Free Every Girl Gets Confused by Janice Thompson

Alva tapped me on the arm. “If you please. Next exit.”
    I did my best not to sigh. “So, you’re coming with the family. We’ll be happy to meet everyone.”
    â€œThere’s a little more to it than that. See, they’re really, well . . .”
    Alva tapped me again and whispered, “Pull off here, Katie,” as she gestured to the upcoming exit.
    â€œI’m marrying the best guy in the world,” Carrie said. “His name is Jimmy. But it’s safe to say his family and mine don’t always get along. And I don’t just mean about the big stuff. They can’t seem to agree on anything.”
    â€œOh, I’m sorry to hear that.” I took the exit and pulled into a service station parking lot. I’d no sooner brought the car to a stop than Alva bounded out and headed to the ladies’ room. I had to give it to her—she sure moved fast when motivated.
    â€œSorrier than you know.” Carrie’s voice brought me back to the conversation. “Because they’re all coming with me to pick out a dress and it’s bound to be a fiasco. I wish I could’vegotten out of this—trust me, I do—but both families want to be involved. One big happy family. That’s us. Only, we’re not. Happy, I mean. We are big.” She sighed. “And what I said isn’t 100 percent accurate. My parents are perfectly happy as long as his parents aren’t around, and vice versa. To be honest, they can’t stand one another. At all. And it can get a little explosive when we’re all together, especially during the playoffs.”
    â€œPlayoffs?”
    â€œYeah. Trust me.”
    Oh boy. We’d had this scenario before. Things rarely ended well with both families involved. But what could I do? I promised Carrie that we would do our best to make the experience fun, and she ended the call with a cheerful, “See you soon!”
    A few minutes later Alva approached the car holding two sodas and two candy bars. She opened her door and grinned as she passed some of the goodies my way. “Figure I owed ’em my business since they loaned me their toilet.”
    If that didn’t make a girl feel like eating chocolate while drinking Diet Root Beer, nothing would. We sat in the parking lot a moment as we nibbled on the goodies.
    Alva wiped a glob of chocolate off her lip and tossed the candy bar wrapper into the trash bag. “Not trying to be nosy, but who was that gal on the radio?”
    â€œRadio?” I gave my aunt a curious look.
    â€œWell, sure. Her voice was coming straight through the radio. Strangest thing . . . it was almost like she was talking to you. Never heard of a radio that worked like that before. But I suppose there’s a lot of stuff I don’t understand about technology these days.”
    I bit back laughter as I said, “It’s a Bluetooth.”
    â€œBluetooth?” She pulled down her visor and gazed into the little vanity mirror, her mouth wide open. She seemed tobe examining the inside of her mouth, then she glanced my way and shrugged. “Don’t see anything on my teeth at all, Katie Sue. It was only on my lip. And it wasn’t blue. It was chocolate.”
    â€œNo, I meant . . . oh, never mind.” I put the car in gear and headed back to the highway, determined to get this show back on the road.
    â€œSo, that gal on the radio talk show . . . she’s part of a wedding story or something?”
    â€œShe’s a bride-to-be and is getting her dress from our shop.”
    â€œThat’s what it sounded like to me, but I couldn’t be sure. Pretty good PR for Cosmopolitan, having a big radio star like that on board. And she’s coming all the way from San Antonio?”
    â€œYes.” No point in explaining the rest.
    â€œAnd bringing the family?”
    â€œYes, the whole family, and from what she said right before you left