The Best Laid Plans (22 page)

“Hi, everybody, my name is Charlie. I’m the soon-to-be former neighbor and best man of this guy.” He motioned toward Max but didn’t look at him. He hadn’t looked at Max all through dinner. Emma could only assume it was because she was seated on the other side of him.

“I have watched this guy fall in love with this girl over the last year or so, and I can tell you that I’ve been a jealous man. I would love to have the kind of love they share.

“Of course, there are a million reasons why we all shouldn’t be here tonight. It’s crazy that these two found each other. It’s even crazier that they fell in love. But here’s what I know about love. Love doesn’t care who your dad is. It doesn’t care if you’re scared or if you’ve been hurt before. Love demands to be felt. Love fights to be heard.”

Emma’s throat tightened. Her love wanted to be heard. She tucked the pictures back in her clutch.

“These two trusted and believed and here we all are on this beautiful night celebrating their love. I raise my glass to you. To Max and his Special K. May you always feel the love. Today, tomorrow, forever.”

The sound of clinking glasses was followed by some applause for such a sweet and heartfelt speech. Kendall and Max both gave Charlie a hug as all eyes fell on Emma. She played with the worn edges of the paper that contained her speech and rose from her seat. The room fell silent and she didn’t have much time to consider her options.

Desperate times called for desperate measures.

“Hi, everybody.” She cleared her throat. This was going to be harder than she thought. She tossed her planned speech on the table. “My name is Emma. As most of you know, I’m Kendall’s younger sister. I had a speech. It was full of sweet little anecdotes about growing up with Kendall. I was going to address the elephant in the room and tell you about the first time I met Max and was rendered speechless because I was sure I was seeing a ghost. Then, it was going to end with a lovely wish for the happy couple. It was a solid speech, but it’s not the speech I’m going to give.”

“Oh, here we go,” Lucy said. She was sitting next to Charlie, and she leaned forward on her elbows to get a good view of Emma making a complete fool of herself.

But love didn’t care if you were a fool. It made you a fool.

“Kendall and Max are going to have a great marriage. I’m not worried about my sister one bit because Max isn’t just her husband, he’s her friend.” Emma tried to swallow but her mouth had dried up like the Sahara Desert. “I had a friend.”

“I wonder who that was,” Lucy whispered a little too loudly.

Emma ignored Lucy and focused all her attention on Charlie. “I had a friend who made me laugh, made me feel like I was pretty on those days when I was feeling anything but. He didn’t only compliment my looks, though. He made me feel smart and generous. He told me he liked my confidence.”

Charlie didn’t look away; his eyes stayed trained on her. It encouraged her to keep going.

“But what he didn’t know was that I’m not as confident as I seem. It was an illusion. See, I had this life plan, and what I was really confident in was that plan. The plan included meeting a handsome doctor and falling madly in love.”

She watched Charlie’s face crumble.
Just keep listening
, she wanted to say.

“I didn’t fall in love with a doctor, though. I fell in love with my friend.”

“Bam,” Lucy said with a giggle. Emma’s declaration made everyone a little giddy. Kendall’s smile cheered her on.

“I fell in love with him and it was real. The kind that makes you fall asleep thinking about him and wake up hoping you’re going to see him that day. The kind of love that makes you freak out. Makes you think you’ve maybe lost your mind because how can you possibly be in love with this person? That wasn’t the plan. That wasn’t how you imagined your life was going to be, but there it was—a love demanding to be heard, demanding to be felt. And I felt it.”

Emma stepped behind Max and Kendall and made her way over to Charlie, who stood up as she approached. Her heart thundered in her chest as the rest of the room fell away. He was the only one who mattered. She took a risk and reached for his hand.

“I screwed up and I’ll probably screw up again because I have no idea what I’m doing. But I do know that I am in love with you. I have been in love with you since the first time you called me Nightingale. I was in love with you when you played jump rope with the O’Reilly girls. I was in love with you when you talked me into crashing that wedding and made some sweet widow’s night by dancing with her like her late husband had. I was in love with you when you kissed me on my sister’s couch. And I am in love with you right now.”

Emma placed a hand on his chest and felt his heart pounding as hard and fast as hers.

“You can give up on me if that’s what you think you have to do, but don’t do it because you think I don’t love you. I will
never
love anyone as much as I love you, Charlie Fletcher.”

The silence in the room was deafening. It was possible that all the guests were holding their breath, waiting for Charlie to respond. He let go of her hand and cupped her cheek. Leaning forward, it was their foreheads that touched first.

“Do you really mean it?” he whispered.

“Every word.”

“Then I’m going to trust you, because I love you, too, Nightingale.”

