27. Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Emily
“Thanks for coming.” I opened the door for my friend, grateful to have a girl’s night while Bash and Mac helped Strelow move some stuff out of storage.
“Of course, Em.” She shuffled into the house, carrying delicious smelling bags of food. I took them from her and lined them up on the counter.
Roxie put her arms out, and I fell into them, letting her bakery-scented hug center me.
We opened the containers, revealing two types of soup—roasted garlic tomato and creamy potato—French bread, roasted broccoli, and grilled chicken.
“You spoil me,” I said as I tore a piece of bread for each of us and plated our meals with her.
“You need some spoiling. Tell me everything—”
“This all seems so dramatic and in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not a big deal—”
“Hush,” she said, putting her hand up. “This is your wedding. We dream about this day pretty much our whole lives and yours has gone to shit—”
“I know I should be grateful—”
“Don’t do that to yourself. Of course, it helps that your two men are by your side, but all three of you deserve a smooth experience, and this has been anything but that. Be sulky.”
“Literally nothing has gone right.”
“Exactly.”
I passed her a fork, and we ate in silence for a few minutes, my mind racing with just how true it all was. The proposal had been perfect, and the daydreaming had been so fun. But as soon as we started making concrete plans, everything toppled.
“It got away from us,” I mused. “It started out so good. So damn good. And then it got away from us.”
“When it was still good, what was good about it?”
“We stayed up all night after the proposal and we came up with all these ideas. Like how we would party with our friends.” And family. “And how we’d basically shut the place down with our reception because everyone would be so happy to just be together and celebrate.”
“How’s this? We cancel the wedding. You all go on your honeymoon and have the trip you deserve—”
“Cancel?” My mouth went dry.
The last thing left was that we had a date set in what I thought was stone. We didn’t have a venue, sure. But we could find one, couldn’t we? We didn’t need to fully throw in the towel.
“Not cancel forever, just cancel for now. Regroup and come back stronger when you’re ready.”
“I’m ready now, though,” I whispered.
“Oh, honey.” Roxie’s face fell. “It doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”
“It feels like giving up.”
“Is powering through the right answer, though?” She frowned and got to her feet. “Let’s have some cake. We don’t have to worry about it right now.”
I watched her, wondering how I’d gotten so lucky to have such an amazing friend. I literally had done nothing to deserve her. She was always there for me and what had I done? My stomach sank as I watched her slicing into a vanilla cake with strawberry cream filling.
“I’m being such a horrid friend. You’re over here feeding me and listening to my sob story, and I haven’t even asked you how your life is going—”
Roxie leveled me with a scowl. “Yes, you have. You ask me every day how I’m doing and every day it’s the same. All I ever do is take care of things at the café. I don’t have a life, Emily.”
I laughed and took a slice of cake from her. “Then let’s get you a life.”
She shook her head and bit into the cake, closing her eyes. “Food is my life. I have it on good authority that planning a wedding is definitely not worth it.”
“No one said anything about a wedding.” I clutched my chest dramatically. “I’m talking about a good old-fashioned hook up.”
Roxie snorted, coughing on a piece of cake. I waited for her breathing to return to normal and shrugged.
“There’s nothing wrong with finding love, Roxie.”
She swallowed a big gulp of water, catching her breath. “I’m not ready.”
“I won’t push—for now.” I licked the frosting off my fork and mulled over what she said.
Was she right? Was canceling the wedding the right thing to do?
I was asleep before Bash and Mac got home, despite my racing thoughts about how to broach the subject of canceling our wedding. The more I thought about what Roxie had said, the more I knew she was right. We didn’t have a venue or a caterer or a cake or—my stomach dropped—family.
The next morning, the soft breathing on either side of me calmed my nerves, and I snuggled up to Mac, my ass tucking against Bash.
I reached for my phone, barely making it across Mac’s shoulders. Bash stirred from my movement and draped his arm over me, scooting himself closer.
I didn’t know what time they got home, and they needed sleep, so I ignored—as best as I could—Bash’s erection pressing against my ass, and opened my phone.
I groaned when I saw the first headline waiting for me. I really needed to turn off Evergreens’ notifications during the off-season.
Mac’s eyes snapped open, and he sat up, stretching and running his hands through his messy curls.
“Good morning,” he rasped, kissing my cheek.
I kissed him back and hesitated, wondering if it was worth ruining these cozy morning vibes with the maliciousness I had just read.
“Morning,” Bash murmured, kissing me before stretching across to kiss Mac.
It was a good morning. A calm morning. But could I keep the headlines away from them? And had protecting them gotten me anywhere last time?
Nope.
“There are more articles.” I held up my phone before I could chicken out.
Bash scanned the headline on my screen and kissed the top of my head. “You came to us first—”
“What a good girl,” Mac purred, running his fingers along my back until I shivered.
“You’re not mad?”
I turned my phone, the headline glaring for Mac to read it.
Hockey Star Marries Two: Is This the End of His Career?
“That you came to us? I quite prefer it,” Mac said, smirking and dragging his hand across my chest, sneaking a feel inside my shirt.
I moaned and leaned into both of them. “Turns out it’s exhausting carrying everyone’s opinions by myself.”
“It’s all speculation about our wedding.” Bash frowned and scrolled until he reached the bottom. “Nothing of substance. All rumors.”
“Are you okay?” I asked Mac, knowing the assumptions could hurt him the worst.
He nodded. “A few weeks ago, it would have eaten at me, but the team knows we’re in it for the right reasons and they’re like family now.”
“They really are,” I said, thinking about how I didn’t feel out of place or like a burden at all during the retreat.
When all the guys huddled around and asked us about how things were going, it was obvious they actually cared. They were more invested in everything we had to say than our own families had been. Instead of adding to our stress, they were in problem-solving mode.
“I say we have the biggest, baddest wedding in town.” Mac kissed my neck and then Bash’s. “We show them that their words don’t matter.”
My stomach twisted, and I froze, Roxie’s suggestion coming back to me. No longer an abstract statement while the guys were gone, but something I would need to face head on.
“What is it, Pink?”
I sucked in a huge breath and twisted my hands together. “What about canceling the wedding?”