“Mitch—” Bonnie had no idea what to say to him. She couldn’t string any words together. This was surreal, and she prayed it was some sort of horribly realistic dream she was about to wake up from.
“Have you two been running around behind my back?” Lauren asked.
“No!” Bonnie couldn’t believe she had to answer that question. “I don’t even know what’s happening right now.”
“I know all this is crazy, but I want you to give me a chance. I can’t imagine my life without you,” Mitch said, taking her by the hand.
“I can’t believe you would do this to me, Bonnie! You’re supposed to be my best friend. You ruined my wedding. You ruined my life!” Lauren threw her bouquet and it hit Bonnie smack in the face. She ran off down the aisle with her parents following behind her.
“You are a horrible person,” Wendy Hillbrand, Lauren’s college roommate and one of the other bridesmaids, said, brushing past her to follow after Lauren.
The other bridesmaids began to chime in with their misplaced disgust, each one following the next back down the aisle.
“I sure hope he’s worth it,” Theresa Gilmore said with a shake of her head.
“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