Their lips connected and the entire room went wild. The hooting and hollering continued even after the kiss ended.

“To Kendall and Max!” Emma shouted, raising her empty hand in the air. Kendall handed her a glass of champagne and they toasted not to one love, but two.

The reception took on a completely different life after Emma made her declaration. She and Charlie danced and she introduced him to everyone in her extended family.

“That was probably the most interesting speech I’ve ever heard at a wedding,” her aunt Debbie said when they stopped at her table.

“Definitely will be the one I’ll never forget,” Charlie said. His arm was wrapped securely around Emma’s waist. Nothing had ever felt so right.

“Emma’s a good girl, but a lot like my sister, her mother. She’s a fighter. She wasn’t going to let you get away, you cute thing.” After everything that had happened today, this was what officially embarrassed her.

“Emma, Charlie.” They turned and Owen snapped a picture of them with an old Polaroid camera. The photo popped out and he handed it to them with a marker. “I love this thing. Great idea.”

Emma’s plan had been to have guests take pictures of themselves and write a note to Max and Kendall on the bottom of the photo. Charlie shook theirs until the image developed.

“You want to write something or should I?” he asked.

“I’m pretty sure they’ve heard enough from me for one night.”

Charlie laughed and set the Polaroid on the table. He scribbled something down, but she couldn’t see.

“What’s it say?”

Charlie picked it up and held it out for her. Emma was careful to only touch the white edges. What he wrote at the bottom filled her heart with joy and her eyes with tears.

Best. Wedding. Ever. Love, Charlie and his Nightingale.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“O
H
MY
GOSH
,
when did you guys take this picture?” Emma pulled the oversize family photograph down off the mantel.

Charlie peeked over her shoulder. That photographer had not been lying when she said she was a whiz with Photoshop. Every single person in his big, crazy family was smiling and looking at the camera. That did not happen in real life.

“This was the weekend of my dad’s retirement party. There’s Becca when she was a huge pregnant lady.”

“A huge pregnant lady who kicked your butt in a hotel hallway, as I recall,” Becca said from the rocking chair where she was nursing little Logan Charles, otherwise known as Lo’ Charlie, thanks to his favorite uncle.

Logan was born two days before Halloween at a whopping eight pounds six ounces. His mother delivered the big guy in record time, as if she’d been having babies her whole life. He had no hair but a giant set of lungs.

Everyone in the family, even the ones who usually spent Thanksgiving elsewhere, flew to Denver for Turkey Day and Logan’s christening. Charlie had brought Emma to meet them all. His sisters were excited to meet the woman who had stolen their little brother’s heart, but it was Becca whose opinion mattered the most. So far, it seemed as if the two of them were on their way to becoming fast friends.

“You fought a pregnant lady? That’s not cool.”

“No, I didn’t fight a pregnant lady, hence why she won.”

“That’s how you want to play this?” Becca challenged.

“Oh, now you want me to fight a lady holding a baby. Yeah, real fair.”

“I’ll hold the baby for you if you want to take this outside,” Emma offered Becca.

“Nice, you’ve officially turned my girlfriend against me. I should have come by myself.”

“Next time, just send her,” Candice said, joining in. “We like her better, anyway.”

Emma took pity on him and kissed his pouting lips. She understood what it was like to be the baby of the family. They were always the one getting picked on.

His sisters let out a collective “Awww.”

Charlie knew he should have gone with the guys and kids skiing. He had been worried about leaving Emma alone with his sisters, but apparently she fit right in.

Becca handed Lo’ Charlie over to Emma even though there was no longer a need to fight. Emma patted his little back and pressed kisses to the side of his fuzzy head. The kid had a head like a peach. It was so fun to rub.

If it was possible to fall more in love with Emma, seeing her with a baby in her arms did it. There was nothing Charlie wanted more than to be her husband and the father of her children. He was keeping that to himself for the time being. They were just getting used to the boyfriend/girlfriend titles.

“She’s a natural, Charlie,” Mandy said, watching him watch Emma.

“I can’t wait until my sister has her baby,” Emma said.

Kendall and Max had wasted no time once they were married. Kendall was due in May, the same month Max was opening Gianna’s Cucina. Pete had retired from the fire department and let Max talk him into being partners. It allowed Max to turn over Sato’s to the owner’s son and gave Max a bigger piece of the financial pie. More money meant he could buy the house from Bad Daddy the way he wanted.

“Is it her first?” Candice asked.

“She has a son and a stepson. She was so far away when she had my nephew that I didn’t get a lot of time with him when he was little.” She gazed down at the baby. “But the next one is going to get spoiled rotten by Aunt Emma. Yes, she is. Yes, she is.” She spoke in that voice all people resorted to when they talked to an infant.

