A Bridesmaid to Remember Read online

  Mitch shook his head. “I can’t marry her, Mom. I’m sorry. I’m in love with someone else.”

  “Bonnie Windsor? The woman sells houses for a living. Houses on the north side of town,” his mother said with a touch of disgust, as if the people on the north side were all living in cardboard boxes.

  “I don’t care what she does for a living. I love her, and I won’t marry Lauren.”

  Mrs. Bennett seemed a bit hysterical. Her eyes were wild and her voice shrill. “You will marry her, or else!”

  Mr. Bennett put a hand on her shoulder. “Meredith, relax. We can’t force the boy to marry someone he’s not in love with, and we sure as heck can’t waltz back in there and act like nothing happened.”

  “No offense, Mrs. Bennett,” Aaron chimed in. “But I can’t pretend that I don’t know Mitch does not want to marry my sister. I don’t want Lauren or Mitch in a loveless marriage.”

  “Your father will destroy us. Do you understand that?” Mrs. Bennett clutched the pearls around her neck.

  “We need to get Mitch out of town,” Aaron suggested. “Today. He needs to disappear while Lauren pulls herself together. Once things have calmed down, I truly believe level heads will prevail. No one will be destroying anyone.”

  Mr. Bennett nodded. “Good idea. You have your bags packed for your honeymoon. You should go as planned and extend your stay until the smoke has cleared.”

  The Bennetts had gifted Lauren and Mitch a two-week honeymoon in the south of France. That was definitely a safe distance away, and there was no reason he couldn’t stay all summer if that’s what it took.

  “I’m going to ask Bonnie to come with me,” Mitch said, heading back inside the church.

  Aaron grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back outside. “You are going to leave Bonnie alone. Now is not the time to bring her into this. You just dropped the bomb that you don’t want to marry Lauren. My sister needs to get over that before she can handle you wanting to date her best friend.” Which she would absolutely never get over. Therefore, it was never going to happen. Bonnie wouldn’t do that to Lauren. Not the Bonnie Aaron knew.

  The Bennetts adamantly agreed and managed to get Mitch into a car and as far away from the church as possible. Aaron went back in to check on his baby sister. There was no way this day would end well. Lauren had basically never been told no her whole life. Things always went her way, so she had no idea how to cope with something like this.

  Bonnie sat on the floor in the back hallway, her knees pulled up to her chest and her face hidden behind her hands as she cried. Her long sandy-blond hair fell like a curtain, shielding her face from view as well.

  “Hey,” he said, taking a seat next to her. “You’re going to get mascara all over your pretty pink dress. And I heard that’s not easy to get out.”

  Bonnie lifted her head and wiped her cheeks. “Mary made us all wear waterproof mascara in case we cried during the ceremony. I didn’t think I needed to worry about that.” She sighed and sniffed. “I hope you believe me when I say I have never done anything with Mitch. Nothing is going on between us. I don’t know why he thinks he’s in love with me when he was about to marry Lauren.”

  Typical Bonnie. She was the most humble person in all of Blue Springs. That was probably why Lauren was friends with her. His sister never had to worry about Bonnie trying to steal the limelight or balking at Lauren taking all the credit whenever they did something together.

  “I believe you. Mitch told me he hadn’t said anything to anyone about how he felt until today. Bad timing, huh?” he asked, trying desperately to get her to smile just a bit.

  Her expression remained somber. “Can you please tell your sister that? I don’t want her to think that I was running around with her fiancé behind her back. It wasn’t like that.”

  “We’ll talk to her together. Come on.” He stood up and held out a hand to help her up. All of the bridesmaids had worn the same blush-pink color, but each dress was styled a little bit differently. Bonnie’s was strapless and had crystal beading on the bodice. He’d known Bonnie since they were little kids—it was strange to think of her as stunning, but that was what she was today, all done up like this.

  Together, they headed through the doors to the hall that led to the bridal suite. The rest of the bridesmaids hovered outside the room while Lauren could be heard ranting from inside.

