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“Your arm isn’t bad enough to fall off now, is it?”
Tanner laughed. “No. I’m good.” He took the handkerchief from me and tucked it back into his pocket.
I showed him to his seat. I was a little worried he’d be bored as he waited for the wedding to start. He didn’t know anyone who would be here, but he assured me he’d be fine playing on his phone while I helped Lindsay.
My mother intercepted me in the hall. “Wonderful! You’re here.” She took my hands and held them out to give me a once-over. “And don’t you look lovely? I told Lindsay that this was the color. I love it when I’m right.” She smiled, but there was a vertical line between her brows that I knew meant something was worrying her.
“How are you feeling?” She leaned in close and studied me like she was looking for clues on my face.
“Fine, Mom. Great.”
She pulled back with an unsatisfied expression. “And is…Tanner…with you?”
What was the deal with everyone doing a giant pause around pronouncing Tanner’s name? His name wasn’t that unusual. First Isla, now Mom. “Yes, Mom. He’s my date. I brought him. You knew I was going to.”
She patted my hand. “Yes. Yes, I know. I just hoped, I mean, Ithoughtyou might have changed your mind. That’s all. There’s always time to make a change. You know, Josh is in town. But I won’t say a thing about that. It’s fine that you’re seeing…Tanner. Absolutely fine. I don’t want you to worry about it. Not at all. No one will think a thing about it.”
Wow. She really didn’t like Tanner. I’d never known her to take sides against someone like she had with him. It was so completely odd, too, considering she’d spent zero time in his actual company.
“Come meet him, Mom.” I took her hand and tugged her a step toward where I’d left Tanner. “You’ll like him once you get to know him. He’s really nice. And do you know he’s talking about visiting us in Atlanta for New Year’s? It’d be great if you could speak to him before that.”
My mother made a strangled sound in the back of her throat. “That’s okay, Margot. I don’t have time right now.” She let go of my hand and glanced down the hall as if assessing her exit points.
“Maybe at the reception,” I said.
“Heaven help us,” she murmured.
My gaze snapped to hers. “What?”
She patted my arm. “Oh, nothing, sweetie. Have you seen Josh yet? You know he’s supposed to walk you down the aisle.”
“What? No, he’s not. The maid of honor is supposed to walk down the aisle with the best man. I’m supposed to go with Brick.” Not that I was dying to walk down the aisle with Brick, but hadn’t Mom and Lindsay been all about protocol and tradition since the first stage of planning this thing?
She tapped her lip with her index finger. “Oh, we, uh, changed that. For the optics. Now Brick will walk down the aisle with Janet.”
My forehead puckered. “His sister? That’s weird.”
Mom clasped her hands together. “No, it’s not. It’s convenient. And, well, it’s a way to handle Janet.”
“Lucky Brick,” I said.
My mom’s eyes darted to mine, and we both giggled. She must have had her own tangles with Troy’s sister this week. “Well, you go on ahead.” She pointed me in the direction of the bride’s ready room. “You go see Lindsay. She wants to talk to you. I have to go find the minister and make sure he’s prepared”—she glanced at me with her worried look—“for everything.”
I bit my lip and headed in the direction she’d gestured to. The murmurs and cackling sounds of Lindsay’s bridesmaids floated out to me before I saw them. After a moment or two of eavesdropping, it dawned on me what I was hearing. They were arguing over which of the groomsmen was most hideous.
“Brick is so much worse than Lincoln.”
“No way. Lincoln is way worse than Brick. Did you see his nose hairs?”
“Ew! When were you looking at Lincoln’s nose hairs?”
“Last night. When I fell off the stool at the bar? Remember? He leaned over and asked me if I wanted another sex on the beach.”
“What an ass.”
“I know. But it’s so unfair that neither of us gets Josh. I mean Joshis—”
An appreciative moan cut her off. “He certainly is.”
