Page 10 of Love in Tandem
If only Charlotte had the faintest idea where to begin.
Zach should have let his beard grow out until he looked like Tom Hanks’s character in Cast Away. Then maybe shaving it off would have taken all weekend instead of five minutes. At this rate he wasn’t going to miss a single second of his brother’s wedding rehearsal dinner.
He ran a razor down the left side of his face even though he’d already shaved it smooth three swipes ago.
“You’re planning to punch Ben in the middle of the ceremony, aren’t you?” a voice spoke from behind him. “I can see it in your eyes.”
“Mom.” Zach spun from the sink, his razor in one hand, shaving cream in the other. “You can’t just come waltzing into a restroom unannounced.”
“We’re in the church nursery bathroom. In the basement,” she added as if that made any difference. Then she rolled her eyes and made a dramatic show of knocking on the door. “Yoo-hoo! Zip up your diapers. Concerned mother of the groom entering the premises.” Her singsong voice bounced off the walls covered with cartoonish animals entering Noah’s ark. “Better?”
He turned back to the mirror, meeting her reflection past his shoulder with a begrudging smile. So maybe he’d overreacted. Maybe he was a little tense. Maybe he’d purposely planned his itinerary so he’d arrive at his brother’s wedding rehearsal last minute with his duffel bag in tow and in need of a quick shave, precisely to avoid a conversation like this.
How’s New Zealand working out? It’s not.
What’s next on the horizon? No idea.
Think you’ll ever be ready to tie the knot? Tried that. Didn’t take. She’s actually marrying my brother now, but thanks for the reminder.
“Please, Zach.” Mom leaned against the doorjamb.
“Please what?” Zach bounced another glance off her in the mirror, then sighed. “Fine. I solemnly swear I will not punch Ben in the middle of his wedding ceremony.” He swiped the razor down his cheek and tapped it against the edge of the sink. “I’ll wait until the middle of the reception.”
His mom lunged forward and jabbed his rib cage. “Oof,” Zach wheezed dramatically.
“Sometimes I wish you would just punch him. That way I’d know it was over and done. Right now it feels like . . . I don’t know, a storm is on the horizon, and I’m one of the barnyard animals getting all twitchy about it.”
Zach scraped the blades across his chin. “You’re not the only one acting twitchy. I overheard Shannon’s mother grilling the organist about whether her rheumatoid arthritis was going to hinder her performance of the wedding march. I swear that woman couldn’t be any edgier if she were dangling from a mountain cliff by one finger.”
“Why do you think I’m hiding down here with you?”
Zach rinsed off his razor. “Is that what we’re doing?”
“Of course that’s what we’re doing. Who shaves five minutes before a wedding rehearsal? Now give me that.” She grabbed the razor out of his hand and tilted his chin. “I always loved shaving your father’s face. The first time I did it was on our honeymoon.”
“This is starting to get weird.”
“Quiet or I’ll slit your throat.”
“Did I say weird? I meant creepy.”
Her eyes nearly disappeared in her plump smile as she glided the razor over his cheeks with swift strokes. “I’ve been missing him a lot this week. I mean I always miss him, but . . .”
“Yeah, I know.” Zach missed him too. Every day. His dad had been gone a little over two years, and since then, nothing seemed to have gone right. First Ben’s broken engagement to Charlotte. Then a little later Zach’s whirlwind romance with Shannon that ended with a letter and a no.
Now Ben and Shannon’s wedding.
“He loved Charlotte,” Mom said, taking another swipe down his cheek. “Not that he wouldn’t have loved Shannon, had he had the chance to meet her. I mean, it’s Shannon. How can you not love Shannon?”
Zach grunted. That was the worst part. Shannon had to be one of the sweetest women on the planet. Even her Dear John letter was sweet. Probably why he could never work up the heart to burn it.
As much as he wanted to hold a grudge that she’d fallen in love with his brother, he couldn’t. Blasted woman was too darn remorseful about the whole thing, apologizing and begging for forgiveness until he couldn’t take it anymore. Shoot, she’d even sent him a text the other week about some amazing job opportunity she’d gone out of her way to secure just for him.
He never responded. But he did promise to come back for the wedding as Ben’s best man to prove to her and everyone it was all water under the bridge. And it was. Mostly.
“Shannon’s certainly a special gal,” Zach said.
“Oh, she’s wonderful, even if her mother is a bit . . . well. Anyway.” Mom shrugged and rinsed off his razor. “All I’m saying is your father had a special connection with Charlotte. I think it was the music. Your dad played bass guitar in a band back in his younger days. They were terrible.”
