Page 7 of Love in Tandem
“Please,” Charlotte said, sliding the envelope toward them. “I owe you.” The guilt from all those lost deposits from the wedding two years ago weighed heavy on her conscience.
Mom’s warm palm covered Charlotte’s hand. “You don’t owe us anything. Things happen. It’s okay. We’re okay.”
Dad tapped his fingers on Mom’s hand. “If anything, you should be saving this money for your music program. Or fixing up your house. Didn’t you say the plumbing’s still giving you trouble? Or why not go back to school and get a four-year degree?”
“All right. I get it.” Charlotte should have known Dad would never accept a check flat-out. She should have purchased a nonrefundable vacation package.
Sophia slapped her hand over Dad’s, her bracelets jingling and trapping all their hands beneath hers. When they looked at her in surprise, she said, “What? I was feeling left out.”
Charlotte fixed her gaze on Mom. “Will you at least consider taking a break this summer even if you don’t want to accept my money?”
“Our money,” Sophia whispered.
“You look exhausted,” Charlotte added. “You can’t try and tell me you don’t need a break.”
Mom slid her hand out, and Dad did the same. “We’ll see,” Mom said.
“We’re working through some issues,” Dad said.
“Maybe once things slow down a bit,” Mom added quickly, then smiled when Nita appeared with a tray full of drinks. “Ah. Perfect timing.”
Nita sprang forth before Charlotte could ask her parents to elaborate about what issues they were working through. She glanced at Sophia, who’d gone quiet, probably feeling as confused and concerned as Charlotte. Did this have something to do with Will? Nobody had heard a word from him since his release. Were they holding out to make sure he landed on his feet?
She swiped the rim of her glass and licked the salt grains from her finger. Or were they holding out to see if she ever landed on her feet?
Charlotte slid the envelope back into her purse. Nothing today was turning out like it was supposed to. Nothing for years had turned out like it was supposed to.
All the more reason she needed her music program to thrive.
Zach adjusted his phone and raised his voice to be heard over the rush of traffic on the interstate and the squealing hiss of a semitruck slowing to a stop in the parking lot. “Guess where I am right now.”
“Standing on top of Mount Kilimanjaro,” his friend Rick responded over what sounded like a mariachi band playing in the background.
“Guess again.”
“Dodging poison dart arrows in a South American jungle.”
“Guess again.”
“Wrestling alligators in the Everglades?”
“Close.” Zach ran a squeegee over a splatter of bugs on his Jeep’s windshield. “I’m getting gas at a Piggly Wiggly in Tennessee.”
“What a coincidence. I’m getting gas at a Mexican restaurant in Illinois. Hey, can I call you back in a minute?”
“If you promise not to tell any more jokes like that.”
“Who says that was a joke?”
Zach grinned and pocketed his phone, then lifted one windshield wiper after the other to scrub away the dirt from his recent Appalachian excursion. Nice to know Rick’s humor hadn’t changed since the one semester they roomed together in college. The only semester Zach had gone to college. Didn’t take a diploma for Zach to learn what he already knew—he didn’t belong inside a classroom any more than Rick belonged center stage at a comedy club on open mic night.
Nah, let his brother Ben earn the degrees and climb the corporate ladder like their father. All Zach had ever wanted was space. Air. Mountain trails. Snowy peaks. Rushing rivers. Starry skies. And hopefully someday the love of a woman who shared the same outdoorsy, venturous soul as he did. Which apparently would never be Shannon.
If the Dear John letter inside his back pocket wasn’t enough to convince him, the engagement ring on her finger ought to do it. Why he still kept her letter, he didn’t know. Could have burned it in any one of the campfires he’d built over the past year.
He attacked a stubborn splotch of bug juice on the upper corner of his windshield. Would have burned it last night if he hadn’t written the address for the wedding rehearsal on it.
His phone rang, and Zach swiped it out of his pocket.
