Flirting with Disaster (27 page)

“I've thought a lot about this and here's what I've come up with. We need to spend some time with my mother,” she said. “A lot of time.”

Josh wasn't sure he was following her logic. Or maybe he understood it too well. Maybe that was why he found it so damn depressing. “You want to trot me out for your mother's inspection?” he asked, his heart thudding dully.

“It won't be that bad,” Maggie said, more cheerful now that her cards were apparently on the table. “She's not an ogre. She was totally charming the last two times you crossed paths, remember? I predict she'll probably be so polite, it'll give you hives.”

“An attractive prospect,” he muttered. “Okay, one more time now. Tell me exactly why you want to do this. What are you hoping will happen?”

Maggie, the most confident woman Josh had ever met, looked decidedly uncomfortable. “It's sort of a test.”

“I think you'd better explain that one to me,” he said irritably. “If I pass, what do I get? The Forsythe seal of approval stamped on my butt?”

She grinned weakly. “As intriguing as I find that notion, no. The test is more about me. I've already told you that Mother thinks I choose unsuitable men just to spite her. I think that's possible.” She met his gaze. “So, I want you to win her over.”

Josh stared at her. “That's a little convoluted for my simple brain, but I think I should probably be insulted. What happens if I charm the socks off your mother?”

“That's what I want to find out.”

“You've lost me.”

“If my entire life has been one big attempt to rebel against my mother, I think it's time I figured that out. If she adores you, then based on past experience, I'll probably find some way to mess things up between us.”

“Now,
there's
something for me to look forward to,” Josh said, an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Tell me again why I should participate in something that could ruin what we've got going?”

“What we've got going is great sex,” she said blithely. “That's what we agreed. It won't be a huge loss.”

“Speak for yourself,” Josh retorted. Somewhere along the way it had gotten to be about more than sex for him. He didn't know where things were going, but he was in no rush to see everything flushed down the toilet as part of some stupid test Maggie had devised for herself. She might not know her own heart, but he knew his and he thought he had pretty good insight into hers. Unfortunately, she probably wouldn't take his word for anything. He sighed as he contemplated a future without her in it because he or she—he wasn't exactly clear on this—failed her test.

“You won't do it?” Maggie asked, regarding him with undisguised disappointment.

“No,” he said flatly, coming to a decision. “I won't go along with your crazy scheme. What I will do is this…” His voice trailed off as he tried to formulate a plan more to his liking. Only one thing occurred to him, but the words stuck in his throat. Once he spoke, it would change things forever. They weren't the sort of words that could be unsaid.

“What?” Maggie prodded.

He took a deep breath and looked into her eyes. What he saw convinced him this was the only choice he had. “I'll marry you,” he blurted before he could think better of it. “In Las Vegas. Next weekend.”

As soon as he'd uttered the words, they sounded absolutely right to him. If Vegas was good enough for Nadine, it was just perfect for him.

“Are you out of your mind?” Maggie demanded, her expression stunned.

Josh remained undaunted by her lack of enthusiasm. “That's my final offer,” he said. “Take it or leave it. We get married. Then I start spending all the time with your mother you want me to.”

“But why?” she asked.

That was the mother of all questions, but for once Josh didn't even hesitate to say what was in his heart. “Because I love you and I am not letting someone else decide our fate for us.”

“But that's so…”

“Unpredictable? Impulsive? Irresponsible?” he supplied when she couldn't seem to complete the sentence. “I thought that might suit you, that it might say a lot about us, in fact.”

Just when he thought his outrageous idea was too over the top even for Maggie, her eyes began to sparkle.

“Perfect,” she whispered. “It's perfect, Josh. I didn't know how desperately I wanted you to propose to me until you did. I guess I'm more conventional than I ever realized.”

“Is that a yes?”

She flung herself into his arms. “Of course it's a yes!”

Holding her, Josh was suddenly filled with the sense that his world was exactly right. He'd learned a lot about the true meaning of home and family these past couple of months. And for him, Maggie would always be at the center of his world. Still, it wouldn't do for either of them to get too set in their ways.

“Promise me we'll never let convention get the better of us, okay?” he said, gazing into her eyes. “We'll always do the unexpected.”

“Of course we will,” she said, grinning. “Remind me to tell you about Great-Grandmother Juliette sometime. Unpredictability is in my genes.”

