“Oh?” God! I forced myself to smile. “That’s... sweet?”
I needed to work on my acting skills. I’d failed to pick up any of it by osmosis while living in Los Angeles.
Designing clothes and modeling them for any magazine or fashion house with even a passing interest in a plus-size line was no problem. I spent my day in a fantasy world and then dreamed about it at night when I went to bed—but pretending to enjoy small talk with a stranger who had never really been a friend of mine required more effort than I had to muster.
Not even a second mojito made the time any more enjoyable. I would’ve rather signed up for an impromptu root canal without anesthetic.
But we were there to support our old school friend Chrissy, so I had to slap a smile on my face, suck up my bad attitude, and suck down the rest of my mojito because good friendships required that sometimes.
“My mom should be around here somewhere.” Shayla stood on her toes and scanned the room, apparently oblivious to the mini heart attack her words had given me. “I’ll bet she’d love it if we stopped by and said hi. I’m pretty sure I saw her a few minutes ago.”
Oh, no. No. No!
I scanned the room for a quick solution.
At this point, I began to suspect she might be actively trolling me. She must have known about the scandal when it happened back in the day. Even if she hadn’t paid attention to the school gossip, her mom would have said something about it. It didn’t take much imagination to picture the Hall family sitting around the dinner table discussing my fall from grace.
Or... maybe not? It had certainly affected more people than just me and my family, but perhaps it hadn’t been that big of a deal to anyone who wasn’t directly involved.
“Oh, hey, is that Chrissy over there?” I hooked my arm in Shayla’s and swung us around in the opposite direction. “We should go make sure she doesn’t need anything—you know, with the wedding and all this weather and stuff.”
I didn’t care that my excuse for talking to Chrissy was so transparent it was almost laughable.
Everything that could be controlled, Chrissy would have under control. The weather? And... stuff? What could the two of us possibly do about the weather? And what stuff? But it didn’t matter. I would have happily stood outside and acted as a lightning rod if it meant avoiding Mrs. Dolly Hall.
From the delighted expression on Chrissy’s face as she welcomed old friends and mingled with guests, you’d think she’d planned the crazy summer storm along with everything else about that weekend.
And knowing Chrissy, possibly she had.
Never underestimate that woman.
She would work out everything down to the tiniest single detail—it was no accident that the bound and embossed itineraries happened to perfectly complement the leather and gold all around us.
Chrissy waved us over with a big smile before Shayla or I said another word, which was a big fat win as far as I was concerned.
“Hey, girls!” She gave me a quick hug and an air kiss. “I hope you’ve all brought your ruby slippers because it looks like we might get swept up to Oz.”
I grimaced. “Is it going to get that bad? I mean, the wind and rain weren’t too bad when we got here, but the dark clouds looked angry. Do you think it’s going to get dangerous?”
Chrissy’s expression turned serious as she sighed. “It’s hard to tell, but it isn’t looking great.” Her sweet smile quickly returned, though. “Perfect time for a summer wedding, right?”
“It’s going to be a beautiful wedding.” I reached over to give her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “You’ll have a lovely day no matter what the weather decides to do.”
“Speaking of the weather....” Shayla turned to the window with concern. “Has anyone heard from Cooper or Nolan? They should’ve been on their way out here earlier.”
Thank God I’d swallowed the last sip of my drink, or I’d have choked on it at the mention of those two names.
“Cooper Price and Nolan Reed?” Saying their full names was stupid of me since the chances of it being some other Cooper and Nolan who happened to be attending Chrissy’s wedding to Vic Price were zero.
Of course the groom’s younger brother would be there.
But I had to be sure. My sanity—and any possibility I had of enjoying the wedding—demanded that I double-checked those identities.
“They’re the ones,” Shayla nodded. “Surely you remember the two of them?”
“How could I forget?” I said my voice barely above a whisper as I stared down into the empty glass that I’d very nearly dropped. “You’re sure they’re both coming? You know how they can be. Maybe something came up. Or they might have forgotten the date. That would be just like them.”