I smile a true smile, not a forced one, and nod. “Yeah, he does…”
I didn’t realize at that moment how happy Kyler would make me.
“Guess that means it’s my turn now.” Haylee slaps my leg and stands.
She walks out of the room, I assume to her and Zach’s bedroom, and returns with a box. Haylee takes a seat where she was sitting before next to me. She pulls her feet underneath her and shifts to face me.
“You and I have been best friends since birth, but the difference between most best friends and us is that we grew up more like sisters. I couldn’t have been happier when I believed one day you would actually become my sister, but life was cruel and took that away from us.” She begins to choke on her words and takes a deep breath.
I try to give her strength by squeezing her hand.
She gives me a brief smile and continues. “I thought our chance to become officially sisters was lost, but fate had it otherwise. We finally got to share the same last name for these past six months. Today you change your last name, but nothing else will change between us. You have so many titles in my life: best friend, sister, godmother, therapist, dance partner, and partner in crime. I don’t know what I would do without you in my life. We just call those years without you the lost years.”
We both laugh. Hails hands me a box with a pretty blue bow. “Well, if you haven’t figured out already from getting a new, old, and borrowed item, I was in charge of blue.”
I tear through the bow and lift the lid. I hold up a blue lace garter with the name Lawson embroidered in cursive writing.
“Hails.” Her name comes out more of a whine than anything else. “I love it.”
She smiles big. “I can’t wait to see Kyler’s face when he takes it off you with his teeth.” She waggles her eyebrows.
And thank you, Haylee, for making this sweet moment awkward. She clearly spends too much time with my brother. I look arou
nd the room; Kate and Lauren are both cringing, and I can’t hold back my laugh.
A soft throat-clearing next to me brings my attention to Aria. “I have a little something for you too.” She stands and walks over to her bag by the door. “I had texted Haylee and asked her where you and Kyler went on your first date. She told me he took you to a festival at the park with food trucks, so I made you this.”
She spins a canvas around, revealing a hand-painted picture of a park with a food truck and a couple sitting at a picnic table. Aria is such a talented painter.
“I know you loved looking at all of the paintings in my studio in Hunter’s garage while you guys were visiting, so I thought you might like an Aria Matthews original.”
“Aria, it’s beautiful. I can’t wait to show it to Ky.”
Kate stands next to Aria, admiring the painting. “You made that?”
Aria nods before handing me the canvas.
“That’s really awesome. It looks like we may some things in common, and I might just be able to forgive you for falling on me.”
Kate is also a very talented artist. We actually have a few of her drawings hanging in our house.
I place the canvas on the coffee table along with my other presents. “Having you all here with me, there really are no words. You all mean the world to me.” I wipe my eyes again. “Shit, I didn’t think I would cry this much, and it’s only just the beginning of the day.”
There is so much love in this room; I’m not even sure what to do with it. New friends and old ones surround me. It doesn’t matter that we’re not all blood-related; these people here are all my family. Before I can say something more to spark the waterworks, there is a knock at the door.
My mom opens the door and in walks our hairstylist, Karen, and her assistant along with the makeup artist, Amelia. “Who’s ready to get wedding fabulous?”
Everyone cheers and stands. Haylee escorts them to the kitchen where we will be getting ready. I take in the scene, and my smile widens.
Oh, my God, it’s my wedding day. Let’s do this.
It took everything in me to not FaceTime Dani this morning when we were texting. The moms had dropped off coffee, and it was heaven. Zach and I hadn’t stayed up too late, just sat out back with a bottle of whiskey in an attempt to wait up for Hunter and Bennett’s arrival—stupid traffic—but as the hours got later and they still hadn’t shown up, I decided to turn in for the night. However, being one of the few nights Dani and I had spent apart in our relationship, I tossed and turned, missing her. Luckily, the pillow and sheets still smelled like her from our time in bed yesterday morning.
After finishing my coffee, catching up with my groomsmen, and a hot shower, it’s finally time to get my tux on. We have simple black tuxes, white shirts, and aqua ties.
There is a knock on my bedroom door just as I’m finishing buttoning the last button on my vest.
“Sure hope you’re not naked, man, because I’m not prepared for that shit today,” Zach yells dramatically as he pushes the bedroom door open with Hunter and Bennett on his heels.