Page 44 of Who's Your Daddy?

“Make me proud,” Peter says with a wink.

I walk with Catalina to the dance floor and stop somewhere in the middle. “Are you hoping for a proposal from your boyfriend?” I ask as we wait for the other women to gather around us.

Her body tenses. “It’s unlikely. I’ve...I’ve done something...unforgivable.” Her eyes flash back to Scott at the table and the guilt on her face lets me know exactly what the unforgivable act is. It also explains the tension and yearning I’ve seen between the two of them. “When I tell him...” She leaves the sentence hanging for my imagination to complete and gives a nod, like she’s already accepted her fate. “JP deserves better.”

I was just asking a simple question. I wasn’t expecting her to divulge that kind of information. I met her for the first time at the rehearsal dinner last night. The guilt must be fierce for her to just blurt that out to a stranger like that.

“Uh...” I don’t know how to respond, so I nod, too. “I hope both of you find happiness...even if it’s not with each other.”

“Thank you,” she says with a somewhat sad smile.

Isabella tosses the bouquet in the air and the conversation was a distraction for a second too long because I jump too late. It flies over my head and lands in the hands of one of Dylan’s cousins.

I let out a disappointed sigh. Well, there go my chances of finding a husband anytime soon. Superstitious, yes. But that’s all I have to work with at the moment. Nothing else in my life is going right.

We walk back to the table and my shoulders lift in a small shrug when I reach Peter.

“I missed it,” I say, sitting down beside him. “And we practiced for this all week. I was ready.”

He curls his arm around me and plucks a kiss on my cheek. “Maybe next time, dollface.”

Little things like that are responsible for the recurring eruption of chocolate bubbles. I lean back to rest my head against his chest, taking full advantage of his comforting embrace. “I hope my prince charming comes to whisk me away very soon. I can’t be living with you for extended periods of time.”

He chuckles. “Why? You scared you might end up liking me?”

“Ugh!” I tease playfully. “No. That will never happen.”

It’s the men’s turn to report to the dance floor, but only JP and Tommy stand up. Tommy all but begs Scott to go with them, but he refuses. Peter doesn’t budge either.

Whoops and wolf whistles fill the air as Dylan slowly slides his hand up Isabella’s thigh. He drags the garter down her leg and twirls it around his finger. The crowd gets rowdier, waiting for him to toss it, but he doesn’t get a chance. It flies off his finger, across the room, and drops straight into Scott’s lap.

“See what happens when you tempt fate, Scotty?” Tommy jeers as he sits down again.

“Well, we all know marriage isn’t in the cards for me.” Again, I pick up on the tension when Scott glances at Catalina, but he turns to me and hands me the garter. “I think you should have it.”

“Really?”

“Of course.” He laughs at the obvious chirpiness in my voice. “I hope this gets you one step closer to your Prince Charming.”

Another wave of nausea attacks me, and I simply smile instead of responding. The rest of them continue talking, but my discomfort makes me zone out what they’re saying. I inhale deep breaths and release them slowly until it eventually passes.

“This is it, gentlemen,” Scott says, standing up.

Tommy gulps down another glass of champagne before standing up too.

“Pour a glass for me and Peter,” Scott says. “God knows we need some alcohol for what’s coming up next.”

Peter takes a glass from Tommy, then turns his attention to me. “Please promise me that you’ll still have sex with me after this. Whenever I do activities with Dylan, my dick tends to invert, so it might take a while to find it, but as soon as we do, we’re having sex.”

I should be shocked, or at least embarrassed, that he can say things like that in public, but it actually builds my excitement. This is it. This is the thing he was too embarrassed to tell me, the very thing that got me an invitation to this wedding. I give him a nod, biting my lip because my anticipation is so high I could scream.

“Just find a happy place. It’ll be over soon,” I hear Scott tell him as they walk to the middle of the dance floor.

Isabella is sitting on a chair center stage with Dylan standing in front of her. The other men take their positions around him, and the lights dim, leaving only one spotlight on the very excited groom.

Peter told me that Dylan was corny, but I only fully understand the extent of his corniness when the first chords of Justin Bieber’sBabycome through the speakers.

Oh wooooah

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