Wedding Date for Hire

by Jennifer Shirk

  “The bartender won’t serve me,” she shouted over the music. “And you didn’t answer my question. Are you saying I’m difficult to be with?”

  He shook his head. “Not at all, Maddie. I’m sorry I said anything.” Then he gave her one last pitying look and walked away.

  Good riddance. She didn’t want to hear Ryan’s opinion anyway. What did he know? Maddie made her way through the crowd and back to the bar. She didn’t want to feel anymore, just wanted to blend in and forget. She flopped down on a stool and hoped she could get a drink. But the bartender saw it was her and immediately placed a club soda in front of her.

  Everyone was against her tonight.

  She made a face. “Thank you.”

  “You will be thanking me,” he said with a smirk before waiting on a couple at the other end.

  “Doubt that,” she muttered, scowling at the fizzing glass.

  “What do you doubt, dear?” her mother said, sitting down next to her.

  Everything. But mostly myself. “I doubt I’ll ever be as lucky as Louise,” she answered instead.

  Her gaze wandered to her sister. Louise and Michael were talking to Aunt Marie. They were both nodding and laughing, enjoying the celebration. Just the way Maddie had hoped the night would turn out for her sister.

  Her mom wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “I haven’t seen Trent since the ceremony,” she said gently. “Is he feeling okay?”

  Maddie swallowed. This was her chance to continue the lie. To save face. Her mother had practically dropped the excuse right in her lap. She could tell everyone that Trent had become ill and had to go back to the house. Easy peasy and no one would be the wiser.

  “Yes, Trent wasn’t feeling…” She gulped hard. “His complexion was really…” She could feel her throat closing up. She looked up at her mom as a hot tear slipped down her cheek.

  “Oh, honey, what is it?”

  “Mom, I got scared. And now Trent’s gone. Just like Dad.”

  Her mom ran a hand down her arm. “Honey, you can’t compare the two.”

  “Then why isn’t Dad here on Louise’s big day? She told me she invited him to the wedding. Does he really want so little to do with us? I don’t understand what we did to drive him away.”

  “You didn’t do anything.”

  “Then why did he leave us? The curse?”

  Her mom pfffd, flopping her wrist in the air. “He didn’t leave because of any curse. He left because I told him to leave.”

  “What?”

  “I’m sorry. I suppose you girls were old enough to hear the truth years ago, but I wanted to give your father a chance to become sober.”

  Maddie took a steadying breath. Almost couldn’t say the words. “Dad is an alcoholic?”

  “I’m afraid so. When you girls were little, he was more of a binge drinker. I thought he had some sort of control over it. But then it got away from him, and he started drinking even on the days he had to work. When he made it to work.”

  “Oh, gosh, I never noticed anything out of the ordinary.”

  “You weren’t supposed to. I was careful to shield those things from you and Louise. Made sure you had playdates away from the house when he had a particularly bad bout. Even made sure he stayed overnight in a motel if he’d been drinking and needed to dry out. Needless to say, it was exhausting and getting harder and harder to hide, so I finally had to give him an ultimatum. Us or the alcohol.”

  “And he didn’t choose us,” she said softly.

  Her mom shook her head. “I was afraid he’d lose his job if they found out, so I just let people think he left us for other reasons. He wanted to be here today, though. Although he’s been in and out of rehab, he still can’t seem to stay sober for too long after. I know he’s embarrassed.”

  “Oh, Mom. All this time. I thought maybe it had been me. That stupid curse.”

  “Never, honey. It was him. But don’t doubt that he loved you. Love all of us.”

  The truth settled in, and she let it churn in her mind. It looked like Trent had a point, after all. Had she lived her life hiding behind the excuse of that curse? She threw it in Trent’s face enough times. Well, maybe it was time for her to stop hiding.

  From everyone.

  “Mom, I have a confession to make.”

  “What is it?”

  A loud amplified whistle cut through the air. “Ladies and gentlemen, may I please have your attention?” Maddie looked at the far end of the room and saw one of the band members beckoning her to come to the stage. Ryan was there waiting with a note card in his hand ready to give his best-man speech.

