"But," I start to say and his phone buzzes again. He takes out his phone, turning it and making me see it’s his mom. "Let’s go."
"Are you sure?" he says to me. "We didn’t." He motions with his head toward the bed and I gasp.
"You think I’m going to have sex with you knowing your sisters and mother are waiting for us?" I shake my head. "And then show up all rosy cheeks and then she knows for sure we had sex."
I walk into the house. "She knows we have sex," he tells me from behind me. "But we can come back here after, then.”
"Deal," I agree, looking around at all the decorations. "It’s so pretty, much prettier than it was the last time." I laugh.
"We were also drunk," he fills in and I slip my hand in his as we walk out of the house. "I can’t tell you how free I feel," he says to me. "That box was pretty fucking heavy in my pocket for the last month." I stop midstep
"You had this for the last month?" I gasp, shocked. "But," I start to say and he comes back over to me and grabs my face in his hands.
His eyes are so crystal green and light, his thumbs rub my cheeks. "It was the hardest secret I had to keep. Every single night I was like, just do it, ask her. But then I wanted to do it right. It had to be right."
I put my hands on his hips. "It was perfect," I whisper right before his lips fall on mine. I hear his phone beep again and I can’t help but laugh loud when he groans.
"I’m going to block them all," he promises, walking to the car and opening the door for me. "As soon as we get there. Block all of them." He looks at me when I sit in the car. "You can help me since I’ve never blocked anyone in my life."
"Don’t ruin this day for me." I glare at him. "You broke up with me and was engaged to another woman."
"Touché." He laughs, closing the door and walking around the car. I grab my phone and call my mother, wanting to share the news with her.
She answers after three rings and I can hear commotion in the background. "Hello!” she shouts out.
"Mom," I say, looking down at the ring on my finger. "I have some news."
"Oh, Harlow," she pants. "You caught me at a bad time. I’m setting up something with your father. Can I call you back?"
I look down at the phone when she disconnects without telling me she loves me. "What in the hell is going on down there?" I shake my head and look around to see that we are at the reception area.
"My sisters are setting up for a wedding tomorrow," he says and I open the door, getting out.
"I have to say." I wait for him to come over to my side and slide my hand into his. "I expected your mother to rush the car." He laughs and shakes his head while we walk up the steps.
"She must be busy," he says, opening the door for me and I step in. The sound of people shouting scares me and it takes me a couple of seconds to wonder what is going on.
My parents are there in the front with his family and behind them is everyone from my family, and I mean everyone. I put my hand in front of my mouth and sob out when I see them. "What is this?" I ask, but I don’t have a chance to answer him because my mother comes to me.
"You didn’t think that you would get engaged and we not be here," she accuses with tears rolling down her cheeks. "Congratulations, sweetheart," she says between tears, taking me in her arms. I feel my father put his arms around us and I look up at him, and all he can do is smile at me.
My head spins around and around as everyone comes to me and congratulates me. My grandfather kisses the top of my head, just like he always does, while my grandmother dabs her eyes. "I can’t believe everyone is here," I say, looking over at Travis who is watching with a huge smile on his face. "I can’t believe you did all this."
He holds up his hand. "Are you kidding me?” Shelby says, coming to give me a hug. "He was like groomzilla."
"I was not," he hisses and Clarabella looks at him and folds her arms.
"I refuse to even help you get married," she tells him. "Sorry, I just can’t. He called us fifteen times a day." She shakes her head. "A day," she repeats.
"I wanted it to be perfect," he says.
"Well, it wouldn’t be perfect without us," I hear someone say and turn to see all of our college friends. I bend, laughing and clapping my hands, and I can’t help the laughter that comes out of me.
"Oh my God," I say when Rachel comes over to me and hugs me. "I can’t believe you guys are here."
"He didn’t really give us a choice," Lydia replies and I just look at Travis.
"It wouldn’t be the same without these assholes," he states and Bennett comes over and hugs him.
"Congrats, buddy," he says and then comes over to me. "If you want, we can go behind the bar after and have another race." The laughter comes out of me right away when everyone moves away from us, going to their places and I finally see all the decorations that they put up. There are round tables everywhere with white linen tablecloths and small light pink rose bouquets are in the middle of the tables. White sheer sheets are hanging from the ceilings, going from beam to beam with little tea lights, making it magical.
"This is so perfect," I say, looking around.
"We have a dress for you to change into," Presley says. "Courtesy of your mother."
"I would expect nothing less.” I chuckle and see my mother coming toward us.
"Are you ready to change?" she asks and I nod my head, walking to the back of the room where the changing rooms are.
I step in and I try to quiet my brain that is yelling at me. I sit down in the chair and look around at the beautiful blush pink dress that my mother picked out for me. "What’s wrong?" Travis notices my change of mood right away.
"Um.” I look around the room at my mother, who stands there with Shelby, Clarabella, and Presley. "Everyone is here, right?" I ask her and she looks at me strangely. "I think I said hello to everyone but it was a bit of a shock, so I’m not sure anymore."
"Everyone is here," my mother says and then I turn to Travis.
"If this is too much, we can stay in our clothes and just pretend it’s a barbecue," he says and his eyes are clouded over a touch as worry covers his face.
"I was thinking," I say and put my hand on my stomach. "What if we got married?"
"Well, that’s the plan," he announces to me with a smile.
"No, I mean now," I say, looking at everyone in the room. "Everyone we love is in that room, so why not just get married now?" I look at Travis, who doesn’t say anything. "I mean, unless this is too much for you?" My stomach sinks when he doesn’t say anything and then a smile just breaks out on his face.
"I bet your father that this would happen. I owe him a hundred dollars."
"What?" I ask, shocked.
"Your father called this," my mother says, grabbing me by the hand and pulling me out of the room and down toward another room. Bride is written in the middle of the door. "You." She points at Travis. "You can’t come in here."
"I have already seen everything," Travis admits and my mother glares at him.
"We told him not to," Clarabella says from behind me and now I turn. "He’s the worst. Like, the absolute worst." She looks at Travis. "The worst."
My mother opens the door and there in the middle of the room is a mannequin with my wedding dress on it. "We have five other dresses," my mother says. "But this one.”
I walk over to it and pick up the sheer sleeves, seeing that there are embroidered flowers all the way up to the shoulders. The embroidered flowers are all over the dress as it hugs the mannequin, and then kicks off at the knee with tulle and then the edge of the bottom has big embroidered flowers. My hand touches the fabric and the tears come to my eyes. "This is," I start to say. "It’s beautiful." My mother doesn’t say anything; instead, all she does is wipe away the tear that is coming out of the corner of her eye.