Chapter 1: The Maid of Honor (Shawntelle’s Story)
4½ hours until ceremony
This wedding was doomed. Unless, of course, Renata Underwood found a way to close the two-inch gap in her maid-of-honor dress. “This side zipper isn’t going up any further,” her mom whispered. Even with another hard upward yank, the zipper on the light-blue strapless gown refused to budge. A trucker could probably haul a windmill through the gaping hole in that sucker.
Renata shot a forced smile across the room at the bride, her sister Tessa, to pretend there wasn’t a problem. The kind of problem where Renata was about to flash her Victoria’s Secret lingerie to all their family and friends. Bad enough there were witnesses in the dressing room: her mom, the makeup artist, and worst of all, the bride.
Renata turned, angling her mom to block Tessa’s view.
But the bride narrowed her hazel eyes suspiciously. She patted her dark brown hair. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing!” Renata and her mom said at the same time.
“Just adjusting her dress,” Mom chirped. “Everything today will go perfectly.”
Was she saying that for Tessa’s benefit or Renata’s?
In a few hours, Renata would be expected to fulfill her role as the maid of honor—walking down the aisle for her sister—wearing a dress. And it had to be this dress, because Renata didn’t have a backup in the garment bag. But wasn’t that just her luck? The whole week had been disastrous, complete with missing car keys, corrupted work files, and a bad hair stylist who left her long brown hair crunchy instead of curly. The only bit of good news was a job offer from a banking company in Salt Lake City. The perfect news to share with family—but not on her sister’s wedding day. No, Renata planned to show up with her chin in the air and a radiating, healthy air of optimism. After a phone call last night during which her sister had confessed her doubts about marrying Graham, Renata refused to mention her upcoming move or let her sister down, especially with the bride so stressed about the wedding.
Today was gonna be freakin’ perfect.
“Suck in!” Renata’s mom hissed. “Aren’t you a size six?”
Without answering the question, she tried to shrink her waistline and failed as her mom jerked upwards again. “My rib cage isn’t going in any further. What about some Spanx?”
Mom peeked behind her to make sure Tessa remained unaware of their covert actions. “What did you eat since the last fitting?”
A bunch of lunch meetings for her job as a comptroller at a local corporation came to mind. A few desserts might’ve been ordered. Or a lot of desserts. But there was nothing to be done about that now. “Just tell me how bad it looks?” Renata asked quietly, ignoring her mom’s question. Again.
“It looks like you had a few too many donuts at the office,” Mom said.
“I’ll have you know, I have a membership at the gym,” Renata grumbled.
“Then the equipment you used was broken, honey,” Mom said, adding a safety pin under the zipper head to keep it from falling farther down.
Way to be supportive, Mom. “So what do we do—”
“What’s wrong with you, Renata?” After the makeup lady finished her eyeliner, Tessa giggled and glanced at her sister. “I haven’t seen that expression since you were in fifth grade and gorged yourself on half a box of Fruit Loops.”
“That was a damn good bowl. Totally worth the emergency room trip.” Their mom draped a police-tape-yellow pashmina over Renata’s shoulders to hide the gap. Yeah, the clashing shawl really screamed high fashion. But it was better than nothing.
“Everything’s fine, sweetheart,” mom chirped. “Renata’s heading out for coffee. Do you want some?”
“A hot cup sounds so good about now!” It was only an hour or so until lunchtime, but Tessa drank coffee as often as Renata did.
“Find the wedding planner and see if she has a seamstress on speed dial,” mom whispered, half shoving Renata out the door. And Renata intended to do just that. After all, seeing her sister so hopeful and beautiful fed her determination.
By the time she made her way down the hall, the dress strained against the trapped zipper. If she weren’t careful she’d give half the Colorado mountainside an eyeful. Her phone buzzed inside her purse—quite the surprise since the reception here sucked. She grabbed her bustline with one hand and answered the phone with the other.
“Hey, Renata,” said her best friend, and she smiled at his smooth voice. Boy, did she have a tale to tell.
“Max! Are you here at Briarwood yet? Have you seen the wedding planner?”
“Not recently.”
Renata’s best-friend radar started pinging. For some reason, Max didn’t sound like his cheerful self. They chatted all the time about random stuff—from the loco career-bent intern at her job to fantasy baseball trash talk. If her best friend had something digging under his skin she usually could tell. And for a moment, she forgot all about her dress disaster. “What’s up? Is everything okay?”
She heard some sounds, like a parking lot in the background. She could imagine him standing in middle of the lot running his hands through his dark blond hair. “I’ve got the kind of problem a wedding officiant shouldn’t have.”
Renata’s imagination went a little wild. Caught with strippers? Handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser? Nah. Max was too straight-laced for any of that. A part of her still snickered at the idea of her best friend serving as the officiant at her sister’s wedding, but Max was the most heartfelt person she and Tessa knew, so it made sense. Max wasn’t a minister, but he’d do a good job. He was probably taking that job a bit too seriously. “What kind of problem?”
“It’s big.”
“How big?” Was it similar to her growing problem? The strain on her dress had spread into a tiny hole where the fabric attached to the zipper.
He let out a tortured sigh. “I lost Tessa and Graham’s wedding vows.”
