Page 32 of Irresistible Rogue

“It is a dream come true,” I said sarcastically.

She justtsked at me and went back to her mountain man.

I sat back, looking at the pile of RSVP cards and the rough seating chart the wedding planner had put together with Mom. It was printed out in front of me, along with a paper trail of every other detail that had been planned so far. It was all so well organized.

But as I’d pored over the details, it was becoming clear to me that in the middle of all this careful planning there was one large, glaring black hole. In the shape of a swamp troll.

Only three guests had not yet RSVP’d for the wedding. One was a business colleague of Jacob’s, and one was an old friend of Mom’s.

But the other one was Shane.

No matter how many times I searched through the RSVP cards I’d organized around me, there was no RSVP from him.

“Mom? Are you sure that all the RSVP cards you received are in here?” I knew Mom had sent every one of Jacob’s sons a formal invitation. They were all on the list. I was looking at a card from Joss and one from Brandon right now. Darcy, the spoiled jock, had even RSVP’d.

“They are. I kept them all together. Why?”

I stared at Shane’s name on the invited guest list.Shane Madrigal +1.He was seated at the head table on Mom’s seating chart. He was seated right next to me, in fact. (Though not for long.)

He was in the freaking wedding party.

And he hadn’t RSVP’d.

“Darling?”

When I looked up, Mom was eying me with concern. “Huh?”

“Are you alright? You made that noise.”

“What noise?”

“The one you made when you were a little girl, right before you made sick.”

Did I? “Oh. Uh… I’m fine.”

Her eyes swept the paperwork spread out before me. “Is there a problem with the plans?”

“Nope. No problem. Everything looks great.” I gave her a smile.

Mom went back to her book and I looked over the printed emails and invoices from the suit place again, and the tailor. Shane also hadn’t gone in for his suit fitting when he was supposed to. He was the only one who hadn’t; the groomsmen’s fittings were supposed to be done last month, but Shane’s was not.

Suddenly, my disgust for the man took an angry turn. Was he seriously trying to mess with the wedding plans?

No fucking way.

Like hell would I let him ruin a single detail of this wedding for Mom or Jacob.

I picked up a pen and drew a line through his name on the seating chart, and wroteDarcyabove it. Then I stroked out Darcy’s name at the other end of the table and wroteShaneabove it. There. I’d sit next to cocky jock-boy. Better him than the swamp creature.

“You can try,” I muttered under my breath as I sketched a little swamp troll face next to his name, “but you are not going to ruin this wedding, Shane Madrigal.”

“Hmm? What was that?” Mom glanced up from her book.

“I said, this wedding is going to be so magical.” I forced another smile.

It would be. I would not let him win.

If Shane wanted a fight, he’d get a fight.

---