Page 14 of Mine To Honor (Southern Wedding)

“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” I ask again when I pull up to her house.

“I have to do this, Levi,” she says, her voice going soft. “There is a little girl at stake.” She unbuckles her seat belt. “And I’m never going to not do what I can for her. If I have to get fake married to someone and pretend for a year so she’s with me forever, then that is what I’m going to do.”

“Fine,” I agree with her when she reaches for the door handle and opens the door.

“You should call Bridget.” She mentions another one of the girls I hook up with more frequently than the others.

“Why?” I ask, my eyebrows pinching together.

She smirks at me. “You’ll be less stressed.” She can’t even hide the smile. “And hopefully in a much better mood.”

“I’m fine,” I hiss at her.

“Are you sure?” she asks as she puts one foot out. “You don’t look fine.” She gets out of the car and bends down to finish. “And you’re even walking sluggish.”

I glare at her. “No, I’m not,” I retort.

“Okay, fine, you aren’t, but we should really sit down and talk about what the lawyer said.”

“We will have to talk about all the things,” I admit, “but let’s get this one thing out of the way and we can talk about the rest.”

“Okay,” she agrees. “We will talk tomorrow after we speak to Stefano. He’s usually good at this sort of thing.”

“What sort of thing?” I ask, confused now.

“Being a parent.” She chuckles. “He’s going to lay it out for us.”

“Is that what you think he’s going to do?” I turn toward her. “Two things are going to happen, either…” I hold up my finger. “One, he kicks my ass for even agreeing to this.” I swallow down that thought, knowing he wouldn’t kick my ass, but he would threaten to do it. Along with that goes his family of a million to come after me. “Or two, he will tell us we are both insane and come up with an even bigger plan than the one we have.”

“Fifty-fifty, then.” She smiles. “Go get the balls drained, and I’ll send you the flight details.” She doesn’t even wait for me to respond; she closes the door. I press the button to roll the window down.

“Are you going to call Juan?” I mention the last guy I know she hooked up with, she even dragged out the beginning of his name. She turns to look at me, walking backward, the smile on her face from ear to ear. Even with all the shit she has going on, the one thing you can count on her to do is to smile. “You should, you are walking a little to the side.”

Chapter Seven

Eva

The alarm rings on my phone but I’m already up. I’ve been up most of the night, again going down the rabbit hole that is Google. I was so far down the hole I texted Alice in the middle of the night and asked her if it would be possible to get updates on Cici daily.

She replied right away.

Alice:She’s sleeping like you should be. Will follow up in the morning.

When I got home yesterday, I pulled up flights. I got us both booked on the second earliest because no one should legally be allowed to enter an airport at 4:00 a.m. for a 6:00 a.m. flight if you aren’t going to be sipping pineapple drinks by the beach four hours later. Once I texted Levi the confirmation, I then went about canceling and rescheduling all my appointments the following week. Even though I went to work the day, and pretended I was fine, I knew deep down I wasn’t fine. I also knew deep down I would have a breakdown eventually, and I wouldn’t want to do it in front of anyone. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do anything the following week. I knew once everything was settled, more or less, and I gave myself time to think about it, it would be a very hard day.

Going over to my closet to get dressed, I stare at my clothes. “What does one wear when they are getting married?” I ask myself as I go through the hangers in my closet. “Should I do floral?” I look at the floral dresses I have. “I’m going to do….” I go on, walking over to the white pants I have, sliding them on. They sit tight on the hips but then flare off all the way down to the floor. I walk over to the drawer, taking out a lilac lace bra before my hand grabs the lilac silk top that is classy and elegant. If we take pictures, it will look great. I put one arm in and then the other, before I crisscross the front and fasten the buttons on the side and knotting the sash on the side. Turning I grab a pair of white high-heeled sandals before I walk out and to the bathroom.

I try to cover the puffiness in my eyes as much as I can. My hair also has a mind of its own, so again, I wear it pinned away from my face. Instead of a ponytail, I decide to wear it in a bun at the nape of my neck. I’m putting in the last bobby pin when my phone rings from my bedroom.

I snatch it up from the side table when I see it’s Levi. “Hello, dear,” I answer, pretending I’m happy.

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” he says to me. “Are you bringing a bag?”

“No.” I walk out of the room with the shoes in my hands. “Why would I bring a bag? We are in and out.”

“I don’t know how these things work. I brought an in-case bag.”

“Ugh.” I put my head back. “Should I bring an in-case bag?”

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