“Yes, you did.” Presley laughs. “You said if Mom wasn’t going to kill me, I’d tell him to perhaps rethink things.”
I can’t help but roll my lips when I see Shelby tilt her head to the side as she remembers it. “I mean, if that wasn’t worst case, I don’t know what is.”
“I’m not saying no!” Sofia yells over her shoulder, making all of us look at her again. “I will never, ever say no.”
“Is that a fact?” Matty asks her, and I just smirk. “So, if I said, let’s get married today?”
“He did not,” Reed groans. “Did he just—”
“Here we go,” Shelby states, “do or die.”
“Why is it die?” I hiss. “Never die. Always live.”
“Matthew,” she says, and I hold up my hand.
“What if I said I took care of everything, and all you have to do is choose the dress?” She isn’t the only one who hisses at that. All the men do as well. You see, to pull this off, we had to sneak around and pretend it was going to be just an engagement celebration. But what they didn’t see was all the details we snuck in. They were so busy worrying about the proposal space, no one picked up on the fact we had wedding dresses delivered. We had to bring in Zara, who owns Zara’s Closet and is the
most sought-after personal stylist in the world, to ensure all dresses were available. We swore her to secrecy, and it was hard since Matty’s mom is her twin. Do I think she kept her word? No. Do I think Zoe hid it well? Yes.
“How—how did you do all this?” Sofia asks, and I hear laughing.
“It’s go time,” I say, and the three sisters nod at me as we walk out of our hiding space.
“How do you think he did?” Shelby asks, and Sofia’s head whips around to stare at us. The sisters all look at her with a smile, and I wave awkwardly beside them.
“So, what do you say,” Matty asks her again, “want to get married?”
“You didn’t think we would miss this, did you?” Clarabella asks, shaking her head.
“We would have killed him if he did this without us,” Presley declares, smiling.
“So.” Shelby smirks at Sofia. “Are we doing this? Are we getting married?” She tilts her head to the side. “Today?”
All I can do is wait with bated breath. This is it. To tell you the truth, there was only one answer we were going with. No one ever thought about what we would do if she said no, not even me. “Yes.”
I can’t help but let out the biggest cheer, along with the girls. “Okay, people.” Shelby claps her hands. “We have things to do.”
“I thought we did everything we had to do?” Casey, Sofia’s grandfather, looks over at me, putting his hands on his hips.
I stare back at him, and if this was any other time, I think I would apologize to him, but I feel like I’m going to throw up, so instead, I just shake my head. “You thought wrong.”
“You.” Clarabella goes to Sofia. “Congratulations, but this is no time to celebrate.” She puts her hand around her arm. “It’s time to get you dressed and drunk.”
“Um,” Matthew asks, “does she need the ring?” He holds up the ring he crawled around for right after Sofia tackled him.
“She does.” I finally snap out of it and smile at him. “Go put it on her.” I clap my hands happily when he finally does.
“Sofia,” Matthew says, picking up her hand, “will you marry me?”
“We don’t have time for this,” Presley states. “She already said yes, so just slip it on her. The girls are waiting.”
“Well, we’re trying to sober them up, but most of them are really excited,” Clarabella explains.
“Your grandmother is losing her mind with all the dresses Zara was able to get. She even bowed down to her and then fell.” Casey takes a step forward. “She’s fine.” Then she mumbles, “Nothing a little makeup can’t hide.
“We have her,” Clarabella assures, looking at me, and all I can do is nod my head. “You two.”
She points at Shelby and Presley. “Gather the men.”
“Gather the men,” Matty’s uncle Matthew says. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“I think it means if you try to run, she’s going to…” Matthew’s uncle Max tries to say without
laughing but can’t stop, “lasso you.”
“Dibs,” Casey calls, folding his hands over his chest as Uncle Matthew glares at him.
Clarabella grabs Sofia’s hand and pulls her toward a golf cart. “Get in.”
“Where are we going?” she asks us, and all I can do is smirk at her. After all, the one thing I’m happy about is I didn’t blow the surprise.
I get into the back of the cart as Clarabella starts to drive through the path on the way to Sofia’s great-grandfather’s barn.
The sight of her pink tractor outside makes her gasp. I grab the clipboard from the seat beside me and look down at it.
“We have a lot to get ready for,” I say, getting out of the golf cart and looking toward the barn that is being transformed as we speak.
“Fun fact,” Sofia shares, “I was conceived in this barn.”
“Well, it’s full circle now,” Clarabella says. “Do you want to see the reception space or do you want to go and do the dresses?”
“Please, I trust you guys with my life,” she declares. “Take me to the dresses.”
“Yay.” I clap again. “I’m so excited, we all have bets,” I finally say as we usher her toward the side of the barn. As soon as we get close enough, I can hear the laughter and the giggles.
The door opens, and the squealing becomes even louder, and all I can do is watch in shock as the women try to blink away the drunkenness.
“It’s going to be fine.” Clarabella must see the frantic look I have on my face. “The only ones who need to be sober for this are Presley and Shelby.”
“What?” I blurt, thinking that there has to be more people sober for this.
“They have the men who are going to be putting the finishing touches on the ceremony space,”
Clarabella informs me. “All we have to do is make sure no one’s boobs are falling out and all private areas aren’t showing.”
“Can we pick a dress?” Zara says, sticking her head out of the office.
I follow Sofia into the room and see that all my hard work from before has paid off. What was once an office is now filled with twenty mirrors all around the four walls, with tables of makeup in front of them and antique chairs. In the middle of the room are small round tables with benches so people can sit. “This is…” She looks up at the elegant chandelier hanging there.
“This is nothing,” I state, pointing at the door that leads to the reception space. “You should see in there.” I glance at Clarabella. “Now, if you don’t need me, I have to make sure everything is in place for the ceremony and the reception.” I look at Sofia. “You are my first client.”
“Well then, I guess I’m in the best hands,” Sofia replies, smiling at me. We have gotten very close in the past nine months, and I consider her my best friend. She has even helped me out babysitting Avery when I was stuck.
“I’ll see you soon,” I tell her as I turn and walk away from her and straight into the barn.
I barely make it out of the door when I hear shouting on the side. I walk over and see Casey and Matthew looking down at the shotgun in Casey’s hand. “I think as soon as they say I do, we do the gun salute.”
“What the hell are you two doing?” I storm up to them.
“We are going to shoot off the guns at the end,” Casey informs me. “We have enough guys.” I hold up my hand while he talks.
“Immediately no! There is no way you are doing that. I am drawing the line.” I look at Casey.
“And you don’t even know how to hold a gun,” I hiss at Matthew, who just rolls his eyes.
“Yes, I do. Look,” he says, running over to the far end of the field.
“Oh my God, is he actually going to shoot a gun?” I ask Casey, looking around to see if there is anyone I can reason with.
“Don’t worry, I gave him a gun that fires blanks,” Casey reassures me, laughing, but all the laughing stops when we hear the shot being fired. “Dumbass,” Casey says, shaking his head.