Logan smiled and made a noise that was a cross between a giggle and a burp.

“Did he just laugh?” Mandy flew to Emma’s side.

“He smiled at you. That was his first smile,” Becca said.

Kristin also hovered over Emma, trying desperately to get Logan to smile again. It became another one of their fierce competitions. Neither would stop until that baby smiled at one of them.

“Here, let me hold him,” Kristin said, trying to take him out of Emma’s arms.

“No, let me take him. You want to come to Aunt Mandy?” she asked the baby who was never going to answer her.

“Oh, I think he smiled at me,” Kristin claimed.

Mandy rolled her eyes. “No, he didn’t.”

Poor Emma didn’t know what to do. Logan did. He showed off those lungs and began to wail.

“You made him cry,” Kristin accused Mandy.

“I made him cry? You’re the one who’s getting in his face and breathing that dragon breath all over him. What did you eat for lunch? An entire clove of garlic?”

Becca got up and pushed her sisters aside to rescue her child. Emma handed Logan back to his mom with an apology she didn’t owe.

“Would you two stop scaring my son? You’re both so overwhelming. I can barely stand it and I’m a grown woman.”

That started the next argument. Who was more overwhelming and overbearing? Candice refused to take a side.

Emma sneaked back over by Charlie, who wrapped his arm around her. He liked it when they were touching. Being able to feel her hand in his reassured him this was all real. Emma had really chosen him.

“Everyone was on their best behavior. I should have known it wouldn’t last,” he whispered, leaving a little kiss on the shell of her ear.

“Are they always like this?”

“Always.”

Kristin was not happy about Candice’s refusal to choose who was right. She stormed out of the room in search of their mother, who she was sure would side with her on the matter.

“As long as they don’t gang up on me, I think I can handle it.”

“You’re safe.” He squeezed her a little tighter. “At least, I hope so.”

The fear on her face made him laugh. Too bad he wasn’t kidding.

* * *

T
HE
MEN
AND
CHILDREN
all returned with red cheeks and cold toes. Charlie’s mom cooked them up a hot chili dinner and then sent them back to the hotel. Becca and John’s house was not big enough to allow for more than two guests, and Charlie and Emma were the lucky ones.

Everyone hit the hay pretty early. Emma slept in the spare bedroom and Charlie got the couch. Becca hung out with him while she nursed Logan one more time before bed.

“I’m surprised it took until Friday for the first big fight,” Charlie said. “I thought my sisters had been kidnapped by aliens yesterday when they were all getting along.”

“I drugged the turkey.”

He sat straight up. “You didn’t.”

“I didn’t.” Becca smirked. “But I thought about it.”

Charlie lay back down and pulled the sleeping bag up under his chin. “Emma thinks everyone is great.”

“Good, so our plan to trick her is working.”

“Ha-ha.”

Becca moved Logan to burp him. “I’m kidding. I think everyone thinks she’s pretty great, too.”

“Everyone including you?” This was the first time they’d been alone to talk about her impressions.

“She watches you when she’s on one side of the room and you’re on the other. And she gets this look on her face.” Becca got all dreamy-eyed and smiled like a love-struck teenager.

He would have thrown his pillow at her if she wasn’t holding a baby. “She does not.”

“Okay, maybe not that lovesick, but she’s pretty smitten. I like that about her. She also talks about you like you are the best thing that’s ever happened to her. I like that, too. You deserve to be the object of someone’s infatuation.”

“What else do you like about her?”

“She’s funny and actually smart, not pretend smart. She doesn’t just rattle off things she’s heard on the news. She has real opinions and isn’t afraid to state them.”

Charlie hadn’t realized Becca was paying such close attention. “You learned all that in two days with five hundred people in your house?”

“She’s been a quiet help. She swoops in and offers to change Logan’s diaper. She picks up after the kids destroy a room. She and I have chatted during those times.”

Charlie hadn’t noticed, but that was so Emma. “So, do I have your approval?”

“To date her or marry her?” Becca asked. She was very perceptive.

“Well, you’re too late to have a say in the dating part. But I know I want to marry her, so your blessing would be nice to have.”

“Oh! My baby brother is going to get married.”

“Shh! I’m not asking her until I know she’s ready. So, don’t go making any comments or dropping any hints. This is not happening anytime soon.”

“She’s ready,” Becca said. “Did you see her with this little guy today? She can act like she’s excited about a niece or nephew, but she is really excited to be a mom. Not to mention she
loooooooves
you.”

