Page 61 of From Best Friend to Bride
“Oh, heck no,” I said, my laughter dying. “Fred…”
He cradled the back of my head, turning us slightly. “Granny, Nana, have some manners!”
Oh, my God.
“You know how Deli feels about public displays of affection,” he continued.
“Yeah, if she wanted people to watch her kiss, she’d have become a porn star,” Lucy shouted, grinning as she leant against Harvey, cradling her bump. “Or she’d watch porn if she wanted to see others at it. Right, Deli?”
“Exactly that.” I turned my face towards them, still nestled against Fred’s body. “I’d at least have to charge you.”
Everyone laughed, and the next thing I knew, they rushed us. We were quickly separated by hugs and cheek kisses, and I think just about everyone was crying.
Aunt Vi cradled my left hand and smiled. “You finally get to wear it, Deli.”
“Was this always…” I looked at the ring.
“Yes,” she replied quietly. “I always hoped, and when you took a liking to it, I saved it. I, uh…ah.” She stopped, wrinkling her nose up in a smile as tears formed in her eyes. “Well, I told him a long, long time ago that this belonged to you if it ever happened, and he asked for it. So…”
“But—”
She shook her head and squeezed my hand before quickly releasing it and pulling me into a hug. “You will always be my family,” she whispered in my ear. “You always have been, darling. That won’t change. No matter what happens.”
I swallowed down the lump in my throat and hugged her back, looking over her shoulder. My gaze caught Fred’s, and he smiled at me over Nana’s head as she embraced him with all her might.
Yeah.
Somehow, one way or another, this would all work out.
I simply had to believe that it would.
13
FRED
Time was a funny thing.
Some days dragged as if they were as long as a year. On those days, it didn’t matter how many times you looked at the clock. The hour would never change, and even the hand that ticked each second away moved at a glacial pace.
Other days sped past without you realising. One moment you were rolling out of bed with sleep still clouding your eyes, and the next, you were climbing back under the cover in the dead of night wondering where the hell all that time had gone.
The past month had been the second one.
As soon as Deli said yes to my proposal, it was as if our world started moving at the speed of light. We’d barely had time to digest the reality of our new relationship before we were tossed into the vortex of wedding plans.
Every second of our lives became about colour schemes and centrepieces, invitations and seating plans, shoes and flowers and dresses. Every second we weren’t working we were neck-deep in wedding organisation, even though we’d deliberately kept it all small.
Our grandmothers hadn’t been too happy about this turn of events, even with Granny knowing it was all a show. Still, she’d still demanded we have a proper wedding befitting our familyhistory—just without the whole swearing in front of God part—and she’d very nearly won.
It was thanks to our mothers that they’d backed down. There was one swift reminder that we were zooming through everything to make sure Nana was healthy enough to be present at and enjoy the whole day, and that neither of us wanted a big, fancy, dramatic wedding anyway.
And somehow, that was how we’d ended up here.
On the morning of our wedding day.
How they’d managed to pull together a whole wedding within a matter of weeks was a mystery to me. I was sure our mothers were witches who’d pulled some hinky tricks to make it possible, because I could barely remember the last month.
Sleep. Work. Wedding. That was my only recollection of it all, and I had no doubt that Deli felt the same. We’d barely even had any time together to figure out how we were going to do this whole thing, and I was torn.
