Page 21 of Love in Tandem
“Uh, whoa—” Zach made a time-out sign. “I don’t know what’s happened in the past two minutes, but Charlotte can’t be the maid of honor.”
“Sure she can,” Joanne said, looking Charlotte up and down with an approving nod. “She is the perfect size for that dress. I can tell just looking at her. Unless . . .” She wrapped an arm around Charlotte’s shoulders and leaned close with a whisper. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”
“Momma,” Shannon scolded her, obviously hearing the whisper.
“Of course I’m not,” Charlotte whispered back in a low breath.
Everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, including Zach. Charlotte could have punched him. She would have, if Joanne didn’t have a death grip on one hand while Shannon clung to her other, both of them talking in nonstop rapid-fire sentences.
“Want us to all get along.”
“Doctor’s already upped my medications twice.”
“Practically sisters.”
“This close to having myself committed.”
All the while, Zach’s mother hugged Zach and stared at Charlotte with a teary smile as if she were the prodigal child returned home at long last. Oh boy.
Charlotte inhaled a deep, shaky breath. Somebody needed to tell them. The truth. Soon. Somebody like Zach. Not her. It was his family, after all. “Uh, Zach? Now might be a good time to mention . . .”
“Mention what?”
And there he was. At the end of the hallway. Benjamin Bryant. Dressed to kill. Not a hair out of place. The picture of perfection. The epitome of success. Everything Charlotte wasn’t.
His gaze swept up and down the length of Charlotte, and she’d never been more grateful for Spanx in all her life, even if the look in Ben’s dark eyes tilted more toward pity than appreciation.
“What’s going on?” he asked after Shannon, her mother, and his mother had all tried answering him at the same time. And now they were all trying to answer him again, only louder.
Zach shoved his hands in his pockets and hung his head for a long breath before lifting it.
He’d cut his hair! That’s what it was. He’d gotten rid of the man bun. No wonder she found him attractive now. She hated man buns. Had Zach always been this attractive beneath all that hair? Or was it the glimpse of vulnerability she found so attractive?
“Hey, everyone,” Zach spoke up over the crazed voices, finally silencing them. “I hate to be the wet blanket here, but I’ve got some bad news. As far as Charlotte being the maid of honor, she is—”
“Honored,” Charlotte blurted out, squeezing Shannon’s and her mother’s hands to draw their attention away from Zach, who was now looking at her like she’d just smacked him in the face with one of the cheesecakes. “Completely honored. Zach and I would love nothing more than to share your special day with you.” Especially if it knocked the look of pity off Ben’s face.
“So what’s the bad news then?” Joanne asked.
“Nothing. Everything’s good. Oh wait.” Charlotte sucked in a breath. The whole reason she was here. “Do you know Melba Clark?” This time she was going to get it right.
Joanne nodded. “Of course. Known her for years.”
Still holding their hands, Charlotte offered a gentle squeeze. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but Melba died earlier today. My sister happened to be with her at the time, so I know for certain she wasn’t in any pain, she died very peacefully, and she died with all of you on her heart. This wedding meant a lot to her. It was the last thing she spoke of.”
Shannon exchanged a look with her mom. “Who’s Melba?”
Joanne snorted. “Oh, she’s that lady I was telling you about who shows up to every wedding in the county whether she has an invite or not. She usually tries sitting in the front row with the family. It wouldn’t have surprised me one bit if she showed up tonight hoping to snag a piece of the cheesecake.”
Charlotte slowly released their hands. “I’m sorry. Are you saying you weren’t all that close to her?”
Joanne shrugged. “Not really. Her family all lives out in Oregon. They tried getting her to move out closer to them years ago, but she’s always claimed the best wedding cake is here. Speaking of cake, let’s get back to the rehearsal dinner. Now that the maid of honor crisis is solved, I’ve discovered I have quite the appetite.”
“Oh, me too, Joanne. Me too.” Zach’s mother waved for Charlotte and Zach to follow. “Come on, you two lovebirds. No stealing kisses in the hallway.”
“Ha ha, stealing kisses, that’s funny. Can I have a word with you?” Not waiting for an answer, Charlotte grabbed Zach by the arm and yanked him down the hallway, back to the front of the restaurant and out into the parking lot. Then began slugging him as hard as she could on each bicep. Which wasn’t hard enough.
Because it didn’t stop him from laughing and saying, “You might be the only person I know who can screw up a situation more than I can.”
