«Wedding Bell Blues»

Wedding Bell Blues

The things a woman will do for love… and Lily had love, lots of it. But her partner Charlotte is dead.

Their daughter Mimi keeps her sane—until Charlotte's family claims they have all the rights to Mimi,

who is their blood kin, and no “real” relation to Lily. With what’s left of her world balanced on a

razor’s edge, any choice to find safer ground seems reasonable.

Even getting married. Married to her Bugle Boy-wearing, trust fund-spending gay neighbor, Ben.

Married and relocated to rural Georgia where Ben’s powerful family will make sure Lily gets custody

of Mimi.

Just one little trick involved: convincing Ben’s parents their marriage is the real thing. It doesn't seem

like keeping up appearances will be that hard. But the charade gets more difficult when a beautiful

country veterinarian offers Lily a taste of what she’s pretending she no longer craves…

CHAPTER 1

“Widowhood may cause some major changes in my life, but it sure as hell won’t affect my wardrobe,” Lily muttered as she surveyed the dozens of black dresses in her closet. Of course, even though all of her dresses were black, most of them wouldn’t be appropriate for the memorial service—or the funeral, as Charlotte’s parents insisted on calling it.

The black minidress printed with images of Jackie O’s face was definitely out, although Lily couldn’t help but think that Charlotte—wherever she was—would get a kick out of seeing Lily show up at her memorial service in a dress paying tribute to that most famous of professional widows. Lily would have to wear something with long enough sleeves to cover her tattoos —the woman’s symbol in Celtic knotwork she’d gotten on her right bicep to celebrate her lesbianism and the matching band in knotwork she’d gotten just below it, to mark her commitment to Charlotte.

After Lily and Charlotte had been together three years, they were surprised to find themselves yearning for a symbol of the permanence of their relationship. The media flooded consumers with images of heterosexual commitment: diamond engagement rings, virginal white wedding gowns, and honeymoon suites reserved for church-and-state-approved hetero hanky-panky. But for same-sex couples, symbols of commitment were hard to find.