Page 40 of Never Marry the Best Man (Whatever It Takes #4)

“I’ll go with you. I’m the only one who can do it right,” Charlene said. “Plus, I want to talk to you.” She took Nessa’s elbow.

When they were out of earshot, Mame gave her daughter a hard look. “What is going on here? Nessa seems very put out.”

“A lot happened on that trip.” Ranney sighed. “I’m trying to explain, but the thing is, Nessa doesn’t agree with all my decisions.”

“Evidently.”

“I’m not even sure I agree with all my decisions,” Ranney sighed, “but I made them. And acted on them. It’s too late now.”

“Why don’t you tell me the whole story? Not the one you think I should hear, but just as it happened?”

This was the Mame that Ranney needed.

“Okay. I had to leave for this business trip with almost no warning. There was a change in plans. When I made my connection, I ran into a man I had met briefly in Boston, and there he was at the next connection. So we had a drink at the airport and in a bizarre coincidence, it turned out that he’s in the wedding party.

We were going to the same event. And I should have realized it, recognized him, but I hadn’t spent enough time going over everyone’s files. My first mistake.”

“No harm so far,” Mame commented.

“When we figured it out, he insisted that I come on the private plane with them because my connecting flight was canceled. I didn’t want to do it, but it seemed like the only way to get there in time.”

Mame nodded.

“When we were on the plane, he found out about the award, and then we hit the turbulence–I already told you about that.”

“And he told you about the award?”

“Yes, he was sitting next to me, so…”

“Interesting. Go on.”

“Well, I already told you about the tour of Las Vegas, too.” She hesitated. “It was so much fun… we laughed and talked, and things I never would have noticed by myself were just so interesting when he pointed them out…”

“Oh, dear.”

“So as I said, when we got back to where we left everyone at the airport, they were gone, and then we saw that our phones were dead. And it was, like, two-thirty in the morning. So we got hotel rooms and the next day we went to the hospital. You know all this. But while we waited for the groom to get out of surgery, I started thinking about Tom’s award and how he could still be eligible, even if his American citizenship paperwork wasn’t quite in order.

It looked like there was one possibility. ”

“I think I see where this is going,” Mame said faintly.

“But the thing I really did wrong is that through all this was, I didn’t keep in good communication with the office.

I texted with my co-worker who was at the event site, but I didn’t touch base with Nilly or Katie or Kari–I was all wrapped up in trying to solve this other problem and…

and I guess I knew on some level that I wasn’t focused on what I was supposed to be doing. I mean, I half was, but I half wasn’t.”

“And that’s not like you. For your whole life, you’ve always done exactly what you were supposed to do. What people needed you to do.”

“Maybe there was a little rebellion in there. Or maybe doing what someone needed me to do just took priority this time. But it wasn’t good.”

“Before you go on, why don’t you tell me a little bit about this man?”

In the brief pause while Ranney thought, her whole demeanor changed. She relaxed, smiled to herself–she felt lit from within.

“He won this prestigious architecture prize–well, almost won it, we'll see–so that tells you right there how talented he is. And his work is beautiful, Mame, I’ve seen photos. He does all kinds of buildings but his specialty is religious spaces. You should see this chapel he designed in Montana. Even if you didn’t believe in God when you walked in, you’d understand spirituality by the time you left. ”

“A higher calling than the King of Cardboard, hmm?” Mame had never forgiven Carmine, and she wasn’t going to start now.

“Yes, indeed.” Nessa, stepping back out onto the terrace, had overheard. “This guy’s an actual prince, or a duke, or something. He’s related to them, anyway.”

“Distantly!" Ranney protested, on the defensive again with her daughter. "And Carmine’s company does some very artistic things with cardboard, and they’re environmentally responsible, they plant millions of trees. I’m not comparing them. And he left me , remember?”

“Just a minute here. What did you say your new friend’s name is?” With a distinct click, Mame put down the glass Charlene had just handed her.

“Tom. Tom Phillips.”

“Charlene, go look on the bookshelf. I used to have a copy of DeBrett’s Peerage , I think I bought it when Charles married Diana. I knew it would come in handy someday. I want to look him up.”

Ranney took a breath. Tom wasn't even born yet when Charles and Diana married.

“Don’t be silly, Mame! He’s just a nice British architect–British- American architect—with a good sense of humor and lovely manners. I got to know him through work and I liked him, and I saw a way to help him with a professional problem. So I did.”

