The Good Luck Potion (The Good Luck Series) (15 page)

He didn’t buy into voodoo, but he did believe in Sue and their chemistry together.
For now, that was enough.

Chapter Eleven

Sue carried the shopping bags into her apartment amazed at how many there were. She’d only
gone to get her shoes for the wedding, but then she’d found the perfect sheer hosiery to wear with them and a full length slip to keep the dress from clinging in places it shouldn’t. The wedding boutique sales girl had been more than helpful and her pocket book had taken a hit for it, but it was for her sister’s happiness. She knew Kimberly would do the same when her big day came along. At least she hoped she would.

Sighing, she carried the bags to her bedroom and put the shoe box in her closet and then stored the slip and hose in her top dresser drawer with her new strapless bra.
Sitting down on the bed, she kicked off her shoes and curled up on her side.

She’d been giv
ing more thought to the type of bachelorette party Kimberly would want. Her sister was great to be with and they always had fun when they went out. However, she knew that their having fun together was different than the type of fun Kimberly had when she was out with her friends. It was obvious every time she got together with the other bridesmaids.

Therefore, s
he didn’t want to disappoint her sister, nor did she want to regurgitate a Tennessee version of ‘bachelorette gone wild’. Hiring a stripper was over rated. Bar hopping for a night might work, but she didn’t feel comfortable with that either. But it wasn’t about her comfort level. It was about her sister and throwing her a great party.

Getting up, she went to her desk in the living room and opened up her laptop to do another search for ideas. She really
was running out of time on this and maybe she was over thinking it.

Her computer started making chiming sounds and a video screen popped up. She sat down in front of the computer and adjusted her volume level as her mother’s smiling face came into view.

“Hello, darling. How are you?”

“I’m good. And you and dad?” she asked still amazed that her parents liked to video chat instead of calling her on the phone.

“Not bad at all. Getting excited about seeing our girls again. As it turns out, we won’t get up there until the morning of the wedding. We’ll miss the rehearsal and dinner.”

“Oh no! Did you tell Kimberly yet?”

“Yes. And she is okay with it. Not happy, but she understands your dad’s predicament.”

Sue listened as her mom explained how her dad had
a procedure scheduled, but that the doctor had to reschedule.

“Of course your father agreed to the date they said and then realized it was too close to when we were planning to drive up. He tried to reschedule, but the next available date was in January and he’d have to go through the recertification process to satisfy insurance requirements again, not to mention we’ve already met our deductible for this year.  It made more sense to delay our leaving
Florida until he can travel. If your father would fly we’d be there much sooner, but you know he can’t.”

“Poor daddy and his phobia.”

“I know.”

“Who are you talking to, Priscilla?”

Sue heard her dad’s voice before he came into view. “Hi, daddy.”

“Hi, pumpkin. How’s my girl?”

“I’m good.”

“You don’t sound it. What’s wrong?” He
r dad sat down in front of the computer beside her mom.

“Trying to plan the perfect bachelorette party for Kimberly. Nothing I can think of sounds good enough to me. I wish she had asked one of her girlfriends to plan it.”

  “But she asked you, dear. She knew you were the best person to plan it,” her mother assured. “Trust your instincts.”

“Bachelorette party. I don’t get why girls today think they need to have one. It was created for the man to live it up one last time.”

Her mother glared at her father. “You didn’t have one when we got married.”

Her dad smirked. “That’s what I let you believe.”

“Donald Charles, are you telling me you’ve kept a secret like that from me for thirty years?”

“I guess I am.”

“Well.” Her mom looked hurt. “We’ll talk to you soon, dear.”

The video chat session ended and the screen went black. Sue didn’t envy her dad at the moment.

She got up and went into the kitchen to fix her dinner. As she made a salad, she thought about what her mother had said. Kimberly had asked her to plan the party, not anyone else. That meant Kimberly knew what Sue was comfortable with and more than likely wanted the same.

An angry knock pounded at Sue’s apartment door waking her from a
nother wonderful dream about Alex. She groaned because it was her day off and she’d planned to sleep in, but whoever was at her door, had another idea for this Saturday morning. Reluctantly she crawled out of bed and walked to her door, grabbing her robe off the back. Slipping it on, she loosely tied the belt. The knocking continued.

“I’m coming.
I’m coming.” She called, rubbing her eyes to become fully awake. Fumbling with the security chain, she peeped out of the peep hole to see who it was and gritted her teeth. “Kimberly, you better have a good reason for coming here this early.”

“Oh I do.” Her sister stomped into the apartment
dressed for yoga and began pacing the distance between the living room and the kitchen. “I’m going to kill Brandon.”

That statement had Sue smiling. On more than one occasion she found Phil and Alex’s friend annoying and an unwanted third wheel. “What has he done?”

“It’s what he’s
planning
to do.” Her sister pulled out a stool at the counter and sat down, drumming her fingers in a staccato rhythm on the granite.

Going to the sink, she turned on the water to begin filling the coffee maker to brew a pot anxious to hear what her sister found so offensive. But she didn’t say anything. She only kept strumming her fingers. “Kimberly,
for all that is holy, just spit it out. The suspense is killing me.”

“He wants to take
my
Phil to Las Vegas for a bachelor weekend. A simple poker game in Knoxville like Phil wants isn’t good enough. No. Brandon wants to take Phil clear across the country to Sin City.”

Sue crossed her arms. If Brandon went through with his plan
, then that meant Alex would be going too. She wasn’t sure she liked this idea any more than Kimberly did, but she couldn’t stop it from happening if they decided to go. They were grown men after all.

