The Wedding Pact Box Set - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,115

to wave her hand and cried out in pain. She glanced up at Megan with one eye. The other was bright red and squinted shut. “No one is going to the hospital.”

“Mom! Your shoulder looks like a Barbie doll part popped out of it socket. You have to go to the hospital.”

“I don’t have time for that. There’s too much to do.”

Megan glared at Kevin. “Call Dad!”

He stood next to the front door, peering through the side window and looking like he was preparing to bolt. “I don’t have to. His car just pulled up.”

Moments later, the front door opened and Megan’s father stood in the doorway, his gaze landing on the group. “What happened?”

“Mom dislocated her shoulder. She needs to go the hospital.”

Her mother shook her head, gritting her teeth. “I don’t have time to go to the hospital.”

Bart took one look at his wife’s shoulder, and his face turned ashen.

“You can’t pass out, Dad!”

Her mother narrowed her one good eye. Leave it to her to make a one-eyed squint look intimidating. “The women are the strong ones in the Vandemeer family.”

Her father took a deep breath. “I’m okay.”

Taking in his pale complexion, Megan wasn’t so sure. “We have to get her to the hospital.”

“I’m not—” Megan’s mom started to say.

“Yes, you are!” Megan shouted. “Now shut up and come out to the car with us.”

Her mother looked shocked, as did everyone else in the room. No one spoke to Nicole Vandemeer that way.

“Now is not the time to be stubborn! If you try to go to the wedding like this, you’ll gross everyone out. If you go to the hospital now, you’ll probably be there in time to help me get dressed.”

“I . . . okay.”

Megan blinked, sure she’d heard her mother wrong, but decided to trust her hallucination. “Okay, then. Dad and Kevin, get her to the car. Mom, what else needs to be done for the wedding?”

As her father and brother lifted the unwilling invalid out of her chair and led her to the door, Megan walked beside them.

Knickers grimaced as she hobbled along with their support. “We need to make sure the cake gets delivered and that the orchestra sets up on the west side and not the east. The staff at the gardens can handle both of those things. Just make sure everything goes according to plan.”

“I can do that.”

“You need to be at the church two and a half hours early. It’s in the itinerary, but I know you didn’t read it.”

For once, Megan wished she had.

“The hairdresser will be there at one.” They led her out the door and down the sidewalk. “Be sure to eat, Megan. You’ll probably be too excited and nervous to eat, but otherwise you’ll get lightheaded standing up there so long for the ceremony.”

“Okay, Mom.”

As Bart sprinted around the car to climb into the driver’s seat, Kevin helped Megan’s mom get settled into the passenger’s seat. She gripped Megan’s hand. “I’m so sorry, honey. I wanted this day to be perfect for you, but I’ve ruined everything.”

Megan squatted next to her. “You didn’t ruin anything, Mom. It is going to be perfect. I promise.”

She nodded, tears now streaming from her good eye, too.

Megan gave her a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

Kevin and Megan watched the car drive away, both in shock.

“Did what I think just happened really happen?” Kevin asked.

“Which part?”

“The whole convoluted mess.”

“Yep.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the house. “Come on, we have work to do.”

“We?”

“You don’t think I can do everything by myself, do you?”

“So you’re really going to marry this guy?”

She stopped on the front porch, a step up from him, putting him at eye level. “I know you’re looking out for me, and you have no idea how wonderful that makes me feel, but Josh isn’t the man you think he is. Take everything you knew about Jay Connors from all my insinuations and unsaid truths and toss them out the window. Josh is not that man.”

His eyes narrowed. “Why not?”

“I hope to explain it to you later, but for now you’ll have to trust me.” She took a deep breath, then poked her finger into his chest. “I’m marrying Josh this afternoon, so let this evil plot to stop my wedding end now.”

“Damn straight,” Gram said from the sofa through the open front door.

Megan leaned toward him and whispered, “And you’re in charge of making sure Gram wears clothes to the wedding.”

“Eww!”

“And