Page 4 of A Chance for Us
~Forty-eight hours earlier~
“Are you excited about the wedding?” Mark, my boss, asks as he walks into my office.
“Yeah, I’m just stressed. So much is going on, and Oliver is still on that mission, which I haven’t forgiven you for sending him on.”
My fiancé and I both work for Cole Security Forces.
We’ve only been together a short amount of time, but we clicked the moment we met. It was fast, fun, and now, I’m going to marry Oliver Edward Kensington III. Well, I will if he gets his ass home in time for the wedding at the resort that my friend from college, who is also named Oliver, owns.
He raises his hand. “Hey, I didn’t tell you to get married with, like, three weeks’ notice.”
“Well, I appreciate your agreeing to step in to be our officiant.”
Mark grins. “That is my specialty. Plus, you gave me a reason to dust off my license and expand it to cover the entire fifty states. I’m an excellent minister.”
“Natalie and Liam would beg to differ.”
“And yet, here you are, begging for my services.”
I laugh. “I don’t recall that part. I believe it was you who said it’s tradition and you’d do it for free.”
He waves the comment off and then sits in the seat in front of me. “Were you able to workup some options for the team going out next week when you’re on your destination wedding and honeymoon?”
I grab the file and hand it to him. “Of course.”
I work as an analyst for one of the most elite security firms and assess risks and possible outcomes before my team goes out and executes the missions. I see angles and issues and possibilities, and I’m always two steps ahead of them.
He opens it and studies the contents. “These are good.”
“I wouldn’t leave for two and a half weeks without making sure the guys were taken care of.”
“I didn’t think you would.”
“Now, if you could get my groom home . . .”
Mark shrugs. “I have no control once they’re gone, but at the last check-in, they were wrapping up. All will be fine.”
I really hope so. This wedding, while being as close to shotgun as a wedding can be, matters to me. With my father’s cancer treatments and the constant complications, this is the only chance I have to make sure my dad gets what he’s always dreamed of—to walk me down the aisle.
Even though he’s never met Oliver, he’s beyond happy it’s finally happening.
My phone rings and my father’s name flashes across the screen. “I have to take this.”
“No problem. I’ll go annoy Natalie.”
I laugh and then swipe the video call.
“Hi, Daddy.” I smile as his face fills the screen. Some days, it’s easier for him to video call since it hurts to talk and I can usually read his face allowing him a respite from trying to speak.
“Hi, Princess.”
I smile at the nickname. “You look handsome.”
He grins. “Always look your best. Are you . . . all . . .” He struggles to speak. “Ready for your big . . . day? I can’t wait. And Linda is excited too.”
That last part is a lie. My father, the most loving and caring man I’ve ever known, is married to a vile human who I call Satan’s sister. Linda is, well, the worst. She’s a bitch who believes that nothing other than her feelings matter. Not that he was married before, has siblings, a daughter. No, none of that is relevant in her mind.
I loathe her, but she’s the gatekeeper to my dad, so I pay the fees, which means I have to be nice to her when she gets on the phone and then poke a voodoo doll after the call.