  Maddie hugged her mom. “Never mind. It’ll come out soon enough.”

  The band leader smiled at her as she approached. “Let’s give it up for the maid of honor, Maddie McCarthy, folks!” Applause and hoots erupted from the crowd.

  Maddie cleared her throat and took the microphone. “Good evening, everyone. I had something prepared but sometimes you have to go with the moment, so humor me. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Louise’s older sister. And for those of you who do know me, you’re probably wondering how I ever got this job.” Laughter punctuated the comment, which she nodded to recognize. “Yes, I’m hardly the love expert in the family, but that doesn’t mean a person has to give up hope of finding that special someone. Someone you take a leap of faith with and trust with all your heart. My sister didn’t give up, and I’m thrilled she found a man who complements her so perfectly. My relationship with Louise is very special to me, so I would never give her up to anyone who I didn’t think was worthy of her love and worthy of her trust. I look forward to the future for these two. Louise and Michael seem to have that certain something about them. I didn’t fully understand until I experienced a taste of that feeling myself. But now I know that theirs truly will be a match made in heaven. So ladies and gentlemen, can I ask that you join me in toasting the bride and groom by raising your glasses. To Michael and Louise, all the happiness in the world.”

  Everyone in the room raised their glass then drank. She handed the microphone to Ryan and stepped off the stage. Glancing at Trent’s empty seat at the table, she felt her stomach sink. She had wanted Trent out of her life, but now she wondered if she truly had made the right decision to push him away.

  “Where are you going, hunk?”

  Trent lowered his suitcase to the ground and rubbed his hand over his jaw. “The name is Trent, Marie.”

  Maddie’s aunt Marie grinned up at him. “I know.” She glanced at his suitcase and frowned. “You’re picking a funny time to leave. You haven’t even danced with your Maddie yet.”

  His Maddie. Yeah, that was hardly the case.

  After Maddie gave him the boot at the church, his only option was to go back to the house, pack, and quietly leave. He hadn’t planned on running into family. He figured everyone would be at the reception by now.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  She held up a prescription vial and shook it like a maraca. “Can’t forget the old heart pills. Which I obviously did. The limo driver was kind enough to take me to the house. He’s waiting now, so you can ride back with me.”

  Trent shook his head. “I’m not going to the reception.”

  Marie grabbed her heart, which automatically had him pulling out his cell phone in case he needed to dial 911. “Why on earth not? Maddie needs you.”

  “Needs me for what? I’m sure the best man will dance with her.”

  Marie harrumphed. “That girl doesn’t need a temporary dance partner. She needs a partner for life. And he is not it.”

  “I’m not it, either.”

  “You don’t love Maddie?” She huffed out another breath. “Could have fooled me.”

  “I—” He wanted to refute Marie’s statement. But he honestly didn’t know what he felt for Maddie—besides that he missed her already and felt sick every time he remembered that she wasn’t going to be a part of his life anymore.

  “That�
��s what I thought,” she stated matter-of-factly.

  He wearily sat down on his luggage. “You don’t understand. She doesn’t want to see me. We fought, and she told me to leave. And don’t tell me it’s because of that stupid curse, because I know for a fact it isn’t.”

  Marie patted his back. “I know there isn’t a curse.”

  He looked up through narrowed eyes. “You do?”

  “Oh yes. I just humored the poor girl. She wanted something to blame for her bad decision-making so I let her do just that.”

  “Good grief,” he moaned. He wished Maddie’s family had told that information to Maddie months ago. “Well, there’s nothing I can do about our relationship, anyway. She won’t listen.”

  Marie flicked her wrist with a little shrug, sending the army of bracelets on her arm clanking. “My dear boy, there are more ways to apologize to a woman than by mere words alone.”

  He thought it over a minute then stood. Taking Marie’s fragile hand into his own, he kissed the back of it. “You are a very wise woman,” he told her.

