Mine to Have (Southern Wedding #1)(8)

"Harlow?" Presley says. "Like Harlow, ‘the love of his life’ Harlow?" She looks at Shelby and then at me while I glare at her. "I mean, not your whole life." She puts her hands up. "The love of his life before Jennifer." She laughs nervously.

"Nice save there," Bennett quips, and she gives him the finger with a sweet smile.

"Okay, the question everyone needs to be asking is why is she here?" Clarabella asks, walking over to the door and opening it, and sticking her head out. She comes back in with her eyes wide. "Damn, not only is she here, that dress." I hold up my hand, and I’m biting so hard on my teeth I think that my teeth might actually shatter in my mouth.

"Clarabella." I growl her name through said clenched teeth.

"I’m just asking." She puts her hands up. "Is she here to object to the wedding?"

"I will kill someone," Shelby says. "There is no one objecting to anything. This fucking wedding is already a wedding that if you weren’t my brother, I would say to reschedule, but." She smiles, and I can see it’s fake. "We are going to make the best of it."

"What the hell does that mean?" I say to her, and she looks at my sisters, and neither of them wants to say it. "Guys, would you please?"

"Okay, well, the kitchen situation is somewhat handled," Shelby starts to say. "If only Clarabella would call Luke and beg him to cater it."

"I would rather get my asshole bleached with lesions." She folds her arms over her chest.

"What is wrong with you?" Bennett looks at her.

"One, he broke up with best friend." She holds up her hand.

"Ex-best friend," Presley corrects her. "Your ex-best friend."

"Whatever, it’s girl code." She throws her hands up to the ceiling.

"Wasn’t she cheating on him, and that is why you stopped talking to him?" Presley asks her.

"It doesn’t matter. He’s cocky and arrogant, and I don’t want to call him. You call him," she tells Shelby.

"He knows you," Shelby counters. "And if this was my part of the business, I would totally bury my pride and call him."

"You’re an asshole,” Clarabella declares. "And I’m going to do it." She takes her phone out of her pocket. "For Travis and Harlow." She corrects herself, "Jennifer." She looks at me, grimacing, knowing she fucked up. "It’s just, I saw her, and it’s like Harlow and Travis." She throws her hands up in the air. "I’m going to go and call Luke," she says, walking out of the room and closing the door behind her.

I hang my head down, my head spinning, and I walk over to the couch in the room and sit down. Running my hands through my hair. "I can’t believe you invited her." I look up, defeated, at Shelby. "I can’t believe she is here." I say the words out loud instead of to myself. It’s been four years; I’ve gotten over her. Or at least I thought I did until I actually saw her again. Fuck, I played this scene out in my head over and over again for the last four years. Well, not this scene at my wedding but when I would see her again. It did not go the way I thought it would, not even close.

Shelby comes over and sits next to me, and I see Bennett walk back out of the room. "I was just as shocked as you were when I got her response back." I turn to her, my mouth opening.

"Do you think that would have been a better time to tell me that she was coming, not when she walked into the church?" I ask her, and she rolls her eyes.

"I got reinforcement," Bennett says, walking back into the room with a bottle of scotch. "It’s going to be okay," he assures me, opening the bottle and handing it to me. "Just take a gulp."

"Do not take a gulp," Presley snaps. "That’s going to be gross, and we won’t be able to serve it." She runs to the closet and comes back with shot glasses. "Have at it."

"Thank you," Bennett says, pouring a shot, and I don’t even wait for him to finish pouring his own before I swallow down the amber liquid. It burns all the way down to my stomach, and I hold out the glass for another one. He looks at Shelby, and she nods her head, and he pours me another one. "I don’t think that you should have any more after that."

"Oh my God," Presley says. "Imagine you say her name while you are exchanging vows?" She puts both hands to her cheeks, and Shelby gasps and jumps up from her seat beside me.

"What is wrong with you? Why would you put that out into the universe?” she huffs at her, and then the door opens and all of our eyes go to Clarabella, who stands there.

"So, good news," she says, but from how she looks, there has to be some bad also. "Luke said to leave everything to him, and he’ll figure it out."

"Thank God," Shelby says from beside me.

"And bad news," Clarabella continues talking and then stops when the sound of sirens starts coming closer and closer. "We have a slight problem."





Chapter 5





Travis

"What the hell is happening?" I look at Clarabella.

"Jennifer is having an allergic reaction to something, and we don’t know what," Clarabella starts to say, and we all rush toward the bridal suite. "We think it’s the funeral flowers."