Page 1 of Take Me to the Wedding

Prologue

Caleb

If you’re lucky, you’ll know the exact moment that you meet the love of your life. A chance meeting, a glance, a quick lock of the gaze, andwham! Your life is changed forever. You’ve found your person, someone you’ll be there for forever, and they’ll be there for you, no matter what life throws at you.

I, Caleb D’Angelo, was eighteen when it happened to me. I never thought anything or anyone could ever come between us. Call me a romantic. Or just someone who believes in the power of true love.

But stuff happens—life happens—and Lilly and I didn’t survive my move to med school. We were so young when we started dating. We had zero experience in the world. Med school turned into residency, and I moved on. At least, I tried. Outwardly, I’m sure it seemed like I was having a lot of fun. Yes, I dated around. I’m not bragging when I say that I was pretty popular, and finding someone to date was never hard.

But finding someone to love is.

The truth is, I’ve never stopped wonderingwhat ifwith Lilly. And now she’s free. Except someone I work with spread some gossip about me, and it got back to her.

As for that annoying colleague of mine who thought the worst of me and ruined my chances with the woman I love—well, she’s impossible. As much as I’m easygoing and friendly, she’s driven, outspoken, and never fails to give me a hard time. She’s judgy and she hates my guts. We clash so much that I finally did something about it. I asked for another anesthesiologist for my case.Anyonebesides her.

That made her dislike me even more. The problem is that Ihaveto be nice to her because she’s my sister’s best friend. And we’re both in the same wedding at the end of this summer. And, ironically, so is Lilly. All three of us.Yay.

But I’m not going to let Samantha Bashar ruin my chances with Lilly—again.

I have a plan. I’m going to find out if Lilly and I are meant to be together. And nothing—and no one—not even the she-devil herself—is going to stand in my way.

I’m going to hold my friends close… and my enemies even closer.

ChapterOne

Samantha

I rolled back the curtain to the patient bay in the pre-surgical area of Children’s Milwaukee and gave a thumbs-up to a nine-year-old boy lying on a gurney, looking small and stark against the white sheets. Flanked on either side by his worried parents, he lifted a skinny arm, now attached to an IV board, giving me a gap-toothed smile and a thumbs-up right back.

That smile melted me and made me want to live up to all that trust in his eyes. “Hey, my man, you ready?” I did a fist bump with his non-IV-boarded hand.

“Yep,” he said with a big nod and a grin, full of positive energy despite being less than an hour away from a third surgery on his right femur, which had been badly fractured in a car accident a year ago.

“Let’s do it then.” I smiled at his parents, who didn’t look nearly as calm, his dad anxiously tapping his foot and his mom holding her hands tightly in her lap.

I saw the fear in their eyes. Surgery was scary. But it was also life-changing. And this one would finally give Joseph a chance to be a normal kid again by evening out the length of his legs so he’d be able to run—not limp. It would give him wings.

“Hi, Dr. Bashar,” Joseph’s mom, Terry, said. “We’re so relieved you’ll be doing Joey’s case today.”

“I wouldn’t miss it,” I said.

“After this one, I’m gonna be GTG,” Joseph said.

I shot Joseph and his parents a puzzled look. “Good to go,” Terry said, smoothing her son’s hair back from his forehead. “Dr. D’Angelo taught him that.”

Dr. Caleb D’Angelo, the pediatric orthopedic fellow—meaning he’d finished his orthopedic residency and was doing a special fellowship year in pediatric orthopedics here at Children’s—would be doing the case today. He was a good doctor, but we didn’t get along at all. But because he was my best friend Mia’s brother, I had to at least try.

“I’m going to play baseball and run track. Right, Dr. Sam? That’s what Dr. Caleb said.”

“That’s the plan, Stan,” I said as I prepared to do my routine pre-op assessment.

“My name’s not Stan,” he said with a giggle.

His hopeful and trusting demeanor tore me up inside. It roused all my protective instincts, as it did with all the kids I cared for as a pediatric anesthesiologist in my last few months of training. ThenI’dbe GTG, ready for a real job. And I couldn’t wait.

Joseph’s dad, Henry, squeezed his son’s leg. “Last surgery, buddy. Let’s get it done.”

“Hey, everyone,” my friend Ani, who was Joseph’s pediatrician, called from behind me. She showcased a bright smile and two to-go cups of coffee that she passed to his grateful-looking parents. Funny what a good cup of coffee could do during a stressful time. “I just stopped to say hi and break a leg,” she said. Joseph frowned. “Oh, sorry. That means good luck, but maybe that wasn’t the best way to say it.” She threaded her arm through mine. “Hey, y’all, I have to borrow Dr. Bashar for a minute, but we’ll be right back!”

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