Page 125 of Wherever You Are

Pizzas are spread out in a fancy, private backroom of Lola Vine, where my family and friends had been hiding and waiting for Garrison to pop the big question.

What I quickly discover: the proposal wasmonthsin the making. Which means he knew he wanted to marry me months ago.

He asked me to marry him.It’s still sinking in.

My face hurts from smiling.

Everyone managed to keep the secret to surprise me, and I still feel light-on-my-toes, floating and butterflies flapping—like I’m seventeen again with Garrison Abbey, about to embark on my first day at Dalton Academy.

And he’s next to his car, waiting for me.

The night is winding down, pizzas devoured and a towering meringue pie picked on. I already asked Daisy to be my maid of honor. I blurted it out, and tears streamed down her cheeks as she hugged me. Instantly accepting the role.

Rose and Lily were each other’s maids of honor, and Daisy never had a sister place her at the top. But she’s number one on my list.

After I say goodbye to Sheetal and Tess, I take a bathroom break with the Calloway sisters, and Garrison and Connor slip into the men’s room.

All should be perfectly well and good, but when we return to the backroom to grab coats, the air isn’t easygoing or happy like we left it.

Lo and Ryke face our dad, all three on their feet and wielding heated glares and tense postures.

And as their eyes swerve to me, descending upon me with hot intimidation, I know what this has to be about. It’s the only thing I can think of that’d elicit this intense reaction.

The lie.

My bad deed.

Years ago, I accepted Jonathan Hale’s money to bribe students into deleting video footage of Garrion’s fight with Salvatore, and I never told my brothers.

Every butterfly dies in my lungs, wings cut.

Garrison slips an arm around my waist. He’s right next to me, but I have a feeling he won’t be for long.

Rose is the first to speak. “What’s going on?” Her voice is accusatory, like they’re harbors of grave news on my celebratory day, and therefore, should be punished.

But it’s my fault, for not telling them the truth in the first place.

“We need to talk to our sister,” Lo says, his amber eyes still on mine. He seems really upset, and remorse eats at my insides.

Ryke adds, “In private.”

I’m frozen, but I try to breathe.

My dad has a hand on his side, standing like he’s made of importance and prestige. “If you’re not a Hale by blood, you should go wait in the cars. We’ll be out in a few minutes.”

“I’m not leaving,” Garrison retorts. “If this is about Willow—”

“She can talk to you later,” Lo interjects. “We won’t be that long.”

Garrison’s eyes fall down to me while Rose and Connor speak rapidly in fiery and smooth French to one another, filling the silence. Daisy and Lily are holding hands, and they exit the backroom first, but not before Daisy mouths to me,you got this.

She has no idea what I’m about to face or the truth I withheld, but she’s still encouraging me. Still has faith in me. I breathe in, and I look up at Garrison. “I’ll be okay.”

He studies my expression and my trembling hands that I cup together. His palm glides down my wrist, to my hand, in tender comfort that floods me.

“I can stay,” he whispers, and then pauses, our eyes latching like he, too, knows what this is probably about. “I should stay.”

My brothers don’t want him to. I whisper back, “I think I should do this on my own.” I’m anxious by nature, but I’m not as nervous in the company of these three men as I used to be. At the beginning, just being face-to-face with my dad, I could barely hold a drink without water shaking and spilling out.