Page 84

What was I thinking?

“Vegas is a five-hour drive. If we leave now, we can be husband and wife by noon.”

Clearly, I wasn’t, was I?

“Muff, if you’re chickening out, I’ll totally take your place.” Adjusting his tie, Zane checks himself out in the mirror beside Casey.

Oh, yeah. Why are they here? You better believe I brought my crew with me. No way could I do this without them. We even brought Oliver because I couldn’t leave him with Jade again because she was having a “get together.” Don’t ask. I didn’t.

By the way, Oliver’s the ring barrier. Let’s pray he doesn’t eat it because if you see the way he’s eyeing the collar with the ring on it, he’s contemplating chewing it off. I know my puppy.

Anyway, there we all are in a tiny dressing room that feels like it’s closing in on me. I’m in a white dress that’s not mine. It’s Casey’s and surprisingly, fits me.

My armpits are sweating so bad and in my mad rush out the door this morning, I forgot to pack my deodorant.

“What’s taking so long?” Bryan asks, peeking his head inside the dressing room of the Little Vegas Chapel. “Tathan looks nervous.”

Yep. Our Elvis love affair resulted in a shotgun wedding Elvis Presley style.

Wait. Did I hear that right? Tathan’s nervous?

What if he doesn’t want to marry me? It’s all too soon, isn’t it? Who gets married after only a few months of dating? Those weddings never last, do they?The Bacheloris proof. Most of those couples break up before the damn show airs.

“Don’t do this!” Casey says in between my deep panicky breaths I gulp in, grabbing my face between her palms.

“You’re right. This is crazy. I don’t even know him.”

Her brow pulls together. She’s mad at me. “That’snotwhat I mean.” She squeezes my cheeks a little more, tightening her hold on me. “I’m talk aboutyou. Don’t go to that place in your head where you think you don’t deserve to be happy. You’re freaking out for no reason. Tathan love you.”

I shake against her hold. “Yeah, but these kind of things don’t work out. I don’t even know him that well. Just this morning I thought he was engaged to that chick with the long legs, now I’m going to marry him? It’s dumb, right?”

“You do know him and these things do work out,” she tells me confidently, like she knows for a fact it’s going to work out. “With Tathan, they do. He’s not Colton. He’s Tathan Elliott Madsen. He’s a good guy, and for some reason, he loves your crazy ass. You’re going to marry him whether you want to or not. I’m making you.”

She will too. Zane’s beside us, the train of my dress draped over his waist, admiring himself in white. “I’m telling you, Muff. You don’t marry him today, I’m going to put this dress on and give it a shot.”

I’m nearing tears. What the hell is wrong with me? And then I do cry when my mind drifts to who isn’t here to walk me down the aisle.

My dad.

He’s never going to be able to give me away.

“I don’t have my dad to walk me down the aisle!” I cry, bursting into fat, girly emotional tears. It’s the kind of tears that leave you bedridden with a bottle of whip cream in one hand and Nutella in the other.

“It says here Elvis can walk you down the aisle,” Zane points out, gesturing to the pamphlet they gave us. “That should work, right?”

“Or I can do it,” a deep voice chimes from the doorway, peeking his head around the corner. “It’d be an honor to give you away, sweetheart.”

Casey lets go of me, smiling, and turns me around to face the doorway.

Of all the people to show up here. . . it’s the man I could consider a father figure lately.

Paul Madsen. The man who repeatedly steps in at the right time.

He smiles tenderly. “Tathan called me and asked if. . .” His voice fads, probably because my tears turn to me hyperventilating. Paul rushes toward me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and pressing me to his chest. “Don’t cry.”

At some point, I don’t know why I’m crying, just that I can’t stop. But Paul does. He always knows.

Cradling my head to his chest, carefully like I’m a delicate flower, the opening notes of Elvis Presley’s “I Can’t Help Falling in Love” begins. It’s the song we chose for me to walk down the aisle. We. As in me and Tathan.