After the ceremony, Willa and Rip climb into a horse-drawn carriage that will take them to the Field and Oar Club. All the guests are walking over except for Lucinda and Penny Rosen, who are being driven by JP and Amy.
Dennis is busy chatting with Joe DeSantis, so Vivi links her arm through Savannah’s. She has strolled the streets of town thousands of times but today is the day of her daughter’s wedding, so it feels distinctive.
“So far, so good,” Savannah says. “Everyone’s being civil.” She means Amy. She means Dennis.
“Of course,” Vivi says. “We’re all adults.”
Vivi sounds a little more confident than she feels. The ceremony was the easy part; Vivi has reservations about the reception. She resents that JP insisted that Willa hold it at the Field and Oar, a club that didn’t readmit Vivi after the divorce. JP and Amy will seem like the hosts when, in fact, Vivi is the one footing the bill.
High road, she reminds herself. She prefers life on the high road! The Field and Oar throws a beautiful wedding. Vivi got married there herself.
The family and the wedding party take pictures on the lawn. Vivi is wearing a peach silk slip dress which is maybe a touch sexy for a fifty-year-old mother of the bride, but it’s nowhere near as attention-grabbing as what Amy has on. She’s in an amethyst column dress with a neckline that plunges nearly to the navel and shows an eye-popping amount of skin. Amy seems to regret her choice of dress; she tugs and adjusts, smiles awkwardly, then tugs and adjusts some more. Eventually, she disappears, and when she returns, the neckline has been clumsily secured with a safety pin.
Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Vivi takes mental snapshots: Savannah leaning forward as she slurps an oyster out of its shell so she doesn’t drip on her dress; Leo, Cruz, Marissa, and Jasmine posing for a picture while Peter Bridgeman lifts his mother’s sea breeze off a table and takes a surreptitious sip, Tink Bonham laughing with Gordy and Amelia Hastings and saying, “I bet Willa will be pregnant by the end of the month!”
Dinner. The prime rib and Duchess potatoes are served with three spears of white asparagus and caramelized brussels sprouts; the plate is garnished with nasturtium blossoms. Vivi nibbles on one; it’s peppery. This wedding has taken a year to plan and is costing…yeah, a lot. Vivi leaves the dinner table to visit with people and make a pit stop at the bar. They’re serving only wine with dinner, and Vivi wants tequila, specifically Casa Dragones. The club doesn’t carry it, so Vivi dropped off a bottle earlier that morning.
She has just received her glass when someone joins her at the bar: Zach Bridgeman.
“Maker’s Mark on the rocks, please,” he says to the bartender. To Vivi, he says, “First of all, gorgeous wedding. Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome,” Vivi says.
“Second, I have a book recommendation for you. Have you read Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell?”
“It’s on my pile!” Vivi says. “I have one for you too.” Vivi sips her tequila and—ahhhhhh—instantly feels better. “Sea Wife, by Amity Gaige. It’s told in split points of view, the wife and the journal entries of the husband—”
They’re interrupted by Pamela, who is looking a bit severe in a high-concept black dress with an asymmetrical neckline and hemline. Frankly, it looks like a kindergartner took scissors to her dress.
“Trying to steal my date?” Pamela says. “You’d better keep your eye on your own.”
“Wait,” Vivi says. “What?” She peers into the ballroom to see Dennis standing with his wineglass aloft. He’s giving a toast. Vivi can’t quite hear him but his wild arm gestures are alarming. Vivi sees Gordy Hastings, who is sitting at Lucinda’s table, bow his head and frown at the napkin in his lap. Gordy Hastings, Vivi knows, is the person responsible for not letting Vivi back into the club after her divorce.
She supposes he is now congratulating himself on that decision.
Dennis, sit down! she thinks. She hurries up the back stairs to the secret second-floor bathroom. Vivi had instructed Dennis to relax and have fun. There was nothing to be gained from going head to head with JP in the father-figure department. What would make him think it was remotely appropriate to give a toast? She notices he waited until Vivi was away from the table. That can hardly be accidental.
Vivi feels tears gather and she tries to calm herself—today is Willa’s day, not hers, and Willa might have been touched by Dennis’s toast; who knows? Vivi plucks a tissue from the box by the sinks and is carefully dabbing at the corners of her eyes—her makeup!—when Marissa emerges from one of the stalls. Marissa is wearing a white lace dress that is vaguely bridal-looking.