“Phil has a right to have a bachelor party just like you have the right to a bachelorette party.”

Kimberly ran her fingers through her hair from her forehead back and shook her head. “He can do it here. Not in Vegas!”

“Be reasonable. You wouldn’t like it one bit if I was throwing you a weekend trip to Vegas and Phil was pitching a fit about it.”

“That’s it!” Kimberly jumped off the stool and hugged her. “We’ll schedule my bachelorette party to coincide with his bachelor party. You, Audra and I will hop a plane out there for the same weekend they are going. It will be perfect.”

Sue shook her head. “I can’t afford to fly to Vegas. Besides, I had something
much more low key planned for your bachelorette.”

Her sister shook her head, dug in her purse for her wallet and pulled out a credit card. “It’s my wedding and I want to go to Vegas.”

“But—”

“I’ll find out from Phil the details and let you know.”

“Kim—”

“It’s settled. Put the tickets on my card. Emergencies like this are what they make plastic for.”

“This isn’t an emergency!”

“It could be. I’m not taking a chance on Phil going out there and getting drunk and waking up the next morning married to some cocktail waitress.”

Sue scratched her head. “I see your point. I’ll take care of it.”

Her sister smiled and hugged her tight. “You really are my best friend and I’m so glad you agreed to be my maid of honor.”

“I just hope the guys don’t mind us crashing their weekend.”

“Don’t worry about them. We’re doing this for their own good.”

Sue snickered at that. It was more like Kimberly’s own good, but she didn’t want to elicit the wrath of bridezilla on her head. So she kept quiet. “You want some coffee?”

“No. I don’t have time. I’ve got to get to my zumba class. You should come with me.”

“I’m going hiking with Alex later. I’ll get a workout then.”

“Sweet. I gotta run. Thanks for taking care of this.”

“No problem. That’s what your maid of honor is here for, to make your life easier as the wedding approaches.”

“Isn’t that the truth!” Kimberly waved as she went out the door.

Filling a mug with steaming coffee, she went back to her bedroom to pick out what she would wear for her hiking date with Alex. Jeans and a long sleeve polo definitely to keep her legs and arms from getting scraped or bitten. It still was pretty warm during the days so maybe a light-weight jacket or long sleeved flannel shirt in case she got cool as they reached higher elevation.  Since she didn’t have hiking boots, Alex said her cross-trainers would do. But if they did this on a regular basis, she might need to think about investing in a pair.

With her mind settled on her attire, she crawled back in bed and sipped her coffee while she scrolled through her email on her phone to see if anything important had come through. It was still too early to call Alex, but she really wanted to talk to him. For no other reason than to hear his voice.

Perhaps she could call to check on Queenie. That would be a legitimate reason to call this early. But it wasn’t even eight yet. She’d have to wait at least another hour.

“She can’t do this, Alex.” Brandon protested, slamming his truck door closed before coming into the fenced yard. “We can’t allow Kimberly to crash Phil’s bachelor party.”

Queenie jumped up and ran away at the intrusion to her sanctuary while Duke raised his head and yawned before rolling onto his side.

“What are you talking about?”
Alex looked up from the pile of leaves he’d been raking before his friend showed up unannounced.

Brandon planted his hands on his hips. “I thought the three of us could fly out to Vegas for the weekend, kick back and hang loose.
Have one last good time together before Phil gets himself shackled. But Phil mentioned it to Kimberly and she’s insisting that Sue has also planned a trip to Vegas for her bachelorette party. She thinks we should all go out together.” He kicked at the pile of leaves sending a few scattering. “Isn’t it bad enough that we’re losing our poker buddy to her, now she wants to take our last weekend together away as well?”

Alex
grimaced and raked the stray leaves back into the pile before using the rake to scoop them up and put them in a bag to take to the compost site at work. “This is news to me. When were you going to tell me about this trip?”

“I’m telling you now. I wanted to run it by Phil first and he said he’d have to think about it.
But what he really meant was he had to get Kimberly’s approval. That’s been the way it’s gone ever since they started dating. She’s got him whipped. So what do you say? Are you game?”

Alex leaned the rake against the side of the house and filled Duke and Queenie’s food bowls with kibble before he dumped out the water and turned on the water hose to put in fresh. “I don’t know. I’d have to get someone to watch out for my dogs. But if I can swing it, I don’t think it sounds so bad to me if the girls go too.”

“Of course it doesn’t.” Brandon stomped around causing Duke to get up and go to the other side of the big oak tree. “You and Sue have become a nice little item. The next thing I know you’ll be getting married and I’ll be all alone.”

“Now wait a second.” Alex turned off the water. “I may be dating, but I’m not getting hitched any time soon.”

“You say that now, but so did Phil a year ago and look at him now. We’re less than a month away from his wedding. The next thing we’ll know he’ll have a kid on the way.”

“That’s all part of life.” Alex slapped him on his back. “We’re getting older, buddy. Our lives are changing. Maybe you should consider settling down too.”

“No way.”

“It can’t be all bad. Even Duke has a lady friend now.”

Brandon squatted down and rubbed the bloodhound’s side. “Man, that’s sad. You’re rubbing off on your dog.”

Alex laughed. “You want to come inside and get something to drink?”

“No. I can’t stay. I’m going out.”

“Oh?”

“It’s not what you think. I’m escorting Audra to a work event. She asked if I’d take her.”

“Sure.”

“I’ll see you later.”

Alex watched him leave
, and as soon as he was gone Queenie slinked back over to where Duke lay and joined him.