Page 37 of Lady Luck's Kiss
Her blood was racing with excitement as she mentally ticked off everything in her head. Same dress she’d worn when she met him, check.
Same boots.
Hair braided in two French braids, but instead of leaving it plain, Beth was currently stabbing sprigs of baby’s breath in her hair as fast as humanly possible in the women’s restroom and barking angrily, asking if anyone had any hairspray.
“Seriously? Don’t you eighties-wannabe-women have a can of Aqua Net in that bag? I mean, we are prepping for something serious!”
“Beth, stop. If you have to do without, it’s going to be gorgeous anyways.”
“It’s not every day my girl pops the question to a guy.”
“No, and I don’t plan on doing this again. It’s torture on my nerves.”
“Yours? I have been waiting for lightning to strike me down all week!”
Giggling, they hugged and then Beth fussed with the flowers again. Charlotte turned and looked in the mirror under the fluorescent lights. Her face was stark pale against the bright white tile of the bathroom and the flowers danced all around her face. She looked about as bridal as anyone could without any real notice.
“Are you wearing something blue?”
“Oh my gosh, no…” she gasped and then laughed hysterically as Beth yanked out a blue thong from her purse. It was completely trashy and had “BRIDE” sequined on the front of it. “Old and borrowed are my boots. New is the flowers. Something blue you can consider a shower gift as well as a good luck charm.”
Yanking the tags off, she grinned as Beth held open the bathroom stall door for her. Giggling nervously as reality began to hit her, she yanked off her underwear and threw them in the trash can. Pulling on the teeny blue panties, she ignored how snug they were and, instead, pictured her husband seeing them for the first time.
“God give me strength,” she whispered aloud and stepped out of the stall. Beth handed her a tiny sample bottle of whiskey.
“I don’t know about strength, but in case your nerves need fortifying, use this. Charlie, meet Jack… in liquid form. Ewww, that sounded nasty,” Beth said making a face. “Let’s try that again. Drink up for when Jack goes down. No, no, no. That’s not right either.”
“Give me that and shut up,” Charlie snorted and quickly drank the shot of whiskey. “I swear, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Well it would certainly be a lot less fun.”
“True.”
“We had better go or you are going to miss your man’s entrance.”
The two women linked arms and headed into the arena. Sure enough, the crowd was getting to its feet for the National Anthem. They immediately came to a halt and held their hands over their chests until it was over, resuming their rush to take their seats.
Charlie watched as Jack and several other cowboys walked out, waving their hats at the crowd before taking their places.Clowns and horses ran around the enlarged arena much to the delight of the audience.
Charlie saw Jack cross to the other side and swallowed hard as the announcer came over the intercom.
“Folks, we are having a slight change of plans. If you will give us a minute or two before we begin…”
“You are up, Bridezilla.”
“I don’t think I can stand, my knees are knocking so hard.”
“Girl, get up! You have got to get this marrying thing over with and then you can knock knees later. Trust me, once you get it out of your system, it will be easy peasy-lemon squeezy. Now, get up because here come Jack and Scott-the-stud-muffin.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. UP!”
Charlie got to her feet and quickly grabbed the metal tubing that served as a railing to separate the crowd from the arena. Jack quickly climbed up the chute, looking alarmed.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m great, why?”
