Julie and Romeo Page 19

  Tony and Sandy went to the Cape for their honeymoon. Not exactly Jamaica, but they were saving money to buy a house. For the time being they are living with me. I have more room.

  What everyone was asking at the wedding was when were Romeo and I going to get married. Gloria all but demanded an answer. But for us it isn’t such an issue. We’d never get all of his family and all of my family into one house, anyway. We’re together, trust me on that. The rest of it will fall into place over time. We keep a little apartment that none of the kids know about. It’s an efficiency, a third-floor walk-up. It isn’t a whole lot bigger than the bed we dragged into it. We’ve got two cups there, a corkscrew, a couple of old comforters for when it’s really cold, some towels. It doesn’t take much to make a place feel like home. To anyone who ever thought that love and passion were for the young, I say, Think again. I am speaking from personal experience here.

  Romeo says we live together at work. Most couples work apart but live in one house. We’re just doing it the other way around. Things have gotten busy now that we’re doing the wedding and party-planning service. It turns out we actually need all the various family members we’ve got on the payroll. We’re always at the same store, one day his, one day mine. The next thing we knew, they were both ours. It’s Romeo and Julie’s now. Two locations to better serve you.

  acknowledgments

  I AM GLAD TO HAVE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO THANK KAY Horton and Pony Maples for parties and pictures; the Bates family and Lonnie Fuqua for telling me how to arrange the flowers; Karl VanDevender, Jeannine Hopson, Wendy Hill, and Pam Roberts for picking up my slack at work and for being so upbeat and supportive.

  No one could find a better agent than Lisa Bankoff or a more insightful editor than Shaye Areheart. I feel lucky to have them both.

  My most heartfelt thanks is for the home team: my mother, Eve Wilkinson, my husband, Darrell Ray, my daughters, Heather Nancarrow and Ann Patchett, dear Robb and Marcie Nash, and my best friend, Gloria Knuckles, whom no amount of fictionalization could disguise.

  JEANNE RAY WORKS AS A REGISTERED NURSE AT THE Frist Clinic in Nashville, Tennessee. She is married and has two daughters. Together, she and her husband have ten grandchildren. This is her first novel.