Issue styling the packing slip

I’m styling a custom packing slip template and want to display the product meta (variation weights) inline with the product name but can’t figure it out.

I have tried:
<span class=”item-name”><?php echo $item[‘name’] . ” ” . $item[‘meta’]; ?></span>

but the meta still appears under the name. Note that I want it to flow on directly after the name, not in a separate <td> field/column.

Any suggestions?