“Walker, I do not want my water to break at the altar.”
He laughs. “We’re not postponing. We’re moving it up. How’s this Saturday?”
“This Saturday?” Now it’s my turn to stare at him like he’s lost his mind.
“This Saturday,” he confirms. “Gives Josie and Tanner and Slade time to book flights. Dad can officiate.”
I stare at him. “You’re crazy.”
He kisses me. “Saturday.”
On Saturday morning I stand in front of the mirror in Rosemont bedroom in my white silk dress and I think about the girl who drove through the gates of Wild Rose Ranch in June with everything she owned in the back of her car.
That girl had a plan.
This woman has something better.
When I appear at the top of the stairs, Walker goes completely still.
He's standing at the bottom with Jonah beside him, both of them dressed to the nines, cowboy style. Jonah looks like a mini-Walker, dressed in all black with his little cowboy hat on, and it might just be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.
And Walker… he’s definitely the handsomest thing I’ve ever seen. Black suit and onyx bolo tie, those deep green eyes pinned to me. He looks at me the way he's looked at me since the beginning. Like he couldn’t take his eyes off me if he tried.
I never pictured my own wedding in much detail. I was always daydreaming about everything that came after. But Walker hires an extremely efficient wedding planner who handles everything, and it’s perfect.
Rosemont is dressed up to look like a Western fairytale come to life. And the end of the day, I’ll get to call Walker Rhodes my husband.
Before the wedding, I meet Walker's little sister Josie for the first time. She has the Rhodes green eyes and sable hair butsomehow looks totally different from her brothers. Fine-boned where they're big, short where they’re giants.
She pulls me into a hug right away. “Finally,” she says. “I've been waiting to meet you since June. I can’t believe I’m getting a sister-in-law. You have no idea the testosterone levels I’ve had to deal with in this household.”
As we finish getting our hair and makeup done, the smell from the bouquet of lilies starts to become overpowering.
My stomach turns over hard and I clutch the dresser in front of me. Suddenly both Josie and Cassidy are at my elbow simultaneously.
“You're pale,” Cassidy says, going straight into doctor mode, hand on my wrist checking my pulse.
“Are you dizzy?” Josie asks. She’s snapping right into nurse mode alongside. “Is it the heat?”
“It's not the heat,” I say.
“Sit down,” they say, in unison.
“I don't need to sit down. Really.”
“Sit,” Cassidy says.
I sit. They crouch in front of me, two women with medical degrees, both talking at once, running through a differential diagnosis at my own wedding while the hair and makeup people watch with confused expressions.
“Have you eaten today?” Josie asks.
“Are you sleeping okay?” Cassidy asks.
“Any other symptoms?”
“How long has this been going on?”
“I'm fine,” I say. “I'm completely fine. I just need those lilies out of here.”
