A Bridesmaid to Remember

by Amy Vastine

  “That’s more than we deserve,” Lauren said. “Have you two seen Aaron around? We need to find him.”

  “He was waiting to talk to your dad last I saw him,” Kathy said.

  “Perfect. I need to talk to him as well. I don’t suppose your dad would want his job back, Bonnie?”

  “I think he likes working for your brother, but he wouldn’t have to work so hard if some of his friends felt like their jobs weren’t at risk by helping him out.”

  “I will make sure that happens. Your dad was way nicer to me than he should have been this summer.”

  Bonnie gave her a side hug. “He loves you like one of his own.”

  “Let’s get my dad on the same page.”

  * * *

  “DAD, I NEED five minutes,” Aaron said for the third time. Once he confronted his dad, he was leaving. The sooner the better. His heart couldn’t handle watching Bonnie and Mitch whisper to one another or seeing her laugh at something he said. He didn’t want to be here when Lauren’s hyenas attacked.

  “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about as well. Come out here.” His dad took him through some doors and into a room with books in sealed boxes. Rare Books was written on the label on the shelf.

  “What did you want to talk about?” Aaron asked, figuring after his dad made his come-back-and-work-for-me speech, Aaron would question if it was possible that he’d hired someone to vandalize the house.

  “Your house.”

  “My house? What about my house?” Aaron couldn’t believe he was going to admit it without Aaron having to trick it out of him.

  “I know who vandalized it.”

  Of course he did. Why was he being honest about it? Aaron suddenly had a sinking feeling that he was going to use it as a warning. Come work for him or he would destroy every house he tried to flip.

  “Dad, I’m never going to come back to Cole Industries. Nothing you do can stop me from fixing up houses. You could wreck them and I would simply rebuild. That’s my life’s work now.”

  The lines on his father’s forehead creased deeper. “Why would I wreck your houses?”

  “You said you know who vandalized the one on Greenbriar.”

  “I do. I’ve had a PI following Mitch around since he landed in Paris. I wanted to make sure he didn’t do anything else that would get back to your sister and cause her any more pain. When he came back to Blue Springs, I wanted to make sure he stayed away from Lauren and see if Bonnie had anything to do with him.”

  Aaron couldn’t breathe. Mitch. Bonnie wouldn’t believe it. Not without more proof.

  “She didn’t, by the way.” His dad pulled an envelope out of his inside jacket pocket and handed it to Aaron. “The investigator didn’t realize you owned the house when he took these pictures. We only meet once a week to go over what he sees, so I didn’t find out until yesterday. I wanted to give you a chance to decide how you want to handle this. If you want to turn it over to the police, you can. If you want to use it to perhaps make a deal, you could do that, too.”

  Aaron opened the envelope and unfolded the small stack of photos. Photo after photo of Mitch buying the spray paint, throwing landscaping bricks through the front windows, kicking down the door, destroying all of Aaron’s hard work.

  It all made sense now. He had heard Sasha say Bonnie and Aaron were meant to be and got jealous. He’d wrecked the house, making it look very Lauren-esque. Then, he’d showed up at the house first thing in the morning to “help” clean up and offer Bonnie a shoulder to cry on and stoke her anger at Lauren, knowing that could drive a wedge between Bonnie and Aaron.

  It was actually a well-thought-out plan. Aaron needed to be sure never to underestimate Mitch’s ability to be cutthroat again.

  He put the pictures back in the envelope. “Thank you for giving me these. I need to think about how I want to handle this.”

  “I trust you’ll make the right decision.” He started to leave, but Aaron stopped him.

  “Dad, I have to apologize. I wanted to talk to you tonight because I thought maybe you had something to do with the vandalism. I’d convinced myself that you didn’t want me to be successful.”

  His father tipped his chin down to his chest. “Why wouldn’t I want you to be successful?”

  “Because you want me to work for you instead.”

