Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 70607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
I pull open my office door and see Mallory, our head waitstaff server, with a silver tray and a crystal champagne glass. "What is this?"
"Happy day before your wedding, Shelby," she says, handing me the glass. "You look beautiful."
"Thank you," I reply, grabbing the glass and trying to take a sip, but my nerves get the best of me, and I finish it all. I look at Mallory, trying to find the words, when she pulls a shot glass out from behind her. "I don't think that's a good idea." The words come out of my mouth, but my hand is grabbing the glass, and I take the shot. I hiss as the liquid burns all the way down. "That was definitely a bad idea." We share a smile. "How many of these have we done together?” I ask, turning and walking out with her beside me.
"More than I can count," she says, smiling at me and leaning into me. "Are you ready?" she urges, holding the door of the venue in her hand.
"Not even a bit," I admit, and she just laughs.
"How hard was it to let go of the control and have them plan the whole thing?" she asks.
"Don't tell anyone," I say, making sure that my dress is perfect. "But I tried to break into their emails at least four times." I side-eye her as she just laughs out loud. "I wish I was kidding."
"Well, I hope it was worth it," she says and pulls open the door, and I step in. The photographer is there waiting to catch the moment that I see everything. I glare at him, and he laughs while I hear him clicking away.
"Happy day before your wedding," he says to me from behind the camera, and I flip him the bird.
"These pictures are going to be up on the website," he tells me, and it's my turn to laugh.
I look around, speechless at what my sisters did. It's perfect. Everything is perfect. When they asked me what I thought it should be, I said a forest wedding. I put my hands to my mouth as I take it all in. The trees are everywhere, and I can only imagine what is to come. It looks like we are in the middle of the forest.
I look around for my sisters, knowing they are somewhere, when I see them in the corner talking to each other as they both type nervously on their phones. I wait a couple of seconds to see if they look over at me, but I can see from their faces that something is wrong.
"What's wrong?" I ask, my voice loud. The two of them look over at me, and I know exactly what they are doing when they smile.
"Oh, look at how beautiful you look," Clarabella says, putting her phone behind her.
"Knock that shit out. You saw me before," I remind her, putting my hands on my hips when the door opens, and I see some guests come in. I walk over to my sisters, smiling and waving at a couple of people who come in. "What's going on?"
"Nothing," Presley says. "How do you like the decorations?"
"They suck," I say, knowing that it's going to bother them. I'm right when they both gasp. "Now, what is all the chatter about?"
"What do you mean?" Clarabella asks, looking around, trying to pretend, but I know she's lying.
"I swear to God," I say, my teeth clenched tight.
"Okay, fine," Presley relents, and I see Clarabella open her eyes wide. "Don't freak out, but"—she looks around with a smile on her face, making it seem like everything is okay—"Joseph is MIA."
Chapter 2
Shelby
My heart speeds up faster in my chest. The last thing anyone wants to hear right before they start their wedding festivities is the “don't freak out” speech. It doesn’t, in fact, ever work, and the other person automatically starts to freak the fuck out. "Joseph is MIA." I hear the words come out of her mouth, and they’re slowly beginning to seep into my brain.
"What?" I shake my head, not sure I understand what she is saying. My body feels like it's coming out of itself. I put my hand on my stomach, feeling the need because I feel like I'm going to barf all over the place.
"She's in shock," Clarabella says, and I'm about to tell her to fuck off when someone puts their hand on my back.
"Hey." I hear Ace's voice before I turn and look at him. "You look beautiful," he compliments, leaning down and kissing my cheek. He looks at my sisters and then looks at me. He's dressed in a tailored blue suit. His baby-blue button-down shirt has the two top buttons open. "Who died?" He chuckles nervously, and I don't know why all the words are suddenly stuck in my throat. It's all these fucking nerves.