Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 50561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 253(@200wpm)___ 202(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 253(@200wpm)___ 202(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
It took a little more persuading but they left not long after and I felt like the world had been taken off my shoulders. Fuck, that was harder than I imagined. I haven’t had to ask anyone for anything in so long it was almost painful. I’d done it for her though, and was glad of it.
“See, that wasn’t so bad now was it?”
“They didn’t look too happy Simon. What if they don’t come around? Mom was never really close with aunt Jen but she’s still her sister and once they find out that I was the one who told you all that stuff about her they’ll see it as a betrayal. And you know how well that’ll go over in these parts.”
She had a point. Southerners are big on family loyalty, but I couldn’t imagine that they would sacrifice their daughter’s happiness for someone as undeserving as Jen. Either way it wasn’t going to make much difference in the scheme of things.
“I guess we’re just gonna have to prove them wrong aren’t we? At least we’ve got the hard part out of the way. Now you can concentrate on our wedding hmm.” She brightened at that and jumped and ran to her bag to grab her computer, the resilience of youth.
She prattled on about dresses and flowers while I scrounged around in the kitchen for something for lunch. I smiled at her antics as she tried to drag me into her frenzied planning “I thought you’d hire someone to do all that.” She gave me one of her sassy looks and shook her head.
“Nope, I want to do everything myself. I have a scrapbook, I’ve been keeping it since I was twelve.” She clapped her hands together and went back to what she was doing.
“You do realize that we’ll have to invite about two hundred people right?”
“Who the hell knows two hundred people?”
“Business associates and acquaintances love.”
“I was thinking just the family and us in the garden.” She looked a little freaked.
“Cute, but no. The garden might be doable but we’ll have to have someone come in and organize it. Sorry babe but there’s no way I can get away with not inviting at least that many.”
She went back to the screen and tapped away on the keys while muttering under her breath. She tried drawing me into her madness but I let her know in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t getting anywhere near that shit. “Hire a planner.”
She flounced back in her seat with a pout. “Look, you have school right. How do you plan to tackle the two without one suffering? I’ll tell you what? We can avoid all this shit with a weekend in Vegas.” I knew she wouldn’t go for that not if she’d been planning this shit for six years.
“I know; mom can help.” I’d thought of that, but I didn’t want her getting her hopes up just in case things didn’t go the way she wanted. I just nodded and added the finishing touches to lunch before joining her at the island.
“Eat baby.” In between bites of our sandwiches she excitedly showed me all her ideas for her dream wedding. As she spoke I watched her expressive face, marveling once again at how much she owned my heart. Brushing the hair back behind her ear I kissed her cheek.
“You’re gorgeous you know that? And all mine.” It was becoming easier and easier to say such things to her, things I would never in a million years have imagined myself uttering without sounding like an utter ass.
Her smile made it all worthwhile though, that, and the way she fell into my arms and turned her mouth up for mine. “You’ll have your perfect wedding baby I’ll make sure of it.”
***
The next few days were tense and hectic, except for the hours we spent in bed wrapped around each other. We’d gone to her home to collect her things but her parents hadn’t been ready to talk, which only added to her anxiety.
She was back in school, which worried the shit out of me, because it was the first time she was out of my sight since I’d fallen in love with her and made her, my own. My worry stemmed from the fact that her aunt had disappeared. I hadn’t given up my quest to get to the bottom of whatever scheme she was up to with her lover so I was keeping tabs on her, that’s how I knew she had left the city not long after our meeting. I had someone trying to locate her though, and was hoping to hear something soon.
I didn’t share this with Ashley, but there was no way I could give up my vendetta against her aunt. She wouldn’t understand I was sure. But for a man like me, I couldn’t just let Jen get away with what she’d tried to do. Call it pride, or wounded ego. It is what it is.