Sweet Surrender

Chapter 1

ALEXANDRIA SHERIDAN

“Ijust have one question: How did you get roped into this again? Are you sure that you want to go through with this, babe?”

“That’s two questions, and I have answered that first question a million times. You know how I got roped into this. No, I’m not sure that I want to go through with this. Hell, I know that I don’t want to go through with this, but what am I going to do? It’s my company.”

“Girl, you can have one of your associates do this for you. You don’t have to be there.”

“But I do. I have a signed contract saying that I need to be there.”

Kelli sighed and kicked her long, honey-colored legs up and down from her seat on my bed.

“I’m just saying . . .”

“What are you saying, Kell?”

“That you’ve already given more than anyone has the right to ask of you. After all, you planned the whole damn wedding.”

“Again, I couldn’t turn it down.”

“Yes, you could have.”

“Princess was so excited when she walked into my shop with her mother. I could see it in her eyes, and when she learned that I had the one weekend available that she needed, you would have thought that child had won the lottery.”

“Well, you are usually booked out for a year in advance.”

“I would have been that weekend, too, if another couple who booked it hadn’t called it quits.”

Kelli snickered. “Still can’t believe they broke up because his mother was moving in and expected foot massages.”

I rolled my eyes. “Still can’t believe his ass told his wife-to-be that was the least she could do for his mother. I don’t give a damn if she was a massage therapist for a living. Don’t nobody want to rub your mother’s crusty ass feet, sir.” I snickered along with Kelli.

“Still, you should have told Miss Thang the minute you knew who she was.”

“It was too far gone by then. We hit it off instantly, and she took the highest package that I had to offer after discussing my services.”

“And you found yourself in bed with the devil. Chiiiile.”

“What?”

“I’m just saying, all money ain’t good money, girl.”

“I couldn’t help myself. When her mother said that money wasn’t an option, and it was a no-brainer that they wanted me, I was all in.”

“Right. Because you’re the best wedding planner in Cherokee Springs, hell, in the state of Georgia.”

“Right,” I agreed, not because I was arrogant, but because I had won several awards thanks to my wedding planning business, Wedded Bliss.

I didn’t just specialize in planning weddings, but I had a focus on destination weddings. I created the entire experience for the wedded couple, including fun activities and events for their families and friends. I planned regular weddings as well, but those came few and far between.

“Once you drafted that damn contract and saw his name on it, you shouldn’t have signed. You should have said, ‘hell no, I won’t go,’ right then.”

“I know, and you’re right. Even when she learned that he and I were exes, she was still so sweet. I wanted to do it for her, not him. She deserves the wedding of her dreams. Just because she’s marrying the spawn of Satan doesn’t mean she deserves to be penalized.”

“Honey, the minute you learned his daddy’s name was Jacob, and Jacob had twelve sons, your ass should have run out the door.”

I giggled. “He does not have twelve sons, just eight.”

“Mm-hmm. Eight that he claims, and four other ratchet baby mamas claiming that he be the pappy of their bad ass kids too.”

I waved my hand at her. “I’ll be fine. I just need to make it through this final step.”

“What about your brother’s wedding?”

“What about it?”

“Are you going alone?”

I sighed because my best friend knew how I felt about that, but what choice did I have?

“Of course, I’m going alone. I don’t have anyone to go with.”

“You would have had someone to go with, if that punk that you’re celebrating today didn’t break your heart.”

My ex-boyfriend, Issachar St. Charles, had broken up with me two years ago because I was supposedly cold and emotionally distant.

I mean, I could shut down on you, could be impatient and moody, a little short-tempered, and at times impulsive and aggressive.

That was thanks to my Aries nature; it wasn’t because I was cold.

If anything, I ran hot, and I had a bucketful of emotions ready to pour out at any given time.

I had fixed him a nice dinner one night.

He had been away on a business trip for a week, and I was prepared to talk about taking things to the next level.

We had been together for eighteen months and living together for six months.

