“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.”