Funny thing about that, Josh thought. He'd always thought he'd had his fill of that with his mother, but maybe Nadine had just been preparing him for the greatest love of his life. He'd have to thank her for that—next time he and Maggie got out of this bed.

“I
will not have an Elvis impersonator singing ‘Love Me Tender' at my daughter's wedding,” Juliette declared when Maggie and Josh went by her house to tell her their plans to go to Las Vegas to get married. “If you insist on getting married on short notice…” She hesitated. “You do insist on that, right?”

“We do,” Maggie said firmly.

“Are you pregnant?” Juliette asked, not looking especially appalled by the idea.

Maggie sighed. “No, Mother. We're in a rush because we want to get married and squeeze in a honeymoon before I have to focus all my attention on organizing Ellie's show at the gallery. And there's still a lot of work to be done on Amanda's house if she's going to move in by Thanksgiving. Josh can't be gone for long, and neither of us has any extra time to plan a big hoopla.”

“You could wait until Christmas,” Juliette suggested. “I've always thought holiday-season weddings were lovely.”

Maggie frowned. “Two weeks, Mother. That's it.”

“Okay, okay. I can live with that,” her mother conceded. “We can do the ceremony right here in Charleston. Caleb can officiate. Nadine and I will make all the arrangements. You won't have to do a thing.”

Maggie could barely bring herself to look at Josh. She had a feeling he'd been counting on the unpredictability of his plan. “We really want to go to Las Vegas, Mother. We only told you so you could decide whether you wanted to fly out to be there.”

Juliette drew herself up. “Magnolia Forsythe, you are my only daughter and I will not allow this!” She gave Josh a look that would have sent most men fleeing to Alaska. “Little girls start dreaming of their wedding when they're flower girls in other people's weddings. You cannot take that away from my daughter.”

Josh's gaze settled on Maggie. “You had this dream?”

“It doesn't matter,” she said staunchly. “A Las Vegas wedding suits me now.”

He sighed and shook his head. “No, it doesn't. If we're going to do this, we might as well do it right.” He turned to her mother. “If you can manage all the arrangements in two weeks, we'll get married here.”

Juliette beamed at him. “I always knew you were a reasonable man.”

“You didn't know any such thing, Mother,” Maggie declared in disgust. “You're just thrilled that he's going along with your wishes.”

“No, I'm thrilled that he's willing to compromise to make you happy,” Juliette corrected. “Now, unless you want to be a part of this, get out of here. I need to call Nadine and get busy. We don't have a lot of time. What about bridesmaids? Dinah, I assume.”

“Of course.” She glanced at Josh. “Maybe I should ask Ellie and Vicki and Amanda. We might as well go whole hog. What do you think?”

“Whatever you want is okay with me. Do you think Vicki's hair will still have pink streaks? You might want to coordinate their dresses with that.”

Maggie frowned at his idea of humor. “Vicki's hair is a perfectly lovely shade of brown now that she's dating that firefighter. Apparently he was a little put off by the pink.”

“You don't say,” Josh said wryly.

Maggie ignored him and faced her mother. “I'll let you know about the bridesmaids.”

“And the best man? Josh, who do you plan on asking?”

“Maybe I should ask Warren,” he said. “If he hadn't dumped her, Maggie and I might never have met.”

“You are so not amusing,” Maggie commented. “Be serious.”

“I'll ask Cord.”

Maggie nodded. “Perfect. Satisfied, Mother?”

“For now.”

“Then we're out of here,” Maggie said. “Tell me what time to show up for the wedding.”

“Very amusing,” Juliette said. “I'll need you for a gown fitting before that. And you might want to give us your input on the flowers, the music and the menu.”

“You said you and Nadine were taking care of all that,” Maggie reminded her. “I'm a perfect size eight. Don't choose anything too fussy.”

“Then you trust our taste?”

Maggie thought about that. She figured her mother's preference for simplicity and elegance and Nadine's for outrageousness would land the wedding safely somewhere in the middle. And however it turned out, since she was marrying Josh, it would be perfect.

Though she was seriously tempted to stick around to watch the entertaining spectacle of her mother and Nadine attempting to compromise, she said without a qualm, “Yes, I trust you completely. Come on, Josh. Let's get out of here before she thinks of something we ought to be doing or deciding.”

