Page 51 of Two Risks I'd Never Take Again

The words ‘anyone else’ played in my head, and I thought back to Garrett’s carefully worded promise. He hadn’t promised to date some unknown woman who might be part of his future. When he made that promise to pull out all the stops, he meant me. The realization made me giddy... for a half second, and then the panic crept in. I couldn’t think about this now. If things went south and I spent three weeks eating doughnuts, I wouldn’t fit into my dress. I wouldn’t do that to Delaney and Eli.

“We haven’t gone a single day without texting or talking since Thanksgiving. I look forward to spending time with him, but I’mterrifiedof labeling our friendship as anything else. I can’t.” I swirled the marshmallows around in my mug. “Dating him would risk having my heart broken, and I can’t do that. I think I’ll leave things as they are until the wedding—because I already said yes to being his plus one—and then I’ll pull back a little so that he has space to find someone else. But thinking about it too much right now isn’t a good idea.”

Delaney set her mug down and looked me in the eye. “When I was being stupid, you called me out on that because you are my best friend. Now I’m returning the favor. That is the absolute worst plan.” She tapped her fingernail on the table. “If you are afraid of having your heart broken, avoiding the label of dating isn’t going to prevent that.”

I swallowed down the rest of my chocolate. “Right, but I don’t have the bandwidth for this right now. I need to think about Christmas and making cakes for your wedding, and...”

“Just enjoy his company. Don’t worry about labels or giving him space. He’s a grown man. If he needs space, he’ll say so.”

“And if he wants more than friendship?” I knew he did. Why was I asking Delaney this question? It would lead right into the conversation I didn’t want to have.

“He’ll show you.” She smiled. “Now, seating. I need to know why Tandy can’t be by Matthew.”

“No one talks about it, so I don’t know exactly. But they never speak to each other. I’ve only seen them in the same room a couple of times. But you can sit Matthew over here with Eli’s parents. And Tandy knows Lilith, so you can sit her with the Henrys.”

“Okay.” She scribbled on the chart. “Now for the big question. What about my parents?”

“Tables for six or eight?” I scanned the page.

“Six. Should I have chosen eight? That just seemed so big.” Her brow furrowed. “I’m second guessing every single thing about this wedding.”

“Eli?”

Delaney’s face flushed as she smiled. “I’m a hundred percent sure about that part.”

“Good. So, you could put Beau, Lilith, Joji, Clint, Tandy, and your mom at this table. They would keep your mom entertained and make her feel welcome. And then put your dad’s family with Eli’s parents.”

“Then where would I put Matthew?”

“With Haley and Zach. Over here. Hank and Nacha and the baby are also at that table, so there is one extra chair.”

“Perfect. And last question. Your parents?”

“With me and Garrett. And if you don’t have Ava and Mad Dog assigned yet, put them at that same table.”

Delaney hugged me. “Thank you. You’ve made this so easy.”

“And thank you for being honest with me. I’m just going to table that entire line of thought until after you are Mrs. Gallagher. I can’t believe the wedding is only three weeks away.”

“I know. I’m so excited.” She glanced out the window as a truck door slammed. “I say that Eli makes me happy, but that’s not it really. I wasn’t unhappy before. But with him, I’m more content, freer to be me. I know that sounds silly.”

“It doesn’t.” The contented feeling was something I knew quite well. Recently.

The door swung open, and Sherlock bolted across the room as Eli entered.

“Hey, Eli.”

“Oh no. Not the chart.” He feigned horror.

Delaney kissed him. “Oh stop. We’re done. Tessa helped me.”

“Tessa, you’re a lifesaver. Delaney kept asking me about where to seat people and then got upset when I said we should pin the chart to the wall and throw darts to decide.” Eli chuckled. “I don’t know why she didn’t like my idea.”

I leaned down as Sherlock sniffed my pants. “You smell Blue, don’t you?”

Sherlock jumped and tried to lick my face.

“Sit.”

---