Page 85 of We Are All Sinners

“Yes, we told you we love everything we have picked. Now we just have to focus on letting the wedding planner, if you finally hire one, do her job. We are down to the wire, and I don’t know if we will be able to get one to say yes now!” Emily says loud enough to where she knows Shelby will hear from the back of the store.

“You have an appointment with Mia tomorrow, right? We are having family dinner tonight; I’ll mention talking with you today. Do you have a caterer? If not, I’ll make sure she has that taken care of as well if you would like. Mia won’t say no, us covenants have to stick together.” Shelby replies, winking at us.

“Oh, thank you Shelby! We actually have a caterer; Noah Jerricho will be taking care of all of the food and the cake. We have decided a Mardi Gras ball for the reception. Lily here, has given him a reason to stick around New Orleans. He actually has a new restaurant in the quarter opening in May. Thank you so much for any help you can give. I’m just having a hard time deciding on anything.” I reply, looking at Lily with a smirk.

“Oh, Noah would be here anyway. He wants to be close to his family. I’m just the lucky girl who gets the benefit of having him around.” Lily says, shaking her head, looking down, giving her best fake smile.

“Well, then, I guess we have said yes to a dress! I’ll go change, then I need food.” I reply, excited that what people say is the hardest part of the wedding is done. I picked the dress, and everything is falling into place, exactly how we have planned.

What could go wrong?

Chapter 28

Brixon

Evie has been bouncing off the walls for the last week with excitement since Mia accepted us as clients to plan our wedding.

Now she is running around like a chicken with her head cut off trying to get ready for Alec and M.J.’s wedding. She hates everything today and it’s of course all my fault.

She also started her period yesterday, a week early, pissing her off even more. Now she is complaining that she looks bloated in her flowy, baby-blue dress that you can’t even see where her stomach is at.

She is just nervous as fuck to meet her brother and niece. She has almost shown up on their doorstep fifty times in the last week, after meeting Mia and getting to know her. She stopsherself before she ever even gets close, but I support her choices, knowing that this isn’t easy for her.

I almost called Sin yesterday and just told him the truth so she could relax. Then she went into a full-blown meltdown with the what ifs. She is worried Cami is going to hate her for not coming to her sooner. That her brother isn’t going to like her. Evie is worried, knowing now, that either him or his wife have killed his other siblings. She also realizes that they deserved it.

“Have you seen my pearls? I laid them out and now I can’t find them. They are Grans pearls!” Evie comes into the bathroom for the fifth time in ten minutes looking for something she misplaced.

“Baby, calm down. You set them on the hearth in between your gran and mom’s urns. Remember, you thought she would like to be close to them again?”

Evie throws her hands up smiling, “Oh, yeah, thank you! I promise I’ll be better once this is done.” She goes up on her toes, kissing my cheek as she passes by going out the door again.

“God, I hope so.” I say under my breath.

“I heard that! So not scoring you points right now Brix!” She yells back.

Fuck.

The only time I had ever seen her like this was at my senior prom, when she thought I expected her to give up her virginity. I knew she wasn’t ready. I never pushed her. We were young and my world made everything about sex and control. I wanted her to give me that control willingly. I would never have taken that from her.

We had so much fun that night, once she told me what was bothering her. We danced at prom, went bowling, and stayed up in the quarter watching the sun rise from the steps of the Washington Artillery Park.

Genevieve loves sunrises. She told me her favorite to date is watching the sun rise and hit Jackson Square and the St Louis Cathedral that morning. That one was the most special, because it started raining, and the sun came up, brightly shining through the rain, casting a glow around her.

I pulled up one of her playlists and started singing along to, “Perfect,” by Ed Sheeran. I took her hand, and we danced. I sang the wrong lyrics, horribly tried to carry a tune, but she smiled and laughed anyway. She was insanely happy, letting me spin her around, still in her pretty red dress.

I made sure that night that she knew, yes, someday I would want to dominate her in every way imaginable. Back then, we were just kids insanely in love. Now we are well into adulthood, and the way I love her can’t be measured.

We reminisced quite a bit last night, after her freak out.

I woke her up at five this morning so that we could go watch the sunrise again from that very spot. Even though it wasn’t raining, I still danced with my girl as I horribly sang the lyrics of, “Slow It Down,” by Benson Boon, played on my phone.

She let me spin her around and hold her close. She forgot about everything for just a few minutes and enjoyed watching the sun peak up over the river. Evie bounced on her toes as the bright ball of light rose to all of its glory, throwing bright yellow, orange, and pink rays at the large cathedral, creating a masterpiece of colors in the sky above it.

It was magical to watch her watch it in awe. Evie believes there is something magical about every sunrise she sees. This one though. I will hold this morning, just a moment in time, in my memory forever.

She had the most perfect smile on her face as she laughed her corny chuckling laugh because I had to hum through some of the words, only remembering the tune itself, as I got lost in her.

While she will remember the bad singing, the dancing, and the sunrise itself. I will remember the way the morning sun hit her face. The glow not only that the sun gave her, but how it just highlighted the one she was already wearing.

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