to.” He took a breath. “This is between you and me and Vera, but I may sell the farm. In that mass of paper Dad left behind, there’s an offer from someone who wants to buy it. It’s a good price.”

“I never thought of that.” She turned to him. “These are big changes. If you and Vera run off, and your farm is sold, Mom will be devastated.”