Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Right?
“Well, so far, you’re killing it,” Chloe said.
That meant a lot to me, and as such, I smiled at her.
When I did, I felt that frisson again and turned my head to see Dair scowling at me.
My smile died and I raised my brows at him.
He shook his head, for some reason visibly sighed, like I was annoying him, then he returned his attention to Katie, dazzling her with that rakish grin of his.
Whatever.
Alex and Rix were in the midst of their goodbyes.
This meant I had things to do to wind this party down and shift focus to the next items on the wedding to-do list.
So I put Dair out of my mind and I did them.
Chapter 2
For Now
Blake
* * *
Doesn’t this just cut it, I thought, sniveling and doing my all not to break down in tears.
I’d forgotten to tuck Kleenex in my bodice.
How could I forget to tuck tissues in my bodice in preparation for this very occasion?
Me blubbering like an idiot and ruining my makeup would just put the icing on the putrid cake that had been my sister’s wedding day so far.
It started out okay.
I woke refreshed and ready to roll. I had time to do my under-eye treatment, so my morning puffiness was gone. Topping that with my turmeric, ginger, mango, peach smoothie to assist with any other water retention I may face that day. Some stretches to get limber and a nice long hot shower with a deep condition of my hair.
Then nine thirty rolled around, time for the bridesmaids and women friends of the bride’s meeting, and Katie and Gal showed up an hour late.
This was Dair’s fault.
Katie, Gal, their men, Judge, Chloe, Josh, Hailey (Josh’s wife), Sasha, Matt, Sully, Gage, Dru, Dair and Davina had gone on a pub crawl after the rehearsal dinner. They stayed out late…and got totally smashed.
Well, Chloe and Judge had the good sense not to do that. They’d gone home early, not inebriated, and had a good night’s sleep. However, this might have something to do with the fact they were parents, and as such, had a child and needed to get him from the babysitter.
But Gal, Katie and Hailey were crazy hungover.
This necessitated Mika, Nora, Genny, Mags (Rix’s mom) and Elsa (a friend of the family, she was Alex and my age, but she wasn’t in the wedding party) running around making drinks with IV hydration, and passing around aspirin, Tylenol and ibuprofen like they were Tic Tacs.
Yes, you guessed it. Although Mum was invited to this meeting, she didn’t show as one of her many acts of passive aggressiveness sharing she was not at one with this casual, outdoor mountain wedding she had insisted, repeatedly, should be held at our country estate in England (when Rix hadn’t even been to that estate in England). And when that was not going to happen, she’d pushed for New York (Alex may have grown up in New York, but even when she lived there, she was about as New York as Dolly Parton).
And Gal let slip the pub crawl was Dair’s idea.
Because…
Of course it was.
We got the meeting done in record time so they could keep on top of things just in case I wasn’t around to look after them (though, I’d be around, but it didn’t hurt to have backup).
This segued into the team of makeup artists being thirty minutes late.
Not a disaster, but not optimal.
Which segued into the florist showing with the wrong grass in the arrangements.
At this point, seeing as I was a bit harried, I had to try really hard not to slide backward into the old me, and say sarcastically that we were not launching a revival of Oklahoma!, but instead having a fucking wedding. And therefore, the grass that looked like wheat which was not in the arrangements we’d agreed (and I had pictures), not to mention, it was atrociously ugly, had to be pulled. And they had better source the fluffy, feathery grass we’d agreed that Alex just loved and do it toute de suite.
I managed not to be sarcastic, instead only firm, but I managed it by the skin of my teeth.
They did this, though the new arrangements arrived only fifteen minutes before the guests started to show.
This necessitated me running around in my bridesmaid’s gown with my hair all done up and my makeup just perfect, but my feet in flip-flops (the horror!) to help with the setup.
All while stupid, stupid Dair, who’d been invited to hang with the men pre-wedding (because…of course he had), stood at a split rail fence in his ridiculously well-tailored suit with the collar of his shirt open, exposing the corded column of his throat. He had one foot up on the bottom rail, both forearms on the top, and all he was missing was the piece of grass in his teeth and the cowboy hat on his head.