Page 14 of Shameless With Him

“Well, first, I need to ask the big question.”

I took a step back, my eyebrows raised. “You do? I thought John already popped the question.”

“Haha. Will you be my maid of honor?”

Warmth spread through me, and I grinned. “Really? I thought you were going to ask Mary Kate.”

Mary Kate and Lacey had been best friends for what seemed like forever. They had met in the children’s oncology ward, Lacey being there for herself, while Mary Kate had been there for her sister. Mary Kate’s sister hadn’t made it, something that hurt to even think about. Through their shared pain and similar ages, Lacey had formed such a deep and everlasting friendship with Mary Kate that I thought they would be shoe-ins for each other’s maids of honor.

“I thought about it. In the end, I decided I want you. You’re my big sister. I’ve known you longer. And you’re one of my best friends, too.”

This time, I wiped away my tears and kissed Lacey on the cheek. “Of course, I’ll say yes.”

“Good. Because I have such a long list for you.”

I groaned. “You’re really only making me your maid of honor because I can actually adhere to lists rather than Mary Kate, who kind of likes to go with the flow.”

“Well, that might be part of it…though not the only part.”

I had been bamboozled. Completely and utterly hoodwinked. I loved my little sister, though, so I’d make it work. Like always. I would deal with it. Even though I had a feeling this was not going to be fun at all.

“Now, I have your binder here, too.” She picked up the other notebook that I hadn’t noticed before. “This is just the starter pack.”

The thing weighed like ten pounds.

“Starter pack?”

“Yes. This isn’t all of it. And a lot of what we’ll be doing will be digital. That way, we can all upload it to the cloud and be up-to-date at any given moment if any emergencies arise, or if we need to have last-minute meetings.”

“Meetings?” I knew there was a little bit of panic in my voice, but I couldn’t help it. Dear God. I had a full-time job. I owned my own business. I had best friends of my own and a life. Not a huge one, and not one with dating. Although I had already promised myself that I was going to work on the latter. This whole wedding thing might actually get in the way of that.

Dear God. I started to look through the notebook, swallowing hard. Everything was neatly organized and labeled, with ideas for flowers, music, the dancing, linens, dishware, where they would register… Everything was color-coded and in order of precedence. There was a whole section for the dress, as well as addresses of the attendants. The colors hadn’t been picked yet. However, there were five different areas where Lacey could choose. And from there, apparently, I would be able to triangulate exactly what would happen. There was a damn flow chart in the thing.

No wonder she wanted this to be digital.

My sister was a machine and seriously needed to be a wedding planner instead of working as an administrative assistant.

“Lacey, you only got engaged like a month ago.”

“I know. And I’m already behind. It’s still okay, though, because I have a plan. With the move coming up, we had to push the wedding up a little earlier than I wanted it. Even with that, we’re going to make this work. I already have all the starter appointments ready, and we’re going to make this happen. John might not be here for all of it, though. Because, you know, he has work.”

I did, and his work was the reason that Lacey was moving. My baby sister was relocating across the country because John was getting an amazing fellowship at another hospital. One that he had been trying to get for a few years, and now there was an opening. He was going to be in a position to become one of the top cardiologists in the country, and my baby sister was going to go with him and most likely start having that family and being the best doctor’s wife ever in the history of marriage. At least, that’s what I figured her to-do list would have on it.

Checklist one: get married.

Checklist two: have a family.

Checklist three: take over the world.

“Is John going to be a part of any of this?”

Lacey beamed. “Of course, he is. He’s going to help me pick out everything. With work, though, he might not actually be there for each meeting and planning strategy. That’s why I’ve made this detailed system, so he only has to choose from what we’ve narrowed down. After that, then it’s all the meetings, and I want you to be there every step of the way.”

“So, you’re not hiring a wedding planner?” I said, blinking.

“No, I’ve got this. So does Mom.”

Mom reached out and gripped Lacey’s hand. “We’ve got this, honey.” She turned to me. “And, of course, you’ll help with the flowers, won’t you?”

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