Page 66 of Her Marine
“That’s in six days,” Journee informed him as if he didn’t know.
“Including today, yes, it is.”
Journee leaned back in her chair and began to rub her temples. It wasn’t like she hadn’t assumed that whenever Kaydence got married, she would be the one planning the wedding. Hell, Journee knew that she would be. Not just for Kaydence but their entire friend group. Well, aside from Alivia. She just hadn’t thought that she would be given such a short timeframe to do so.
“Can’t you give me more time? What’s the rush?” she inquired.
“I don’t want to wait, Journee. I would take her to the courthouse tomorrow, but—”
“Courtney would have your head on a stick,” Journee interrupted.
“Exactly. So, I came to the best event planner I know.”
Journee rolled her eyes. “I’m probably the only event planner you know.”
“That doesn’t mean you aren’t the best.”
Journee thought about it for a moment. She figured Kaydence putting herself in that type of danger sparked some realization or revelation for Axel, and he’d realized he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her best friend. Journee was in no way surprised. She saw that ship sailing a while ago and was waiting for it to dock.
“Okay, I’ll call Kaydence and ask her what—”
“You can’t do that,” Axel cut her off. “I’m going to propose on Sunday.”
“Wait, what?” Journee leaned forward. “Axel, please tell me you aren’t expecting me to plan a surprise wedding in six days. How am I supposed to do that with just you and me?”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure you can get Talia and your sisters to help, and I will enlist my mom.”
“Fine,” she stated after a moment. “But if I get frustrated or irritated and snap at you, you had better just take it because you’re the one about to put me through a shit ton of stress.”
“I will take whatever you throw at me for the rest of our lives if you can make this happen.”
Journee sighed. “You owe me big time. I need a budget for this nearly impossible feat.”
“You plan a wedding and honeymoon that Kaydence will love, and I don’t care how much it costs.”
Journee didn’t miss that he’d added honeymoon into the mix, but she didn’t say anything. At this point, she wouldn’t be surprised if he asked her to make the damn wedding dress. She glanced at the time on her monitor. She didn’t have another appointment for an hour and a half and pulled up her wedding planning template.
“I need you to give me a couple of time options for Sunday so I can find a venue around it this afternoon, and invitations will have to go out this evening. Digital ones will be best. Once we have a venue, I’ll make them and enlist Talia to send them to their side of the family, and I’ll send it to you to send to yours. This only works if we ensure they all know this is a surprise, so no one tries to give her well wishes.”
Journee wrote as she spoke. She was aware of some of the things Kaydence wanted for her wedding. Or, well, what she’d wanted when they were in college. Since then, things could have changed, but Journee would have to go with it because she didn’t have much choice.
“How will you get her there on the day of?” Journee questioned, looking at Axel.
“I have that part covered. We take Christmas photos every year at the beginning of December, and I’m going to use that to get her there. I’ll have my mom invite her, so it’s less suspicious.”
Journee nodded. “Alright, do you have time to answer a few questions?”
“I have a couple of hours. I’m meeting Ian and Courtney for lunch. Just because I’m rushing to make this happen doesn’t mean I’m not going to do it right.”
“Okay,” Journee responded. She figured if she could get as much from Axel now as possible, it would make things a little easier for her.
Journee knocked on the door and only had to wait a moment before Talia pulled it open. She held up the two bottles of wine and the bag of food she’d brought, and the other woman raised a brow at her.
“When you called and said you needed my help ASAP, I didn’t think it would be so bad that you’d need to bring wine and food.”
“It isn’t bad,” Journee told her, placing everything, including her computer bag on the island. “Have you talked to your parents or Axel?”
“Not today. Courtney called while I was with a client, but I had color all over my gloves, so I couldn’t answer, and they didn’t answer when I called them back. What’s going on, Journ?”
