Call Me Irresistible (Wynette, Texas #5)(132)

       
         
       
        

"Y'all are too dear," Meg drawled. And then, loudly, to her parents, "They take their electroshock therapy together. That way, they get a group discount."

"There is no gratitude in that girl," Shelby sniffed to Lady Emma.

Torie grabbed a crab puff. "We could always put her in charge of the city playground committee. That'll teach her to disrespect us."

Meg groaned, Lady Emma smiled, and Lucy was befuddled. "What's happened?" she said when she caught Meg alone. "You totally fit in here. And that's not a compliment."

"I know," Meg replied. "It sort of sneaked up on me."

But Lucy was mildly miffed. "They were never anything but polite to me, so clearly, I wasn't good enough for them. Me, the daughter of the president of the United States. You, on the other hand-Miss Screwup-you, they love."

Meg smiled and lifted her glass toward the Crazy Women of Wynette. "We understand each other."

Fleur drew Lucy away, Ted joined Meg, and together, they watched Kayla and Zoey move in on Meg's brothers. Ted took a sip from his wineglass. "Shelby told your parents she's pretty sure you're pregnant."

"Not yet."

"I figured you'd probably tell me first." He gazed toward the women. "Or maybe not. You're absolutely sure you want to live here?"

Meg smiled. "I couldn't live anywhere else."

He slipped his fingers through hers. "One more night, and then that stupid sexual moratorium of yours is over. How I ever let you talk me into it, I'll never understand."

"I don't know that you can exactly call four days a moratorium."

"It sure as hell feels like one."

Meg laughed and kissed him.

By the next afternoon, however, she was a bundle of nerves, and neither Lucy, nor her five other bridal attendants, could calm her down. Georgie and April, along with their famous husbands, had flown in from L.A., while Sasha had arrived from Chicago. It hadn't felt right to get married without Torie and Lady Emma, and they all looked stunning in simply cut, sleeveless, dove gray silk dresses, each with a slightly different set of rhinestone buttons running down the back.

"Kayla's putting 'em all up on eBay for us when this shindig is over," Torie announced to Meg as they gathered before the ceremony in the church's antechamber. "She says we'll make a fortune."

"Which we'll give to charity," Lady Emma stated firmly.

Fleur got predictably teary-eyed when she saw Meg in her gown. So did Torie and Lady Emma, although for a different reason. "You're sure about this?" Torie whispered to Meg as the bridal party moved into the narthex for the processional. 

"Some things are meant to be." Meg clutched her bouquet tighter as Lucy arranged the short train. The gown, with its structured corset top, fragile cap sleeves, and slim, delicately embellished silhouette, plunged to a deep V in the back. She wore it with her mother's fingertip wedding veil and tiara of Austrian crystals.

The trumpets sounded, a signal for Ted to enter at the front of the church, along with Kenny, his best man. Although Meg couldn't see her bridegroom, she suspected a convenient shaft of sunlight would choose that moment to spill through the stained-glass windows and put another one of those ridiculous halos around him.

She was getting queasier by the minute.

Lady Emma had lined up the bridesmaids. With a gathering sense of panic, Meg watched April step off first, followed by Torie and then Sasha. Meg's hands were clammy, her heart beating too fast. Georgie disappeared. Only Lady Emma and Lucy were left.

Lucy whispered, "You look beautiful. Thanks for being my friend."

Meg tried to smile. Really she did. But Lady Emma was heading down the aisle, and only Lucy was left, and Meg was cold all over.

Lucy moved.

Meg's hand shot out, and she grabbed her by the arm. "Wait!"

Lucy looked over her shoulder.

"Get him," Meg said on a wheeze of panic.

Lucy gaped at her. "You are kidding me, right?"

"No." Meg gulped for air. "I have to see him. Right now."

"Meg, you can't do this."

"I know. It's horrible. But . . . Just get him, please?"

"I knew coming here was a bad idea," Lucy muttered. Then she took a deep breath, fixed her old White House smile on her face, and headed down the aisle.

She kept that smile firmly in place right up to the moment she stopped in front of Ted.

He studied her. She studied him.

"Uh-oh," said Kenny.

She licked her lips. "Uhm . . . Sorry, Ted. Again. Sorry again. But . . . Meg wants to see you."