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I exhale a heavy breath. “Lead the way.” This time as we make our way to drop the news a second time, my chest is still tight, my heart is still beating its own form of a rock song in my chest, but my anger is intensified.
When we reach the restaurant, Liam’s parents and Miranda are all smiles until they see the look on our faces.
“What’s happened?” his mom asks.
Liam opens his mouth and quickly clamps his jaw shut, shaking his head. I clear my throat and drop the bomb on them. “Linc’s not coming.”
“What?” their dad asks. “What do you mean he’s not coming?”
“He called yesterday and said he was finally on the road, but this morning he called, and he’s not coming.”
“Was there an accident? Is he hurt? Sick?” his mom asks.
“He’s sick alright,” Liam seethes. “He knew,” he spits, barely containing his anger. “He knew he was going to do this and lied to us. Lied to her. He told her he was on his way, on the road, and headed here, but he was still in Charleston. He never planned to be here, and he waited until today to tell us.”
His mom covers her mouth, and her eyes are wide. His dad looks like he’s going to be in line behind Liam and me to kick Lincoln’s ass, and Miranda is just sitting there staring. “Charlie is with Audrey. The other ladies too,” I say. She nods. “They’re taking good care of her,” I reassure her. She simply nods again.
“Lincoln.” I hear a deep grumbling voice. I turn my head to see their dad with his phone to his ear. “What’s going on, son?” he asks. I watch as Mr. West’s face falls. He listens to what my best friend is saying on the other line. Time seems to stand still as he sits and listens. “I’ll see you at home.” Mr. West’s voice is hard as he ends the call and places his phone face down on the table.
“Well?” Liam asks him.
Mr. West shakes his head. “What do we need to do?” he asks instead of answering Liam’s question.
“I’m going to call the wedding planner and let her guide us.”
“We’ll help with anything that we can.” He looks at Miranda. “I am so sorry about all of this.”
She shrugs. “It’s not your fault. Things happen.” She takes a sip of her orange juice and pushes back from the table. “I’m going to go say hi to my nieces. I’ll be ready to leave when you are,” she tells them.
My jaw goes slack as I watch her lack of emotion. Is this what Audrey and Charlotte grew up with? I know they lost their parents years ago, from what Lincoln told me when all this wedding stuff started, and he told me I’d have to be working with Charlotte as she was the maid of honor. I didn’t ask questions, and now I wish that I had. Part of me wanted to hear it from Charlotte. I wanted her to tell me, even though I knew my chances of that happening were slim to none.
Ten years I’ve known her, and that beautiful, sassy woman has kept me on my toes the entire time. Shaking out of my thoughts, I send off a text to the wedding planner, and immediately my phone starts to ring.
“Spencer,” I answer.
“Are you pranking me?” she asks.
“I wish I were. He’s not here, and he’s not coming. The wedding is off. Tell me what I need to do.” I need this done and over so I can report back to Charlotte and, if I’m lucky, give her that hug that I’ve been craving since the moment I saw that tear roll down her cheek.
“Okay. I’ve got this,” the wedding planner replies.
“Do you have a list of guests’ room numbers?” She works for the resort, so I’m hoping she has a list or at least has access to a list.
“I do. I’m going to type up something so that we can slide it beneath their doors. It’s going to save time and keeps us from having to explain to everyone. I’ll just tell them the wedding will not be moving forward, and the family of both the bride and the groom send their deepest apologies and appreciate all of their love and support.”
“It was him,” I tell her.
“What?”
“Lincoln. He called it off. Audrey has nothing to apologize for.”
“Right, well, it’s my job not to choose sides, Mr. Pennington. I’m typing it up as we speak,” she says, and I can already hear her fingers flying across the keys of her laptop. “There.” She proceeds to read her statement, and although I hate that it sounds as if Audrey is apologizing, I agree that it’s sufficient for its purpose.
“That works. Now what?”
“These are printing, and I’ll get to work notifying the guests. If you have anyone who has not checked in yet, I’ll be sure that they are notified as well. If I remember correctly, everyone in attendance was staying at the resort, and there were no locals.”
“That’s correct.” I’m thankful for Charlotte and the fact that I listened when she talked during the planning of all of this to know the answer to that question.