  “She shouldn’t be here, Aaron,” Kathy said, scowling at Bonnie.

  “We need to clear things up with Lauren. She needs her best friend more than ever today,” he replied, giving Bonnie’s hand a reassuring squeeze. Her shoulders straightened a bit, and she smiled up at him in appreciation.

  “She doesn’t need a best friend like her.” Cheryl stood in front of the door. Theresa folded her arms across her chest and stood on Cheryl’s right. Wendy flanked her on the other side, effectively blocking them from getting inside the room.

  “Come on! Bonnie had nothing to do with this. This was all Mitch. Move so we can talk to my sister.”

  The women refused to budge. “You can go in, Aaron, but she needs to stay away.”

  This was ridiculous. Aaron couldn’t believe how quickly everyone had turned on someone who they would have all sworn was their sweetest friend thirty minutes ago.

  “Go without me,” Bonnie said, dropping his hand. “Seeing me will only make things worse. You can convince her there’s nothing going on between me and Mitch better than I can right now.”

  Aaron couldn’t really argue with that. The ladies moved aside for him. Inside the suite, their mother was crying right along with Lauren, who sat on the floor in the middle of a massive pile of satin and tulle. Their father was pacing around on the phone barking orders at whoever was on the other end of the line.

  “I don’t care how long it took to set up. I want it all gone before I get there,” he said. “I don’t know what to do with all the food. Maybe we can donate it or something.”

  Aaron could only imagine how many heads had exploded when they heard the news over at the winery, where the reception was planned. They had to break down a party for five hundred guests after spending all day setting it up.

  “Are you here to tell me Mitchell’s ready to apologize?” Lauren asked when she noticed Aaron was in the room. She wiped her wet face with the back of her hand. “I bet he’s trying to figure out what to say to me after you talked some sense into him.”

  He was surprised she still had hope Mitch would come around. Leave it to Lauren to refuse to believe she’d been dumped. “Mitch is gone. He’s leaving town for a while to give you some space.”

  “What do you mean he’s leaving town?” their mom shrieked. “He needs to fix this. He needs to get in here on his hands and knees and beg her to take him back.”

  “So I can tell him to jump in a lake. I wouldn’t take him back if his parents paid me.”

  “Of course you wouldn’t, sweetheart, but he deserves to have his heart ripped out when you reject him.” Elizabeth Cole did have a flair for vengeance. This was exactly why Aaron suggested that Mitch take off.

  Their dad hung up the phone and said, “I’m going to go out there and tell everyone to go home. Once I get rid of them, we’ll take Lauren home.”

  “Make sure there’s no one waiting outside,” their mom said. “People were lining up earlier.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck, the stress evident on his face. “I’ll take care of it,” he said as he slipped out the door.

  Aaron got down on the floor and climbed over the poofy skirt to get to his sister. He wrapped an arm around her. “I’m sorry he did that to you. You didn’t deserve to be treated that way. He’s a fool. But you knew that when you agreed to marry him.”

  “You can’t be friends with him anymore,” she said, resting her head on his shoulder. “You have to hate him with me.”

  “Let’s talk about an
other friend. Bonnie is out there and wants to talk to you.”

  Lauren straightened. “You can tell that backstabbing cheater that she is no friend of mine.”

  “This was all Mitch, Lauren. Bonnie had no idea he felt that way about her.”

  There was a fire in her eyes that Aaron had never seen before. “I don’t believe that for a second. You can’t be friends with her anymore, either. No one can. Bonnie Windsor is dead to me.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Two weeks later

  “GOOD AFTERNOON, THIS is Bonnie.”

  “Um, hi, Bonnie. This is Carly Spaulding.”

  “Carly, how are you?”

  There was a bit of a pause. “I’m fine. Listen, I’m calling because my husband and I were talking last night and we’ve decided to take the house off the market.”

