Page 42 of The Best Man Problem
She had started to rise from her bed when her phone rang again. Speaking of single-minded focus…
She pressed the phone to her ear with a sigh. “Mom, I told you I need to talk to Mo and Pru first—”
“I’ve been called a lot of things in my life, but ‘mom’ has never been one of them.”
Lilly pulled the phone away from her ear at the deep voice, which sounded in no way like her soft-spoken mother. Crap! She’d answered without checking the caller. She’d simply assumed it was her mother calling back with more wedding requests.
She shoved Mo’s voice out of her head, her roommate’s oft-repeated immature joke playing in her brain at her embarrassing mistake.
“Oh, um, hello, Lincoln. I’m sorry; I was just talking to my mother and I thought she was calling back.”
He chuckled, the warm rumbling sound causing a maelstrom of tingling awareness between her thighs.
“Nope. Just me, checking in to see how your morning is going, but now I’m wondering what you could possibly need to talk to your business partners about regarding your mother.”
Still a little frazzled, her brain disconnected from her mouth, and she spewed out words without even thinking. “She’s getting married again.”
“Again?”
She heard no censure in his tone, no judgment. Merely simple curiosity. Perhaps that was why she chose to open up and discuss her personal life, something she rarely did with anyone. Or maybe it was because she hadn’t had coffee yet and her brain wasn’t fully awake. Or it could have something to do with this intense connection she and Lincoln had, one that started out physical and was quickly turning far too emotional for her comfort.
She was going with the coffee thing.
“Yes. This is her fourth—no, wait, her fifth marriage. Fourth wedding. I planned the last two, and she and her current fiancé would like me to plan this one as well.”
“She asked you, her daughter, to plan her wedding?”
She could hear the shock in his voice, and, okay, maybe it was a bit unique to plan her own mother’s wedding, but it was her profession.
“It’s my job, Lincoln. I plan weddings.”
“Yeah, for strangers. Clients. People who pay you.”
Her mother would pay her. In fact, the one thing her mother did do was make sure her daughter was well compensated for her work. In her own stunted way, her mother overpaying Lilly was the woman’s way of showing love. Vanessa Walsh could say the words all day long, but words only went so far. Actions spoke much louder. Sadly, her mother could only devote so much time to another person, and it was always saved for her latest love.
Never her daughter.
Money was nice, but Lilly could make her own money. She wanted time with her mom.
“Is her fiancé nice?”
“I have no idea. Much like my father, he’s someone I’ve never met, but if he’s anything like the last four of my mother’s husbands, he’ll be nice right up until he gets bored or things get too hard, then he’ll hightail it out of town.”
Did that sound a little cynical? She tried to root for her mother’s happiness, she really did, but it was hard to believe in her mother’s heart when the damn thing was so wishy-washy.
“I’m sorry, Lilly.”
“It’s no big deal.”
His voice was low and soothing as it came over the line. “I think it is.”
He was wrong. She’d stopped feeling sorry for herself long ago. As a child, she used to imagine her father was a spy, deep undercover. He left because there were dangerous mobsters after him and he had to protect her and her mother by disappearing. She used to stare out of her bedroom window in their tiny two-bedroom apartment and dream about him finally coming home, having put the bad guys in jail. Her mother could ditch her latest guy because Daddy was back! They’d be a family again and all live happily ever after.
But those were the silly wishes of a young girl. By the end of the fifth grade, real life had reared its ugly head and her mother was onto her second marriage. Lilly knew her father wasn’t a spy, off saving the world and protecting her identity. He was just a man who knocked up his girlfriend and disappeared before his responsibilities could catch up to him. Meanwhile, her mother kept chasing love, always thinking she’d finally caught it and getting her heart stomped on.
Lilly didn’t know what hurt worse: her mother’s abandonment or watching the woman’s heartbreaking sobs every time a guy left her.
“What about you?” She tried to inflect some cheer into her voice, anxious to change the subject away from her. “Are your parents still together?”