  “I do want that, but I also want you to be the best at whatever you do. Once you hired David, I knew you’d be fine. And according to your mother, you are very good at what you’re doing. She’s been so inspired by you, she wants to do some renovations around town.”

  The ton of bricks Aaron had been carrying around since quitting his job lifted off his shoulders. To hear his dad accept his decision gave him a peace he’d thought was impossible.

  “I’m not going to have to compete with Mom, am I?”

  “Your mom isn’t going to do residential stuff. Don’t worry.”

  “Oh my goodness, you two are hard to find.” Lauren came barreling in, dragging Bonnie by the hand. “We need to talk to you guys.”

  Aaron wasn’t sure what was happening, and it wasn’t clear if Bonnie was here willingly or under duress. He was stressed for her either way.

  “Dad, Bonnie is my best friend. I was wrong to attack her because Mitch was a jerk with bad timing. We need to change the narrative in this town. I don’t want Bonnie to ever feel unwelcome again.”

  “Okay.” Their dad threw his hands up. “Whatever you want, princess.”

  “Don’t say that,” she said, looking a bit flustered. “I want you to tell me no sometimes. If you and Mom always do what I say, I don’t know if I’m making the right decision or not. You let me make a lot of bad decisions this summer.”

  “I want you to be happy.”

  “Being hateful didn’t make me happy, Daddy.”

  “Should I be recording this so we have proof that you said it when Dad tells you you can’t have something or do something?” Aaron asked.

  “No, but you’re all my witnesses.”

  “Okay, I’ll tell you no sometimes. Anything else?”

  “We’re done with you. You can go back to the party,” she said, shooing the older man out of the room.

  Bonnie pressed her lips together to hold back her laughter. It made Aaron happy to see her smiling. Although he was curious how they’d gotten to this point.

  “Aaron, if you break Bonnie’s heart, I’ll forgive you, but I’ll be super mad. Don’t break her heart. Tell her what you told me.” She turned to Bonnie. “And you should also tell him what you told me. I’m going to get some more champagne and pay someone on the waitstaff to drop a tray of champagne flutes on Mitch.”

  She left them alone. Aaron’s head was spinning. “Did you crash the gala with Mitch wearing your bridesmaid dress and make up with my sister?”

  “Trust me, I don’t really understand what is happening, either.”

  They both chuckled softly. Lauren was being Lauren. Good Lauren, thankfully. Unless your name was Mitch Bennett.

  “You have to try to explain,” he pleaded. He had gone from brokenhearted to hopeful in one hour.

  “Your sister apologized. She said she wants us to be happy even if she’s going through a hard time. Then she asked me if I loved you.”

  Aaron was caught off balance by the L word. He wasn’t sure he should ask the next question, but given the evidence he was holding in his hand, he felt confident that if she hadn’t answered the way he hoped, he might be able to change her mind.

  “What did you say?”

  Bonnie fidgeted with the clutch in her hands. Her teeth worried her bottom lip. Those green eyes lifted to his, and she didn’t have to say a word. He knew.

  “I said yes.”

  “I love you,” they said at the same time.

  “How did you know what I was going to say
?”

  He didn’t know how to explain it with words, so he took her hand and placed it on his chest. “Do you feel that?” She nodded. His heart was beating like a jackhammer. “That’s how I knew. I could feel it.” He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. There was no doubt she felt his love. He felt hers from the hair on top of his head to his toes.

  “I owe you an apology,” she said.

  He placed a finger on her lips. “No apologies. We have been stuck in the middle of someone else’s drama for too long. I am certain that once we break free of that, we’re never going to need to say we’re sorry again.”

  “I never want to hurt you. I hope you know that I went off the deep end because it killed me to see you so sad. I wish I knew who did that to your house. I agree with you that it wasn’t Lauren or Mary.”

  “It wasn’t them. I thought maybe my dad had paid someone, but it wasn’t my dad, either. And it wasn’t some random guy. I know exactly who it was.”