  “Oh, I know it’s been a quiet month, but I have a feeling that things are going to pick up here real soon. A lot of people want to buy before school starts in the fall, making July a busy house-hunting month.”

  “I understand that. It’s just...we aren’t planning to give up trying to sell it. We...ah...think it might be better to try another Realtor.”

  Bonnie sat back in her chair. She’d had an open house planned at the Spauldings’ and had spent the last hour creating an updated advertising brochure. Time now wasted. “I’m sorry to hear that I haven’t met your expectations. I will take the house off the market and send someone over to get the sign within twenty-four hours.”

  “Thanks, Bonnie.”

  It wasn’t unusual for clients to become impatient when a house didn’t sell after some time. Although five weeks wasn’t a very long time for a house to be on the market. It was a bit concerning that there hadn’t been any showings in the last couple weeks. The Spauldings weren’t the first clients to part ways with Bonnie this month after only being on the market for a short while. The Carters fired her last week. The Mayers, who were looking for a house, had called, claiming they no longer needed her help.

  She clicked and dragged the open house brochure into her computer’s trash. She dreaded what she had to do next—call her office and let them know another client was backing out. She worked for Blue Springs Realty, where there were three other broker agents working under Gordon Harrison, the broker manager. Gordon had been friends with Bonnie’s parents since she was a baby. He’d happily agreed to be her mentor when she decided this was the career for her. He wouldn’t be angry with her, but disappointed in losing more business.

  “Hey, Gordon. It’s Bonnie.”

  “Tell me something good, Bon Bon,” he said. She could picture him sitting at his desk, leaning back in his chair with his legs stretched out in front of him crossed at the ankles.

  “I wish. I just got a call from Carly Spaulding. They want to pull their house on Elm. I’m sorry, Gordon. I don’t know what’s going on.”

  “I think I might. Can you come to the office? We need to have a chat.” He didn’t ask her to come in unless he needed to talk serious business.

  “Sure. I can be there in a couple minutes.”

  A sense of dread tightened her shoulders. Grabbing her purse and car keys, she went out the front door. As she walked to her car, she noticed Becca Valentine, her neighbor, standing on her front porch.

  “Hi, Becca.” Bonnie waved hello.

  Becca turned her head and cringed. That was when Bonnie noticed the workman busy digging a hole for a new For Sale sign. Becca and Jon had mentioned a couple months ago that they were thinking about upsizing and promised to call Bonnie when the time came to put their house on the market. Apparently, they had changed their minds.

  “Making the big move, huh?” Bonnie tried to hide the disappointment in her voice even though she felt it so strongly in her chest.

  “I’m really sorry, Bonnie. We need this place to sell before summer is over, and with everything that’s going on...you know...the face on our sign matters.”

  Bonnie felt her forehead crease. “Everything that’s going on?”

  “You can’t ruin someone’s wedding day and think there won’t be consequences. Especially when that someone is Lauren Cole.”

  Bonnie’s stomach dropped. Lauren still wasn’t talking to her. She had heeded Aaron’s warnings and backed off, giving Lauren some space to clear her head and come to her senses. None of their mutual friends were talking to her, either, but that was expected. Of course they were going to side with Lauren until Lauren realized Bonnie had had nothing to do with what happened. She understood being shut out socially, but Lauren wouldn’t mess with her livelihood.

  Would she?

  Bonnie got in her car and drove straight to the office in downtown Blue Springs. Main Street was lined with quaint local shops and restaurants. There was Patches From Heaven, a tiny quilting store, to the right of Blue Springs Realty and Sweet and Savory, a café and sweet shop, on the left. Across the street was the Cole Market. One block north was the Cole Theater. Two streets south was where the Cole Family Library was located. Just seeing their name made her blood boil a bit.

  Gordon was on the phone when she got to his door. He waved her in and motioned for her to take a seat. “Thanks for being honest. We’ll talk soon.” He hung up the phone and adjusted his tie, which was tied much too short. “I think I know what’s happening.”

