Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 103530 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103530 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“Deena,” Scott said, straightening. “You got in okay, then?”
“Oh, honey. It was a dream. First class, all the way here.” She motioned across the table. “Roy! Roy!”
The man she’d waved to looked like he would be more at home in a recliner with something boring on the television. His white hair and beard combined with his red polo shirt to make him look like Santa’s brother who worked in IT. The shirt bore a little logo of a roaring bear. He nodded to Scott, less enthusiastic than his wife but not unfriendly. He seemed uncomfortable to be in his surroundings.
I sympathized. Deeply.
“Roy, Deena, I wanted you to meet my sister,” Scott said, putting a hand on my back to push me closer to the table. “This is Charlotte.”
Deena looked between Scott and me with an expression of joyous disbelief. “No. No! This can’t be little Charlotte. Oh my god.” She got up from her seat and hugged me while I held my plate out at my side to avoid sloshing breakfast all over her. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
“I keep hearing that. From everyone,” I said, carefully stepping back. Scott gave me a look, and I realized what I’d said, but before he could ask who “everyone” was, Deena started pushing plates and cups around on the table.
“Scoot over, scoot over,” she told the elderly woman sitting to her right.
“Oh, no, that’s okay, I can—” I began.
“Nonsense, we’re family now,” Deena insisted. “Roy, get her a chair.”
“No, really I—”
But before I knew it, Scott had grabbed a chair for me and shoved it into place between the two women. I hesitantly sat and put my plate on the white tablecloth.
“We have heard a lot about you,” Deena reiterated. “Scott just loves you. I told Lauren she’s lucky you’re his sister or he’d probably be marrying you.”
“That’s gross,” I blurted in horror.
Scott laughed, overly loud. “Well, I’m going to let you get to know each other—”
I shot him a murderous look.
He refused to meet my gaze. “And I’m going to go find my bride.”
God, the way he said it. His bride. Gag. Insinuated incest aside, I was deeply offended at the notion that I would ever marry anybody who referred to me as his “bride.” It felt so old-fashioned.
Then again, I got the feeling the people at this table would be way into “old-fashioned.” None of them were under sixty, and all the women were wearing at least one piece of bear-themed jewelry.
Deena had little bear paw stud earrings.
The old woman on my other side put a veiny hand on my wrist. “Are you the one who gave Scott the bone marrow, dear?”
My stomach turned. “No. That was a stranger from the national registry.”
The old woman looked to Deena. “What did she say? I couldn’t hear her.”
“Not her, Sue,” Deena practically shouted past me. “They had her to give him bone marrow. But she wasn’t a match.”
My face burned with anger and embarrassment. Why the hell had he told them about that? Why did he think anyone outside our family needed to know that I’d shot out of our mom’s vagina a fully formed failure?
Worse, Sue, whoever she was, hadn’t heard correctly the first time, and Deena had to repeat it, louder. Loud enough that people at other tables heard it.
I should get a fucking T-shirt made.
“But that’s why they had her, wasn’t it?” the old woman responded, pointing at me with her other hand while still holding a firm grip on my wrist. “For the bone marrow?”
“Yes, but she wasn’t a match,” Deena said, enunciating every word painfully.
I wanted to sink into the floor.
“Charlotte?”
I looked up, not sure if I was grateful to see Matthew there or not. It all depended on if he planned to rescue me.
“You’re Charlotte?” he asked, and he was a good actor. Nobody would have suspected that we already knew each other. “I’m Matt. Ashe. I’m your brother’s best man.”
“Oh my gosh!” I squealed enthusiastically, jumping to my feet. “You’re Matt? I’ve heard so much about you.”
He gave me a quick hug and said, “Have you seen your brother?”
“He was here a second ago,” Deena put in. “Have a seat, we can make room.”
“I need to find Scott,” he said with an apologetic wince. “I’ve got a surprise for him.”
“More surprises?” Deena was aflutter with excitement. “Better than the honeymoon?”
“I think you’ll all be pleased.” He winked at her. “But I have to find Scott, first. Charlotte, do you mind—”
“Helping you look? Not at all.” I abandoned my breakfast and followed him before anyone at the table could stop me. When we were a suitable distance from the scene of my mortification, I whispered, “Thank you!”
“No problem.” He grimaced. “I met Deena yesterday afternoon. She’s a lovely woman but a little… overbearing.”
“Oh, ha ha.” I rolled my eyes, but he did get a smile out of me.