Page 1 of The Lucky One

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BRIDGET

OCTOBER3

From the outside, Holly and Cade’s wedding looks like something straight out of a storybook. Amber colored fabric drapes across the wooden arch at the farm’s pond. Splays of brilliant fall flowers are fastened at the corners and burst from pots at the base. Lights hang from the trees, adding a fairy-like glow as Holly and Cade exchange their vows.

But those of us working behind the scenes know it’s all an illusion.

From the moment my mother offered this wedding to my step-sister, it’s been nothing but a pile of haphazardly stacked Jenga pieces. Blocks that were poorly spaced and quickly tossed into a pile so that only the most skilled players could navigate the game.

Charlotte Mitchell, my mother and the owner of our wedding planning company Gilded Vows, never intended for Ella to pull it off. We all knew it was a power play, but no one could’ve expected that Ella’s entire future rode on the outcome of thiswedding. She worked hard and when that wasn’t enough, my twin sister Laila and I flew here and helped her work harder.

Until today, the pieces of this wedding held strong.

Until just a few minutes ago, when someone pulled the piece that sent the whole thing crashing down around us.

Voices bark out orders in my earpiece, directing more security to different areas and panic flits around in my chest like a trapped butterfly. This goes beyond giving a bride one of the most memorable days of her life.

Muchfurther.

On the outside, I’m as stoic as at the Statue of Liberty in that epic shot from The Day After Tomorrow. I amunshakeable.

Not only is Holly deserving of the most special day of her life, I refuse to fail Ella.

That’s just proving a little tricky at the moment since I can’t find Ellaormy sister.

My eyes roam the wedding site, grateful it’s so hidden away in the trees on Ever After Farm’s property. The Jackson family—the owners of this farm—have done an incredible job of keeping the chaos from leaking back here.

But for how long?

I straighten my shoulders and remind myself thatI am a pro.

Ella has created the perfect fairytale wedding between the massive country music star and her now football captain husband, and it’s going to stay that way. We all promised each other that this wedding would go off without a hitch.

There are cheers from the pond area as Holly and Cade walk back down the aisle, and I calculate about how long of a window I have before we’re cutting the wedding cake and doing the first dance. They’ll be busy for at least fifteen minutes with the photographer taking the first photos as man and wife, so I can do a quick sweep and assess the current situation.

“Tell me what you need,” I say to whoever is listening. “Holly and Cade are enjoying a brief moment of wedded bliss before we kick off the rest of this party.”

“Just keep up what you’re doing. We’re dealing with—” Laila pauses and sighs. “We’re dealing with a problem. But the good news is it’s in the process of being handled. We’ll meet you at the reception.”

I set my jaw because I can guesswhois causing the problem.

But if they say they have it handled, I trust them.

“I’ll see you there,” I say.

Luke, the oldest Jackson sibling, requested help from some of Cade’s friends to be lookouts and make sure no one wandered back here that wasn’t supposed to be here. It stinks that they had to watch the wedding from afar, but they all seemed gracious and eager to watch out for their captain and his bride.

Head down, I stalk across the grass in my heels, prepared to make sure everyone is still in place. At least long enough for Laila and whoever else is involved to do their job, so we can all enjoy the rest of today.

Only I plow face first into a wall of muscle, instead. A hand catches my elbow to steady me, and I stumble backward with the shift in momentum.

I blink up at a very tall, very broad-shouldered football player. He’s got auburn hair tousled by a nervous habit and a tie loosened like he’s just finished a long day at work. Or he’s not used to wearing these types of clothes and he’s itching for comfort.

Weston Reilly.

I could easily rattle off the team’s roster if asked, along with hair color, eye color, and position on the team. My photographic memory has come in handy on more than one occasion, helping me navigate events easily.

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