Page 11 of Love in Tandem
She handed back the razor. “You better finish. Now that I think about it, I tended to cut your father’s face quite a bit. So?” She fiddled with the cross pendant on her necklace. “Have you two talked about it at least?”
“Talked to who about what?”
Her exasperated sigh said she wasn’t falling for his nonchalant routine. “Ben stole your girlfriend from beneath your nose and is marrying her tomorrow. Seems like the type of thing you should probably discuss. You’re not only his brother, you’re his best man. Oh no, you’re not planning to sabotage him in your speech, are you?”
“Mom . . .” Zach made quick work of finishing his shave. “What Shannon and I had, it wasn’t real.” He knew that now. Would have been nice to know that before he made an idiot of himself by asking her to elope to Alaska with him last year, but hey. Live and learn, right?
“I just don’t want there to be any underlying resentment. That’s the type of stuff that builds up over time. Soon you’ll be making excuses for why you can’t come home for Christmas. Next, the cousins won’t be allowed to play together.”
“What cousins? What are you talking about?” He dug a tie out of his duffel bag and slung it around his neck. Before he could cross one side over the other his mother’s fingers were taking over.
“Yours and Ben’s future kids. Don’t you remember that documentary about the Sherman brothers? They wrote all that wonderful Mary Poppins music together, but their kids grew up estranged from their own cousins. It was so sad. I wept for days.”
“Mom, I say this with all the love in my heart. You’ve lost your marbles.”
She tightened his tie. “Fine. Be that way. Say everything’s fine. Say you don’t care Ben is marrying the love of your life.”
“Shannon was never the love of my life.” Again, knowledge he wished he’d discovered a bit sooner.
“You can’t stand there and tell me you don’t have any feelings for her.”
“Of course I have feelings for her. She’s lovely. For Ben. Not me. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you I’m happy for Ben.” Or at least he hoped to be. Someday. When he didn’t find his perfect brother quite so annoying.
“I’d still feel better if you punched him. Or at least had a date for the wedding. I hate to think of you sitting on the sidelines while everyone’s dancing and having a great time tomorrow.”
Zach loosened his tie. “Who says I don’t have a date?”
His mother’s eyes lit up. She grabbed his tie and yanked him closer. “Who is she? Do I know her? Is she pretty? Is she nice? Is she the one?”
Zach slid his arm around his mom’s shoulders as he snatched his duffel bag from a changing table and guided her out of the nursery. He flipped off the lights as they entered the hallway. “The only hint I’ll give you for now is you do know her. And I happen to think she’s adorable.”
“Ohhh.” Mom clapped a hand over her heart. “I love her already. You should have invited her to the rehearsal dinner. It would have given me an excuse to avoid Shannon’s mother. Not that I don’t like Joanne. I do. She’s just a lot. In fact, Shannon’s entire family is a lot. Sometimes I wish Charlotte and Ben had worked out for more reasons than one, and if you tell anyone I said that, I’ll cut you with that shaving razor.”
“My lips are sealed.” Zach escorted his mom up the stairs to the main foyer. “And don’t worry,” he said, leaning down to her ear. “I’ll make sure my date sits next to you throughout the entire dinner tonight.”
“So she is coming? That’s so exciting. Why didn’t you say something sooner? I can’t wait to see who it is.”
“I think you two will find you have a lot in common.”
“They do say boys often marry women who remind them of their mother.” She winked and sped down the foyer with a new lightness in her footsteps.
Zach rubbed a palm over his smooth-shaven face, hiding a smile. His mom was going to kill him when she found out his date was Darla, the three-year-old flower girl. Maddy, her mom, was the photographer for the wedding and a good friend of the family. He’d promised Darla a dance at the wedding reception tomorrow. That counted as dating material, right?
Okay, so maybe he shouldn’t have played it up so much.
But hey, if he had to suffer through a front row seat to his older brother’s success and eternal happiness with the sweetest woman on the planet, the least Zach could do was have a little fun in the meantime.
How anyone maintained the will to live when they’d reached the point of pureed salad was a true medical mystery. Sophia Carter wrinkled her nose at the glob of green goo on the corner of the patient’s food tray and adjusted her hair net. She didn’t even want to imagine what lay dead and buried beneath the lid to the main dish.
The front pocket of Sophia’s kitchen uniform buzzed. Looking up and down the bustling hallway, she dug out her phone and glanced at her screen.
A message from Charlotte.
Mom and Dad aren’t getting a divorce! Now stop the crazy and get back to work!
Sophia huffed, about to tap a speedy reply along the lines of You want to stop the crazy? How about you stop acting like you’re in a romantic relationship with Frankie Avalon! when a patient wearing a hospital gown and blue pants strolled past, pushing an IV pole.
Sophia dropped her phone back into her apron pocket. She’d deal with her sister’s delusions later. Right now she had a job to do.
