Page 18 of Mine To Honor (Southern Wedding)

“You didn’t have to meet us,” Eva says softly once he lets her go.

“Of course I did,” he says to her, holding her arms in his hands. “Can you imagine what my mother and father would have done to me if I didn’t come to meet you?” he deadpans to her, making her laugh. “Besides, if I hadn’t come, they would have, and I don’t think you are ready for all of that.”

“You are right on that,” she mumbles to him.

“I’m so, so sorry about Lisa,” he consoles her and she looks down at her feet. I see her mouth exhale before she blinks away the tears.

She lifts her head and gives him a sad smile. “Thank you.”

“My dad said he reached out to you also,” he tells her at the same time he reaches out to take her luggage from her.

“I know,” she says as we make are way out of the airport. “It’s been a busy couple of days. Every single time I said I would get back to him, I remembered I had to do something else.”

“I can’t even imagine,” he soothes, putting his arm around her shoulders. “Well, whatever help you need, we are here for you.” She just nods, and the only thing I can think is,you may change your mind once you find out what she needs from you.

“Shall we go?” Stefano suggests, ushering us out the door and toward his car.

“Shall we go and have something to eat?” He looks over at us as we walk to the underground parking garage and to his car.

“Where is the wife?” I ask, knowing Eva is probably too nervous to ask him.

“The wife,” he says, smiling, “is at work.”

Eva looks at me with big eyes that sparkle. “Oh, let’s go there.” She looks at Stefano. “We should definitely go there.” We stop when he gets to his car.

“What?” he asks, confused by this as he looks at me and at Eva. “She’s working.” He takes his keys out and pops the trunk for me to put the luggage in. I walk over and place the bags in the trunk before taking off my backpack, adding it to the mix.

“Oh, great,” Eva says and she wrings her hands nervously in front of her. “I would love to see where she works.”

I put my hands in my pockets. “Maybe we should do lunch first.” I look over at Eva. “Then perhaps break the news to him.” It’s with that sentence you can see the patience Stefano had is gone. “Or we can just rip it off like a Band-Aid.”

“Okay, you two,” he starts, his eyes moving between me and Eva. “What the fuck is going on right now?”

“Well.” Eva takes a step toward him. “You see, we came here really because we need to speak to Addison.”

His eyebrows pinch together. “Why?”

Oh, boy, I think in my head. My hands get a touch clammy and I look down nervously, not knowing what to say. I turn my head to look at Eva, who is also wondering what to say at this point. “Well,” she struggles, shrugging her shoulders and smiling big. “There is something we need her to do for us.”

“For us?” Stefano repeats, his eyes shooting to me. “There is an us?”

“Not really,” I admit because it’s the truth, more or less. “But.” I look up. “How do I say this?”

“Like a Band-Aid,” Eva reminds me and I look over at her. “We need to talk to her because…” Her voice trails off and she takes a deep inhale and exhales just as fast. “We need her to plan our wedding.”

Chapter Nine

Eva

“I’m sorry?” Stefano questions as soon as the words “we need her to plan our wedding” come out of my mouth. He laughs and claps. “Jesus.” He chuckles. “I thought you said you needed her to plan your wedding.” He points at Levi, then at me, the laughter on his face fading away as he takes in my face and looks over at Levi, seeing him avoiding his eyes.

“Um.” I start to hum as I move my head back and forth. “It’s a kind-of, sort-of kind of thing.” At this point I’m just putting words that don’t make sense together. I’m trying my best to calm down the situation because I can feel the temperature rising and it’s not from the sun.

“I’m sorry.” Stefano glares first at me, then at Levi, who just stares at him. “What?” he hisses out.

“How about…” I step closer to Stefano and almost in front of Levi. “…we go and see Addison.” I move in front of him to stop him from glaring at Levi and focus on me. I also realize that I’ve stepped in front of Levi to make sure he doesn’t hit him. “Then we can fill you guys both in.”

“Fill us in.” His voice comes out louder than I think he even knows, and with the emptiness of the parking garage, his voice booms and echoes.

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