Page 16 of Shameless With Him

“No, my mother thinking about that.” Lacey and I laughed, and my mom just rolled her eyes.

“I don’t know why you think that you and your little sister just showed up one day thanks to a stork. I’ll have you know…your father cuts a nice line in his suits, too. In fact, just the other day—”

“No, no, no. None of that.” I cut her off, laughing. “I know you’re only trying to get a rise out of me. Stop.”

“Speaking of rises,” my mother began, and Lacey burst out laughing.

I closed my eyes and counted to ten, trying to put all of those thoughts out of my mind. “What did I do to deserve this? Why is this happening?”

“Because you’re a smartass. Just like your father. And I love him. So, I love you.” My mother kissed me on the cheek and then went back to the tablet in her hand. “Okay, so there’s five attendants on each side, and we’re looking at what? Three hundred people?” My mother said, and Lacey nodded.

My eyes widened, my mind boggled. “Three hundred? I don’t think I know three hundred people.”

“You know three hundred people in your life. And I have made a lot of friends over my lifetime. And so has John. We want them to be there for our special day.”

“That’s going to be a lot of money, Lacey.”

Lacey nodded. “I know. And I’m paying for some of it. Mom and Dad are paying for some of it. John’s paying for some of it. And so are his parents. We’ve got this. I promise, we’re not going over budget or crazy. There’s a reason that I went into so much detail about everything in that notebook. I spent years playing with weddings just for fun because I loved the idea of planning them. I know what I want my budget to be. I don’t need the best of everything. Yet, I still want to feel pretty. Like it’s my day.”

Shamed, I hugged my sister tightly again. “I’m sorry. I know you do. And it is your day, you should feel that way. You’re so practical, even if your head’s in the clouds more than mine at times.”

“For a florist, sometimes you’re the least romantic person I know.”

“Maybe because the thorns always make me bleed,” I said and then kissed Lacey’s cheek. “Okay, ignore me and just tell me what to do.”

“Because John doesn’t have any brothers, and he wasn’t sure how to pick between his friends, he flipped a coin for who was going to be his best man.”

I nodded, a little wary. “O-o-o-kay.”

“That means Caleb was actually chosen as his best man,” she said with a wince.

“Why are you wincing?” my mother asked.

I knew. Because Lacey knew. Lacey knew about my crush. She had always known about it. The fact that she had been delicate about the idea of whether I knew Caleb had put me at ease. Because she knew. And I was going to have to work side by side with Caleb Carr.

He wasn’t my nemesis. He wasn’t my future.

Yet.

“Okay, does he know that he’s the best man?”

“I don’t know. But you guys are going to be working very closely.” Her brows rose. “Is that going to be okay with you?”

“Why wouldn’t that be okay with her?” my mother asked. We both ignored her.

“It’ll be fine. I promise. However, that does seem a little coincidental,” I said.

Lacey held up her hands. “I swear, it really wasn’t on purpose.”

“Why would it matter if it was on purpose?” my mother asked, and once again, we ignored her.

“Oh, good.” I paused. “Will Caleb have a lot of duties? I mean, I didn’t think a best man had a long list or anything. Pretty much the ring, the stag party, and get John there.”

“Well, this best man’s going to do a lot because, like I said, John’s going to be really busy…”

Lacey trailed off, and I froze.

“How much do you want me to work with Caleb?”

“As much as you need to,” she said, and I had a feeling that maybe that coin hadn’t been so improbably statistical after all.

My sister, the happiest girl in the world, the woman who might as well be a Bridezilla one day, was playing matchmaker.

Even as something warmed inside me, I really hoped this wasn’t going to be a mistake.

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