Page 82 of The Fine Line
“You kids about ready?”
“Yes, I think so.” I glance at my watch. I have a broadcast meeting at the arena in two hours. “About how long is this going to take?”
“Well, you paid for the full package, so about fifteen minutes. But I’ve also got a ten-minute and five-minute script?—”
“Five would be perfect.”
He grins. “What the bride says goes! So here’s the plan—we’ll have your guests take their seats. Were we waiting on anyone else to join us?”
Rhett shakes his head.
“Okay, then. You’ll stand at the front,” he tells Rhett. “Your bride will walk down the aisle—unless your father was planning to walk you?”
Now I shake my head.
Yeah, no.
“Then you’ll walk yourself down the aisle, you two will exchange some quick vows, slip on some rings, sign the certificate, and you’re done!”
“Sounds good—wait. Oh my God. We don’t have rings.”
“No worries! We’ve got some lovely placeholders for the ceremony and photos. You can use those until your real rings arrive.”
“Okay,” I nod. “That works, I guess.”
“Great! I’ll go get set up. Just come out when you’re ready. And oh—anything else I should know?”
“Yes. We’d like to skip the kiss.”
His eyebrows shoot up.
“We’ve, um… been saving ourselves for marriage,” I say, somehow keeping a straight face. “So we’d like the first kiss to be in private.”
He blinks. “Well, alright then. Like I said, whatever the bride says goes!”
He disappears, leaving the door ajar.
I turn to Rhett, who’s now trying to suppress a smirk.
“So,” he asks, deadpan. “Are we consummating the marriage with our forbidden first kiss in your hotel room or mine?”
“Shut up.”
“Should I ask the front desk if they can lay down some tarps? Never kissed anyone before. Could get messy.”
“Oh my God. Would you stop? I panicked. I’m sure he gets dozens of weirdos getting married here a day. I just want to get this handled and get us out of here.”
“Oh, you handled it. Don’t worry. It was only kinda weird.”
I roll my eyes. “But seriously, speaking of handling things—how did Linda forget about rings? She’s the one who was so urgent about doing this before puck drop. It won’t make sense if I’m on-air without one. We’ll need to convince her to move the social media posts until later tonight or tomorrow morning. We’re in Vegas—there have to be a million jewelry stores. We can grab something after the game, or maybe before if there’s time.”
I’m already pulling out my phone to search for stores when Rhett gently presses his hand over it.
“You don’t need to do that.”
I look up.
“You’re right. I’ll let Linda handle it?—”
