Wisconsin Wedding (Welcome To Tyler, No. 3) by Carla Neggers

the hot, flavorful coffee. She wouldjust let her new friend articulate her worries and frustrations…before she found a subtle way to introduce the subject of Cliff’s fellow Rhode Islander.
    Wrinkling up her face, Liza continued, “I hate the idea of going through with a shower. Every nosy old prune in town’ll be there—you know, those women who’ve never even had a man but feel free to offer advice.” She stopped herself all at once, blushing furiously, something not a few in Tyler would have paid to see. “Nora, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
    “It’s quite all right.”
    “No one ever called your aunt Ellie a nosy old prune, and I’m sure it’ll be the same for you—oh, God, I’m just making it worse.”
    But Nora, who’d never minded being compared to Aunt Ellie and who well understood the ramifications of being an old maid, started to laugh, imagining what Liza Baron would have to say if she’d been privy to Tyler’s youngest spinster’s steamy dream just a few hours ago. Liza stared at her, obviously confused and embarrassed, and then sputtered into laughter, too.
    “Look,” Nora said finally, really liking Liza Baron as a person, “why don’t I talk to your mother and find out what she has in store that she wouldn’t want you to know? If it’s anything dreadful—and I’m sure it isn’t—I’ll do what I can to spare you any unpleasant surprises. I’ll also offer to lend a hand, since this can’t be all that easy on her, either.”
    “Oh, Nora, I couldn’t let you go to all that trouble—I was just going to put my foot down with Mother and tell her to cancel.”
    “What, and spoil everyone’s fun?”
    “Showers are so—”
    “Sexist and mercenary,” Nora supplied, recalling Liza’sforceful opinions on bridal registries. “Another feudalistic ritual.”
    Liza’s bright, pretty eyes were glistening with amusement. “Right. And I don’t intend to have any bridesmaids, either.”
    “I’m sure that’s a perfectly legitimate decision. Traditions sometimes need a fresh look—or even to be abandoned altogether. But I like to look upon bridal showers and bridesmaids not as being about pots and pans and male power and dependence and such, but about sisterhood.”
    “No kidding?”
    “Sure. When these things work, they’re a celebration, an affirmation of who we’ve been as a community of women in the past and the possibilities and hope for what we can become in the future, as individuals, in our roles as wives, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters.”
    “I’ll have to mull that over,” Liza said dubiously. “You do have a way of putting a nice spin on things, Nora Gates.”
    Nora shrugged. “Everyone loves a wedding.”
    “I know, and I’ve been thinking of so many of these wedding traditions as a burden—you know I’m a rebel at heart. It’s my nature to question everything that’s ‘expected.’ But it’s refreshing to consider the meaning behind all these traditions. You don’t have to talk to my Mother, however.”
    “But I want to. Really.”
    Liza narrowed her eyes. “You mean it, don’t you?”
    Nora smiled. “I wouldn’t mislead you on something this important. A bridal shower shouldn’t be an imposition and it shouldn’t be trivial—it should be fun.”
    “You’re right.”
    “And a shower would help you get your feet wet—soto speak—before the wedding. You know, see your mother’s friends and some of your old friends before you and Cliff—”
    “Are waltzed up the aisle,” Liza finished, grinning suddenly. “Okay, I get your point.” But her grin vanished, her beautiful eyes darkening. “ Do you think Cliff and I are rushing things?”
    “It’s not my place to say—”
    “I don’t mean about falling in love. That’s happened. Nothing and nobody can undo that. I mean the wedding. People have hardly had time to adjust to my being home, never mind to my marrying the town recluse. And they don’t know Cliff.”
    “Look,”