by Susan Hatler
The Wedding Charm
by
Susan Hatler
The Wedding Charm
Copyright © 2017 by Susan Hatler
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this book. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
License Notes
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Titles by Susan Hatler
The Wedding Whisperer Series
My Wedding Date
The Wedding Charm
The Wedding Match
The Wedding Bet
Kissed by the Bay Series
Every Little Kiss
The Perfect Kiss
Just One Kiss
The Sweetest Kiss
A Christmas Kiss
All About That Kiss
Better Date than Never Series
Love at First Date
Truth or Date
My Last Blind Date
Save the Date
A Twist of Date
License to Date
Driven to Date
Up to Date
Déjà Date
Date and Dash
Treasured Dreams Series
An Unexpected Date
An Unexpected Kiss
An Unexpected Love
An Unexpected Proposal
An Unexpected Wedding
An Unexpected Joy
An Unexpected Baby
Young Adult Novels
Shaken
See Me
The Crush Dilemma
Dedication
To Melissa Cunningham, my devoted reader and wonderful friend, who inspired a little fun in this book. You know which part. Xoxo.
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The Wedding Charm
by
Susan Hatler
Chapter One
As my best friend’s maid of honor, I should be thrilled she was about to tie the knot with the love of her life, but my joy had been tainted since they’d announced the best man would be my childhood nemesis, Ben Atkins. The same guy who had dubbed me “dimples” in the first grade, even though I used to cover the sides of my mouth to hide them. The same guy who had pulled my ponytails all through elementary school, even after I’d asked him to stop. The same guy who got elected president in high school when I had wanted to be the president.
The same guy I’d had a crush on for the past decade.
Yeah, love was fair. Not.
My feelings for Ben were beyond ridiculous since the guy liked to show me up every chance he got. I wasn’t being paranoid, either. Senior year, Ben’s prom theme won out over mine. I mean, what guy has an interest in a prom theme?
To give myself a little pick-me-up tonight, I’d splurged on a fabulous black dress for the rehearsal dinner. The v-neckline was flattering, yet elegant. My black, strappy, open-toed heels displayed my new French pedicure. And I’d left my raven hair down and brushed back in sleek waves. I may be nervous at having to see Ben, yet again, but at least I looked good.
I entered the ballroom of the Geoffries hotel for the wedding rehearsal, scanning the grand room for my best friend, Jill, or one of her bridesmaids, Kristen, Ginger, or Avery. Before I could find one of them, my gaze unwittingly stopped on the group of guys standing by the front row of chairs—or, more specifically, my gaze froze on the guy in the center of the group.
My heart did a little flip.
Ben Atkins had classic good looks that would fit perfectly in any Ralph Lauren ad. He’d styled his thick sandy-brown hair back, his hair buzzed shorter at the sides. The outside corners of his almond-brown eyes crinkled in an adorable way as he smiled at something a groomsman said. I noted how he’d grown from a gawky high school geek to a tall, broad-shouldered man with muscles that would make most women swoon.
But he’d never noticed me in a swoon-worthy way. All he’d ever done was tease me. Sigh.
“Hey, Sarah. Who are you staring at?” Avery Summers, my friend and fellow bridesmaid, came up beside me as I stood in the entryway of the ballroom, admiring Ben. “Oh, the best man. Thinking of making a move?” she asked.
“No.” I shook my head, even though my belly fluttered at the thought of dating Ben. Or kissing Ben. . . Shaking my head to clear that last thought, I turned to Avery. “Ben and I actually go way back to elementary school.”
She raised a brow. “Oh, really?”
I waved my hands. “Not in a good way. Ben used to tease me when we were kids. Then in high school, he became pretty competitive with me. He probably arrived early tonight just to beat me.”
Avery laughed. “I’m sure you’re exaggerating.”
“Maybe, or maybe not.” I smiled, holding a finger up. “I’m not competitive by nature, but he brings out this annoying side of me every time I’m around him. For example, Jill and Ryan invited Ben and me out to dinner last week. We gushed about the wedding, the honeymoon, and everything seemed to be going well. At the end of the night, I reached for the check, but Ben snatched it away from me and paid before I could pull out my wallet. So irritating!”
She held her palms up. “He bought you dinner? The man should be shot.”
“Buying dinner for everyone is nice,” I said, conceding that point. “But I’d reached for the check first because I’d wanted to treat everyone to dinner. He literally snatched the check from my hand. It’s like he wanted to show me up, or something. The man is just so pigheaded.”
“Hot. The word to describe him is hot.” Avery smacked her lips. “I’ve never seen you so hot and bothered over a guy before. Maybe he’s so competitive because he likes you.”
My stomach churned. “You wouldn’t say that if you knew what he did to me in high school.”
“What did he do to you?” she asked, her tone suggesting something romantic had gone on between us. Fat chance.