  “You do? How do you—” Before she could finish her sentence, Aaron handed her the envelope.

  “My dad saved the day by being his overprotective self.”

  Bonnie’s brows pinched together as she slid the photos out of the envelope. “You have got to be kidding me.” She flipped through page after page. “I am so stupid. I believed he was actually worried about you, worried about me. I thought he showed up that morning genuinely willing to help his friend. He’s...ugh!”

  “My dad said I can do what I want with these pictures. He said I could turn them over to the police or I can use them how I see fit.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “If he’s convicted, he’s going to pay a fine, he’s going to owe me money, but there’s no real consequence other than a financial one, which won’t bother him at all.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  “Or I could show him the pictures and let him know I know what he did and offer him a deal.”

  Bonnie, sweet Bonnie, had no idea what that meant. He loved that she had a hard time even thinking in a conniving way. “What kind of deal?”

  “I could run him out of town. He leaves. We never have to see him again. I feel like that would be good for Lauren, it would be good for me and I hope you think it would be good for you.” He wouldn’t do it if she didn’t agree. She knew what it felt like to have people try to push her out.

  “It would be good for me,” she agreed.

  “Then that’s what we’ll do. Goodbye, Mitch.”

  “Goodbye, Mitch.” She kissed him again. He could feel her smiling under his lips. He could kiss a smiling Bonnie all day long.

  “Before he leaves, though, I need to do one thing,” she said, taking him by the hand and leading him back out to the party.

  She took a champagne glass off one of the passing trays and strode right up to Mitch, who was leaning against the bar and doing what he did best. His face lit up when he saw her coming his way. Aaron could relate to that feeling. Seeing Bonnie brightened a day. She had a light inside her that warmed his soul.

  Once Bonnie was close enough, she lifted her glass and dumped the champagne on Mitch’s head. He leaped back and shouted something about her being crazy. Nobody called Aaron’s girlfriend names. He rescued her even though it didn’t seem like she needed it.

  “You are not a nice person! Not nice!”

  Aaron laughed as he pulled her away. “I love your use of very powerful insults.”

  “There were other things I wanted to say, but I didn’t want people to think I was that kind of a woman.”

  “Good idea.” They happened to walk right by Hilde and her parents. He quickly introduced them all. “Hilde, would it be okay if I took my friend home? Do you think you could get a ride home with your parents?”

  “Mmm-hmm,” she answered.

  Nine words total between them. There was no way she was going to miss him.

  “Let’s get you home. You need to change out of that dress. And maybe we should burn it.”

  “Hey, this is the dress I was wearing the first time you came to my rescue. It was also the dress I was wearing when your sister apologized to me for the first time. This is a dress I never want to forget.”

  Aaron took her by the hand. “You, in that dress, are pretty unforgettable, but I’m in love with the woman, not the dress.”

  She didn’t even bat an eye. “We burn it, then.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “TWO NEW TOILETS ready to be installed,” her dad announced.

  “I feel like we should throw the broken ones in Mitch’s living room. He breaks it, he buys it,” Bonnie said.

  “I think we should get to tie him to a tree and spray paint him,” Sasha suggested. “Do you think we can fit that in the agreement?”

  “I feel like that could get us arrested,” Aaron said, cocking an eyebrow.

  “Fine, I’ll spray paint his car on my own,” Sasha said, shaking one of the paint cans.

  Bonnie looked over the project list. There was so much to do. She needed to reschedule the open house, which was a huge bummer. Houses always sold better right before school started. If they had to push the open house until sometime in September, they were going to miss that window. The three of them could only do so much. Even if they worked around the clock, they needed at least a month.

  A knock on the door got everyone’s attention.

  “Are you expecting something?” Bonnie asked Aaron, who shook his head. She went to answer it, since the men were all busy.

  “Please be little girls selling cookies, please be little girls selling cookies,” Sasha muttered.

