Mine to Take (Southern Weddings #5)(23)

“Amazing,” I spout sarcastically.

“What is that tone?” she says, letting go of me.

I walk back to the table, and she follows me and looks down at the pictures of the flowers. “I’m in the middle of planning my first wedding.” I look over at her as she moves the images around. “Matthew’s wedding,” I state, and her head whips to look over at me.

“Matthew who?” she asks, but I have a feeling she already knows what I’m about to tell her.

“No, you are not!” she shrieks out and throws her hands in the air. “You are fucking not.”

“That’s a bad word, Mommy,” Charlotte says from the hallway.

“Sorry.” She puts her hands on her cheeks. “Please explain to me what is happening right now?”

I laugh at her reaction, which I think is why I haven’t told her. “Well, his fiancée, Helena, reached out to me." I start telling her the story as she pulls out a chair. I sit down next to her as I recap everything that has been going on. “The last time he came in, he was alone,” I tell her, the pit of my stomach burning when I think back to the day last week. “He said we should talk, but I cut him off.”

“Don’t you think you two should have a conversation?” she asks and I glare at her. She holds her hands up to me in a motion not to go after her. “I’m just saying, you guys didn’t exactly have closure.”

“I mean, it’s pretty much self-explanatory that he breaks up with me and then dumps my shit at my door,” I point out.

“But didn’t you send his shit back with a guy?” she reminds me, and I roll my eyes. Did I get pissed off when he sent my things back? Yes. Did I do the most petty thing of all time and ask a hot guy to do me a favor? Yes.

“What choice did I have?” I ask.

“I don’t know, maybe calling him and asking him if you could talk?” The glare I had on my face before is nothing like it is now. “I’m just saying that you two never got closure.”

“Oh, nothing says closure like a box of your shit that he had at his house on your doorstep after standing me up for a date and arriving back home drunk.” I shake my head.

“This explains why Grandpa needed me to bring you some extra sweet tea,” Harlow voices, and I shake my head laughing.

“I might have called in a small favor.” I hold up my hands and press them together. “Anyway, it’ll be fine. Today we pick the flowers, and I think I’ll be clear of him until it’s closer to the wedding.” She looks at me, not sure about what I’m saying. “In other news, guess who has a date tonight?” She opens her eyes even bigger now.

“Not from that dating app?” she huffs.

“Is nothing a secret?” I throw up my hands.

Harlow tosses her head back and laughs. “If you wanted to keep things a secret, why the hell would you let my sisters-in-law help you?”

“Good point,” I concede, laughing. “Well, by tonight we are going to know if it’s a good plan or a bad plan. But before then, I have a flower appointment in thirty minutes.”

“Oh, this should be good,” Harlow says, getting up.

“So good.” I put my hands up in fists and shake them side to side sarcastically. Harlow bends to kiss my shoulder as she walks out of the conference room. I get up and take the pictures with me to the space we were in before.

The three tables are set up with the same plates as Helena chose at the last meeting and asked that I add more bling. I grab the flowers as I arrange them on the table the way I have them in the pictures.

I hear the bell ring, letting me know they are here. I look down at my watch and see they are five minutes early. I walk over to the door, opening it to the waiting room, and again he’s alone. He’s standing there in track pants and a matching track jacket. His baseball hat is backward, and I have this sudden vision in my head of him walking in and kissing me. It’s so vivid that I’m stuck in mid step, making him look up at me.

“Hey,” he says softly, his eyes look like he hasn’t slept in a while and his face looks troubled. “Sorry, I came right after practice.” He looks down at his outfit.

“No worries,” I say to him, walking into the room, wringing my hands in front of me nervously.

“Would you like something to drink?” I ask at the same time I turn to walk to the kitchen.

“Water would be good,” he replies to me as I walk over to the fridge behind the counter.

“Is it okay that it’s in the fridge?” I ask and he nods his head at me.

I grab a bottle of water and bring it over to him. “Here you are,” I offer, holding the bottle out to him. His fingers graze mine, and my body tingles. My eyes fly up to his to see if he felt the same thing I felt and, sure enough, he’s looking at me.

“Thank you,” he says softly as I let the bottle go. All I can do is nod at him because my heart has moved from the middle of my chest to my throat. I shake my hand, trying to erase the heat of his hand when the door opens.

Helena comes in, and I have to say that we could not be more different. It’s a night and day sort of thing. She has light hair, whereas I have dark hair. Her eyes are also light, whereas mine are darker. Her skin is like a porcelain doll where I have a golden sun-kissed look.