Wedding Bell Blunders: A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery - Kathleen Suzette (parable of the sower read online TXT) 📗

I turned and looked at Alec wide-eyed. “Oh, my gosh. How awful. I feel terrible for him.”

Alec nodded and reached for my hand. “He’ll get the help he needs at the hospital.”

I sighed and nodded, and we turned and headed back inside the house.

Jodi came out of the kitchen. “It’s terrible what happened to Richard. I’m so sorry that it happened on your wedding day.” Her hands were clasped together in front of herself, and her brow was creased with worry.

I shook my head and forced myself to smile. “It’s all right. Don’t worry about it. I’m just concerned about Richard.”

She nodded. “He said earlier that he felt dizzy and didn’t feel well. I told him if he didn’t feel well, maybe he should stay home, but he insisted he would be fine.”

Lisa came to stand beside Jodi, her arms crossed in front of herself. “I’m so sorry, Allie,” she said, shaking her head. “What an awful thing to have happened on your wedding day.”

“It’s all right. The important thing is that Richard is getting the medical care he needs.” I may have said it was all right, but I was near tears. We had planned such a lovely day, even though it was a last-minute decision. Not that I didn’t care about Richard. I really hoped he would be fine.

Jodi nodded. “We’ll finish putting the food on the tables and get your guests served. We need to start serving,” she said, looking at Lisa. “Right?”

Lisa nodded. “Yes, let’s get everybody served.”

Alec wrapped an arm around my waist. “I love you,” he whispered in my ear.

I hoped that Richard would be fine. That was what mattered. We went to the ballroom door, and I looked at my guests who were standing around the ballroom looking at us now. “It’s all right. It’ll be all right.” It was all I could say as I tried to get my bearings about me.

“We’ll check on him in a bit,” Alec assured them.

I looked at Alec. “Well, I guess with all the crazy things we’ve been through, this shouldn’t be a surprise to us.” I suddenly started laughing. It was nerves, I guess.

He shook his head and laughed. “No, this shouldn’t surprise us one little bit.”

“Not a bit,” I agreed and tried to pull myself together.

We turned and looked at our guests again. “Folks, we will have lunch served in just a few minutes,” Alec said.

“I think I’m going to check with the girls in the kitchen and see how things are going,” I said to Alec.

He shook his head. “Allie, you don’t need to do that. This is your wedding day, and the caterers can handle everything.”

I nodded. “I know, but I need to check on them real quick. I’ll be right back.”

He sighed and let go of my hand, and I headed into the kitchen where Jodi and Lisa were getting the rest of the food ready to put out on the tables. “Is there anything I can help you with?” I asked.

They turned to me. “No, Allie, this is your wedding day. You need to go out and enjoy yourself,” Jodi said. “We’ve got this.”

I nodded. “I know, but I just feel so bad about Richard. It’s so awful. You said he was feeling sick before he came?” I hoped it wasn’t something that was catching.

Jodi nodded as she picked up a tureen with clam chowder in it. “Yes, he said, he felt like he had low blood sugar. The tub of cake frosting was sitting there, so I told him to eat a spoon of it. I thought it would bring his blood sugar back up. I’m so sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that, but we didn’t bring anything sweet with us.”

I shook my head. “No, that’s perfectly fine. He wasn’t feeling well, so if that was going to help, he was more than welcome to it. Is Richard a diabetic?”

Jodi shrugged and looked at Lisa. “I don’t know. He just said that he felt like he was going to faint, and he thought maybe his blood sugar had dropped, so he ate a spoonful of the frosting. I thought he was feeling better, but it was just a few minutes later that he did faint, and he fell on the floor.”

I glanced at the tub of frosting. If he felt like he had low blood sugar, wouldn’t the sugar in the frosting have brought it right back up? I wasn’t sure how that worked, as I had never had problems with low blood sugar before.

“Allie, come out and visit with your guests,” Lucy said, coming to the kitchen doorway.

I turned and looked at her. “I will, Lucy. I just feel bad that Richard got sick.”

She nodded sympathetically. “You poor thing. It’s your wedding day, and the caterer passes out while setting up the food for the reception.” She looked at Jodi and Lisa. “Wait a minute. He didn’t eat any of that food, did he? Is there something wrong with the food?”

And then I remembered Richard popping something into his mouth when I first spoke to him. Was the food bad?

Jodi and Lisa both shook their heads, their eyes going wide. “No,” Jodi said quickly. “He didn’t eat any of the food we’re serving. He did eat some of the frosting, but like I just told Allie, it was because he said he had low blood sugar. He wasn’t feeling well before he got here. I promise it had nothing to do with the food we brought.”

I heaved a sigh of relief. Not that I really suspected there was anything wrong with the food, but it was nice to be reassured. “All right then, we’ll let you get to work on the meal, and I’ll