Marty
MACK WAS PACING IN FRONT of the baggage claim. The flight had been delayed for over six hours now. But Mack had been watching the flight tracker since we arrived at six to find out that Shay’s mother’s plane hadn’t even left Atlanta yet due to weather. He had a breakfast planned that had already been missed where he would surprise Shay with her wedding present—her mother. He’d come to get me out of the hallway after I’d called him furious over the damage Chantel had caused.
We had spent the next few hours at a bar across the street from the hotel. I’d told him what Chantel had told me. He’d told me about his fight with Shay and that he knew her mother not being here was part of what was bothering her. Then he told me he had her flying in at six in the morning.
I’d gone with him because I didn’t trust myself not to start banging on Fiona’s door like a mad man. We’d had no sleep. We looked like it too. We also smelled like a bar. Mack was lucky Shay had been passed out after a bottle of wine when he went to get his keys and tell her the lie about golfing as his excuse for leaving.
Glancing at the time, I wondered if Shay was awake yet. His phone had been dead for hours. When he grabbed his duffle bag that held a change of clothes and tossed some toiletries in there so he could clean himself up while we waited on her mother, he forgot the phone charger.
I had a missed call from Rowan but that was it. I didn’t see the need to call and wake Shay up if he didn’t need to.
“The monitor says the plane has landed. How long does it take to get to the fucking luggage claim? Why did I quit smoking? God, I need a fucking cigarette,” Mack ranted. He was nervous. He wanted this to be perfect for Shay. I understood that. But if this took much longer he’d have a problem keeping the surprise a secret.
“Because you don’t want to die. Look, people are walking this way. Could be her flight,” I said nodding my head in their direction.
“God, I hope so,” he said scanning the crowd. “I’m ready to see Shay smile. This weekend is supposed to be perfect for her. Having her mother here is what she needs.”
“Why wasn’t she coming to begin with?” I asked realizing I’d never thought to ask earlier. The amount we’d drank and my list of problems had something to do with that.
“Shay said she didn’t want her father to come. If she invited her mother she was afraid her father would find out and show up. You know Fiona and their father don’t get along well. Shay said it would be awkward and tense if he showed up. So she explained to her mother her fears and her mother said she understood. But the closer it got to the wedding Shay would say things about her mother not being there and I’d see it was bothering her. She wanted her mom there. And that bastard father of theirs shouldn’t be the reason she didn’t have her mother. I decided to handle it. I contacted her mom and set this up. Her coming at the last minute and no social media alerts to show her mother being here would keep it from her father—if he even took the time to check. Hell, the man is so self-centered, I doubt he’d come anyway.”
As convoluted and dramatic as all that sounded, I understood it. Fiona had told me enough about her father for that to make sense. I hoped it all worked out the way Mack wanted it to.
“That’s her!” Mack said, waving toward the crowd.
I turned to see a woman who looked like an older version of Shay. She saw Mack, smiled and headed our way. It wasn’t until she was close enough to us that I saw the small things about Shay that were different. She and Fiona had the same nose. I’d never realized it until now.
“Ada,” Mack said walking up to the woman and hugging her. “Glad you made it.” She hugged him back patting his shoulder.
“Me too. That was a crazy morning.”
“Ada, this is my brother Marty. Marty, this is Ada.”
She held out her hand. “And it appears that Shay was wrong. You two are very identical. She said that you didn’t look exactly alike. I am wondering if I need new glasses.” She was teasing I knew but being reminded that Shay could tell us apart made me think of Fiona.
“I don’t want to rush you but we need to get back to the hotel before Shay starts looking for me,” Mack said. “Do you have luggage?”
Ada nodded to the carry-on she was rolling beside her. “It’s all in here.”
“Then we’re ready to go,” Mack said. “Follow me.”