The Wedding Pact Box Set - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,25

have one daughter, and she will have the most beautiful wedding in all of Jackson County.”

“Nicole,” her father chided. “The wedding is going to be in Johnson County. And this isn’t even the wedding.”

“Details!” Her mother looked around, frantic and frustrated. “I wanted to hire real waitstaff, instead of taking a chance on these kids—” she waved at a teenage girl wearing a black skirt and blouse who was setting a plate of tiny cakes on the food table, “—but your father refused. And we haven’t had ample time to prepare after your foolish antics at the airport, Megan Nicole.”

Shoot me now, Megan thought.

Her brother came out the back door and helped her grandmother out onto the deck. Her grandmother had changed into a flamboyant green and blue dress, paired with a headband of giant feathers. It made her hair look snow white.

“The guests are about to arrive and the candles aren’t lit yet,” her mother called over her shoulder as she moved toward the French doors. “Quit dillydallying, dear.” She stopped and looked Gram up and down before shaking her head. “I’m not even . . .” Her voice trailed off as she entered the house.

Megan smiled to herself at her grandmother’s choice of attire—probably partially chosen to irritate Nicole. Megan grabbed two candles off the tray, and Josh leaned close to her ear. “Where are we supposed to set these things up anyway? The small tables are covered with the Disney props.”

“I don’t care, just set them off to the side,” she grumbled, her smile fading. This was going to be a total disaster.

“How about you set them out and I’ll light them?”

“Sounds good.”

Megan set one on a table decorated with a spool of thread and a dollhouse spinning wheel. Her grandmother hobbled past them and over to the bar. “Those are supposed to go in the pool.”

“What?” For a moment, Megan was sure her gram had finally turned a corner and gone completely senile.

“The pool.” She waved her hands toward it in a shooing motion. “Your mother looked high and low for those fancy-pants bowls. She wants them in the water.”

Megan picked one up and checked it over. She suspected Gram was right. It didn’t make sense to add anything to the tables, and floating candles were certainly over-the-top enough to fit her mother’s theme. The question was how to do this gracefully. Then again, screw being graceful.

After kicking off her shoes, Megan sat on the side of the pool, submerging her feet in the water. Josh followed and set the tray on the concrete. “Hand me the candles we set out on the tables,” Megan prompted. “I’ll light them and put the bowls in the water.”

“Okay . . .” He sounded unsure, but he obeyed readily enough.

Satisfied, Gram continued on her way to the bar. “I’m thirsty. Fix me a drink, Kevin. Do you still make a mean sex on the beach?”

Kevin laughed and headed around the back of the bar, grabbing four glasses as he went. “I haven’t made one of those since I was in high school, Gram. When you hired me to bartend for those parties you and Gramps threw.”

“Until your mother found out you weren’t really helping us with home repairs,” she chortled.

“She had a royal fit.” He shook his head with an ornery grin. “It was awesome.”

“I got in trouble for that, too,” Megan added, calling over her shoulder. “Mom was certain I knew, so she was pissed I hadn’t told her.”

Gram frowned, shaking her head. “Your mother and I don’t always see eye to eye.”

Kevin hoisted a liquor bottle in salute. “And thank God for that.”

Josh helped Megan with several more floating centerpieces before he glanced up from putting a candle in one of the bowls, a perplexed look on his face. “Wait. If Gram is your mother’s mother, why doesn’t she have a Southern accent?”

Megan chuckled. “That is one of the reasons Mom keeps Gram under wraps, which is harder to do now that Gram lives with them. Mom tells everyone she’s from Atlanta, but she only lived there for her last two years of high school when Gramps worked for Coca-Cola. She’s originally from Overland Park, Kansas.”

Josh still looked confused. “So she developed a Southern accent in a very short period of time and kept it?”

“More like she fakes it,” Gram snorted, taking her drink from Kevin.

“Why?” Josh asked.

Kevin walked toward them, a glass in each hand. “To make herself seem even more special than everyone else, of