Wedding Haters (Event to Remember Series-Book 2) by Melissa Baldwin Page A

Susan asks
worriedly.
    “Yes. I’m fine.”
    “I invited everyone to my house for a late
dinner. That way, you can bring them to see the house. I hope
that’s OK.” How do I tell her that that is the last thing I want to
do? After everything everyone has done for me today, I don’t.
    “Sounds good,” I tell her.
    After we load up all the gifts into several
cars, we caravan over to Susan’s, and I guess my place, too. (Still
can’t get used to that.) My mom rides with me, and I know she just
wants to talk about my run-in with Ellie.
    “Go ahead, Mom, let’s get it out so we can
move on.”
    “Honey, why are you so defensive?” she asks
with the same disapproving tone my grandmother uses. “Why don’t you
just tell me why you were screaming at your cousin in front of all
your friends and family?”
    “Mom, will it even make a difference if I
tell you?” I keep my eyes focused straight ahead on the road. This
isn’t my first rodeo going head-to-head with her on this subject.
“You’ve already made up your mind. You expect this perfect family
relationship that’s just not going to happen.”
    “No, honey. That’s not . . .”she tries to
interrupt, but I hold up my hand to stop her.
    “Please just let me finish. I asked them to
be in my wedding, the most important day in my life. I did this for
you and Grandmother. We’re never going to agree on this subject and
my feelings have never mattered anyway. So, it’s probably best to
just leave it alone and move on.”
    Mom doesn’t say anything else about it, and
the rest of our ride is quiet. When we pull up at the house (my
house), Mom tells me she loves me and gives me a hug. I sense a
tiny bit of something from her, guilt maybe? I tell her that I love
her, too.
    My new house is a huge hit as is Susan’s
dinner that she somehow manages to whip up in less than thirty
minutes. Sometimes I wonder if she has a secret chef team hidden in
her house, or maybe she has a delivery company bring in food and
she pretends she made it. Either way, she outdoes herself again. I
hope Cole doesn’t expect these kinds of meals after we’re married.
If so, I guess I can always send him down the street to his mommy’s
house for a home-cooked meal. At least he will always have
cookies.

Chapter 7
     
    A few days later, I realize that I haven’t
heard a word from my cousins, and it’s been wonderful. I quickly
learn that I have a bad habit of jinxing myself when it comes to
them. When I arrive at work, I look at my appointments for the day.
At 1:30, I see a familiar name, and I start to feel sick to my
stomach. There is no way it could be the same person, right? There
are people out there with doppelganger names, right?
    “Lauren!” I yell, running to the reception
desk. “Who’s this Stephanie Smith? Did she say anything when she
set the appointment?” There is no way that Stephy would actually
allow me to do her hair, right?
    “Not really, she requested you when she made
the appointment. That was pretty much all except she was very
demanding and wanted to get an appointment as soon as possible. Do
you know her?” Crap! It is Stephy, but why?
    “I think so.” I have a bad feeling as I start
to get everything ready for my day. I wonder why Stephy would be
coming to me today. I’ve been doing hair for years, and never once
has either of them shown any interest in my career other than to
put it down. So, this leads me to believe that they’re up to
something or maybe paranoia is officially taking over my soul. I
guess it could be possible that what they said at the shower is
true. Maybe they are really trying.
    A few hours later, I hear Stephy’s voice. I
was hoping up until the very last second that another Stephanie
Smith was going to walk through that door. But of course not, it’s
Stephy.
    “Madie, I brought tons of pictures of what I
want you to do. I really want that ombre color that everyone is
doing. Here’s exactly what I want.” She hands me some