“Marlee is on flower duty. Meanwhile, I’ve been going back and forth with the antique store trying to get the wedding altar up and ready.” Thom sits down at a desk, piled up with folders. His large laptop sits on the desk, and he starts clicking through to a spreadsheet. “Otherwise, we’re going to have to have them stand under an IKEA room divider.”
“Okay.” I push a stray piece of hair behind my ear, out of my face, so I can focus. “I’ll call Mike. I’m sure I can get him to work something out. Can you pull up his number?”
He hovers his finger over a line on the screen. “Here you are.”
I flip out my phone and get to work. We dive into it, headfirst. Thom has everything organized on spreadsheets and lists, every job color-coded: green for done, yellow for needs to be done, red for should have been done yesterday. He delegates jobs between Marlee and me, but by the end of the night we’re flowing smoothly back and forth. Calling, emailing, organizing. Pulling all the final threads together to make tomorrow possible. Braxton mostly stays out of it and makes sure we’re all eating. At one point, he leaves and comes back with containers of Chinese food, which he doles out between the four of us and refuses to take money for.
Thom’s extensive wall of wedding to-dos covers the window, so I lose all track of time. I don’t even realize how much time has passed until I look at the clock on the computer screen. It’s 3:06 a.m.
“When did midnight happen?” I ask.
“Sometime around the second round of egg rolls.”
I twist my neck, and my spine cracks all the way down my back. I glance behind us. Braxton is passed out on the bed. He’s half-propped up, as though he tried to stay awake and failed. His glasses are still on his face, mouth hanging open.
Marlee has curled up—literally—at his feet like a puppy. She’s clutching her phone like a teddy bear to her chest, Bluetooth still blinking on her ear.
“It looks like we’re the sole survivors,” I observe.
“Aw,” Thom coos. “Look at our children.”
“What do you think they’re going to be when they grow up?”
“A stripper and a psychologist, probably.”
“Which is which?”
A smile quirks the edge of Thom’s mouth. “I missed you, little bug.”
“I missed you too.” I nudge my shoulder against his chest briefly. “I’ve got to admit. Ace. That threw me through a loop.”
“He bullied me into it.”
I squint at him. “You? Bullied?”
Thom considers his words for a second and then adds, “I may have been feeling a little power hungry.”
“See? Honesty.” I knock my knee against his. “Now we can be friends again.”
“Cheers to that.”
Thom scrolls through the spreadsheet. Green, green, green. Every job is marked complete.
“Oh my God,” I laugh. “We did it.”
Thom tilts his head towards me. “You did it. Braxton told me about how you wrangled the bride back.”
“Of course. They love each other. She just needed to be reminded of that.”
“No of course. Don’t sell yourself short. Not just anyone could have done that,” Thom says. “You saved the wedding. I’ll be sure to tell Letty when I report back.”
Letty. That’s a small nagging problem in the back of my head, but I’ll worry about whether or not I have a job when I get back to New York later. Right now, I’m a horse with blinders, focused completely on giving Ray and Cora the wedding they deserve.
I lift my eyes back to the computer screen and worry my bottom lip between my teeth. “What now?”
Thom leans back in his chair and laces his fingers behind his head. “Now, we wait. And pray.”
32
Braxton
I wake up to lips. Soft lips. Gentle kisses, one after the other. I can’t help but grin. It is a glorious way to wake up. I peek open my eyes and see Susie hovering over me. The light from the nightstand shimmers through her straw-colored hair.
“Oh, good,” I say. “I thought you were Thom.”
She cocks her head. “Disappointed?”
I scoff a laugh. Susie rests her chin on my chest.
“Did you sleep at all?” I ask her.
She shakes her head. “I couldn’t sleep. I’m too excited. Aren’t you?”
“Sure.” I stroke my fingers through her hair, pushing it away from her face. Her hair is so soft, and her waves snag around my fingers.
“You’re giving your sister away today.”
“Don’t remind me.”
Susie shifts back up and says, “Hey.” She presses another one of her soft kisses to my lips. “Smile.”
“One more. And then I’ll get up.”
Susie kisses me and I cup the back of her head, holding her there for a moment longer. We taste each other.
“There’s no time to be cute,” Thom interrupts, and I seal the kiss quickly, forgetting we have company. “It’s game time, best man. If you’re going to hang with us, you have to get your war face on.”
“Hooah.” I roll out of bed and get to my feet.
Thom is already dressed up in a layered coffee-brown vest while Marlee adjusts her cardigan around her lavender dress. Each fit a small Bluetooth device over their ears. They’re wedding ready, and they mean business.
“We’re going to stop by the house and get dressed,” Susie says. “We’ll meet you there.”
“See you!” Marlee says cheerily.
“Don’t get distracted,” Thom says, eyeing me pointedly.
Message received. He has a point. We have a bad habit of getting distracted.
We leave them to finish preparing and head down to the car. As I drive us closer and closer to the farmhouse, I can feel the wedding ring burning a hole in my pocket.
I’ll be glad when all this is over. I’m happy for them. Truly. I am. But I’m more anxious for Cora than I thought I would be.
“How are you feeling?” Susie asks me as elm trees fly by us on the side of the road.
“Antsy.”
“Aw. Wedding jitters. Is this your first time?” She pats my thigh.
“I’ve been to weddings before.”
“Yes, but one you cared about?”
I have to think about that. “No.”
Susie’s hand rests on my leg. A comforting gesture. “I’ve got this,” she tells me. “I promise. I won’t let your sister down.”
“I know.” Hearing her say it, however, does take the edge off some of my nervousness, and I feel my shoulders relax.
There is an army of cars outside the farmhouse. For an intimate affair, this is turning out to be quite the event. It looks like half the town is there, milling around the back of the house.
The second we step out of the truck, Susie and I are split up.
“Braxo!” I look up and see Ray waving wildly at me. “Come on, best man! Suit up!”
“Go ahead,” Susie says. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Right.” I almost lean in to kiss her and then stop myself.