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. Bad 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
