“Exactly,” Jameson says, sending her a smile that makes my chest ache. “And, as long as you’re the woman at the end of the aisle, that’s all that matters to me.”
At that moment, a text comes through from my phone, and I stare down at a list of dates and times, all from an unknown number, confused.
“Oh!” Bryn says, looking at her phone as well. “That’s Cathy. She’s coordinating wedding dress shopping, bridesmaid dress fittings, and the bachelor and bachelorette party.”
Kelsey lifts an eyebrow. “But these aren’t date options, they’re just dates we’re doing those things.”
“You’re both your own bosses! I have a couple of work trips in the next few weeks, so I asked her to plan around those.”
“I’m sure I can make them work,” I say, mentally shuffling my to-do list so I can make sure I don’t fall behind on my work. Just because I don’t have a boss telling me what to do doesn’t mean I don’t have timelines to meet.
“We’ll see how it times out with my work schedule,” Kelsey replies.
Wow. How does Kelsey manage to agree without making it sound like she’s willing to adjust her full schedule to accommodate a list of dates in a text? I should be taking notes.
“Great,” Bryn replies. “Bachelor and bachelorette party will be at Wild Bluffs Country Club. Annie is working on getting roomsand a dinner reservation and everything since it’s coming up soon. I’ll get you two a list of my friends to invite.”
“Oh, are you just assuming we’ll be your bridesmaids?” Kelsey asks.
“Yeah. Keeping the bridesmaids to just family, so you two and Lila,” Bryn replies.
As Jameson’s sister, it makes sense Lila would be included too.
“The groomsmen will be Carter, JT, and Conrad Ferguson,” Bryn continues.
Carter, who’s Bryn’s brother-in-law already, and JT Johnson, a professional golfer friend of Jameson who’s now dating his sister, Lila, make perfect sense, but Conrad?
“Your boss is going to be a groomsman?” I ask Bryn skeptically.
“He was Jameson’s friend long before I started working for him,” she says with a shrug. “We spend a lot of time socially with him now. We’ve figured out the friends and employee thing. Plus, it’s not like you have a boyfriend or husband we could ask to be the third.”
Okay, rude. I expected comments like that from my mom, but my sisters have always been on the same page as me about dating and getting married: great if it happens, also great if it doesn’t.
“Until my mail-order husband arrives,” I say.
“Just make sure you get the version that comes with a tux,” Bryn teases.
“It was an extra twenty-dollar upcharge, but really, what good is a husband if he doesn’t have a tuxedo?” I ask. “It feels like it should be part of the standard package.”
“Speaking of Conrad,” Jameson cuts in, clearly familiar enough with Bryn and me to know that when we get on a roll like that, there’s no stopping us until we’re on the floor laughing, everyone around us completely forgotten. “We had dinner withhim the other night, and he was raving about how Bryn closed a deal a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, she had them eating out of the palm of her hand during the meeting. Even Conrad was impressed with her skills, and he’s about the best in the business at winning people over.”
“That’s amazing, honey,” my dad tells Bryn.
“Thanks, Dad.” Bryn leans in to him to hug him. “After everything with Hungry Guy, it’s nice to not only have a job I’m good at but also be appreciated for it.”
“And you deserve it.”
My mom announces dinner is ready just as Carter’s mom, who joins us most weeks for family dinner, arrives with JT and Lila. We all find seats around the table, the one that’s now twice as big as it used to be to accommodate our growing family.
I look around at my sisters and their significant others, plus the new family members that they bring along with them, and my chest tightens, a low ache settling in.
Finding someone to spend my life with has always been something I thought would happen when the time was right. I wasn’t interested in pushing it, tying my life to someone’s just to be married, but I was also a relationship kind of woman. All through my twenties, I had long-term relationships with nice guys who could’ve been the one—they just…weren’t.
Though now that I think about it, it’s been a few years since I even went on a date. I definitely haven’t since I turned thirty. Which…was three years ago now.Shit.How did I lose track of the fact that it’s been three years since I last went on a date?
Not a problem. This wedding will be the perfect motivation to start looking again.
A date for the wedding. That’s all I need.
