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)
And he watched me rush around in flip-flops!
Disaster.
(Even if the flip-flops were Valentino…still!)
He’d done this smiling like a lunatic.
Catastrophe.
He finally approached and said, “Get your arse to Alex. I’ll help them finish this shite.”
I was too freaked out to argue, not about him helping, not about him calling the carefully crafted arrangements “shite.”
Because another part of this debacle of a day was that I had not heard from the cake lady. She was the only person who didn’t answer my confirmation call that morning.
And the cake had not arrived.
But in the now, I needed these fucking arrangements arranged and to make sure my sister was okay, the bridesmaids were all good, and I needed five minutes to fan myself so I wasn’t red in the face and sweaty during the ceremony (or worse, the pictures).
So I ran to get my binder, opened it to the flower arrangement section, shoved it in his hands and ordered, “Follow that…to the letter.”
He stared in open shock at the intricate diagrams I’d made on some software I found, then looked at me, still in open shock.
At this point, I was way too harried to process how he could still be so damned handsome with that expression on his face.
Instead, I jabbed my finger two inches from that handsome face and warned, “To…the…letter, Alasdair. I’ll be checking.”
With that, even if one side of his lips quirked up in an attractive half-smile when I called him Alasdair, I dashed back to the bridal preparation area.
It was only while we were lining up to do the procession when Nora approached to whisper the cake had finally arrived, something I was happy about, but it made me fidgety because I didn’t have time to go see if it was all in order. Not to mention, Dair still had my binder, and I couldn’t check it off.
The processional processed (and yes, the arrangements were arranged correctly, thank God), and now here I was, standing in a dress unlike any of the other dresses any of the girls were wearing (Alex insisted that everyone wear what they wanted, it didn’t even have to be a bridesmaid dress or formal at all, so we were a mishmash of dresses in shades and prints of green from elegant (Chloe) to boho (Gal) to flirty (Katie) to classy (Hailey) to sophisticated (me)).
And I was holding a bouquet of fluffy grass.
I was also listening to Alex and Rix sharing their heartfelt, handwritten vows, and I was going to lose it.
Good Lord, who knew Rix could be so sentimental? He was a GUY! most of the time, in all caps with the exclamation point.
I loved that he loved my sister so much, but he was doing me in!
I took a breath through my nose, and hoping it’d help me get my emotion under control, I let my gaze wander to the congregation.
Which meant it took in Mum, sitting stiffly beside Dad, wearing a massive hat and appearing like she took a way wrong turn on her way to Westminster Abbey.
The guests might be sitting on wooden folded chairs on flagstone among a bevy of beautifully arranged grass, but everyone had dressed nice.
Even so, Mum still found a way to be OTT.
And that was so Mum.
I succeeded in not scoffing out loud, and continued to scan the crowd, whereupon my gaze locked on Dair, who was staring at me.
The instant it did, he put his long, attractive forefinger under his chin and pushed it up.
God.
The man had noticed I was fighting tears and was encouraging me to keep my chin up.
Who was he to encourage me to keep my chin up?
No one!
Just a childhood “friend” who was half bully, the other half plain annoying.
I glared at him.
His wide, sexy grin made an appearance.
I glared harder at him.
I couldn’t hear it, but with the way his broad shoulders were moving, I could tell he was chuckling.
Gah!
I refocused on Rix who thankfully stopped waxing on about how perfect Alex was for him. And how he would never have fully healed from what had happened to him if it wasn’t for her (he’d lost both legs below the knees while fighting a wildfire when he was a firefighter—that part had made Mags sob audibly, and Mags wasn’t a sobber, so that in itself shared my struggle). And how he couldn’t wait to continue making his life with her and adding making babies.
Through all of this, not one tear dropped from my eye.
Success!
Sadly, the wet came right back after the pastor announced they were husband and wife, and the sheer bliss on Rix’s face hit me right in the solar plexus. He then laid the raciest kiss on my sister that I’d ever seen at a wedding or anywhere.
This made people hoot, holler and catcall, and I was fighting tears and rolling my eyes at the same time.