Southern Charm (2 page)

“
Shelby, you know I hate
your whore of a sister with a passion and I do not like the way
your mother treats you! Being that your momma will always be
kissing my momma’s ass, I know I can give her a taste of her own
medicine,” Cassidy said, fixing her face. Cassidy was always so
well dressed. She never had a hair out of place and her make-up was
flawless. Today she was wearing a sexy red elastic waist wrapped
chest jumpsuit, with her light brown hair in a ponytail, and
chandelier drop earrings, gold bangle bracelets and red stiletto
sandals. She always looked so beautiful and well put together.
Shelby was wearing a pair of brown polyester pants and an olive
green wrap top and brown flats. Cassidy saw her looking at her in
the mirror and turned toward her.

“
You know that I can take
you shopping and fix you up! You won’t let me. Shelby, you are
beautiful inside and out! Stop letting your momma and hell bitch
sister make you down on yourself!” Taking a deep breath and putting
her back against the wall and hanging her head, Shelby had had this
conversation a million times with Cassidy. She always walked away
feeling like no one understood what she went through.

Sigh. “I have decided to let you take
me to get my hair and makeup done for the wedding so that Momma
doesn’t criticize me the entire wedding,” Shelby said over
Cassidy’s squeals and clapping of joy!

“
Oh Shelby! I am so
excited! I am going to make you look like a beautiful little
princess!” Cassidy said hugging her.

“
Ok, Ok. Well, please just
don’t start with them today for me. Please?” she said to her friend
looking at her pleadingly.

“
Alright, Alright! I will
just go and meet Daddy in the cigar room,” Cassidy said looking
away while opening the door as they walked out of the bathroom.
“You should come with me. You know that Daddy always loves to see
you!” she said to her friend with her arm around her.

“
No! I better get back,
but please tell him I said hello and I will see him soon!” She said
kissing her friend’s cheek. Turning to hurry back to her table,
Shelby realized that her mother was not at the table
anymore.

“
Where is Momma?” she said
to her sister as she sat back down at the table. Never even
bothering to look up from her cell phone, Savannah said, “she went
to personally invite Mister Graham to the wedding,” smacking on her
strawberry. “You know momma is always networking,” she finished
smiling as she posted to her Facebook page.

“
Oh, well, you think it’s
ok if we finish eating?” Shelby said to her sister trying to find
something to talk about. She had always wanted to be close to her
sister, but it seemed like her sister had never wanted to know her;
let alone be her sister.

“
Well, Shelby, we know
there is not much that will keep you from eating, is there?”
Savannah said stopping to look up at her sister and give her a fake
smile. Taking a deep breath and looking around the restaurant,
Shelby shook her head and looked away.

“
Never mind, Savannah,”
Shelby whispered.

CHAPTER 2

“
Logan! Logan, are you
here?” Lance said walking into the front door of his brother’s
motorcycle repair shop. Logan and Lance were identical twins. Their
father had left their mother Leanne while she was pregnant with
them and had never paid child support or alimony. Having graduated
from college she immediately became an at-home wife. She had no
experience in the working world let alone using her teaching
degree. She had been forced to work making a lot less than her
experienced counter parts. Being an eighth grade teacher at Douglas
Academy had one and only one perk; her sons were allowed to attend
the school for free and get what, she had hoped, would be a life
changing education. It had definitely changed their lives, while
Lance had become a football star, a part of the “in-crowd”; Logan
had been ostracized and eventually kicked out of school. Even
though they ran in different crowds and had very different
interests Lance and Logan managed to stay very close. They had, of
course, done the typical things that all multiples do, playing
tricks on people that could not tell them apart and switching
places. When Logan was fifteen, he stayed out until 3 a.m. with
some of his friends drinking and smoking at an old worn down shack
that was in the woods where all the “bad kids” hung out.. Logan had
to be brought home by the Sheriff after they broke windows out of
an old store-front in town. Their mother knew that she had done all
she could do for him and it was time for some tough love. She
kicked him out of the house that night and told him not to return
until he was ready to abide by her rules. He had never returned.
Instead he had gotten into some legal trouble out of desperation.
He broke into the general store and was caught. The judge sentenced
him to six years in the juvenile detention center.

The only good thing that had come out
of Logan’s time in the detention center was that he stopped blaming
his mother for their father leaving and their relationship had
gotten much, much better. It had been seven years since Logan had
gotten out of jail and not much had changed about the town. Logan
had a hard time finding a job that paid enough to take care of him
and his now three year old daughter, Gia. Although his juvenile
record was sealed, everyone in town knew about his past. Lance had,
however, been working for the local auction house since he had
graduated from college and made a decent amount of money. He and
Logan had decided to open an auto repair shop specializing in
motorcycles. Logan would run the shop and make all the decisions
and Lance would be a silent financial backer.

“
Yeah! I am out back,”
Logan yelled to Lance. Closing the front door and looking around,
he could not believe the changes in the place in such a short time.
Logan had put so much time and work into opening the garage. When
you walked in the front entrance of the shop, the right side of the
store had frosted-glass walls with an incased notebook dating back
to the 1940’s that had notes and sketches of Harley-Davidson’s
never-ending drive towards uncompromising quality and design. The
left side of the store was painted in a tangerine fusion orange
which Logan affectionately said, “It’s orange, dude.” The carpet at
the front of the shop was a mega twist Berber. When Lance got to
the garage portion of the shop, he saw Logan on 12-foot ladder
fixing the iridescent lights.

“
What’s up?” Lance said
looking up at this brother.

“
Getting the last of the
lights working so that I can finish the flooring in here,” Logan
said to him as he was coming down the ladder. The brothers greeted
each other with a manly hug.

