“How could you?” Jeanne Watson asked with teary eyes. She idolized Lauren and would have done anything to be her maid of honor. She was the one who had questioned everything Bonnie had planned for the bachelorette party.
“I never understood why she considered you her best friend,” Kathy Cole, Lauren’s cousin, said with sneer. Kathy was a couple years younger than Bonnie and Lauren and had a love/hate relationship with her cousin. Apparently, today she was in love.
“She is never going to forgive you for this. Ever,” Cheryl said.
Mary James was as much Bonnie’s friend as she was Lauren’s. They had known each other their entire lives. She walked past with pity in her eyes but no words. She was the one person Bonnie thought would know she was innocent. There were no secrets between them.
“Mary! You have to believe me. There’s been nothing going on. I swear!” The church went from silent to a cacophony of chatter. All eyes were on Bonnie and Mitch. She pulled her hand away. “What have you done?” she asked him.
“Don’t listen to them. They can’t understand because they are all under Lauren’s spell. Give me a chance. Please. I know we can be happy together.”
The very thought of having a relationship with him was ridiculous. She had no intentions of being romantic with Mitchell Bennett in this lifetime.
“We need to get you out of here,” Aaron said to Mitch. “Before my father sends someone in to assassinate you.”
Aaron tugged Mitch away and out of the back of the church, leaving Bonnie alone at the altar with no one but the minister, her horror and an invisible target for town gossip on her back.
* * *
“HAVE YOU LOST your mind?” Aaron asked his best friend as they made their way to the nearest exit. He had to get Mitch away from this church before something terrible happened. He didn’t really think his father would have the man killed, but if that was what Lauren wanted, anything was possible.
“I know I should have said something earlier.”
“You think? That would have been preferable.”
“I didn’t know how to tell her. You know your sister. She runs the show. We’re all just here to do as she says. She said we’re getting married, so I bought a ring and proposed. I didn’t want to propose. I wanted to tell Bonnie that she looked gorgeous the night of the Fourth of July fireworks. I wanted to tell her she has the prettiest smile and that her laugh makes me want to kiss her. I want to take her to Paris and I want her to not be afraid of being with me because of Lauren. Lauren doesn’t get to decide who we love.”
All that might have been very true, but there wasn’t time to discuss how to appropriately handle Lauren’s autocratic ways. Aaron was also taken aback by how strong Mitch’s feelings for Bonnie really were, but one thing gave him pause. “Are you telling me that Bonnie has no idea you felt like this until right now?”
“When was I supposed to tell her?”
Aaron pinched the bridge of his nose. Not only had Mitch committed social suicide in there, he had brought Bonnie down with him. “How could you do that to her before you even know how she feels? Lauren thinks you two have been messing around. That there’s been something going on between you guys.”
Mitch grimaced. “I didn’t mean it to sound like that. I panicked. The minister was talking about starting our lives together and how our two lives become one now. We would have been forever linked. Me and Lauren. The rest of my life spent doing what she says. I looked over at Bonnie, and she flashed me that smile. You know, the one that makes you feel like everything is going to be all right?” He didn’t wait for Aaron to reply, but Aaron knew that smile. Bonnie had always been a calming presence in Lauren’s drama-filled existence. “I just had to tell her how I felt. I needed her to know I’m in love with her.”
Aaron didn’t understand how he could be in love with someone before he even had a real relationship with that person. What he did know was that Mitch needed to get out of Blue Springs immediately. Just then, Mitch’s parents came out the back door.
“Son, what have you done? Do you have any idea what it is going to take to clean up this mess?” his father asked.
“Mitchell, you have to reconsider,” his mother said. “You need to go back in there and tell Lauren you blacked out and you have no idea why you said all that. You need to marry that woman right now.”
Mitch shook his head. “I can’t marry her, Mom. I’m sorry. I’m in love with someone else.”
“Bonnie Windsor? The woman sells houses for a living. Houses on the north side of town,” his mother said with a touch of disgust, as if the people on the north side were all living in cardboard boxes.
“I don’t care what she does for a living. I love her, and I won’t marry Lauren.”
Mrs. Bennett seemed a bit hysterical. Her eyes were wild and her voice shrill. “You will marry her, or else!”
Mr. Bennett put a hand on her shoulder. “Meredith, relax. We can’t force the boy to marry someone he’s not in love with, and we sure as heck can’t waltz back in there and act like nothing happened.”
“No offense, Mrs. Bennett,” Aaron chimed in. “But I can’t pretend that I don’t know Mitch does not want to marry my sister. I don’t want Lauren or Mitch in a loveless marriage.”
“Your father will destroy us. Do you understand that?” Mrs. Bennett clutched the pearls around her neck.
“We need to get Mitch out of town,” Aaron suggested. “Today. He needs to disappear while Lauren pulls herself together. Once things have calmed down, I truly believe level heads will prevail. No one will be destroying anyone.”
Mr. Bennett nodded. “Good idea. You have your bags packed for your honeymoon. You should go as planned and extend your stay until the smoke has cleared.”
The Bennetts had gifted Lauren and Mitch a two-week honeymoon in the south of France. That was definitely a safe distance away, and there was no reason he couldn’t stay all summer if that’s what it took.
“I’m going to ask Bonnie to come with me,” Mitch said, heading back inside the church.
Aaron grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back outside. “You are going to leave Bonnie alone. Now is not the time to bring her into this. You just dropped the bomb that you don’t want to marry Lauren. My sister needs to get over that before she can handle you wanting to date her best friend.” Which she would absolutely never get over. Therefore, it was never going to happen. Bonnie wouldn’t do that to Lauren. Not the Bonnie Aaron knew.
