you’ll be positioned for a leadership role by the time you’re in your fifties.”
He realized then that Charlie wasn’t deep in conversation with the woman. She was having her ear talked off. In fact, she turned to look at him and widened her eyes so briefly it was barely noticeable, as if to say help me!
“Sorry I’m late,” Nicholas said loudly, hoping that would stop the conversation next to him. It didn’t. In fact, conversation continued all around the table, making him wonder if anyone had even noticed his absence.
He sat down, eyeing the coffee cup in front of his plate. He’d used the one-cup coffeemaker in the room to get his caffeine fix that morning, but it had been far from satisfactory. Right now, if he could just get some coffee in his system, he could tackle any challenge this table would bring.
“Good morning, everyone,” his mother, apparently noticing at some point that Nicholas had arrived, called out as she stood to address the group.
Nicholas groaned inwardly. Still no coffee. He looked around and saw, sure enough, other people had their coffee cups filled. What were the odds they’d completely skipped him?
The odds increased as a group of servers arrived with plates full of food. They began setting them in front of people as Nicholas’s mom began her typical “Thanks for coming this weekend” speech. Nicholas didn’t want to interrupt, but coffee was pretty important. Besides, it wasn’t like she was saying anything all that urgent.
“Excuse me,” he whispered to the woman who sat a plate filled with scrambled eggs, fruit, and a croissant in front of him. No meat. If he couldn’t have caffeine, he at least needed some bacon or sausage.
Whether she hadn’t heard him or chose to ignore him, he wasn’t sure. But the server turned and headed back out the door. Shifting to one of the other servers, he tried to make eye contact, even lifting his hand slightly as she passed. It wasn’t easy to flag someone down when you couldn’t even speak.
“Excuse me!” he said much louder as a third server raced past him without noting his mostly quiet attempts to get attention. If he didn’t speak up now, he may not get coffee until well into his meal. He wasn’t even sure the servers would check back then.
But the two words seemed to fill the room, bouncing off the walls and making it impossible not to notice. Nicholas winced. He hadn’t meant to be that loud.
“Could I get some coffee?” he whispered to the server who had doubled back and leaned over to see his face. Whispering now would make it all better, wouldn’t it?
The server nodded and rushed out the door. He realized then, even after doing that, there was no guarantee she’d return with a pot of coffee. It was his fault. He shouldn’t have been late.
Donna, frown on her face, waited until all eyes returned to her again, then continued. “I learned this weekend that my other son, Nicholas, will be getting married very soon. I’ll be planning yet another wedding. Can you believe it?”
Attention turned to Nicholas. That was the last thing he wanted. He looked over at Charlie, hoping to divert some of that attention to her.
“Are you sure about that?” Caroline asked, seated halfway between Nicholas and his mother. He got his wish at that point. All eyes turned to Caroline. But he had a feeling whatever was about to happen was far worse than people watching him.
“Whatever do you mean?” Donna asked Caroline. Donna immediately sat down and picked up her fork, holding it in place as she stared down the woman with a semi-polite smile.
“I spent some time with Justin and Brooke yesterday.” Caroline spoke directly to Donna, then scanned the group as she said the rest. “Justin is Nicholas’s best friend and Charlie’s boss, as you all know. Justin slipped up and revealed that Charlie and Nicholas just met. They aren’t even engaged.”
“Oh.” Donna looked at her son. “Is that the case?”
He could lie. He could tell his mother that it wasn’t the case—that Caroline must have misunderstood. But something snapped in him as he viewed his mother’s indignant expression. That something tied directly back to the conversation he’d had with his brother just before the wedding—the one where he’d learned that his mother threw each brother’s accomplishments in the other one’s face to make them compete with each other.
It was horrible, despicable behavior.
“That is the case,” he said. “You kept pushing various