Wedding Belle Blues
Prologue
Once upon a time, in a Texas suburb of country clubs and tennis camps, golf courses and riding stables, a daughter was born to a couple who could give her everything. The first female in three generations on her father’s side, and but a continuation of “more of the same” on her mother’s, she would be their only child, a modern day princess. By her very nature, she invited all to love her for herself and none to despise her for all the privileges life bestowed so casually upon her. She was sweet and kind, generous and unselfish.
She grew up and found herself in love with the boy next door. She couldn’t say when it had happened, just that she’d “always known.” He said the same. They attended different colleges and dated others, but each summer found them together again. But as the Christmas holidays during their senior college year drew to a close, they realized their foolishness in trying to be apart. They were accepted to the same graduate school, though she would study law, he business. They were fated; why fight it any longer?
They strolled arm in arm from his home to hers and found their two sets of parents companionably tossing salads and coaxing the gas grill to light. Within minutes, the cocktail hour shifted to a celebration as his dad ran across the wide unfenced lawn between their homes and found the special bottle of champagne he’d set aside for just such an occasion as this.
And as they raised their six flutes high and drank a toast of happiness and health to the young couple, none of them had a clue.