  “It’s Lauren,” they said at the same time.

  “You knew?” Gordon asked.

  “I just found out. My neighbors put their house on the market today with another Realtor after promising they would come to me when the time came. She said this is a consequence of ruining Lauren’s wedding.”

  “That’s what I’m hearing, too,” Gordon said sadly. “Word around town is that you’ve been blacklisted.”

  “Blacklisted?”

  “No one is supposed to do business with you.”

  It felt like the world had stopped turning. How was Bonnie supposed to make a living if the entire town had her blacklisted? It was one thing to push Bonnie away as a friend—it was another to push her out of town.

  “I had nothing to do with that wedding being canceled. I have never had any kind of relationship with Mitch Bennett. There is no reason for Lauren to be doing this to me. To you. Does she not understand she’s hurting more than me by messing with clients?”

  “Lauren Cole doesn’t think about anything but Lauren Cole.” Gordon placed his elbows on his desk and clasped his hands in front of him. “Let’s not get too worked up. There are plenty of people who seek out our business who aren’t from Blue Springs. Those are the clients I will funnel your way until this all blows over.”

  Bonnie was so appreciative of Gordon’s cool head. She was ready to storm over to the Cole Winery and give Lauren a piece of her mind. The smarter thing to do was to carry on with her head held high. Lauren could try to blacklist her, but Bonnie wasn’t going to roll over. Those days were done.

  On her way out, she decided some comfort food was in order. Sweet and Savory had the best Monte Cristo in all of California and chocolate chunk cookies that were to die for. She’d buy some cookies and bring them over to her dad’s. They’d had dinner together once a week since her mom died five years ago. It was their chance to catch up and for her to make sure he was taking care of himself.

  Sweet and Savory smelled the way love felt when she walked through their door. It was like a warm hug on this frustrating day. She purchased half a dozen chocolate chunk cookies, because one each for her and her dad would never be enough. The only thing that would make the cookies better was milk. It was unlikely her dad had milk in the house, so she crossed the street to the Cole Market to snag a half gallon.

  It was annoying that markets always put the milk in the back of the store so there was no easy in and out. It was also annoying that a half gallon of milk cost two-thirds as much as a full gallon.

  “H
ey, Bonnie.” Cal Fullerton was the manager of Cole Market. He’d gone to high school with Lauren and Bonnie.

  “How’s it going, Cal?”

  “I’m doing all right. How are you?”

  “I’ve been better, actually. But hopefully these cookies from Sweet and Savory and this milk will turn my day around.” She smiled, hoping that was possible.

  Cal’s expression was grim, and suddenly Bonnie felt an uncomfortable tingle in her chest. “I’m real sorry, Bonnie, but I can’t sell you that milk. I’m going to have to ask you to leave the store.”

  Bonnie could feel her heart beating in her chest, thumping hard against her rib cage. Her face flushed with the heat of her embarrassment. “You’re refusing to sell me milk?”

  Cal averted his eyes. “Like I said, I’m real sorry.”

  “She banned me from the market? Can I not go to the movies anymore or borrow a book from the library? Have I been banned from everything that has the Cole name on it?”

  Cal shrugged. “I don’t really know about the other businesses, but I’d probably drive over to Morris to see a movie if I was you. Save myself the trouble of being asked to leave.”

  Bonnie could feel her eyes getting wet. She handed Cal the milk and clenched her jaw so she didn’t let out the sob that was building. Without a word, she left the store and headed straight for her dad’s house. She would not cry about this. She would not give Lauren the satisfaction, even though she couldn’t possibly see her right now anyway. Lauren could be mean, but this was beyond mean. This was cruel.

  Bonnie was surprised to see her dad’s truck already in the driveway when she pulled up. He usually got home around five. She had planned to tidy things up for him before he got there. Good thing the Coles didn’t own the local pizza delivery place, because that was what was on the menu for family dinner this week.

  “Dad?” she called out as she entered the small bungalow.