Page 165 of As the World Falls

“Well, maybe if you didn’t have such a fabric-ripping kink.”

“It’s not a fabric-ripping kink. It’s a very…uncontrolled impulse in impatience.”

She swats me. “Well, look what your urges have done.”

“I didn’t hear you complaining.”

She rolls her eyes. “Let’s just do this.”

I take her hand again, and we walk back into the garden to join the rest of the wedding party. Thankfully, everyone took it upon themselves to keep enjoying everything and just hung out, ate, drank, and talked to one another.

My eyes find Stef and Tobias standing by the patio doors, talking to each other, just as I notice everything around us becoming a little quieter. I feel Cecilia’s hand squeeze mine tighter as I look around, seeing everyone staring at her bare legs and feet.

“You forgot your shoes,” I whisper.

“Shut up, I realize that now,” she rudely whispers.

“Oh, that’s hot,” Ambrose mutters with a grin beside his snickering husband. Marco standing next to them respectively averts his gaze to the sky.

I look back up, seeing Stef muffle a laugh in the crook of his arm just as Tobias looks over to see what he’s laughing at. He glances at me and Cecilia, his eyes falling onto her and dropping to her ripped dress. Then, his scowl and narrowed eyes land on me. “You mother?—.”

The End

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