“Senior year, I spent weeks creating an accurate replica of an active volcano and then the night of the science fair, he . . .” I sucked in a deep breath and every muscle in my body tightened as my mind flipped back to that awful day. “He ruined the molten lava flowing from my volcano by turning the lava from orange to green with some kind of permanent dye.”
“Green?” Avery made a snorting noise like she was trying to hold in a laugh.
“Yes, green.” I shook my head, glancing across the room at Ben. As if he sensed me watching, his head turned my way and he locked eyes with me. My tummy fluttered, but I drew my brows together. The corner of his mouth hitched up. I quickly turned back to Avery. “I was horrified that he’d ruined my project. Who ever heard of sour apple-colored molten lava?”
“How do you know Ben’s the one who tampe
red with it?”
“I was setting my display up hours before the science fair. He and my boyfriend were the only ones in the gym at the time, so it had to be him. I was really depressed about it and my boyfriend dumped me on prom night, claiming I wasn’t fun anymore. Good times.”
“Ouch,” she said.
“Seriously not my favorite time in life.” I gave her a meaningful look. “I would’ve won the competition, the award, and the prize scholarship if it weren’t for Ben. Instead, everything went to Kenny Carlisle with his lame cloud in the bottle experiment.”
“Cloud in a bottle? That sounds cool.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not cool. Everyone knows you can’t have a cloud in a bottle.” I raised my hand up high as if measuring the height of a cloud. “Cloud up high in the atmosphere. Fog down low.” I lowered my hand. “Condensed water vapor in a bottle? Not a cloud.”
“Um, who cares what he called it?”
“Apparently not the judges because Kenny got the scholarship.” My gaze dropped to the ground as the phantom fear washed through me, the fear that I wouldn’t be able to afford college tuition. I’d wanted to go so badly, too. “During my senior year of high school, my uncle got sick and my parents had to help him financially. So, I had to pay my own way through college and that science fair scholarship would’ve helped me a lot.”
Avery wrinkled her nose. “Lame judges and their phony cloud.” She laced her arm through mine, pulling me into the large ballroom. “Let’s get this over with. You only have to see Ben for fifteen minutes or so during the ceremony,” she said pragmatically.
“Don’t forget I have to slow dance with him during the actual wedding party song Sunday night,” I said, forming a thought. “Maybe I could fake an ankle injury.”
“You’re doing it for Jill,” she said.
“I know.” I sighed, annoyed that I let Ben affect me so much.
I hadn’t told Avery that I’d had a huge crush on Ben since high school, which had made his betrayal all the more hurtful. I’d hoped our friendship would turn into something more, but then he’d sabotaged my science project just so he could win. After that, my crush had disintegrated, at least for the time it had taken for me to get revenge. I’d gotten back at him by jamming a hole in his plastic rocket with my house key. In the end, we’d both been disqualified. Spending time with him again was bringing back all of those painful feelings I didn’t ever want to think about.
“There’s so much in life that’s not fair,” Avery said, her voice tightening suddenly. “Not fair in the slightest.”
“Uh-oh. What’s going on?” I asked.
Avery gave me a tentative look, and then let out a long sigh. “I didn’t want to tell anyone or put a damper on the festivities, but I’m about to be homeless.”
“Oh, no. What happened?” I put a hand to my chest as we neared the other end of the room. Suddenly, I noticed the wedding planner—Penelope Weaver of Weaver’s Weddings—shouting, and running back and forth between the groomsmen and the officiant. She seemed surprisingly intimidating for such a petite woman, who wore her hair pulled back in an elegant bun.
“Penelope looks unglued.” Avery gestured toward the chaos. “I wonder what’s going on.”
“No idea.” I glanced around for Jill and Ryan, but the bride and groom-to-be were nowhere in sight. They should be here by now. Obviously there was something wrong. Huh. Avery and I slipped into two chairs in the back row and I looked for some sign of Kristen and Ginger, Jill’s other two bridesmaids. I spotted them standing near a back door talking animatedly with their hands. Weird. I wondered what was going on. Hopefully nothing as bad as Avery’s housing situation.
I turned to Avery. “Define what you mean by homeless exactly.”
“My entire apartment building is going condo and I can’t afford to purchase my unit, so I have to move by the end of the month.” She glanced at her cell phone. “Speaking of which, I need to call my Realtor in about an hour. Remind me, okay? I hope we’ll be done by then.”
“Yes, I’ll remind you.” I squeezed her arm, bummed that she had to move on short notice. Moving was hard enough in itself without being forced into it. “You’re welcome to stay with me at my house until you find something you like.”
“Thanks, but I should be able to find a place in time.” Avery opened her mouth—presumably to say something else—just as Penelope, the wedding planner, scurried toward us.
“There you are!” Penelope shrieked, her blue-eyed gaze pinned on me. “We need the maid of honor right now. Urgent. Code red. Bridesmaid, follow, too.”
