Crickets.
My heart dips into my stomach, and tears surface in my eyes. Slowly, I walk back to the front of the lobby where Karen is losing her ever-loving mind, complaining to a security guard.
“There she is!” she points as though she’s just turned in a wanted felon. Then my attention is pulled elsewhere.
“Charlotte!” I am rushed by Holly, who wraps me in her arms. Ben saunters up with his hands in his pockets, as he always does.
“You’re early,” I say.
“Well, I was excited to get up here,” she says. Then she looks at my face. “Is everything okay?”
“Gavin still won’t talk to me,” I admit flat out.
“Seriously?” she asks. “Did you go to his office?”
“I did. He wouldn’t open the door,” I answer. “These Lacey men are so bullheaded.”
“You’re telling me,” she says, looking back at Ben, who won’t make eye contact. “Someone still isn’t speaking to his father.”
“I have my reasons,” he mumbles.
Holly presses her lips together and stares into the distance. It’s a look that both Ben and I recognize. “You’re up to something,” Ben says. “That’s your up to something look.”
“What is it?” I ask.
“Benny,” she says, whipping around to face him with sugar in her tone and mischief in her tone. As she places her hands on his chest, I bite back a smile. She isgoodfor him. “Benny…you know I don’t ask for much…”
“I don’t know if I’d say that…”
“Well, you know I’m pretty flexible as women go…”
“True,” he agrees.
Get him, girl. Get him.
“I want nothing more than for our wedding to be here with Charlotte as our planner,” she says.
“I agree,” he nods.
“But that’s going to be a little tricky if you still aren’t on good terms with your dad.”
Ben lets out a sigh. “So you want me to make up with him?” he asks.
“Yes,” she says.
“You understand this could get ugly,” he warns.
“Fine. Let it get ugly. Duke it out if you have to. As long as in the end you two are hunky-dory. And you are okay with him and Charlotte being in love with each other, and he agrees to talk to Charlotte.”
“What?” Ben and I ask simultaneously.
“So you want me to offer forgiveness and a green light to my father for being with my ex-girlfriend…in exchange for him agreeing to talk to her and admit he is in love with her?” he asks.
Good lord.
“Yes!” she jumps with a cute smile that no man in his right mind could argue with. “That’s exactly what I want. Andconsidering that you and I were technically supposed to be on our honeymoon right now, I don’t feel like it’s too much to ask.”
“No, I suppose it isn’t,” he agrees, though I can tell he still doesn’t love the idea. “I’ll go talk to him…”
