Page 11

11

DYLAN

It was the Big Day.

And I’d woken up next to the bride’s brother this morning.

I’d rushed out of his cabin before anyone could catch us, avoiding the main routes as much as possible. It’d been a feat to make it back to my own cabin and pretend like I’d just woken up when Amber knocked on my door, but I’d somehow managed it.

A few coffees later and I was standing in the middle of controlled chaos.

The control provided by me and the chaos provided by everyone and everything else.

“The sand! Dylan!” Amber was nearly in tears as she ran up to me. She was dressed in her bare bones wedding attire, just a corset and some expensive looking stockings underneath. “It’s off-white! I have no idea where the hell it came from! It’s all wrong!”

She grabbed me by the hand before I could respond, dragging me over to the aisle we’d designed. “Do you see what I’m talking about?!”

“Oh, I see it. And someone’s head is going to roll for it,” I seethed before turning back to nice. “But I don’t have time to chop off anyone’s head today. Today, is all about making your special day perfect.”

I snapped my fingers and a few of Amber’s assistants appeared at my side. “Get this sand off the aisle. There should be bags full of different sand in the corner of the planning barn. It came in this morning.”

“You already ordered backup sand?”

“Of course, I ordered backup sand.” I winked. “What do I look like? Some kind of amateur?”

“I love you! I love you!” Amber threw her arms around me. “Do you think you can check on the doves, too? One of the girls just texted me that some of the animals aren’t cooperating.”

“Wait, just the doves? Because you just said some of the animals?—”

“I love you! Bye!” Amber ran off before I could say another word. I walked off to where we were keeping the doves for the ceremony, a close by barn. I took a deep breath before I opened the door, expecting things to be in total disarray…

And my expectations were met immediately.

There were a few doves outside of their arranged spaces, seemingly doing whatever the hell they felt like doing. I spotted one of the wranglers waving their hands, making bird calls, doing whatever they could, but none of it working. I then proceeded to watch one of the doves perfectly perch on the wrangler’s head, defying him in real time.

I looked across the barn and saw one of the bridesmaids shaking her head profusely as she stared up at a horse. The horse seemed like it had the same attitude towards her, moving away from her before planting its feet.

“No! I’m not having any of this! Not today!” The words came out of me without thinking, my feet leaping into action. I ran towards the wrangler, gently cupping the dove in my hands before carefully placing the bird in a nearby cage. I repeated the action a few more times, the wrangler and I working in sync. He tried to thank me when we were done, but I was already moving over to the horse problem.

“Ursula?” I called the horse’s name, recognizing her the closer I got. “Are you really going to do this to me today?”

As if she understood, Ursula cut a look over at the bridesmaid. I took the woman in, eyeing her up and down, quickly noticing that she was wearing stilettos with diamond spikes sticking out of the sides. They were the kind of thing that admittedly looked amazing but were probably concerning to Ursula.

“You! Take those off. Put them in your hand. You can hold them as you dismount and before you walk down the aisle. And no, this is not a negotiation.”

The bridesmaid hastily obeyed, and Ursula took a few tentative steps back towards her.

“I love you. Never change,” I said to Ursula before I turned to leave the barn. Once I was outside, I accidentally bumped into an older woman, nearly knocking her to the ground. I reached out for her just in time, narrowly avoiding a potential faux pas.

“I’m so sorry! I’m sort of all over the place today?—”

“And you look fabulous darling, if you don’t mind me saying.” The woman smoothed out the front of her designer jacket. “You must be Dylan Reid, wedding planner extraordinaire.”

“The one and only.” I smiled. “And you are?”

“Amber’s future mother-in-law.” She smiled back. “Candace Thornton.”

“Lovely to meet you, Candace. I have to get back to managing things but I’m happy to chat later?—”

“Oh, I think we should chat now.” She brought a hand up to the side of her face. “There are just a few things I think we could tweak. I know it might be a little late, but I think it’d be worth it. For starters, this proposed entrance on horseback with the bridesmaids… it’s sort of tacky, don’t you think?”

“No offense to you, Mrs. Thornton, but this is Amber’s wedding?—”

“And we both want the best for her, don’t we?” She sighed. “And about all those roses… do you think we could arrange them differently? We could always make time for that?—”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Oh, thank God.

Whatever that is, it sounds like the perfect excuse to get out of this conversation.

“Sorry. I have to—” I pointed towards the direction of the sound. I didn’t care what that sound had been, I just needed to get away from Mrs. Thornton ASAP. I’d managed to never scream at a meddling mother-in-law during my entire career and I didn’t feel like starting now. I practically ran away from her, not stopping until I’d reached the source of the unexpected booms.

Fireworks?

I’d agree to let Amber have an extremely modified version of the fireworks show she’d wanted. Instead of 15 minutes it was going to be no more than five. Still, no fireworks were scheduled to go off until at least after the ceremony was completed, around the time of their first kiss as husband and wife.

“Why am I hearing fireworks?” I asked no one in particular, a crew of technicians standing in front of me.

“Sorry, boss. Looks like someone got the time wrong. We have enough supplies so it’s not a huge deal?—”

“It better not be. I swear to God, if I have to see any of you again tonight—” I held up my hands as I took a few steps away from the situation. “Please. Just do your jobs? Please. I’m begging you.”

Just a few more hours before the ceremony.

Just a few more hours to go without killing anybody.

I forced down a few breaths before I offered the crew an excited thumbs up. “We’ve got this, everybody! Let’s go!”

I briefly wondered if they could tell I was lying through my teeth.

One perfect day. One perfect day.

I was crouching towards the ground, keeping to the back of the ceremony, out of the way of the cameras and everyone else. Breathing had become more impossible as the day had gone on, disasters needing to be dealt with and fires put out. I was anxiously awaiting another disaster around the corner as I watched the groomsmen perform an unauthorized, synchronized dance down the aisle.

Thankfully, it went off without a hitch.

As the wedding erupted with cheer and applause, I spared a look around, keeping an eye out for any loose doves or surprise nonsense. I spotted Cole from across the room, his gaze locked on mine.

Is he watching me? How long has he been staring at me like that?

The look on his face was completely unreadable, his mouth in a straight line. I didn’t have time to overanalyze Cole’s expressions, though, not when the wedding was still unfolding in front of me. I brought my attention back to the aisle, now spotting Amber walking down it, looking as beautiful as ever. She flashed a bright smile my way, tears spilling down her cheeks, mouthing a small thank you.

And my heart felt so full that it wanted to burst.

Even though there was a good chance I was going to pass out from the stress, nothing made it clearer that all of this was worth it . There was a golden glow spilling over the wedding now, the sun setting in the background of it all. It served as a gorgeous backdrop for Amber to exchange her vows with Doug, both of them looking like they were made for each other, goofy grins all around.

The reception would be starting soon.

I steeled myself for it as I rose to my feet. Once again, I looked around the room, catching Cole’s eyes still on me. It felt like he had something on his mind, but it wasn’t up to me to decode it all the way from over here. If he were trying to figure out how to let me down easy, he could save it.

I’d be leaving by tomorrow, anyway.

We didn’t need to have some grand goodbye. In fact, we never had to speak to each other again.

I pretended like the thought didn’t break me, my attention shifting towards the reception area, my feet already ahead of me.