  Marie blushed. “Yes, I know. And I do hope that is one thing that does run in the family.”

  “Yeah.” He smiled and sent her a slow wink. “Me, too.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Maddie rolled over in bed, wishing she had the forethought to pack pain reliever with her. Between the two tequila drinks and the on-again-off-again crying bout she had last night, her head felt like it was wrapped in a tourniquet.

  I should only be so lucky.

  A banging at the door had her burrowing under the covers. “Go away,” she moaned.

  “Maddie, open up,” Sabrina said through the door. “Your mom wanted me to check on you, and I can’t give her a full report until I see you with my own two eyes.”

  Maddie raised her aching head and threw back the covers. “All right, hold on.” She shuffled over to the door, a hand pressed up against her forehead, feeling as if that would prevent her brain from oozing out.

  When Maddie swung open the door, Sabrina made a face. “You look like what I threw up for breakfast.”

  “Do me a favor and don’t mention that when you report to my mom.”

  Sabrina closed the door behind her. “I brought you some aspirin to make you feel better.” She held out her palm and a glass of water in the other hand.

  Maddie took the pills for her headache. However, with Trent gone and her life in disarray, she doubted she would ever truly feel better.

  “Honey, I know what you’re going through. I didn’t think I could feel any lonelier than the time I spent when I pushed Jack away.”

  Maddie shook her head and sat down.

  “I’m sorry, Maddie.”

  “Not half as sorry as I am.” She flopped backward on the bed. “I was obviously right about him, which makes me feel so much worse.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She sighed. “Trent wasted no time in leaving once I told him I didn’t need him at the wedding any longer and that I considered his contract fulfilled, so I really was just a job he was doing for his cousin.”

  “Hmm…then why did he leave you a check?” she asked.

  Her head popped up. “What check?”

  Sabrina slid the paper out from under her hairbrush on the bureau and held it up. “This check.”

  “Let me see.” She grabbed it from her hand and stared at the amount. Trent had written it out for the entire three thousand dollars she had paid Match Made Easy. Why would he do that?

  She looked at Sabrina. “I can’t believe he paid for himself,” she whispered.

  Her friend arched an eyebrow. “I can’t believe you paid three thousand dollars. I should look into that profession.”

  “Yeah, and your husband would kill us both.” She glanced at the check again and saw a sticky note attached.

  Left a message at Michael’s office. Told him Fenway Park advertising off.

  Trent

  As she stared at his words, her heart began to hammer. Oh my gosh. This really proved what Trent had been trying to tell her. That she wasn’t just a job to him. He took back the advertising—everything—to show her he was telling her the truth. The paper check she held between her fingers felt heavy and cumbersome as she recalled how he’d told her he needed money to pay off the loans to his gym. He sacrificed everything—including his own business. She felt even more foolish for firing him. Because he asked her to take a chance on him, trust him, and she turned her back.

  What had she done?

  “I have to find him,” she murmured, her mind racing. “I can start with his gym.”

  “Or you can start with his address,” Sabrina said, pointing to the check.

  “Ah. Even better.” She tossed the check on the bureau and raced toward the bathroom. “I’m jumping in the shower now. Tell Jack to pack up the car and be ready in thirty minutes. I don’t have a car so you guys will have to drive me.”

  “Wow, you ready in less than an hour?” Sabrina folded her arms with a smirk. “It must be love.”

  Maddie stopped at the bathroom door and grinned. “I don’t know if it’s love. But for the first time in my life, I’m willing to take a chance and find out.”

  “What do you want me to tell your mom?”

  Maddie cringed. Her mom. Her family. They needed to know the truth, too. If she were really to stop hiding from this so-called curse and face Trent, she needed to face them first. Or else her words to him would be meaningless.

  Maddie squared her shoulders as her resolve pushed through to the surface. “Tell my mom I’ll be down for brunch as soon as I get dressed.”

  Maddie grabbed a glass of orange juice and tossed it back like it was the tequila from last night.

  “Um, good morning, sweetie,” her mom said, kissing her cheek. “Sleep well?”

