It had been a crazy week at the office, and I spent all my free time with Ty and his bandmates. Jo and I had become fast friends, and I even FaceTimed with Rayne and I really liked her. Smith’s girlfriend, Justice, and their little baby Lulu, a nickname after his late mother Luella, were always FaceTiming with him, so I felt like I knew them as well. Zack liked to hang out with me and Ty after practice, and he seemed to be adjusting quickly to our small town. Everyone was thrilled to have the band here, even if it was just temporary. It’s all everyone in town was talking about. Today I was meeting the girls in town to go wedding dress shopping with Maura. Coco met me at the door when I walked in and handed me a mimosa. “I figured Ty wasn’t letting you out of the house this morning.” She wriggled her brows and laughed.
She was right. The man was insatiable. But thankfully, he’d headed off to the studio and I was looking forward to having some girl time today.
Gigi, Addy, and Amelia, Maura’s mom, were all sitting on the couch holding their mimosas as I moved to join them.
“Mom, will you come back here for a minute and help me with these buttons?” Maura called out from the dressing room.
“Do you want me to do that?” I asked.
“Nope. You are not my wedding planner today, Ivy Baron. You are my best friend just here to sip champagne and ooh and aah over my gowns.”
“I’ll drink to that,” I said as I set my glass down and hugged my best friends.
“Girl. You are absolutely glowing.” Gigi studied me.
“You see me every day on FaceTime. Why are you acting so strange?” I laughed.
I couldn’t help myself. I was ridiculously happy.
Ever since that little incident with Zane trying to pull one over on me, Ty and I had grown even more in our relationship. I was more settled with the outcome now… because maybe I was even thinking of the what-ifs. But we weren’t speaking of deadlines anymore. Jo had a lot to do with that. If distance stole what we had, then so be it. We’d both be to blame. But we didn’t want what we had to end. Whatever that meant, I didn’t really care. I couldn’t say goodbye to Ty again.
“I know. But in person… wow. Just wow. You look so happy,” she said.
“That’s because she’s having all the orgasms.” Coco barked out a laugh after the words left her lips, and I clamped a hand over her mouth.
“I swear I feel like I need to hose them off every time we’re together. Hot, hot, hot,” Addy said, fanning her face.
I pulled my hand away from Coco, and she leaned her head on my shoulder. “I’m happy for you.”
“Thank you. Although you guys will probably be scraping me off the floor in two weeks when my life returns to normal.” I shrugged.
“So, what will happen? Will you keep in touch?” Addy asked.
“I think we’ll try. But you know, he’ll be touring and traveling. I’m sure we’ll stay in touch, but it won’t be like it is now. I’ll go back to my dating apps and probably end up marrying some sad sack that I don’t even like that much.” I tipped my head back and took a long sip of my drink.
“Bullshit. That might be the saddest thing I’ve ever heard. And you’re a wedding planner, for god’s sake,” Coco said over her laughter. “You could just throw caution to the wind and go with him.”
“What about her business? What about her house?” Gigi asked, and Addy nodded in agreement. She wouldn’t tell the girls how many times she’d thought of it, going with Ty. Her fear was she’d lose herself and all she’d accomplished. But she wanted to be with him. This is what she argued with herself every night before she went to sleep.
“Semantics.” Coco shrugged. “I say follow your heart.”
“If I thought Ty wanted the things I did, I would go all in on this. Anyway, it’s dress shopping day. I don’t want to think about the future. I’m just living for today.”
“That’s a big step for you,” Addy said over her laughter. “You’ve been planning your future since we were in kindergarten.”
“It’s the new me. Today, I’m just going to enjoy being in love. Even if it’s all just for the time being. Life’s not always fair, right?” And it may not be. But a part of me was holding out hope. Hope that we could make it through this.
“We’ll be right by your side in two weeks. Don’t you worry about that.” Gigi pushed to her feet and went to get the champagne to refill our glasses.
Maura stepped out in a gorgeous fitted lace gown.
“You’re breathtaking,” I said.
“It’s beautiful,” Gigi and Addy said at the exact same time and burst out in a fit of giggles.
“I love it, but it’s not the one. It’s not you,” Coco said as she circled our best friend and studied the gown.
“I agree. It’s gorgeous, but it’s just not right.”
Her mother nodded in agreement and swiped at her cheeks a few times to wipe away the falling tears. “I can’t believe my baby girl is getting married.”
The next dress that Maura came out with had me gasping. It was a strapless fitted satin gown, and it fit her like a glove all the way down to her waist, before a full satin skirt pooled around her.
It was elegant and classic and chic.
It was Maura to a tee.
“This is the one.” Coco clapped her hands together. “What do you think?”
Maura stared in the mirror as she stood on the platform. “Yep. This is definitely it.”
“I love it so much. And it helps set the tone for the wedding too.” I circled her and shook the train out as Cassandra, the shop owner, rolled her eyes because she’d just done it, but not very well.
“Crew is going to lose his mind,” Addy said.
“I cannot wait for this wedding.” Gigi snapped a few pictures of Maura from every angle so we could talk about the gown over lunch.
Maura and her mother talked to Cassandra about the fittings and took care of paying for the dress, and we all hugged Amelia goodbye. Maura wanted us to all go to lunch at the Rusty Pelican because it was our favorite.
We walked a few blocks down and hugged Mae when we arrived. She had a table set up for us in the back, and there was a small floral arrangement in front of each of our seats and four gift boxes already sitting on the table.
“Oh, I hope these are for us.” Coco made her way to her seat.
We dropped to sit as each box had a name on it.
“I wanted to formally ask you each to be my bridesmaids,” Maura said as she studied us. “You can open them.”