by C. M. Owens
Britt opens the door before I can knock, rips the bouquet out of my hand, and shuts the door again.
Laughing under my breath, I swing by the bar, grab a bottle of whiskey, and head back to the room where the guys are.
Everyone’s eyes swing to mine. It’s never fun walking into a room full of Sterlings.
“How long does it take to get whiskey?” Kode asks me as he takes the bottle from my hand.
I drop to a seat near the door and shrug as he goes to start pouring shots. Kade adjusts his tie in the mirror, not looking half as stressed as poor Raya.
“You wouldn’t believe the line I suffered through for that whiskey,” I say with a straight face. “You’re welcome.”
“Proposed to Tria yet?” Kade asks Kode in deflection when Kode just stares at me like he’s trying to figure out why my tie is crooked.
“No. And I don’t plan to until your shit-tastic wedding monstrosity is finally over so that she can remember that not all weddings have to be this hard,” Kode answers dryly.
Dane points his shot glass at me. “You propose to Britt this young, and I’ll finally have a reason to hit you,” he tells me seriously.
“I’m not an idiot. I know she’s not there yet,” I say as I take my own shot glass that Jax—Bo’s dude—hands me.
“Here’s to the groom who has waited for-fucking-ever to finally be married to the girl whose heart he stole…after he destroyed her house,” Maverick says, lifting his shot glass.
“I didn’t destroy her house; I was her knight in shiny fucking armor,” Kade is quick to correct.
We all throw our shots back, just as the door cracks open and Tria pokes her head inside, a very not-good look on her face.
She pinches her fingers together. “Little problem. I could use some help.”
I stand immediately, looking for any excuse to get out of this room and back to Britt.
“Everything okay with Raya?” Kade asks as he moves closer.
“Of course,” Tria says as she bats her hand in a dismissive way.
I walk out with Kode and Dale, and she shuts the door like three is enough. We follow her as she walks down the hall a little ways before turning to face us very abruptly. The fact she’s wringing her hands is not a good sign.
“Call every discreet person you know, who may know where Raya is.”
“What are you talking about? She was just in the room with all of you,” I remind her.
“What the hell were you doing in the room with the girls?” Kode asks like that’s the pressing issue right now.
“She went out the bathroom window, and now we can’t find her,” Tria goes on as she holds up a piece of shredded fabric of some sort.
“What?” Kode and Dale hiss at the same time.
“I know. I know. She was panicking about the dress, because there are only so many ways you can make a dress bigger before it’s noticeable that it’s the wrong size. The next thing I know, she was in the bathroom for ten minutes, the window was up, and this was left torn at the edge,” she goes on, her words coming out so fast that they almost slur together.
“Ah, shit,” is the first reflexive thing that comes out of my mouth.
Tria runs off in the opposite direction, as I run a hand through my hair.
“She’s never going to fucking marry me after this,” Kode groans as he chases after her, pulling his phone out as he goes.
Dale claps my shoulder. “Welcome to the fucking family. Do something useful.”
I hurry into the room where the girls are in a frenzy, but among the chaos, Britt is sitting calmly, one ear in her finger as she speaks to someone on the phone.
I watch as she hangs up and calls someone else, and I go to take a seat beside her as she thanks whoever it is.
I hand her my phone, and she dials a number on it, handing it back to me, and I put it to my ear just as a man answers.
“I don’t suppose you’ve seen Raya Capperton anywhere, have you?” I ask him as Britt asks someone else a similar question.
We do this for thirty minutes…until we run out of ‘discreet’ numbers to call.
“Everyone else is part of the wedding, and we risk exposing a missing bride, which is what you informed me not to do,” Britt tells Harley.
Harley nods absently, looking over a chart of some sort.
“So we see who doesn’t show up as early as they should and hope they have a hidden bride stashed somewhere. We’ll just stall the ceremony until we find her.”
“We can start with Brin. She’s still not here,” Britt notes. “And she’s not answering her phone.”