My eyes widened. Was this a real emergency? Or was this like last week when my bridesmaid dress had a thread hanging out of the seam? Before I could clarify, Penelope whisked me away, her hand clamped firmly on my arm. It was like she knew I was a flight risk.
She shoved me into the front of the bridesmaid line, waving to Avery to line up between Kristen and Ginger.
“Now, maid of honor, you stand here for a moment with the best man, Ben. Have you two met? He’s such a doll. If I weren’t taken I’d ask him out myself. Regardless, I’ll give you a second to make your introductions, and then we need to get this rehearsal underway. We’re already running late, thanks to that phone call Jill had to make earlier.”
“What call?” I asked, annoyed that she’d talked about asking Ben out. I mean, wasn’t she supposed to be a professional at this event? Not drooling over the best man?
“Don’t worry about the call Jill had to make.” Penelope waved her hand through the air, completely dismissing my question. “She’ll be fine and the wedding will be perfect. I’ll make sure of it.” A second later, Penelope brought Ben over and shoved me at him. “Get to know each other,” she said, then rushed off.
I collided against Ben’s hard chest, which sent a ripple of tingles flooding through me. Obviously my traitorous body didn’t know these firm muscles belonged to Ben Atkins, science project-saboteur. Ben reached out to steady me, his warm hands gripping my bare arms.
He grinned. “You could’ve just said hello, Sarah.”
My cheeks heated as I stepped back. “Penelope obviously had too much caffeine today.”
“I’ll have to buy her coffee more often,” he said, running his thumbs down my arms as he released his hold on me.
I shivered. “Hilarious.”
He shrugged. “I’m all about fun.”
“Yes, I know,” I said, since he loved having fun at my expense. I looked up into his almond-brown eyes, remembering the various women Jill mentioned him dating over the last couple years. A ripple of jealousy fluttered through me. For a second, I wondered if he was dating someone now and bringing her to the wedding. It would totally bug me if I came to the wedding solo and he brought a date. Not that I should care. “Let’s just stay focused on Jill and Ryan since this is their special time,” I said, almost to remind myself.
“Whatever you say,” he said, with a grin.
“Places, people. Take your places.” Penelope clapped her hands as she walked by us and then signaled to a man standing nearby, his finger poised over a tablet.
“Shall we walk down the aisle first?” Ben offered me his arm, which I so didn’t want to take. Memories of all the times he’d tortured me flooded through me, but, of course, my sabotaged science project had been the worst. I wished I’d begged the judges to expel him. But I’d had no recourse since I’d ruined his project in retaliation. Big mistake.
I’d let my emotions get away from me once where Ben was concerned, and what had happened? Disaster.
Never again.
I sucked in a breath and took Ben’s arm, my nerves on edge. Focus on Jill, Sarah. She’d found the man of her dreams and this wedding was going to be a testament of their love for one another. I had to do my part. I saw Penelope’s assistant tap something on his tablet and the recorded music of a string quartet started playing.
Ben and I began walking down the aisle.
He walked bes
ide me tall and strong, making me feel delicate and a little swoony as we walked toward the officiant. Clearly, the music was affecting me. Was this what it would feel like on my own wedding day? A rush of pleasure jolted through me. I’d be wearing a long, flowing white gown, and my family and friends would surround me. The music would play, soft and romantic, like now, as I walked down the aisle, and—
“Halt!” Penelope screeched and the music stopped.
I jolted out of my dream scenario, heart pounding, and stopped in my tracks. Ben came to an abrupt stop beside me. I glanced up at him and he looked just as confused as I felt.
“What are you doing?” Penelope yelled, dashing over to Ben and me.
“Walking down the aisle,” Ben said, stating the obvious.
“Like you told us to do,” I added, shocked to be backing Ben up.
Ben winked at me and whispered, “We make a great team.”
“We’re not a team,” I muttered, since a “team” would’ve split the dinner bill, not taken credit for the entire thing.
“Haven’t you two been to a wedding before?” Penelope asked, using a tone that said we had to be the dumbest people on earth. That seemed pretty insulting considering I was a paralegal and Ben was a lawyer. Still, I could practically feel her blood pressure rising as her cheeks tinted to an angry shade of red. “Didn’t you review the practice wedding video I emailed to you both? The best man and the maid of honor do not walk down the aisle together. Best man at the front next to the groom and the maid of honor walks down alone right before the bride. Now everyone back to your starting positions.”
Ben chuckled. “She does know she’s the one who lined us up, right?”
“Maybe she needed the extra coffee from you, after all,” I joked, letting go of his arm.
He winked at me, and then walked toward the front to stand by Ryan, who I hadn’t even seen come in the room. Wait, was Ben actually being friendly with me? And not trying to one-up me? We had to be in some kind of alternate universe.
