A Christmas to Remember by Thomas Kinkade Read Free Book Online

about. It’s Emily. I know she wouldn’t make a big deal about it, but I think she has her heart set on us getting married in Cape Light. I don’t want to hurt her feelings either.”
    Sara picked up her sandwich and put it down again. “And even if we do decide where to have it, then we have to decide what kind of wedding we want. Whenever I read those bridal magazines…I don’t know…the Bridezilla mindset just scares me. So many choices. How do people figure it out? Gowns, veils, flower arrangements, Hummer limos, DJs, heart-shaped chocolate fountains…”
    “Okay, I get your point.” Luke looked up from his plate. “At least we’re getting to the bottom of it. We don’t have to have a big fancy wedding. It’s not a law, you know.”
    “Not yet.” Sara sighed. “Emily said she would help me. She has a restaurant for us to see. She wants us to meet her there for dinner one night next week.”
    “That sounds promising.”
    “Not to my parents in Maryland. For them it promises to be a disaster.”
    “You know,” Luke said, “I’m starting to think I have to kidnap you and drag you off, caveman style. Just you, me, and a justice of the peace.”
    “Oh, Luke. Not that again.”
    He smiled and nodded. “Time to go to Plan B, Sara. I don’t know why you keep resisting. It would make life so simple.”
    Every time they had this conversation, Luke came up with the same solution. Sara knew she should have expected it. Plan B: run off and elope. At first she had dismissed the idea, but as their engagement dragged on, it was starting to sound better and better. She was tired of fretting about where to have the wedding and stressing over whom she might upset with her decision, Emily or her adoptive parents. She loved them all so much, it seemed impossible to choose.
    Besides, she just wanted to be married to Luke. Period. A big party for their wedding didn’t seem at all important to her.
    “Just give me a little warning. So I can have my hair trimmed or something? And I’d rather not get married in jeans and a ratty old sweater.” She looked down at herself, surveying her usual outfit.
    “No warning. I’ll be wearing the same. We want to make a statement. Maybe you could write a column about it for the paper. An anti-wedding-industry-that-exploits-young-couples-in-love kind of thing.”
    “I think you’re trying to weasel out of wearing a tuxedo.”
    Luke shrugged. “Okay, that, too.” He grinned and leaned across the table to kiss her. “Now finish up before Charlie shuts the lights off and makes you take that sandwich home in a doggy bag.”
    Sara poked at her sandwich. She was starting to agree withhim. She wished they could skip a real wedding and just run off to get married on their own. It would make life so simple.
    But of course, Luke had only been teasing her. And she had been teasing him back…hadn’t she?
    Crane’s Beach, Cape Light, August 1955
    L ILLIAN HAD WALKED ALL THE WAY TO THE STONE JETTY , RESTED there for a few minutes, then started back toward Charlotte and her friends. As she grew closer to their striped umbrella she noticed a man sitting there in the midst of the three women, looking like a satyr among the nymphs.
    Oliver Warwick. Who else would it be? She stopped in her tracks then realized they had all turned to look at her. Charlotte waved. Lillian realized she was too close to turn around and walk down the beach again. She took a breath, fixed her face in a neutral expression, and headed up the sandy slope to meet them.
    “That was quite a walk, Lily. You’ve been gone an hour.” Charlotte rose and walked a few steps to meet her. “We were worried about you.”
    “I guess I lost track of time. The beach is beautiful at that end, so empty and quiet.”
    “Lily loves the quiet,” Bess said to Oliver. “She made us hike out here to no-man’s-land. I’m surprised you found us.”
    “It wasn’t easy,” Oliver admitted. He looked up at Lillian and smiled. She