“And she knew I always wanted a brother, right, Mom?”

An uncomfortable silence ensued, during which Charlene rested her forehead in her hands. Mame’s eyes bounced from Nessa to Ranney and back again.

“Brother? I don’t quite understand…”

“He’s only a few years older than me! Think of all the fun we’ll have hanging out, going to concerts and clubs–hey, maybe we can go snowboarding this winter, shred things up a little–”

“Things are gonna get shredded, all right,” Charlene muttered.

“Tell them what happened after you and Tom left for Idaho in the Uber,” Nessa pressed.

“He is more than just a few years older than you, Nessa," Ranney said coldly. Mame's eyes widened.

"Please continue," she said, all attention on Ranney, who resumed her story with all the enthusiasm of a root canal patient who says to the dentist, ‘Keep drilling.’

“We started off, but the Uber got a flat tire and we had to–”

“No, before that,” Nessa interrupted. “Before the flat tire.”

“All right, Nessa.” She turned to face Mame directly. “I went online to the State Department and some other sites. It takes quite a while to get a dual passport, but I thought maybe if Tom explained to the awards committee that he was married to a U.S. citizen, it might help him win the award.”

“I see where this is going, but that won’t work, Nessa is engaged!” Mame protested. “And the wedding is already scheduled–Matt will never agree to this!”

Something in Ranney choked, her heart's flow of blood blocked by a shut-off valve. She blinked. Blinked again.

Then found her voice.

“But I’m single.” Like tossing a pebble into a pond, you could almost see the ripples spreading.

“You..?”

“Not anymore,” Nessa clarified. “Where’s your ring, by the way?”

“It’s not a real wedding ring,” Ranney began defensively, but it was already too late. “It wasn’t a real wedding.”

“I think the State of Nevada will disagree with you there,” Nessa said evenly.

“Charlene, my DeBrett’s !” Mame had connected the dots.

Far from leaping to her feet, Charlene reached for the wine bottle and refilled her glass. “One more can't hurt,” she said to no one in particular. “Or maybe I’ll sleep over.”

“Lady Ranney,” Mame was musing. “Or–surely not Duchess? Countess? Baroness? Oh, what are the other titles–this is no time for a senior moment! Phillips, did you say?”

“Mame! This is not some fairytale princess story!” Delight was clearly not the response Nessa had anticipated from her grandmother.

“She married him! In Las Vegas–a complete stranger half her age! You don’t seriously believe she’s going to be a baroness, do you?

Have tea with Queen Camilla? Go to horse races wearing a big hat? ”

“Well, why not?” Mame replied. “Most people don’t win Mega Millions, but someone does. Why shouldn’t it be me?”

“Ha!” Charlene hooted. “Now we’re getting somewhere!”

"He is not half my age," Ranney said faintly, trying to do the math - seventy percent something? - and reaching for her wine glass instead.

“Mamie,” Nessa moaned, “please, listen to me. Why would a handsome, tall, rich, successful guy–an English lord!–want to marry some random old woman he just met in an airport? And not even the first-class lounge!”

Charlene and Mame exchanged a pained glance at the word "old."

“It wasn’t in the airport,” Ranney said in a tiny voice, barely audible. “It was on Newbury Street, in a shop.”

“What?”

“I met him in a shop called Meet Cute. We talked about a book, an author.”

“You met him in a shop called Meet Cute, and you married him the next time you saw him, and he turns out to be a prince or something?” Incredulity dripped from Nessa’s voice. “I can’t take this anymore. Did he try to sell you Bitcoin, too?”

She’d taken three long strides toward the door when Mame’s steely voice stopped her. “Come back here this minute, young lady.”

Nessa turned around. There was no other choice.

“I understand that you are taken aback by all this. I can see how you might be hurt, and–to give you the benefit of the doubt–you might possibly be concerned for your mother’s well-being.

And I grant you that this is an extraordinary set of circumstances.

” This was a tone that Nessa had never heard from her grandmother before; she looked stricken.

“But in this family, we do not speak to each other with such utter disregard for the other person’s feelings.”

Nessa took a hesitant step back toward the three women.

“Sit down, please,” Mame directed, a bit gentler now. Ranney’s hands were twisted in her lap and she was staring down at them, no longer hearing what was being said. “Nothing has ever been solved by storming out in anger.”

Nessa sat.