Page 23 of Falling for the Forward

“The girls will want to be part of it,” Harry says.

“It also significantly ups my chances of hooking up with a groomsman if I’m the maid of honor, so...definitely bridesmaids,” Mara says.

I can’t argue with that. Still, the wedding plans are growing by the second, and I haven’t even told Carter yet that I’ll marry him.

I shake my head and sit down. “I hope this is the right decision.”

Mara comes over and bends down in front of the chair, so we’re eye level with each other.

“You know me. I’d never tell you to do this just so I could hook up with a hockey player. This is a chance for you to get out of debt and leave all that shit with Tyler behind you forever. For five hundred Gs, I’d do a lot worse than marry a pro athlete for a year.”

I blow out a breath, thinking about prying the quarters that were my tip out of dried, spilled beer during my last waitressing shift at the bar. Coming home exhausted at 1:00 a.m., smelling like fries and having to get up for my day job the next day. Mara is right--this will hardly change anything with my day job, and it will mean no more second job and years of scraping to pay off Tyler’s loans. All I have to do is move into Carter’s house and convince people I love him.

“Okay.” I nod, feeling more confident. “Dex, we’re also going to need a tux for a pig.”

He doesn’t look up from his legal pad. “Groom’s is already on my list, babe.”

I smile. “No, not him. An actual pig. Carter got the girls a micro pig for a pet. They’ll want him to be part of the ceremony.”

“Put a photographer on your list,” Mara tells Dex. “I have a feeling this wedding will be something we all look back on later and laugh about.”

I wonder again if I’m making a huge mistake. If I am, at least I’ll have my closest friends by my side as I formalize it.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Carter

“Uncle Carter, look at Darling!”

Hallie holds up the pig she won an argument with Olivia about naming. He’s officially Darling Maxwell Stanton now.

Just a few months ago my house was empty other than me. Today, it’s full of people. There’s a pink two-tier cake in my dining room, my wife-to-be is getting ready in my bedroom and I have a pet pig wearing a tuxedo.

“What the hell, man?” Bash speaks out of the corner of his mouth, his smile still in place. “We need to alk-tay right ow-nay.”

I roll my eyes at his pig latin. My teammates were understandably shocked when I announced after practice yesterday that I was getting married today. I told them Suki and I had a secret whirlwind courtship. Knowing how opposed I am to even being in a relationship, Bash is convinced I’m being framed or something.

“Carter, the photographer needs you.” Suki’s friend Dex, our volunteer wedding planner, is a dead ringer for the actor TomHolland. “She wants some photos of just you and then just you and the girls.”

I hold back a shitty comment about hating photos, nodding instead. Suki’s friends are taking this wedding way too seriously. In the back of my mind, I’m wondering if she might have a thing for me that they know about. If they think there’s any chance we’ll actually fall for each other, they couldn’t be more wrong.

I hate everything about this. The stuffy tux, the fussing...the damned bills. This rush wedding for show is costing me a mint. I’m also missing the Penn State football game.

The one thing I don’t hate is how happy the girls are. I’ve never seen them as excited as they were when Suki and I told them we were getting married. Olivia was confused at first. Since she’s old enough to see that we have no chemistry and never spend time alone together. But even she’s on board now, looking older than her age in her pale-pink dress, her hair styled in waves around her shoulders.

She latched onto Suki’s friends immediately--especially Mara. Olivia and Hallie were deadlocked in a fight about the pig’s name. I told them when we brought him home that he belonged equally to all three of them even though Olivia picked him out. Charlotte suggested we name him Bacon but didn’t care when everyone dismissed the idea.

It was Mara who told Olivia it would be cool for her to let the youngest sister name their pet, and Olivia immediately agreed.

“Hey.” Bash grabs my arm as I start to walk away.

I turn and look at him. “I’m good, man. I swear. I’m the one who asked her to marry me.”

“Yeah, but there’s legal stuff, and--”

He’s worried I don’t have a prenup. Little does he know the amount of back-and-forth between Dex and Michelle over the contract Suki and I signed spelling out the terms of this union.

“It’s taken care of. I promise.”

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