“
The place looks great.
You have really made it look elite in here,” Lance said looking
around with a half-smile, half-astonished look on his
face.

Shaking his head and chuckling a
little, Logan put the screw driver on the suspended shelf against
the wall and leaned against one of the frame racks. “You look like
you thought I couldn’t do it,” Logan said to his
brother.

“
You know better than
that,” Lance said. “I just didn’t think you could get it done so
fast and all by yourself.” He sat down on a stool that had been
pushed in the corner.

“
I didn’t. Mom and Gia
helped me paint the front reception area,” he said smiling and
tossing his brother one of the beers he had just taken out of the
college sized refrigerator he had put in the corner.

“
Oh, yeah a sixty-five
year old woman and a three year old; I am sure they were very
helpful,” Lance said laughing.

Chuckling to himself, Logan said, “Gia
is a regular Picasso.” They both laughed out loud.

Gia was Logan’s heart. He loved being
a dad and he was a great one. Logan’s gift from a one night stand
with the town tramp, Peaches Houwton, who had not only been nailed
by every Frat boy this side of the Mason Dixon line but had slept
with and blackmailed some of their daddies. Peaches had been in and
out of jail for drug related offenses so Logan had been granted
full custody of his daughter when she was two.

“
So to what do I owe the
pleasure of this visit?” Logan said to Lance.

“
I heard from that auction
house in Japan. They want me to come there and run an auction of
some pieces they found from the Ming Dynasty which are in the hands
of a private collector,” Lance said to his brother.

Logan laughed and said, “You know the
only thing I understood in that was Japan right?” Logan said
laughing.

Laughing and shaking his head Lance
says, “Translation: I need to go to Japan for a few weeks and I
need you to do me a favor.”

“
Oh! Well, that I can do.
What do you need me to to do; get your Porche obsessively washed
for three weeks?” Logan said dinking his beer and laughing as she
teased his brother.

“
Fuck You!” Lance said
laughing. “I like my car to be clean; it is not
obsessive.”

“
Ok, Melvin Udall,” Logan
said. Referring to the character in the movie “As Good as it Gets”
who had, had obsessive compulsive disorder. Ducking the rag that
Lance had picked up and thrown at him.

“
What do you want me to
do?”

“
I promised Shelby that I
would pretend to be her boyfriend for her sister’s wedding and I
leave tomorrow. I need you to pretend to be me,” Lance said to his
brother bracing for the explosion.

Taking a deep breath, Logan sat his
beer down and started to hang some tools on the rack that was
behind him. “You know I hate those people!” Logan said to
him.

“
I thought you liked
Shelby?” Lance said shocked at what Logan had just said. Lance knew
that Logan had always had a crush on Shelby. But had never been
willing to tell her because of how her family treated her. He hated
rich people. Lance had accidently told Shelby one drunken visit in
college but Shelby had forgotten and even if she had remembered, he
knew he could say he was kidding and she would think that he had
just said it because they were drunk. Shelby had no idea how
amazing she was; thanks to her family.

“
I do like Shelby and you
know I do,” Lance said picking up his beer and leaning back against
the shelf he had been standing next to. “But her sister’s wedding?
Every time I see her, I want to slap her. I am dead set against
hitting women and her MOTHER. I can’t. I am sorry, Lance,” Logan
said shaking his head.

“
Come on, man, you know
how fake her mother is and she has demanded that Shelby bring me to
the wedding because she thinks we are dating.” Logan said to
him.

“
Wait. I feel like I am on
an episode of Beverly Hills 90210. Why did she tell him that you
two were dating?” Logan said to his brother.

“
You know how her mom is.
Her brother is married, her sister is engaged and somehow Shelby
being a single genius is a shame to the family,” Lance said to his
brother picking up a tool and twirling it and almost slapping
himself in the head with it.

Laughing, Logan shook his head. “Put
that down before you put yourself in the hospital. Why can’t you
just tell her parents you have a high profile job that will make a
lot of money? That ought to get the snootietons off her back,”
Logan said grabbing another stool in the garage to sit
on.

“
Come on, Logan!” Lance
said to his brother “I will let you drive my Porsche the entire
time I am gone. You and Gia can even stay at my townhouse, instead
of at Mom’s to give the switch authenticity,” Lance was smiling at
his brother with that sneaky smile. Lance knew how to push his
twin’s buttons. He knew he loved his brother’s Boxster GTS; the
stretched silhouette is sleek and wedge-shaped with the side air
intakes and 20-inch Carrera S wheels and dynamic 10-spoke design.
Logan always said that car is so sexy! Its fully electric roadster
top opens and closes in just nine seconds, and remains operable up
to a speed of 31 mph at the touch of a button. The unadulterated
Porsche sound blasts out of the black tailpipes of the sport
exhaust system.

“
You know that is a low
blow,” Logan said to him finishing off the beer. “Alright, I will
do it but she has to stop being a victim at some point in her life!
Are you going to tell her it’s me?” he said to his brother
pacing.

“
You know she knows us
both too well not tell her. Oh and by the way, tomorrow is a
pre-wedding formal dinner and she needs you to go!” Lance said to
him.

“
You mean you?”

“
Me, you same thing. Just
be nice to her, Oh, and have her back. She does not deserve the way
they treat her. She is ashamed about her weight and that she has
not lived up to their standards,” Lance said putting his empty beer
bottle in the recycle bin.

“
Wait… what about her
weight? I saw her last week and she still has curves to die for.
Maybe a better wardrobe could help but she is damn sexy,” Logan
said facing his brother.

“
Hmm… Well, maybe you
should tell her that tomorrow night. I am sure she should love to
hear it. I will call and let her know about the switch and leave
the keys to my baby in the townhouse. There better not be a scratch
on my baby when I come back, Logan,” Lance said pointing at his
brother.