Bad Boy's Bridesmaid (24 page)

“You waxed off
my
eyebrow
!”

Lindsey’s frantic
cry launched me out of the stylist’s seat. My sister was missing an eyebrow,
and I nearly lost an eye. The stylist shrieked and tossed her scissors down.

Mom flipped shit.
She kicked the girl struggling to paint her toenails as she heaved herself from
the chair. Trays crashed and magazines scattered. A bottle of acetone spilled down
Lindsey’s leg. She didn’t notice her French tips wash away.

She stared in
horror into the mirror.

“My
baby
!”
Mom immediately snapped a picture on her phone, much to Lindsey’s dismay.
“Don’t worry. We’ll document
everything
.”

“Oh my god, my
face!
”
 Lindsey burst into tears.

The stylists dropped
their hairspray and abandoned the bridesmaids to rush to the bride’s aid.

Carmen caught
the curling iron before it crashed on the floor. She tugged, but her hair
tangled over the barrel. “O—okay. I’ll just…finish this curl myself.”

The iron had already
melted to her extensions.

Fantastic.

I shuffled out
of the chair, hair partially dried and the only one with makeup on.

Lindsey glared
at the woman hiding the hot wax behind her back, but she was unable to look
angry. Her eyebrow was thinner, but it wasn’t…

…Well, it wasn’t
completely
gone.

“Oh, it’s not
bad,” I said. “It’s just…narrow.”

Wrong
word.

I met the full
brunt of my sister’s wedding-day fury, and she didn’t have enough Bloody Marys
in her to temper that rage.

“
Delicate
!”
I yelped the word as Lindsey pitched her tiara at me. “It’s
delicate!
”

The tiara shattered
against the mirror. Lindsey dissolved into tears. Carmen’s hair was scorched. I
needed to throw up.

So far, so good.

I expected more
problems on the wedding day, and not just that my curls didn’t want to pin in
place. I had to wear my hair down, despite Lindsey’s wishes for her bridesmaids
in up-dos. Even encouraging Mom to take away my inheritance couldn’t get the
curls to hang right.  

Lindsey’s phone
rang. Mom grabbed it first.

“It’s
Bryce
,”
Mom said. “You can’t talk to him before the wedding.”

I shook my head.
“No, he just can’t
see
her before the wedding.”

“If you want to
bring bad luck to a ceremony, we’ll do it at yours.” Mom arched her perfectly
manicured eyebrow and answered the call. “Though it’ll take more than luck to
get you to the altar.”

There
it was.

Mom had been too
busy to properly criticize me. Things were finally back to normal.

Lindsey tried to
tug the phone from Mom. She froze when Mom screeched.

“What do you
mean he’s
not
here
?”

Uh-oh
.

“You find him.
You find him
right now
.”

Lindsey caught
her phone before it ended up in pieces next to her tiara. Mom
hmphed
, dousing
her hair in enough hairspray to hold it firm through the apocalypse.

“You two girls
have the
worst
taste in friends.” Mom pointed the hairspray at me. I
ducked away before she threatened me with a spritz. “Where’s Nate?”

The panic closed
my throat. Or maybe it was the hairspray.  “How should I know?”

“Well, it’s your
responsibility to find him or we’re down one groomsman.”

“
Find him
?”

“You’re the maid
of honor. You’re supposed to be making this day
easy
for Lindsey.”

Lindsey mourned
her thinned eyebrow. “And it’s not been easy, Mandy. Not at
all
!”

“Nate’s not
here?” The words crawled out of me, sick and miserable.

Lindsey grumbled
under her breath, stealing the tweezers from the stylist and attempting to
balance out the razor thin line of her eyebrow.

“This
has
to be your fault,” my sister said. “What the hell is going on with you two?”

I didn’t want to
answer that. I took a chance that maybe it was one of her rhetorical questions,
the ones she spat before she ranted at my face until I groveled in my own
apologies.

Not this time.
She expected an answer.

Lindsey plucked
a hair out of my arm. I yelped, but she aimed with the tweezers for another
bite of my skin.

“Why isn’t Nate
here? I know you’ve been fighting with him. What did you do?”

The salon was
packed. Mom, Lindsey, five bridesmaids, and seven stylists waited for my answer
in silence. That was fourteen people too many to learn the truth about what
happened.

I glanced at the
patient stylist handling my hair. “Is there a place I can talk with them?”

She pointed
towards the hallway leading to the restrooms. Good enough. At least I was close
to a toilet in case I had to throw up.

Mom and Lindsey
followed me, arms crossed, the same judgmental scowl plastered on their faces.

This wasn’t
going to be easy, but it could be discreet. I’d give them the bare minimum,
leave to find Nate, and promise him whatever he wanted if he made it to the
wedding and let me explain everything.

I took a breath.
“Okay. Nate and I have been…” What was the right word? “Involved.”

Lindsey nearly
hit the ceiling.  “You
what
?”

“We had a fight
two days ago. I don’t know where he is now, but I’ll call him.”

Lindsey didn’t
buy it for a minute. “You’ve been
dating
Nate?”

“Yeah.”

“No, no. I don’t
believe you. You would never
date
a man like Nate. You’ve been hiding
something for weeks. You’re acting weird. And, honestly, you haven’t put this
family first for a long time.”

“You have no
idea what I’ve been doing for this family.”

“Ruining
everything, apparently, even scaring away one of the groomsmen!” Lindsey’s
hands trembled.

Oh shit. She was
going to blow. Even Mom took a step back.

