A Wedding on Ladybug Farm Read Free Page A

Cici corrected herself quickly, “you’re the one who said why wait?  It was your idea to have the wedding this year.”
    “There’s a lot to consider,” Lindsay said, only partially mollified.  “It’s not just the wedding, you know, but here we are about to bottle our first vintage, and Dominic is working overtime with the harvest coming up, which you might not know is a pretty big deal when you’re running a winery.”    
    “That’s all true,” Bridget agreed.  “But you haven’t even made some of the most important decisions, like where you’re going to live …”
    Lindsay frowned uncomfortably into her glass.  “Well, it’s not like we’re college students, you know.  We both have lives, and a lot of stuff to consolidate.  It’s complicated.”
    Cici nodded. “Just like it was when we all moved in here together.”
    “But this is a huge house,” Bridget went on, “with more than enough room for a married couple, if that’s what you’re worried about.  We can fence off a section of the pasture for the horses, and if the golden retriever is a house dog he won’t even notice Rebel.”
    Cici shot Bridget a quick look. “Even though we’ve never had a house dog before.”
    “And Ida Mae would have a fit,” Lindsay said.  “She barely tolerates us in the house.”
    “And we can always use more barn cats,” Bridget went on cheerfully.
    “We already have a cat!” Cici exclaimed, and then looked around suspiciously.  “Where is he, anyway?”  The new kitten, whose name was still under debate, had an unnerving habit of springing out of what was apparently thin air to latch onto ankles, pants legs, shoulders, and sometimes scalps with needlelike claws, causing them all to mistrust the silence when they could not see him.
    “This is a working farm,” Bridget insisted firmly.  “We need working cats.”
    “Which lets out that little monster of yours.” Erring on the side of caution, Cici tucked both of her bare feet onto the top rung of the rocker, presumably out of harm’s way.
    “Maybe the four of us should all sit down and have a talk about how it’s going to work,” Bridget suggested, “just like we did when we decided to buy the house.”
    “Just like we did when we decided to go into partnership with Dominic on the winery,” Cici clarified.  “You’re the one who’s always saying that you can make anything work with a plan.”
    Lindsay nodded, and sipped her wine.  “You’re right.  That’s what we’ll do. We’ll all sit down and work things out.  That will make everything so much easier.”
    “How about now?” Cici suggested.  She lifted her arm to beckon Dominic to the porch.  He latched the door to the chicken coop and waved back.
    “Not tonight,” Lindsay said.  “I’m too tired. But soon.”
    “When?” Bridget said.
    “Soon.  Maybe next week.  I’ll see when Dominic has some free time.”
    “He has some free time now,” Cici pointed out.
    Dominic put away the feed bucket and started across the lawn toward them, but Lindsay was already shaking her head.  “We’ll get around to it.  What’s the rush, anyway?”     
    Cici glanced again at Bridget, who responded with a slight, almost imperceptible lift of her eyebrows that Lindsay chose to ignore.  Cici said, “Look, Linds, we’re on your side, you know that, whatever you want to do.  It’s just that we just went through this whole thing with Lori, remember, where she didn’t want to pick a date, and she didn’t want to try on dresses …”
    “I have my dress!” Lindsay protested.
    “Because Lori didn’t need it,” Bridget pointed out.
    “Because the reason she didn’t want to be pinned down about any of the plans was that she really didn’t want to get married at all,” Cici said.  “So I’m just saying, maybe you should ask yourself if the reason you’re having such a hard time making decisions is … well, you know.”
    Lindsay said patiently,