I thought it was the perfect time to discuss the next steps, getting married and starting a family.

The problem with that was when he came home, he didn’t have any bags with him. I was so confused as to where his luggage was that I didn’t pay attention to the fact that he hadn’t removed his coat or set his keys down.

I babbled on about that damn luggage for about five minutes before he finally shouted at me, “Enough!” I will never forget that word for as long as I live and how it made me feel.

I was shaken down to my pretty pearl-colored toes, and my La Perla underwear had stiffened up.

Something was wrong, and I couldn’t figure out what, because I just knew my man wasn’t speaking to me that way.

Issachar had never hollered at me before. He was an even-keeled type brother, a corporate lawyer who made a healthy living through mergers and acquisitions.

When I asked him what was wrong, his first response was “you.” That caused my heart to squeeze in my chest. I didn’t want to hear those words, and the proof was that my heartbeat had sped up. I thought I misheard his words. “Did you say shoe? What’s wrong with your shoes?”

He stared stupidly at me, and then he repeated himself.

He let me know that he was breaking up with me because he didn’t see us going anywhere.

He told me that he felt alone in our relationship and that I was cold and emotionally distant.

Because of how aloof I could be, he said there was no connection there at all and that he didn’t think I was capable of loving anyone.

Nothing could have been further from the truth, because I loved with my whole being, and when I loved, I loved hard.

I asked him if there was another woman, and he confessed there was.

He said that she made him feel whole and warmed his heart.

A lone tear fell from my eye when I asked, “How long?” He answered that he’d been seeing her for four months, and she made him feel more in that short time than I had in a year and a half.

I walked into the kitchen, grabbed a butcher knife, and quietly went after him.

Thankfully for him and me, he knew that my silence meant that I had gone deadly.

His ass knew enough when I disappeared into the kitchen to jump up and prepare to leave.

He was already heading out the door when I returned.

I giggled. “What?” Kelli asked, forcing my thoughts back to the present.

“Just thinking about when Issachar broke up with me.”

She chuckled. “Thank God that his ass had called me and told me that you needed me. The minute he told me the bullshit he’d done, I jumped in my car and beelined to you.”

“Thank God that you were living in the condos two blocks over at that time. It didn’t take long for you to get to me.”

“Nope, it didn’t. You were a sight to see with that one mascara tear tracking down your face, in your freaking La Perla underwear and robe, house slippers, and a butcher knife in your hand. Girl, don’t you ever let a man make you come loose like that again.”

“I know, babe. Thank God it was a little after ten in the morning. Everyone had left for work, and I had taken off because I knew he was coming home.”

Kelli came to stand behind me and rested her chin on my shoulder. Our gazes met in the mirror. “So, tell me, how are you going to get through this weekend? I know that your heart must be breaking.”

“With plenty of wine, lots of champagne, and the style and grace that only a Sheridan woman can execute, according to Mama. I will be flawless.”

“Speaking of Sheridan women, how do you think your mother will behave? We both know that she feels he was the one you let get away.”

I scoffed. “According to Leona Sheridan, if I had listened to her, I would have gotten counseling. That would have allowed me to be the wife of a good man, a prominent attorney, who will surely be considered for a judgeship one day.”

Kelli rolled her eyes and patted me on the shoulder. “Girl, come on. Let me get you to the airport so you can get this Halloween party over with.”

I narrowed my eyes and puckered my lips. Pointing at her, I declared, “Don’t you ever call shit that I do a Halloween party.”

“Oh, but you can call it shit?”

We laughed and headed out the door. My heart was in my stomach, but I’d be damned if I would let a bitch see that. I was laughing all the way to the bank with my check, and that was all that mattered.

I had planned all the details of their wedding week, but I insisted that I would only be around for the wedding, the reception, and a day afterward.

I had already sent my two assistants to the island earlier this week, and they had both assured me that everything was fine. My presence was not needed yet.

I would make it through this weekend’s festivities. When I returned home, I would drink my woes away after watching who I once thought was the love of my life, marry someone else.