Mine to Promise （Southern Wedding #6）
Natasha Madison
prologue
Dearest Love,
Well, well, well, what can I say.
Two universes are about to meet again.
Five years later.
Just this time there is more than the two of them.
How will Stefano react when he sees Avery?
How will Addison react to them co-parenting?
How will the family react?
Only time will tell.
XOXO
Love NM
addison
. . .
“W hat do you mean she fell?” I ask with my teeth clenched, one step away from a total panic attack.
“I mean, she drank a little bit too much sweet tea and she fell,” Zara says from the other end, trying not to laugh but laughing still the same. “It will be fine. We’ll take care of it.” Zara, the future groom Mathew’s aunt, was supposed to be taking care of things.
“Where is Ingrid?” I look over my shoulder to make sure no one sees me panic. “Can I talk to her?” Ingrid was in charge of serving drinks and food in the bridal suite, something we should have not been doing from the sounds coming through the phone. The bridal suite where they were supposed to be resting and waiting until the bride was ready. I can confirm they were not in fact resting and waiting.
I hear yelling from the other end of the phone, some giggles, well, lots of giggling, and then Ingrid comes on the line. “Hello.” She sounds like she’s one step away from losing it.
“There will be no more drinking,” I order. “It’s coffee and water and get them some food.”
“On it,” she replies and then quickly hangs up.
“She’s coming,” someone says, and then I turn to watch. I can hear myself breathing heavily but try to do it as silently as I can, which is proving to be harder than I thought. My heart is beating a million times a second, if that is even possible. I have never in my life been this nervous. Well, that isn’t exactly true. There have been other moments. Monumental moments, actually.
I can count on one hand when my life undertook a major change. One was the time I had my first ever one-night stand. The second was when I found out I was pregnant from said one-night stand. The third was being cut off from my whole family and giving birth alone. The fourth was getting this job, and now the fifth is them giving me the reins for this wedding.
I swear to God, I can feel the drops of sweat pouring off me as my hands shake. I look over at Clarabella, Presley, and Shelby—the four of us are hidden in the middle of a forest, waiting for the surprise proposal to happen. We all know Sofia is going to say yes; she’s been in love with Matty since they went to college together. Sure, they had a break between and he did get engaged to someone else, but that led them to be together again. I mean, it’s not every day your wedding planner
is the ex-love of your life. It’s also not every day, you leave your fiancée for your wedding planner once you realize you’ve been in love with her and only her your whole life.
“The wait is killing me,” I whisper to Clarabella, who stands beside me. Shelby stands on the other side of Clarabella next to Presley. The three of them have the biggest and most prestigious event-planning business. They originally started out just doing weddings and then slowly started adding in corporate events. That took off so much, they have recently decided Clarabella, Shelby, and Presley would take care of the corporate side of the company, leaving Sofia to handle the wedding side. The first thing she did was officially place me as a junior event planner. I have been working under her to make sure I would be ready. News flash, I was not ready. I mean maybe I was, but I was definitely not ready for today.
When Matty came into the office last month to let us know he was proposing, we went wild. He then told us he not only wanted to propose to her but also get married at the same time. If I thought that was nuts, imagine my surprise when he left and the three of them looked at me and said,
“Congratulations, you just landed your first client.” I was shocked to say the very least. I told them I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t ready, but push came to shove, and they said they were going to be there in case I needed them. From that day, the next two weeks were the most stressful of my life. Not only was I planning this wedding but I was doing it in secret, which made it even more stressful. Let’s just say, tonight I’m going to have the biggest drink of my life, then properly collapse.
“It’s happening?” someone whispers from beside me, and I see Sofia and Matty walk into the open space we spent the morning decorating. I wanted it to be magical, so the trees have tea lights wrapped around them. I made the men wrap every single tree you could see in the distance with lights. I got a lot of huffing and puffing, but for Sofia and Matty, they did it.