“It tastes the same!” Everett retorted, flashing her a smile.
Why was he so endearing?
Charlotte furrowed her brow. “So you won’t tell them—about the very real fact that I’m a complete and utter mess.”
“Compared to the other wedding planners I’ve seen, you’re basically a queen,” Everett said. He then clinked his glass with hers.
From where they sat, they could hear Christine and Zach discussing what was left to prepare for Thanksgiving dinner.
“Christine, can you just keep an eye on those yams.”
“Zach, the sauce! You almost knocked it over.”
“Christine, where did you put the pies? Ah, there. Wait, how many did you make again?”
“Fifteen. I figured fifteen would be enough?”
Zach laughed uproariously. “With these monsters? They eat everything in sight. Especially that one there.”
At this point, Audrey marched past the counter, furrowed her brow at Zach, and said, “Excuse me? Are you talking about a pregnant woman right now?”
Charlotte chuckled. “You probably think my family is insane.”
“Maybe a little,” Everett said. “Much louder and more alive than my family back in Seattle. It’s a different change of pace. I can’t say I dislike it.”
“Just because you’re up to your knees in wedding planning, doesn’t mean you can talk to me about how many pieces of pie I eat on Thanksgiving, Zachary!” Audrey said, placing a finger on the counter between them.
“I can’t tell if she’s kidding or not. Are any of them kidding?” Everett asked under his breath.
“It’s sometimes difficult to tell when it comes from Audrey,” Charlotte said. “She’s on the snarky side for sure. But also, Christine and Zach have been huge helps with the wedding—but they’re just as stressed as me in different ways. I can’t imagine what they feel now, having to feed all of us today.”
“You know what, Audrey? You know what?” Suddenly, Zach lifted a can of whipped cream and smeared a line of it across Audrey’s nose and upper cheek.
Audrey made a funny screech, grabbed the whipped cream bottle, and spun it around on Zach’s face.
“Children!” Christine cried.
“He started it,” Audrey said.
Susan rushed in from upstairs, bug-eyed, then burst into laughter at the sight of both Audrey and Zach, their faces white with whipping cream.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes. “You know we have a guest here with us today. You can’t just act like idiots.”
“Who’s our guest again?” Audrey demanded. She turned her face back toward the bedroom where Everett and Charlotte sat, sipping wine. “Is it that guy who’s already hitting on Aunt Charlotte?”
“Oh my gosh, Audrey,” Lola said from the far end of the room. “Give it a rest.”
“Yep. Your family definitely has more personality than mine,” Everett said, taking this awkwardness as an excuse to get up from the bed.
Charlotte felt vaguely cold, alone as he walked back toward the doorway. When he turned back, she had the funniest idea to tell him to stay. As though he mattered.
“Sorry I interrupted your work,” he said. He pretended to tip a fake hat.
“Don’t worry about her,” Lola said, forcing Everett’s head back around. “She’s just grumpy because she wants to eat. How much longer, Christy?”
“You know I hate when you call me that,” Christine barked.
“Tensions are high this holiday season,” Lola said. She walked toward Tommy and wrapped an arm around his lower back, huddling against him. Her eyes peered around Everett and found Charlotte’s in the back room. “You all right in there, Miss Wedding Planner?”
“She’s in the middle of planning its demise,” Everett said as he tore through another bit of croissant. “I’ve never seen someone want to fail so badly. She thinks it’ll get more press that way.”
“Don’t jinx me,” Charlotte said, giggling as she shot up from the bed to join the others. As she walked past her phone, several more messages from Ursula rang in. For the moment, she would ignore them. Ursula would have her full attention later.
Chapter Ten
Everett had been in the game long enough to know that it wasn’t always so easy to meet someone new.
No: that wasn’t exactly it.
In actuality, it was easy to meet someone new. There were hundreds of thousands of someone-news all around you at any given point. These someone-news always had backstories, jobs, families, cats, dogs, favorite songs, favorite books, foods they hated most of all. Everett ran into someone-news all the time, at bookstores, at concerts, at events he was hired to photograph.
The rare thing about it all was meeting a someone-new who made you feel like the self you always wanted to feel.
To put this more plainly: Everett never felt like himself. He always felt a little like an outsider, even in his own body. No matter how many people liked him or wanted to befriend him, no matter how many jobs he got or phone numbers he was given, he never felt completely whole.
But the moment he had peered into Charlotte’s eyes, something had clicked into place. The light in that empty space turned on.
He had known exactly what jokes to make.
He had known exactly what to say.
He had watched her bloom before him, as though, all that time, she’d been waiting for him in that little spare bedroom.
The wedding planner.
Charlotte.
What a gorgeous name.
Unsure of what to do, Everett collected a handful of MMs and sat again in the corner near Audrey. He hardly ate them, and the colors of them stained his fingers and palm. Charlotte snuck out of the room and whispered something in a girl’s ear, one who looked to be around fourteen or fifteen years old.
“Abby? Gail?” the girl said. “Would you mind helping me set the
