When Todd told me he and Daisy were getting married, he’d said they were just going to go to the courthouse, and I could’ve punched him. I understood he thought this was just an inevitability. That Daisy got pregnant, and therefore they had to get married, and the courthouse was the most efficient way to do that. It was logical, but it was also incredibly stupid.
“Daisy said the courthouse was fine.”
“Of course, she did. She’s the most easygoing person on this planet. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve more than the courthouse.”
“But what’s the point? No one but us is going to be there. My parents are going on vacation, and Daisy doesn’t have family.”
“You’re her family, Todd. You’re going to be her family. That is the whole point.”
“Max?” Wade climbed down off the ladder where he’d been hanging the pink and purple peony garland—also provided by MaineStems—over the entrance.
Wade Stevens was Lou’s fiancé and older brother to the infamous Hollywood heartthrob, Blaze Stevens. Blaze had stayed at the inn earlier this spring, and after taking a fall down the main stairs, Wade had come up to check on his brother. He met Lou, and he’d never left.
I grabbed the bouquet from the front seat, holding it up as I approached. “Special delivery.”
Wade smiled and nodded. “They’re upstairs in the first suite.”
“Thanks.” I ducked inside, wondering how questionable it would’ve been to ask Wade to deliver the flowers.
My hand tightened around the stems. I couldn’t do it. I was a glutton for punishment—for the torture of giving the woman of my dreams her bouquet so she could marry my best friend.
Chapter 2
Max
The entrance and main stairwell of the Lamplight Inn were covered in cotton candy peonies on every surface, on the railing for the stairs, and most impressively, the floral arch I’d constructed last night in the inn’s communal living room for the ceremony. I’d left the rehearsal dinner early, before dessert, to come here and start setting it up. My younger sister, Harper, and I worked until two in the morning to get it perfect.
The pink blooms climbed like ivy—withivy and baby’s breath—above the fireplace and up the chute, turning it into a floral waterfall. It was almost too much. If this wedding hadn’t come so dangerously close to not beingenough,to not being what Daisy deserved, maybe it would’ve been overdone.
But I was the one who noticed the glimmer of sadness in her eyes when she insisted to Todd that the courthouse would be fine. I was the one who cataloged every downcast stare when Todd complained about one thing or another, even though I’d stepped in to handle everything for him.And let him take credit.
I let Todd tell Daisy that having a small ceremony at the Lamplight Inn was his idea. I let him take credit for the blueberries and cream wedding cake that I picked out becauseI was the one who’d gone to the tasting. Daisy had too much morning sickness, and Todd, who’d gone out the night before with one of his friends from college because Daisy was studying, was suffering from a different kind of morning sickness.
I wanted this day to be special for her. I wanted to see that most beautiful smile one more time when she saw the flowers. When she tasted the cake. When she kissed her groom. There was no overdoing the promise of forever, no matter how it killed me inside.
I took the stairs two at a time, my heart starting to beat a little harder in my chest. Just before I got to the top, Daisy and Lou’s voices filtered out from the suite at the top of the stairs, the door partially cracked.
“I look like a white whale.”
“You look beautiful, Daisy,” Lou chided.
“I agree with Lou. You look gorgeous, Dee,” Harper joined in.
I slowed and stopped on the landing. I didn’t realize my sister was here too.
“Maybe I just feel like a whale because I can’t see my ankles. Are my shoes even going to fit?” A pause. “Maybe we should just go to the courthouse. Then I could wear my sweatpants.”
“You’re not going to the courthouse,” Lou insisted. “First, because there is no world where you don’t look gorgeous, and second, because Max would cry if you didn’t get married in front of his flower arrangement.”
My jaw tightened. The irony of how wrong she was didn’t escape me.
“I’ll cry too,” my sister chimed in. “I left at twelve-thirty, dead on my feet, but Max was here until two. He sent me a picture when he finished.”
There was a long pause followed by Daisy’s soft voice again.“He’s done too much.”
“I’m pretty sure there’s nothing my brother wouldn’t do for you?—”
I knocked loudly,very loudly,on the door and stepped back.
