“Bachelor and Bachelorette,” he confirmed.
Mary had thrown everything together, and she did it with so much finesse that it all looked planned. I spent almost every day of the last week with her in some capacity, dealing with the reservations, arrangements, and venues.
Somehow whenever a Fitzgerald came calling they dropped whatever or whoever they were dealing with and did exactly what Mary wanted.
The extra added weight of O’Brien behind it only seemed to hasten the process.
I looked down at my dress, the dusty rose cocktail outfit foreshadowing the colors of the wedding. I’d opted for simple and classic, and it worked in my favor.
“It’s going to be okay. You don’t need to have cold feet.” He kissed my temple and pulled me into him. His grip was as possessive as ever, but it only felt reassuring to me.
“You’re right, because there is no chance I could run away,” I joked.
Greyson didn’t seem to think it was funny. He grabbed me and pulled me in, kissing me hard.
“Do you want to run away?” he asked.
“No,” it was the honest truth. Even if I could, even if it was a possibility it wasn’t one that I wanted. I was tied to him, and he was a part of me.
The whole prospect, though, made me feel horribly light headed. I’d been dealing with stress nausea all week. Everything was so up in the air that my body had started to rebel.
I grabbed my handkerchief and dabbed at the cold sweat beading up along my hairline.
“Are you okay?” He asked as he looked me over. I’d been getting a lot of those worried looks lately.
“What? Yeah, I’m fine. Just nervous.”
“Well, don’t be. I’m here. I’ll protect you from the big bads.” He smiled but somehow I knew he wasn’t kidding.
“Even your father?” I asked as I nudged him.
“Especially him.”
Shit. Another truth.
He opened the door, and we entered the room buzzing with conversation. Everyone noticed us, though, and they all started clapping.
The hall was filled full of people. Family, friends. Yeah it wasn’t the entire guest list of the wedding, but it was a lot of people. All here to celebrate our engagement.
“Well there she is,” Willa grabbed me in an embrace. As soon as I’d called Mary she’d put the word out to Willa. They were to be my joint maids of honor, and they’d come through brilliantly. Willa pulled every string she could to help, but it wasn’t necessary. Still, I was glad she’d tried.
“Hi there, it looks like you’ve been enjoying the champagne,” I giggled as I took the glass from her and drank right from it. I was going to need a good bit of alcohol to get through the night myself.
“Well, when your fiancé got the top notch stuff, I thought, why not?” she winked at Greyson. “Mind if I take her around the room? She needs to make the rounds.”
“Not a problem. I’ll find my father and Janson.”
Willa took it all in stride. She was one of the only people who knew the circumstances of the wedding and she hadn’t let the secret slip. Hell, she didn’t even treat him with the disdain I thought she would.
“You know, he’s one handsome devil,” she whispered to me, not quiet enough. He heard it and then grinned, winking at her and turning out towards the crowd.
I watched as her already rosy face turned an even deeper shade of red.
“You realize we have all night to get drunk, don’t you?”
It was early.
“It’s not my fault the parties had to all be jam-packed into a single day. You didn’t even do a rehearsal!”
“We couldn’t get use of the venue for that,” I explained. We were lucky to get St. Vincent DePaul to lend us the venue at all. Turns out Father Patrick was a cousin of Alexander’s.
“I see your point,” I said.
“We ready to do this?” Mary asked as she came up and threaded her arm through Willa’s. The three of us became close instantly and those two hit it off extremely well.
I could tell by the way they rolled their eyes in time that they would be friends even after the wedding.
“Yes. The sooner we do this the sooner we can get to the real party.”
“Real party?” I asked. It was mostly in jest because I knew they were planning something a little bit more lively than this.
“You bet your ass. We have penis shaped cake, Joanna. You aren’t getting out of that,” Willa said.
She pushed me around the room introducing me to just about everyone. Mary was there with us the whole way, letting me know who each individual was and how important they were to the family.
It didn’t keep her from rolling her eyes though. I liked Mary.