“Suits me,” he said eagerly.

In the front hallway, he backed her against a wall and kissed her for what seemed like an eternity. She was weak-kneed when he finished.

“What was that for?” she asked breathlessly.

“I thought you might need reminding why we're doing this.”

“Believe me, that is never far from my mind,” she assured him.

And it was going to make the inevitable chaos of the next two weeks bearable.

 

Later that night, Josh gazed down at Maggie beside him. She looked more serene than he'd ever seen her before. Maybe that had something to do with making love for the past couple of hours, but he thought it was more than that.

“You're happy?” he asked.

“Deliriously, especially now that we know Brian's locked up until his trial. And Ellie has agreed to let me schedule her show in October.”

“And you don't mind relinquishing control of your wedding to our mothers?”

“Not a bit.”

“Really? I was convinced to skip Vegas so that you could have the wedding of your dreams. Control freak that you are, I assumed you'd want to put your stamp of approval on every detail.”

“I don't need to. What my mother didn't mention was that she has notebooks filled with everything we've ever discussed. If I passed a dress I liked in a bridal boutique, she wrote down the designer. If I mentioned an appetizer they had at a friend's wedding, the recipe is in the appropriate notebook, along with every caterer who's ever impressed either of us. She'll pull this off and it will make her happy.”

“Then this is as much about making her happy as it is about you?”

“Of course. She was right. I'm her only daughter. She deserves this wedding even more than I do. How could I rob her of that, especially now that I'm actually marrying someone it turns out she approves of?” She grinned, then added without any hint of rancor, “Guess I'm still an approval junkie, after all.”

“How do you know she approves?”

“Of you? Come on. Did you see the look on her face when we told her the news? The woman was triumphant. I realized in that instant that the whole disapproval thing was a ploy to push me into making the right decision. I imagine Nadine had a similar expression when you told her.”

“Come to think of it, she did look awfully smug,” Josh said. “You don't suppose those two were conspiring?”

“I wouldn't put it past them.”

“Does that bother you?”

“Not much. You?”

He grinned. “I'm marrying you, aren't I? How could I complain?”

 

Nadine couldn't seem to stop the tears from spilling down her cheeks as she watched her son stand at the front of the church in his tux, his gaze riveted on Maggie as she walked down the aisle. His heart was in his eyes. She wondered if he had any idea how much joy she was taking in this moment, knowing that he was finally going to have the home and family she'd never been able to give him.

Beside her George took a second clean handkerchief from his pocket and silently handed it to her.

“I'm sorry I'm such a mess,” she whispered.

“I think it comes with the territory,” he said. “Mothers of the bride and groom are supposed to be a little weepy.”

“I absolutely love weddings,” Nadine said with a sigh. “But this is the best one yet. It's certainly better than any of mine.”

“Maybe you just haven't walked down the aisle with the right man yet,” he said, tucking her hand in his.

“Maybe not,” she said, feeling more hopeful than she had in a very long time.

She turned her attention back to Josh and saw a smile spread across his face as Maggie reached his side. He clasped her hand as if he'd never let go, then turned toward Caleb, clearly ready to say the vows that would join him and Maggie forever. Unfortunately, Caleb seemed to be momentarily distracted by the sight of Amanda in her elegant bridesmaid dress.

“Um, Caleb, do you think we could get this show on the road?” Josh murmured.

Caleb's attention snapped back to the couple in front of him. “Dearly beloved,” he began.

Nadine sighed. “Something tells me those two are going to make a grandmama of me before another year is out,” she whispered.

A few months ago the idea would have appalled her. Now she could hardly wait. It wasn't a matter of making her feel old as much as it was of enriching her life. She realized then that she was gaining a family the same way Josh was. Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks.

“This is the last one I have,” George said, handing her another folded handkerchief.

“I'm almost done crying,” she told him. “From the minute those two say I do, it's going to be all about fresh starts and optimism.”

George looked doubtful and she could hardly blame him, since she'd already turned it into a three-hankie occasion. She noticed that across the aisle, Juliette was just as teary-eyed. Nadine gave her a quick thumbs-up that had her smiling.

Yes, indeed. Fresh starts and optimism from here on out, she concluded.

She stole a glance at George.

And maybe, if her luck held out this time, just a touch of romance.