  Bonnie pulled the door open and was blown away. Lauren, dressed in overalls and brand-new work boots, was on the front stoop, holding a bucket full of paint brushes and rollers. She looked ready to work, but that wasn’t what took Bonnie’s breath away. Lauren wasn’t alone. Behind her were probably about thirty people. Mary, Theresa, Cheryl and Kathy were all there. A bunch of guys who used to work with her dad at Cole Industries had come with their tools and their skills. There was a plumbing van, some landscapers, dozens of able-bodied men and women.

  “What did you do?”

  “I put my power to influence others to good use. These guys are all here to help get things done, and it’s all free.”

  There might not have been any little girls selling cookies, but the kindness of these people was priceless.

  “Come on in, everybody!” Lauren marched them all inside.

  When Aaron saw what Lauren had done, he had tears in his eyes. This time, Bonnie was happy about the fact that his sister had made him cry. Aaron couldn’t thank everyone enough for their willingness to help him get this place on the market.

  Her dad got the overwhelming job of managing an entire crew and then some. No more wearing multiple hats. He got to be the real project manager now.

  By the end of the day, they’d finished what would have taken the three of them all month. Their helpers scraped the paint off the countertops, salvaging them so they didn’t have to order new. All the drywall was repaired, the whole house was painted, the landscaping was fixed, ceiling fans were replaced, floors were stained and the toilets were installed.

  “I can’t believe what happened today,” Aaron said, lying down in the middle of the living room. Most everyone had gone for the day except for the original four, Lauren and Mary. “I feel like we can start moving the staging furniture in. I mean, we went from not even close to being done to done in twelve hours.”

  “That was amazing. The people of this town really stepped up,” Sasha said before he took a long swig from his water bottle.

  Bonnie’s dad sat at the card table, reviewing the project list.

  “How’s it looking, Dad?”

  “We can definitely start filling this place up. Did you call and set up the appliance de
livery?” he asked Aaron.

  “I did,” Aaron replied. “They come Tuesday.”

  Bonnie couldn’t care less about when the appliances were coming. They had been working all day, and she was looking forward to some alone time with her new boyfriend. Everyone needed to get out.

  “My work is done here,” Lauren said, wiping her hands on her overalls. She had done more work today than she had probably ever done in her life. “I will happily come back when your stagers show up.”

  Aaron wrapped his little sister in a bear hug. “Thank you so much for everything you did to make this happen.”

  “You are so welcome.”

  Seeing them getting along and working together warmed Bonnie’s heart. It was nice to see them not only interact as family but as friends.

  Sasha open his arms to Lauren. “Good Lauren, we are so grateful for you. I am glad David was right and told us not to give up on you.”

  “Big Sasha, I am grateful for you and your superlong arms, because without you, I wouldn’t have been able to get that piece of pizza.”

  Bonnie chuckled. They had ordered pizzas for all the workers at lunchtime, and Sasha had come to Lauren’s rescue when she wanted the last piece of pepperoni. Lauren wasn’t the only one who was fond of Sasha—Mary had found him quite interesting. Every time Bonnie walked past her, she was next to Sasha and laughing about something.

  She opted not to go with Lauren, instead asking Sasha if he wanted to grab some dinner with her. He was more than willing to oblige her. They cleaned up and headed out. The only one left was her dad.

  “Can I take anything to the car for you, Dad?” she asked, hoping to help move him along.

  “Nope, I’m good,” he said not picking up on the hint. He got up from the table and was inspecting the kitchen cabinets.

  Bonnie lost her patience with him. “You do know that the kitchen cabinets will be here tomorrow, right?”

  “Why do I feel like you’re trying to get rid of me?”

  “Probably because she is,” Aaron said.

  The old man nodded. “Okay, I’ll get out of your hair.” He gave Bonnie a kiss on the cheek. “I’m glad you two have worked things out. For the record, I wasn’t too keen on you being a couple when we first started this thing.”