Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 93002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Fortunately, most of the guest list was already cleared by the security team. Quinn had a few local friends, plus Cooper and Alice Sinclair, Evers and Knox Sinclair, and their wives, Summer and Lily. Lucas came with his wife Charlie, who—exactly as he predicted—I hit it off with immediately. Emmett Blake came along with them.
Two days before the wedding, Parker had shown up when Quinn and I were going through some details on the flowers.
“I know you said you have a dress,” she’d started, and Quinn rolled her eyes in friendly exasperation.
“I don’t really care about the dress,” Quinn said for the millionth time.
“I know,” Parker said with her own eye roll. “And I love you and your endless supply of cargo pants, but you are not getting married in a sundress.”
“It’s a beautiful dress,” Quinn protested, defending the cute white eyelet sundress I knew she loved.
“It is a very pretty dress,” Parker agreed, “but you’ve worn it twenty times, and this is special.”
Quinn leveled a look at Parker. “It’s not the dress that makes it special.”
Parker didn’t credit that with a response. “I can return it if you don’t like it,” she said.
“What are you talking about?” Quinn asked.
Parker held up a translucent plastic bag that appeared to be filled with white tulle. “Help me out, Sterling,” she said.
She lifted the hanger at the top of the bag, and I pulled up the plastic, revealing the dress that was so perfectly Quinn, my eyes teared with joy for her. Light layers of tulle floated from the bodice to the floor. This wasn’t a princess’s gown. It was fit for the fairy queen Quinn was at heart.
The straps were the width of my thumb and held up a structured bodice made from layers of white tulle, covered with a confection of appliqué vines and flowers that concentrated on the bodice and flowed down the skirts. It was light and fresh and would move around her like a cloud.
I glanced over to see Quinn staring at the dress, her eyes shining.
“Okay,” she breathed. “You were right.”
“I know,” Parker said with a smile. “Let’s go try it on and make sure it fits. You don’t have much time for alterations.”
It fit almost perfectly. Parker put in a pin or two where it was needed and took the dress back, promising to have it ready for Quinn’s wedding.
And that was that. We were pretty much done.
I’d seen a lot of weddings in the last year. In some ways, Quinn’s was the most low-key. But of all the weddings, this one was the most magical. For one thing, it was the only one that took place in the woods. Early evening on their wedding day, with the sun just beginning to set, Griffen walked Quinn down the aisle to Hawk, standing in the arbor, Quinn’s dog Ginger at his side. Leo had been left in the gatehouse for the wedding, as he was most decidedly an indoor cat.
The ceremony itself was short. I didn’t remember most of the words, fully absorbed by the incandescent joy on Quinn’s face, the matching expression on Hawk’s as they said, “I do,” the clearing just beginning to light up with the warm glow of fireflies. They walked back down the aisle under a cloud of rose petals and let me drag them off for a few wedding pics before the musicians switched from classical to bluegrass, and the party really got started. As the sun sank below the mountains and the fairy lights blinked on, we feasted on barbeque, and I danced with Forrest under the moon until Quinn and Hawk snuck off into the woods for their wedding night.
They’d decided to postpone their honeymoon for the winter when Quinn’s business would be at its slowest, and they could spend two weeks in the cabin where they’d fallen in love. For now, they were taking a long weekend in the mountains, just the two of them and their huge backpacks. Not my idea of a honeymoon, but Quinn and Hawk’s idea of heaven.
It had only been a few days since the wedding, and I’d been doing a lot of thinking. There was nothing like a death followed by a wedding to start me down the path of reevaluating my choices. Endings and beginnings. Full circle. My life story thus far was a long list of bad decisions and wrong turns. I could blame my father’s crappy parenting and my own lack of direction, but it didn’t matter who was to blame. That part of my life was over. I knew who I was now. I loved and was loved. I knew what I wanted and where I wanted to go. And so much of that revolved around the man lying beside me.
My head had been so busy lately, not just with the wedding but with my own plans. There were so many ways to ask for what I wanted. I rolled to my side in bed on that lazy Saturday and looked up into Forrest’s warm hazel eyes, rich with gold in the morning light.