“I can’t believe I missed seeing you in just Dad’s shirt.” Bean smirks at me over her coffee after the waitress leaves a few minutes later.
“Oh, good, you ran into my mother,” I say sarcastically.
“That I did. So did Haven, by the way. Your mom was waiting for her coffee, just grinning. I swear that might have been the highlight of her life.”
I groan and drop my head onto my arms on the table. Alex chuckles, and I tilt my head to glare at him again. He cocks an eyebrow and drinks his coffee with a smirk on his face. I roll my head the other way and see a matching smirk on Bean’s face. “Oh god, there’s two of you now. I did not think this through.”
“Shut up and let yourself be happy,” my best friend tells me. “And we have mani-pedis in an hour, so be extra happy.”
Chuckling, I sit back up and sip my coffee. “I do love a good mani-pedi.” I take another look around. “Where is everyone?”
“Grandma and Grandpa already ate, with Haven and Raelynn. I think they’re taking a walk now. Everyone else is probably still sleeping. Stephanie and Rachel will be pissy that they didn’t eat anything before getting our nails done, but I tried to wake them up.” Bean shrugs.
After we’re done eating, Bean checks the time on her phone. “Oh, I have to steal Minnie early. We need to bring our dresses and shoes and whatever else to the dressing room. Actually, Dad, could you help us carry it down so we don’t have to make as many trips?”
“Of course,” Alex replies. “Give me a minute, I need to get something from the front desk first. Where are you starting? I’ll meet you there.”
“My room,” Bean says.
Alex nods and walks toward the front desk while Bean and I head for the elevator. Once we’re on the way up to the top floor, she grins at me. “I’m gonna start calling you Mama Minnie. Or something.”
“God.” I close my eyes and shake my head. “You’re a troublemaker, Bean.”
“Aw, come on, it would confuse the fuck out of strangers, and that’s always fun. Plus, it’ll piss Mom off.”
“Fuck. She’s always hated me, but she might actually try and kill me now.”
She wraps her arms around me. “Don’t worry, I won’t let her hurt you.”
We laugh until we get to her room, where we start moving stuff to the couch in the living area. A couple of minutes later, there’s a knock on the door, and she lets Alex in.
“Hey, Dad. We’re just getting everything together.”
“Sounds good.”
“Wedding dress and under stuff, robe sets for the bridesmaids, shoes, veil… Hair and make-up stuff is being brought in, everyone else has their own dresses…” I mutter, trying to remember if we’re missing anything.
Bean turns to Alex. “Dad, can you hold your arms out so I can drape my dress over them?”
He does as she asks, his eyes going wide when she transfers the dress. “Holy shit, this thing is heavier than I expected.”
“That’s all the diamonds and gold bars on it,” I joke.
“Ha ha. So funny. Let’s go get your dress and stuff.” She picks up the veil and shoes, and I grab the bag of silk robes. We take the elevator down to my room, and I pull my dress and shoes out of the closet. “Hey, nice shirt on your floor,” she says with a smirk.
“Shut up, Bean.”
Alex just stands there, looking happy as fuck.
Back on the main floor, we drop everything off in the dressing room.
“Alright, I think that’s it. I’ll remind the other girls to bring their stuff in here when we see them at the nail salon. What are you doing while we’re doing that, Dad?”
“Moving Amelia’s stuff up to my suite.”
“What?” I ask, my head swinging to look at him.
He pulls a key card out of his pocket and hands it to me. “No point having your bag in one room and you sleeping in another, sunshine.”
