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"I’ all these probleuilty about the expectations she’d thwarted

"There’s no reason for you to apologize," Jordan said, bringing her clenched hand to his lips and kissing her fingers "You told us what you wanted and your wishes have been consistently ignored That won’t happen again"

"You’re actually calling off the big wedding and planning so by the lake?" Susan obviously remained incredulous

Jordan nodded "Yes, Mom"

"But I told you--the invitations have been mailed The country club’s been booked, the dinner ordered Everything’s in motion I don’t know if it can be stopped"

"It can and it will," Jordan said with complete confidence "Alix and I are prepared to send out a second "

"And say what?" she snapped "How can you possibly explain what you’re doing?"

"We have everything ready to mail The notice states that we’ve decided on a private ceremony with only our family and a few friends in attendance"

His mother shook her head vehe to happen?" Her eyes widened with alar at the lastto talk… It’ll hurt you Alix," she said, changing tactics She turned to face her "Is that how you want to start your ossip as to why you and Jordan are ed a second tio, will you?"

"People can talk all they want," Jordan said, discounting histo hide If there are ruh"

"Does your father know about this?" she asked next

Jordan shook his head "Alix and I plan to talk to Dad this afternoon"

"What about the reception?" Jacqueline inserted

The thing that bothered Alix one to on her behalf "I’ll reimburse you, Jacqueline," Alix pro it would take, but she was determined to pay back every di

"Nonsense," Jacqueline said emphatically "It’s my own fault You didn’t ask me to set this up at the country club As Reese was ht it on ainst the sofa "Do you reive you a ht with it a look of sheer amusement "I took you to my French hairdresser and it was a catastrophe"

Alix rolled her eyes Jacqueline had made a serious attempt to turn her into a beauty queen, with disastrous results It’d all started when Jordan had asked her out to dinner; it was their first date and Alix had so badly wanted to look pretty for him In her inimitable way, Jacqueline had decided to help Not only was the hairstylist deeply offended by Alix’s lack of appreciation, but being forced to try on designer outfits of Jacqueline’s choosing had been a nightmare Thankfully, Tammie Lee had come to the rescue

"Jordan," Susan Turner said, turning to her son as if Alix wasn’t there "Despite what Jacqueline says, I can’t allow you to do this I can’t I know you love Alix and so do I We all do" She spoke as if this was a foregone conclusion

But if that was the case, Alix found it odd that Jordan’s mother had shut her out of the conversation

"I just can’t let you throay all our hard work Don’t you realize Jacqueline and I have slaved on this wedding for weeks?"

"If only you’d askedfor Jordan, "then none of this would be necessary"

"Okay," Susan said, throwing her hands in the air "I should’ve listened Now that I think about it, I do recall your objections to certain aspects of the wedding I agree we didn’t listen as well as we should have, but Alix, that isn’t any reason to flush all our hard work down the toilet"

Alix was grateful Jordan’s h she’d ignored all her wishes at the time

"The only reason I went ahead with our plans," Susan went on, "is that I have a lot of experience eddings and I hoped…I believed you’d be interested in what I had to say"

"I was interested, but we didn’t want the sas," Alix said

His ize Nevertheless, it’s been done and while we can certainly es, a lot of what’s already been decided will need to stay as it is"

"No, Mother, it doesn’t," Jordan broke in "Alix and I haveour oedding invitations There are about twenty and each is handmade" Jordan walked around the desk and passed one to his mother, who stared down at it stupefied

She looked it over, then glanced up, her expression carefully neutral

Jacqueline took it out of her hand and studied it "You made these?" she asked

Jordan nodded "Actually, Alix did most of the work I helped where I could"

"They’re exceptional…Alix, I had no idea you were capable of so like this I love the way you’ve incorporated the hand-knitted lace What a lot of work!"