“Neither is Rye,” Ash says from the corner.
“In case she’s not with them, I’ll draw up a quick chart of her friends and family, ranking them in the columns of importance and familiarity with Raya,” Britt offers as she stands and walks out without giving me any sort of direction.
I awkwardly sit for a second. No one glances at me, so I stand and chase Britt out the door.
“Tell me how to be your MVP,” I say to her.
“I have no idea what we’re doing, so I’m just escaping the tumultuous tension inside that room. I didn’t even know why I felt the need to panic,” she says as she exhales heavily just once, and turns into a private, quiet room.
“Why do you think she ran?” I ask as I drop to a chair.
“She and Kade have been more withdrawn from the group this past year. But she doesn’t ever look at him differently. Someone should have gotten him to calm her down before it escalated. That was my repeated suggestion when she broke out into hives,” she says as she sits down and starts scribbling down a chart on a piece of paper.
“It’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding,” I remind her.
“Worse luck than the bride disappearing out a window?” she asks as she continues jotting down names in various columns.
I pause. “Touché.”
I slide my chair up so that I can see what she’s writing as I put my arm around her chair.
“The best outcome is that the wedding will be delayed. The worst is that there will be a lot to do if the wedding gets called off. Regardless, you should prepare to leave without me. I’ll fly out tomorrow morning and meet you,” she says distractedly.
I pull out my phone, and she flicks her gaze to me as I fire off a quick text to Randy.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting two flights to Houston for tomorrow morning. I owe them one, so I informed Randy that he gets to take his dog, since I won’t be in the van with them. Taylor won’t be laughing so hysterically when that damn dog tears his van up, and Sticks won’t be amused when his drumsticks turn into chew toys.”
I glance over to see her brow furrowed.
“I don’t understand what some of that means,” she says very seriously, shaking her head as she resumes her task.
“Not important,” I tell her as I finish up with the tickets and shoot Taylor a text.
Putting my phone aside, I look over at the paper that is mostly full now.
“What can I do to help?” I ask, noticing Kade pulling up just outside the window.
Why is he in Dane’s car?
He looks like he knows, because he runs his hands through his hair over and over before he kicks the air and starts walking.
I hope that doesn’t mean she’s not coming back.
Britt remains oblivious as Kade walks on.
“Just help me identify these people who are already here,” she says as she hands me the paper.
“Let’s go see if we can find a runaway bride,” I tell her as I try to figure out how the hell I’m supposed to help her find all these people. “No one will ever say we lead boring lives,” I add.
She turns just as I stand, and she pulls me down by the back of the neck. My lips bump hers, and I kiss her as I wind my arm around her waist and step into her.
“I love you,” she murmurs like it’s difficult and she’s in a hurry to s
ay it as casually as she can. I chase her lips as she pulls back. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. We won’t be flying anything close to private,” I dutifully point out. “It’ll still be better than the back of Taylor’s van, though.”
A small smile curves her lips, and considering the circumstances, I call it a win.
“I love you, too, by the way,” I add as I twirl a piece of her hair around my finger. “Now let’s go find the missing bride.”
As I start guiding her out, I smirk.
“I’ll add that to the list of things I never thought I’d say,” I tell her as we head down the hall.
“Oh! After the wedding is over, can we compare lists? I think that could be fun,” she says with genuine excitement. “I also have a list of places I don’t want to have sex. Do you have a list like that too?”
My lips tug in a lopsided grin as I snake my arm around her shoulders and kiss the top of her head. “I love it when you talk nerdy to me, Britt.”
THE END
About the Author
C.M. Owens is a USA Today Bestselling author of over 30 novels. She always loves a good laugh, and lives and breathes the emotions of the characters she becomes attached to. Though she came from a family of musicians, she has zero abilities with instruments, sounds like a strangled cat when she sings, and her dancing is downright embarrassing. Just ask anyone who knows her. Her creativity rests solely in the written word. Her family is grateful that she gave up her quest to become a famous singer.
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