Page 69 of Running from Drac

Katie Lyn snickers. “Of course he wants a fast wedding. That’s just the kind of guy Eddie is.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

She sinks a bit in her tub. “Oh, I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m just saying he seems to be really in love with you.”

Is she the one he slept with when we broke up?

Devony chimes in. “I want a big wedding. At least seven hundred guests. My father has some very rich friends, ones that always leave extravagant gifts. Pays to be the mayor’s only daughter.” She winks at me.

“I want a big wedding too,” Pippa agrees. “Everyone needs to be there. I want paparazzi clamoring to see inside.”

“You’re not that important, bitch,” I tease, only regretting it when all three of them look my way with the same disgusted look. If we were alone, she would’ve laughed at the joke.

My mother chooses this moment to put her two cents in. “I had a smaller wedding,” she admits. “Only about twenty people. It was great.”

Kaite Lyn rolls her eyes. “Small weddings are great for poor people.”

My mother quickly shuts down, barely looking my way. It’s the first time I’ve ever wanted to defend her.

“Hey, I get that you two make being a bitch your entire personality, but speak to my mother like that again, and I’ll get them to throw you out.”

“You can’t do that. We were invited by Pippa.”

“Yeah, but you weren’t invited by me. This is my wedding, not hers.”

I could feel their glares from my bath, and even thought I heard one mumble that it should be Pippa’s wedding not mine. But there’s clay in my ears, so everything’s muffled.

Mallory decides to intervene, “I always pictured I would have a big extravagant wedding, too. Maybe not as big as the ones you guys are planning, but one where my dad walks me down the aisle and there’s a whole church is full of guests staring at me like I am a queen or something. My mom would be crying, using a Kleenex to blot her eyes, and my dad would have tears of his own as he hands me over to my future husband.”

Mentioning her dad brings tears to my eyes. This is such a colossal moment in my life, and not having him here leaves me with an emptiness that can’t be filled. Now that he’s gone, abig wedding doesn’t mean as much to me. It just isn’t the same without him.

“Who’s walking you down the aisle?” Pippa questions.

“Nobody.”

Pippa shoots me a look of disapproval. “You can’t walk down the aisle by yourself.”

“Sure, I can. It doesn’t feel right for anyone else to walk me down with my dad being gone.” A silence falls over the room, and I swear I see a tear fall down my mother’s cheek that she quickly wipes away.

“Where are you going on your honeymoon?” Poppy asks, changing the subject. Only Pippa knows about the secret honeymoon I have planned. Well, her and Eddie.

“Actually, I booked us tickets to Italy.”

Poppy grins. “You’ve always wanted to go there.”

“I know. I’ve been saving up since Eddie asked me to marry him. Then I just booked us a full week there. It’s going to be amazing! I plan on visiting Tuscany and seeing my favorite sculpture, theApennine Colossusin person.”

My mother shoots me another wounded look.

“That’s your dad’s favorite sculpture,” she says, emotion clogging her throat.

“I know,” I whisper. “That’s why I want to go.”

Another tear trickles down her face, disappearing again when she wipes it away.

“Eddie’s not gonna like that shit,” Pippa rejects. “He’s going to only want to eat Italian food and stay in to watch soccer or something. He’s going to be a fucking drag the whole time.

“Do you always have to talk shit about Eddie? You used to be friends.”