Total pages in book: 224
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Reid grabs his overnight bag. “I’m going. I don’t like it, but I’m going.”
He walks to me, drops his bag, and tangles his fingers in my hair, kissing me, a long, deep, passionate kiss. “We’ll have phone sex tonight. Technically that won’t break your rule.”
I laugh and Gabe says, “Hey, hey, hey. My ears. And if you do, shut the damn bedroom door.”
“We aren’t doing that,” I say. “No sex at all until tomorrow night.”
Reid presses his cheek to mine. “We’ll see about that, wife.”
My stomach flutters and he pulls back to look at me. “Just testing how that feels on my tongue. And I like it.” He winks and heads for the door.
A few beats later, I’m alone for my wedding eve, but only for the night. After tomorrow I will never be alone again. I’ll be that man’s wife. And he will be my husband.
Chapter one hundred seventeen
Carrie
Once Reid has left the apartment, Cat and Mia show up and bring gifts, dinner, and support. We chat for two hours, and then I’m alone. When I finish my pre-wedding mask and a hot bath, I snuggle into the empty bed that is only empty until Kesha and Nikki join me. My cellphone rings, and with a glance at the caller ID, I see it’s Reid calling, so I pick-up.
“Who wrote these traditions?” he demands. “Because the groom being miserable in a bed that isn’t his own sucks.”
I laugh. “Like you haven’t stayed in a million hotels over your career.”
“And wished for my own bed every time and that was before you were in it.”
“This is good luck. Play the game.”
“There are plenty of games we can play that don’t involve us in different beds.”
I laugh. “And we have the rest of our lives to play them. Go to bed, Reid. You need your beauty sleep.”
“What are you saying? I look like shit or something?”
“Stop,” I laugh again. “Go to bed, my future husband. I need my beauty sleep.”
“You’re beautiful already, baby,” he says. “Let me come home.”
“No. I love you. Goodnight. I’m hanging up.” And I do. I hang up.
My phone buzzes with a text: I love you, too, and I cannot wait to call you my wife.
I text back: I cannot wait to call you my husband.
I wake on the morning of my wedding to another call from Reid. “I miss you and home.”
“We miss you, too,” I say as Nikki pants in my face.
“I’ll see you soon. I love you,” His voice is a low, raspy tone.
“Yes,” I say softly, my heart squeezing with the love I have for the man. “I’ll see you soon and I love you, too.”
We disconnect and my nerves are all over the place. I try to control them with a run that Nikki comes along for. It doesn’t work. I’m a mess. Cat and Mia are back at my apartment not long after I arrive and we are off to the spa. My father picks me up there and we have coffee and it’s good. It’s really good.
“Where are you going for your honeymoon?” he asks.
“Honeymoon? I don’t know. I guess we aren’t. This happened so fast I never even thought about it. As it is, we ended up with forty guests, cake, flowers, and a dress all in ten days.”
“Well, if Reid is worth the salt he now seems to be, I suspect he has a plan.”
I relax into that statement. He’s right. Reid will have a plan and that my father of all people knows this makes this moment all the better.
I arrive at Rockefeller Center with Cat in a hired car. The venue has a private room set-up for us, and my seamstress and Mia, as well as a make-up artist, are all waiting for me. “Are you ready?!” Mia exclaims when she sees me like she hasn’t spent the better part of the past twenty-four hours with me and this is her first chance to see how I’m feeling.
“I’m so ridiculously nervous,” I say, rubbing my cold hands together, and letting someone, I have no idea who, take my coat. “Why am I so nervous?”
Cat laughs. “Wedding jitters are normal.” Mia hands me a glass of champagne. “Drink. This will calm your nerves.”
“Or make me fall into the room.”
“You have time.”
“Before I fall?” I tease.
“We won’t let you fall,” Cat promises, pointing at a chair next to the make-up artist, where I sit down and she hands me the champagne. “I’m about to get married to the biggest asshole and the best man I’ve ever known.”
Cat giggles. “That’s quite the way to describe him.”
“The love of my life,” I say, tipping my glass up.
There’s a knock on the door and Cat rushes in that direction. “Oh yes!” she exclaims to whoever she greets. “Thank you!” She turns to face me with a white box in hand. “Your bouquet.” She hurries forward and sets it in my lap. I open it to find the lily and white rose mixture I chose and it’s perfection. Just the way everything should be the day you marry the love of your life.