Now is a little too cliché to call off a whole wedding with over four hundred guests, a venue overlooking the ocean, thousands of particularly chosen appetizers, and a wedding cake that I’m not sure is going to hold on a standard table with its weight.
Now is not the time for me orherto start double-guessing everything.
Again.
Glancing in the bag, there’s a mini cinnamon roll wreath and a slice of cranberry bread with white frosting. “You forgot the blueberry scone with the vanilla glaze.”
“Meirna,” my best friend clips out, obviously not past her concern and still on the doubt train about my upcoming nuptials. “I’m being serious.”
I silently sigh because we’re having this conversation now, whether I want to or not.
“Fine.” I lean back in my chair, give her my full attention, and the green light to continue. “What are the red flags?”
“Time,” she immediately blurts out. “He’s never around.”
“He’s working, Nettie. The guy is landing and planning his new CEO spot at his dad’s company. It’s something he’s been steering toward his whole life.”
“But what if that’s always what it is? It’s like you’ll be married to yourself.”
I quirk a brow. “Would that be so bad?”
Nettie’s blue eyes narrow. “I’m worried.”
“And, I appreciate that. But I get the hustle and everything Bobby has been working for. I was the same with the non-profit when I started it. I mean, God, I’mstillbusting my ass over it.”
She lifts her chin, confirming that she knows, but it still doesn’t erase any of the concern. “I get that. But he’s running a whole billion-dollar company. No offense, Meir, but that’s probably a bit more work.”
I nod, getting that. But it’s not going to make me start doubting that Bobby is going to be absent for the rest of our lives. It’s not the way I want to think about things.
Ihaveto be positive and manifest only good ones.
For both of us.
Bobby and his father, Alan, haven’t been on the same playing field for over the last year, arguing over the phone and at family dinners, prompting one to leave the room shortly thereafter.
It’s been a civil war in the family.
And Bobby’s mom, Catherine, is hoping our marriage will get Alan to loosen up on Bobby and for Bobby to double down.
Being the heir to a family fortune and empire, I can’t imagine the mental toll. I come from a middle-class existence where my mom is a third-grade school teacher and my father owns a landscaping company. It’s why I was so invested in Stonehaven and helping other communities reinvigorate, so the people could be proud of where they lived.
It’s still a work in progress, but with Bobby’s help and support, I’ve been doing that.
“Everything is going to be good,” I say for both of us. “I’m excited.”
Ish.
I’m ecstatic to be marrying Bobby, just not the circus leading up to and into it. My idea of a perfect wedding was something intimate with close family members and friends. But the moment the Harding family found out Bobby and I were engaged, it was full-blown wedding plans, extravagant planning,multiple dress fittings, catering samples, band auditions, firing two wedding planners—Bobby’s mother and my soon-to-be monster-in-law, Catherine’s, doing—and color schemes.
It’s been overwhelming, and I’ve taken on most of the organizing with Catherine, so Bobby isn’t burdened by which color tablecloth matches his eyes.
Again, Catherine.
I wouldn’t be surprised if his mother showed up at our honeymoon.
“Okay,” Nettie mutters. “I’m…overreacting, I know.”
“No”—I rise from my chair and step around it to pull her into a hug—“I love that you’re obsessed with me.” Nettie snorts into my shoulder, and I smile. “Now, c’mon, and eat some of this breakfast with me. You deserve it, after all, with all that talking.”