The Bennetts adamantly agreed and managed to get Mitch into a car and as far away from the church as possible. Aaron went back in to check on his baby sister. There was no way this day would end well. Lauren had basically never been told no her whole life. Things always went her way, so she had no idea how to cope with something like this.
Bonnie sat on the floor in the back hallway, her knees pulled up to her chest and her face hidden behind her hands as she cried. Her long sandy-blond hair fell like a curtain, shielding her face from view as well.
“Hey,” he said, taking a seat next to her. “You’re going to get mascara all over your pretty pink dress. And I heard that’s not easy to get out.”
Bonnie lifted her head and wiped her cheeks. “Mary made us all wear waterproof mascara in case we cried during the ceremony. I didn’t think I needed to worry about that.” She sighed and sniffed. “I hope you believe me when I say I have never done anything with Mitch. Nothing is going on between us. I don’t know why he thinks he’s in love with me when he was about to marry Lauren.”
Typical Bonnie. She was the most humble person in all of Blue Springs. That was probably why Lauren was friends with her. His sister never had to worry about Bonnie trying to steal the limelight or balking at Lauren taking all the credit whenever they did something together.
“I believe you. Mitch told me he hadn’t said anything to anyone about how he felt until today. Ba
d timing, huh?” he asked, trying desperately to get her to smile just a bit.
Her expression remained somber. “Can you please tell your sister that? I don’t want her to think that I was running around with her fiancé behind her back. It wasn’t like that.”
“We’ll talk to her together. Come on.” He stood up and held out a hand to help her up. All of the bridesmaids had worn the same blush-pink color, but each dress was styled a little bit differently. Bonnie’s was strapless and had crystal beading on the bodice. He’d known Bonnie since they were little kids—it was strange to think of her as stunning, but that was what she was today, all done up like this.
Together, they headed through the doors to the hall that led to the bridal suite. The rest of the bridesmaids hovered outside the room while Lauren could be heard ranting from inside.
“She shouldn’t be here, Aaron,” Kathy said, scowling at Bonnie.
“We need to clear things up with Lauren. She needs her best friend more than ever today,” he replied, giving Bonnie’s hand a reassuring squeeze. Her shoulders straightened a bit, and she smiled up at him in appreciation.
“She doesn’t need a best friend like her.” Cheryl stood in front of the door. Theresa folded her arms across her chest and stood on Cheryl’s right. Wendy flanked her on the other side, effectively blocking them from getting inside the room.
“Come on! Bonnie had nothing to do with this. This was all Mitch. Move so we can talk to my sister.”
The women refused to budge. “You can go in, Aaron, but she needs to stay away.”
This was ridiculous. Aaron couldn’t believe how quickly everyone had turned on someone who they would have all sworn was their sweetest friend thirty minutes ago.
“Go without me,” Bonnie said, dropping his hand. “Seeing me will only make things worse. You can convince her there’s nothing going on between me and Mitch better than I can right now.”
Aaron couldn’t really argue with that. The ladies moved aside for him. Inside the suite, their mother was crying right along with Lauren, who sat on the floor in the middle of a massive pile of satin and tulle. Their father was pacing around on the phone barking orders at whoever was on the other end of the line.
“I don’t care how long it took to set up. I want it all gone before I get there,” he said. “I don’t know what to do with all the food. Maybe we can donate it or something.”
Aaron could only imagine how many heads had exploded when they heard the news over at the winery, where the reception was planned. They had to break down a party for five hundred guests after spending all day setting it up.
“Are you here to tell me Mitchell’s ready to apologize?” Lauren asked when she noticed Aaron was in the room. She wiped her wet face with the back of her hand. “I bet he’s trying to figure out what to say to me after you talked some sense into him.”
He was surprised she still had hope Mitch would come around. Leave it to Lauren to refuse to believe she’d been dumped. “Mitch is gone. He’s leaving town for a while to give you some space.”
“What do you mean he’s leaving town?” their mom shrieked. “He needs to fix this. He needs to get in here on his hands and knees and beg her to take him back.”
“So I can tell him to jump in a lake. I wouldn’t take him back if his parents paid me.”
“Of course you wouldn’t, sweetheart, but he deserves to have his heart ripped out when you reject him.” Elizabeth Cole did have a flair for vengeance. This was exactly why Aaron suggested that Mitch take off.
Their dad hung up the phone and said, “I’m going to go out there and tell everyone to go home. Once I get rid of them, we’ll take Lauren home.”
“Make sure there’s no one waiting outside,” their mom said. “People were lining up earlier.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, the stress evident on his face. “I’ll take care of it,” he said as he slipped out the door.
Aaron got down on the floor and climbed over the poofy skirt to get to his sister. He wrapped an arm around her. “I’m sorry he did that to you. You didn’t deserve to be treated that way. He’s a fool. But you knew that when you agreed to marry him.”
“You can’t be friends with him anymore,” she said, resting her head on his shoulder. “You have to hate him with me.”
“Let’s talk about another friend. Bonnie is out there and wants to talk to you.”
Lauren straightened. “You can tell that backstabbing cheater that she is no friend of mine.”
“This was all Mitch, Lauren. Bonnie had no idea he felt that way about her.”
There was a fire in her eyes that Aaron had never seen before. “I don’t believe that for a second. You can’t be friends with her anymore, either. No one can. Bonnie Windsor is dead to me.”
Copyright © 2020 by Amy Vastine
ISBN-13: 9781488061813
Lassoed by the Would-Be Rancher
Copyright © 2020 by Melinda Wooten
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