Free The Wedding Promise by Thomas Kinkade

are not for me. Yams were all Liza could find at the market. I thought I’d give it a try. Just a lucky cooking accident, I guess.”
    “Some cooks are luckier than others that way,” Molly observed wryly.
    Claire and Liza just laughed.
    Molly left a short time later with instructions from Claire to send greetings to her entire family.
    “Thanks so much for all your help today,” Liza said as she walked Molly to her truck. “I don’t know how to return the favor.”
    “Don’t worry about it, Liza. I had fun. Maybe someday when my in-laws come to town, you can find an empty room. That will keep me on my mother-in-law’s good side,” she joked. “Good luck. Let me know how it turns out, okay?”
    “Oh, I will. I’ll give you a full report,” Liza promised.
    Liza was eager to dig into the wedding plan again and wanted to remember all of Molly’s suggestions and tips while they were fresh in her mind. She went back to the kitchen to get her notes and folder, and found Claire was still hovering over the soup pot, the can of Old Bay in her hand as she decided if the soup needed another dash.
    “I didn’t realize you knew Molly. I would have brought her back to the kitchen sooner to say hello,” Liza apologized.
    “Oh, I was all over the house doing things. I would have caught her at some point to say hi. Everyone knows the Morgans. They’re a big clan and have lived in the area for generations. Since the colonial days, I think.” Claire put the seasoning aside and tossed in a handful of chopped parsley instead. “Molly’s the live wire in the family.”
    “I had a feeling about that,” Liza said. “She’s really fun to talk to.”
    “She had a hard time for a while. Divorced with two little girls and left to take care of them on her own. She worked very hard—cleaning houses, driving a school bus, waitressing . . . whatever she had to do. Your aunt used to hire her from time to time to help out here when we were busy in the summer. She managed to start her business a few years back and married a very nice man, Dr. Harding. He has a practice in town,” Claire added. “They have a lovely family, four girls. Three from their previous marriages and a little one of their own named Betty.”
    “She has her hands full, doesn’t she?” Liza said, even more impressed.
    “Molly’s what I’d call a tornado-type,” Claire agreed. Now she had the pepper mill in hand and ground some fresh pepper into the soup. “I’m sure she wouldn’t be happy with any less on her plate. Was she a help to you?”
    “Absolutely. She gave me some great tips.”
    More than that, Molly’s can-do spirit was contagious. Or maybe it was her candid confession that making a big party was not exactly rocket science. Liza wasn’t sure. She did know that she suddenly felt she could put together a viable wedding plan for Jennifer and her mother, and present herself as someone who could be trusted to carry out that plan.
    “I hope the Bennets hire Molly to do the catering,” Liza said. “It would be great to work with her on this.”
    Claire glanced over her shoulder and then turned back to her cooking. “You sound as if you want to do the wedding now.”
    Liza’s eyes widened in surprise. “I do sound like that, don’t I.”
    She didn’t know exactly how it had happened, but she really was excited now about this opportunity and wanted to give the wedding a try.
    “It would be great for the inn—if I can pull it off,” Liza mused. “Jennifer already wants to hold the wedding here, but her parents are the final word. The inn and I still have to pass inspection.”
    “I think you will,” Claire said simply. “I think this wedding is meant to happen here. I just have a feeling.”
    Liza smiled but didn’t say more. She had come to respect Claire’s predictions. If her wise friend felt the wedding at the inn would come about, well, that meant she’d better get back to work on her plan.
     
     
    LIZA worked most of