“You messed up the
catering order. You didn’t have the courtesy to maintain your weight with the
dresses. You cut your hair, and they can’t get your curls into the up-do I
wanted! You didn’t bother learning how to do my dance. You never finished the
paper flowers. You should’ve been working on the party
all night
.
Instead you went
home
.”

“I had to
sleep!”

“No, you didn’t!
You could have stayed up for
one
night to help.” 

“You weren’t
there.”

“I’m the
bride
.
I have to look beautiful. You’re the Maid of Honor. No one cares what you look
like.”

Mom crossed her
arms. “Let’s not forget, we needed you to deliver messages to your father, and
you refused.”

This wasn’t
happening. “Mom, I couldn’t play messenger all the time. You were just
fighting
with Dad, and it wasn’t getting anything done.”

“And so you
thought it’d be better if you caused more stress.”

“I thought it’d
be better if you talked to your
husband
.”

Mom stiffened.
“This is Lindsey’s
day, and you’ve done everything in your power to make
it as difficult as possible for all of us.”

“Are you
kidding?” I wasn’t ready to defend myself from
this
. “I’ve put you guys
first for months.”

“It sure doesn’t
seem like it,” Lindsey said.

“Believe me, if
you knew what I’ve been going through—”

“It doesn’t matter
what you’ve been doing! This is
my
wedding. Nothing is more important!”

“Everything is
more important!”

I didn’t mean to
yell, didn’t realize I had until the profanity echoed through the hall.

And I didn’t
care
.
For the first time, I didn’t care what my family thought. I wasn’t going to be
hurt
by the very people I tried so hard to protect.

I loved my
family, but couldn’t they see how much
pain
I was in?

“For the past
three months, I’ve done everything for this family,” I said. “I spent
all
my time-off from work. I’ve made crafts and researched prices and confirmed
appointments and dropped
everything
to take care of this wedding, and
neither of you appreciate it.”

Mom scowled. “I
didn’t know you needed to be commended for doing your
part
.”

“I don’t want to
be commended. I want to be
respected
. I’ve lost everything because of
this wedding, and I can’t lose my mother and sister too.”

“What have you
lost
?”
Lindsey groaned. “Stop being so melodramatic.”

“
Me
?”
Tears welled in my eyes. This was the
worst
time for the hormones to take
over. “I might have lost the only man I’ve ever cared about because I put everything
before him. Nate didn’t just leave the wedding party; he might have left
me
.”

“You can’t
possibly care this much about
Nate
,” Lindsey said.

“Of course I do,
but I screwed everything up. He’s gone because I didn’t want to overshadow your
wedding.”

“Well,
congratulations.” Lindsey clapped, punctuating each word with a sarcastic slap.
“Here you are. Overshadowing my wedding. Once again, we’re in a mess because
something
you
did jeopardized the ceremony.”

“How dare you.”

“Just because
you’re having a stupid relationship problem with your
crush
doesn’t give
you the right to ruin my—”

“
I’m pregnant
!”

I didn’t mean to
shout it.

The word crashed
louder than silence and harsher than a slap across the cheek.

Now the entire
wedding party, salon, and whoever passed in the street knew the truth.

I’d shout it
from the rooftops now if it mean proving to Nate I was sorry for keeping it a
secret.

I faced my
family, tears in my eyes. “I’ve been hiding it for three months so I wouldn’t
ruin today. That’s why Nate left. I told him, we had a fight. I kept it a
secret because I didn’t want to cause any drama, and now it’s destroyed any
chance I have with the man I…”

My voice broke.
Mom and Lindsey stilled, but it didn’t last long.

Mom fanned
herself with a hand, but she was going down. Not that she was a fainter, but
the only scandal bigger than a pregnant bridesmaid was an unconscious mother of
the bride.

“Oh, I can’t
believe this.” Mom stumbled back to the salon and collapsed in the nearest
chair. “My baby! In trouble! Oh, I’m so
ashamed
.”

I bristled. “I’m
not ashamed. I was scared to tell you and Lindsey, but I should have never been
reluctant to tell my
family
about this.”

Mom sobbed big
fat crocodile tears, and the bridesmaids clustered to help her. I turned to
Lindsey, but my sister stared at me, jaw clenched and eyes narrowed.

“I promise I’ll
do everything I can to make your day perfect,” I said. “And I know I’ve made
mistakes. I’m sorry. But I’ve only ever wanted to be a good sister. I want to
help.”

“You wanna
help?” Lindsey took Mom’s hand. “I can’t even look at you right now. I gave up
my
dream
wedding because you’ve turned it into a nightmare. Just
leave
.”

“
Leave
?”

“I want you out
of the wedding.”

Why did it hurt?
I sucked in a breath. It burned inside me, but I wasn’t going to argue. I was
tired and upset and it wasn’t healthy for me or the baby.

I blinked away
tears, but I nodded.

“Okay,” I said.
“I’m sorry.”

I grabbed my
purse and rushed out of the salon before they saw me cry.

I made it onto
the sidewalk before I remembered I hadn’t driven.

It didn’t
matter. Where the hell would I go? Home? To find Nate?

God, I hated
feeling so…
alone
.

And it was all
my fault. I was the one who pushed Nate away. I was the one who hid the truth
from everyone. And I was the one who never stood up for herself when I should
have.

A voice called
to me from the SUV parked in the salon’s lot.

“Boy trouble?
Or…should I say…man trouble?”

I turned. Dad
waved at me. He patted the car door.

“Get in, Mandy-Pandy.
You look like you could use a ride.”