  She picked up another glass of juice and gave her mom a look. “What do you think?”

  “That you could use one of these,” she said, holding out a plate of doughnuts.

  Her mouth watered, but now was not the time to indulge her sorrows in sugar and fat—no matter how much she was tempted. She needed to get some things off her chest first. “No thanks, Mom. I’m not hungry.”

  “Is it because it’s bothering you that people are asking where Trent is?”

  Maddie glanced around the room filled with family and the wedding party minus the bride and groom. Everybody was so busy enjoying the brunch and hospitality of Michael’s parents that no one noticed that she was even here. “No, but I suppose I should offer an explanation to them, anyway. The truth.”

  Her mom frowned. “What truth?”

  “You’ll soon find out.”

  “Are you sure you want to do that, dear?”

  She pressed a hand to her stomach, waiting for the knots to untie. “Yeah, I’m sure. It’s about time.”

  She walked over to the microphone stand that was left from the engagement party and flipped it on. “Hello? Testing one-two-three.” Her booming voice settled the room quickly.

  When she had everyone’s attention, she raised her hand in a weak wave. “Uh, hi. I just wanted to thank Mr. and Mrs. Lyons for being such wonderful hosts. Even though they’re Louise’s in-laws, they feel like family to me, too, and I hope to find someone as wonderful as Michael someday as well. I haven’t yet. But that’s okay. Or actually, I might have met someone but I pushed him away before I could really find out.”

  Everyone just stared at her. Oh Lord, she was babbling. She licked her lips and decided to keep going while she still had the courage. “For years, people have thought there was a WD-40 curse in our family. That we had a knack for displacing men out of our lives. I was even starting to believe it myself. So to prove you all wrong, I hired a wedding date to come here with me.”

  “I knew it!” Veronica yelled from the back of the room. Out of the corner of Maddie’s eye, she saw Aunt Lois elbow her in the ribs.

  Maddie smothered a grin. “Well, I want to set the record s
traight once and for all, because I realized some things yesterday at the wedding. One, I’m never going to drink tequila again. And two, there actually is a curse. But it’s not the WD-40 Effect and it doesn’t apply to any other woman in the family. That’s because I’ve been my own curse. I’ve been the one who’s been wrongly affecting my own love life. But not anymore.”

  Dead silence filled the air.

  Okay, not as popular as the maid of honor speech, she mused. But at least she got what she wanted to say off her chest and acknowledged that she was the one who caused her relationships to fail. She was the one who was in control of her own life.

  As sucky as it was.

  She was about to turn off the mic, then added, “Thanks for listening.”

  She gazed over at Jack and Sabrina and nodded to them to let them know she was ready to leave. Her insides felt ten times lighter with the truth out on the table. No one could pity her anymore now that she and everyone else knew she was the one in control. The next step was to find Trent to tell him that, too.

  And officially break her own curse.

  “I’m really sorry, Trent. I think I only made things worse for you with Maddie by what I told her.”

  Trent turned off the faucet where he was planning to give his dog a bath and shook his head. “It’s okay. I doubt what you said really mattered that much, anyway.”

  When Kennedy had relayed to him the conversation she had with Maddie the day her check bounced, he’d just about fallen to his knees. But Kennedy hadn’t known things were getting personal with Maddie. She was just trying to make Match Made Easy look better by pretending Trent was so good at his escort job. Not that what Kennedy had said about him carried much weight. He still felt Maddie was looking for any opportunity to push him away before she grew too attached. Blaming the curse was just an easy out.

  Kennedy wrung her hands. “Maybe I should talk to her.”

  “No, but thanks,” he said, raking a hand through his hair. “I’ll try and call her once she’s home from the wedding. By the way, I’m sorry if I blew your advertising gig with Michael.”

  She shrugged. “I was kind of acting like a psycho-bully chief executive anyway, but only because I knew you needed your money back. I’m sorry I put you in the position that I did. I want my business to succeed, but not if it messes up your life.”