St. Clair Weddings

weekend out of Atlanta. “Why not go hang out with Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jim at the lake?,” he asked. And they did.

They went out to dinner Friday night and spent a leisurely Saturday morning with Caroline not suspecting a thing. Then, he had another idea, he told her. “It would be fun to go cruise on the pontoon and check out the island.”

Aunt Laurie made an excuse not to go, and she stayed behind to orchestrate what would come next.

They loaded up on the boat, Jim turned the key, and “it wouldn’t turn on. We (Mark and Jim) were making eye contact with each other like, Oh my God!” Meanwhile, “a train of cars were lined up on Blackberry Lane waiting to turn into the house.”

Jim was texting Laurie to let her know what happened, and he insisted he could get the boat going with jumper cables.

“I felt bad,” an unsuspecting Caroline said. “I kept saying we don’t have to go. It’s OK. It’s not a big deal,