They were suddenly eight and thirteen again and Charlie had made the big mistake of telling Becca he had a crush on Megan Waters from his third-grade class. Only, unlike Megan Waters, who only wanted the Oreo cookies from Charlie’s lunch box, Emma really did love him.

“I’m crazy in love with her.”

His sister smiled knowingly. “I can tell.”

“Why didn’t you tell me love was this good? Being in love is pretty much the best thing ever.”

“I didn’t want to rub it in when you were a swinging single. I had to wait for you to find out for yourself. I’m happy for you, Charlie.”

“And I’m happy for you. That baby looks good on you.”

Becca gazed lovingly down on her sleeping son. So many years of disappointment and sadness seemed like nothing but a distant memory when he was in her arms. “Wait till you experience
this
kind of love. There is no adjective big enough for this kind of love.”

Charlie couldn’t wait. “You better put him down and get some sleep. Kristin and Mandy will be here bright and early ready to see who can make little Lo’ Charlie smile like he smiled at my girl.”

Becca carefully stood up. “Like nephew, like uncle. Good night, Charlie.”

Falling asleep was easy now that he had his sister’s approval. He was dreaming about babies and weddings and babies having baby weddings when someone shook him awake.

“Charlie, wake up.” His Nightingale was kneeling on the floor next to him.

“What’s the matter?” he asked groggily.

“There’s a moose outside my window. It keeps making this weird noise, like it knows I’m in there. I’m freaking out. Can you chase it away or something?”

Becca lived in the mountains. Anything was possible, including a peeping moose.

“Um...” Charlie sat up and tried to think clearly. “I have no idea how to chase a moose away. Do you?”

Emma giggled and sat down. “I’ve lived in Chicago my whole life except for when I lived in Milwaukee. Neither is known for its moose population. Maybe go out there and throw a snowball at it.”

“Do they even have moose at that Lincoln Park Zoo? What do you call more than one moose? Mooses? Or is it like goose and geese. Moose and meese?”

Emma smacked him on the thigh. “I don’t know, but there is a real moose,
one
moose, outside my bedroom window.”

Charlie couldn’t help laughing. “Okay, okay. Where’s my phone?” It was too dark for him to see anything on the coffee table. Emma handed him hers, which she had been using as a makeshift flashlight.

He smiled at her lock screen, which was a picture of the two of them from a couple months ago. Her hair was so much shorter then. Tonight, she had her chin-length locks tucked behind her ears.

“Stop staring at us and find out how to chase a moose away!” Emma whisper-yelled.

Charlie began his search for getting rid of a moose. The Alaska Moose Federation came up first in his search. Their name led him to believe they knew a lot about moose and hopefully how to get rid of them. “Rule number one, ‘
Never
throw snowballs or rocks at a moose.’ Good thing I didn’t listen to you.”

“I told you I was clueless. I could have gotten you killed. I’m sorry.” She kissed his cheek.

“Rule number two, ‘Don’t feed him.’ Good to know. I thought about throwing some carrots to lure him away. Guess that also would have got me killed.”

“We would be really bad at living in the mountains,” Emma said so seriously that it made him laugh again. “Seriously, we need to stay put in the city.”

The Alaskans didn’t have any advice on what to do, just what not to do. He went back to the search and found a question/answer site where someone was wondering, “How do you scare a moose away?” Sounded like what he needed.

Someone answered that they threw rocks and sticks but it didn’t work. Those people obviously hadn’t read the rules before trekking out into the mountains. There were absolutely no good answers. Although, Charlie did chuckle at the guy who suggested, “Flap your arms and say get off my lawn!”

Apparently, moose were not easy to get rid of. Most of the advice was to sit still and wait for the animal to move on.

“I think you’re gonna have to wait him out. He’ll move on eventually. If I go out there, I’m dead.”

Emma tilted her head and was probably giving him that look she gave him when he said ridiculous things. He couldn’t say for sure because it was dark.

“Come on, talk to me and then I’ll make sure the moose is gone and tuck you in. Didn’t you think my sisters were way scarier than any moose could ever be?”

“I like your sisters. Although, I have a newfound appreciation for your patience and understanding. I do not know how you came out of your parents’ house alive. I thought two sisters was a lot to deal with. Four would have put me in an early grave. That’s a lot of estrogen in one house.”

“There were times I didn’t think I was going to make it.”

Emma rested her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her. “They’ve all been really nice to me. It’s weird not being with my family for the holidays, but your family has made me feel welcome.”

“Good, I’m glad you feel that way.” He kissed the top of her head.

“I was afraid they wouldn’t like me. Especially Candice. After everything that happened back in June—”

He quickly covered her mouth with his hand. “No talking about June.”