And I couldn’t speak.
Couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t do anything but stay snared in his gaze as he looked at me like I was everything. Like he wished he’d been taking this dress off me instead of putting it on. Like he wanted a replay of this morning, but without the interruption, just to see how far things would go. Like he wanted to kiss me again as a lead-up to a hell of a lot more.
I swallowed and tore my eyes away. “I bet you say that to all your almost-wives right before you’re about to get fake-married.”
He laughed, a low, throaty sound, his breath gusting across my bare shoulders. “You caught me.”
“Knew it.”
“I know you were kiddin’, but I need you to know I wouldn’t be doin’ this with anyone but you, Nat.” His eyes bored into mine, and I read every ounce of sincerity he’d intended in the look.
Licking my lips, I nodded. “I know. Same goes.”
His mouth ticked up at the side. “You ready?”
I took a deep breath, pressing my hand to my stomach that had, for some ungodly reason, become infested with butterflies, and nodded. “As I’ll ever be.”
He stepped back and offered me his hand, smiling when I interlocked our fingers. With how long we’d been friends, I’d been on the receiving end of his smiles thousands of times, which meant there was no reason for my stomach to flip like it was. It was probably nerves. This was a big day—real or not—made all the more so thanks to my mom’s insistence on us showing up there first.
“I shouldn’t be surprised my momma wanted us to take pictures, but I’m gonna feel like an idiot out there smilin’ when we both know this isn’t…” My words trailed off as we stepped outside, my brain not quite comprehending what I was seeing.
“What the fuck,” Asher breathed just loud enough for me to hear.
Well, that was good. At least now I knew I wasn’t having some sort of psychotic break where I imagined an intimate wedding wonderland in my parents’ already immaculate backyard. A backyard that, just yesterday, had been totally and completely normal.
Now, though, it’d been transformed into something out of the pages of a magazine. Strings of bulbed white lights hung across the pergola above the deck, as well as throughout the plethora of trees on the property as far back as I could see—hundreds…maybe thousands of them.
Will and Finn, Mac and Hudson, Nash, my nieces, as well as my parents and Gran, sat in the scattered white folding chairs.
“Where’s Rory?” I asked Asher, because, yeah, that was what really mattered right now.
“Right here,” my sister said from my left and thrust a bouquet of wild flowers into my hand. “Just go with it. There wasn’t any way we were talkin’ Momma out of it.”
“Out ofwhat?”
“All of it.”
“I—” I shook my head. “How did you pull this together?” I asked in awe, but I had no idea why I’d even posed the question.
Ofcourse,they’d pulled it together—I was dealing with Mac, the mayor, Will, Havenbrook’s event coordinator, and Rory, an interior designer.
June stood next to my momma, who held Owen, a grin splitting the little girl’s face as she waved to me and Asher. “I did the flowers, Uncle Asher! All by myself!”
She jumped and pointed to the petal-strewn path that led to an ivy-covered arch where Edna, Gran’s best friend and Havenbrook’s mail carrier and general troublemaker, stood, a grin across her mouth.
“What the hell is Edna doin’ standin’ there like she’s a minister? Are we dreamin’?” I whispered, squeezing Asher’s hand, if for nothing else than to ground myself.
“Feels like we might be.”
“Well, don’t just stand here,” Rory said, giving me a little push. “Get a move on.”
“Wait,” I said, shaking my head. “Get a move on forwhat?”
“Now, don’t be mad, sweetheart,” Momma said. “After all this time with y’all as best friends, we just didn’t think it was right that you were gonna go and have a quick wedding at the courthouse without any of your family there.”
Guilt punctured my stomach, and I slid a glance to Asher out of the corner of my eye, his look mirroring mine.
