Page 26 of 5 Golden Flings

She didn’t. Instead Rosie and a cousin, a blonde about her age, took seats directly across the table. She didn’t waste any time. “So, you two, tell me all about this secret engagement.”

Mimosas and interrogation. Great.

“It’s not a secret any more,” Molly said with a smile.

Rosie turned her attentions to Molly. “Where’s the ring?”

Since that question took hisfiancéeby surprise, Ben answered, “I want to give her my grandmother’s ring. I plan to ask for it when I go home for Christmas.”

Molly sighed. “Your granny makes the best sugar cookies!”

Rosie rolled her eyes. It was a bad habit she had. She followed the eye roll with a condescending, “I don’t eat cookies. They make you fat.”

Instead of being insulted, Molly laughed. “I’d rather be fat than never eat another cookie.”

The cousin spoke up: “You left the bachelorette party awfully early last night. Did you feel sick or something?”

“No,” Molly answered, without offering anything more.

“I left the bachelor party pretty early myself,” Ben said. “I guess we’re not party people.” He leaned in and down and kissed Molly’s cheek. In surprise she turned her head and he gave her a quick kiss on the mouth.

Rosie and her cousin took their mimosas and moved to the family end of the table. As a couple of worse-for-wear groomsmen took their seats, Molly leaned close and whispered, “That worked well!”

Ben didn’t tell Molly he hadn’t been thinking of Rosie at all when he’d gone in for that kiss.

Molly ironed her dress for the rehearsal festivities well past the time necessary. There were no more wrinkles to be obliterated from the pretty turquoise sheath, and still she moved the hot iron back and forth. Her mind wandered. It wandered from unexpected kisses to whether or not Ben was right about romance being for suckers, and then back again. The knock at the door made her jump. Housekeeping had already been. Who would come to see her in her room but… Ben?

Did she want to answer?

She unplugged the iron and set it aside, then opened the door ready for anything.

The bride. She’d been dying for time with Nat, so why was she disappointed?

Natalie waltzed into the room. “Oh my God, we’ve barely had time to talk!”

“It’s been a while.” Molly hung the freshly ironed dress in the little closet, put away the ironing board, and turned to her old friend. “I didn’t realize how much I’d missed you until I got your call about being a bridesmaid.” Areplacementbridesmaid.

Nat plopped down in the chair that blocked the connecting door to Ben’s room. “I wanted to ask you all along, but Tristan’s mom insisted that I use his cousin, the one who thank God broke her ankle. I shouldn’t say that. I guess it’s mean. I just really wanted you here!”

“We have lost touch,” Molly said. “Let’s don’t let it happen again.”

“Deal.” Nat said with a smile. The smile faded. “I swear, I thought the mother of the groom was just supposed to sit back and let the bride have whatever she wanted, but nooooo.” She glanced toward the open closet and wrinkled her nose. “I’m so sorry about the bridesmaid’s dress. My soon to be mother-in-law insisted thatthiswas the color we had to have. I got tired of arguing with her.”

Molly sat on the edge of the bed. “You did say you should’ve eloped.”

“Every day for the past three months.”

They both laughed, and the years slipped away.

“Tell me about you and Ben!” Nat said. “I mean, I know we don’t talk often, but this is the kind of news I should’ve heard by now.”

And there it was, the thing she dreaded most about this silly ruse. Lying to Nat. “This isyourspecial week. No need to give a moment’s thought to my love life.” Such as it was.

“Ben grew up nicely, didn’t he?”

Boy, did he. “Yeah.”

“As a kid he was kinda skinny, a little short, super quiet. He was pretty young when his family moved. What was he, ten or eleven?”

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