Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 85608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
I wondered what Katherine had done that made Harmony owe her.
English had a full list by the end of our lunch. It was an overwhelming amount to do, and I now understood why at least a year was put between the engagement and the wedding. That wasn’t going to happen here. It wasn’t possible to happen at any point, considering my father.
“Oh, and one last thing,” Katherine said, tapping English’s list. “An engagement party.”
“There’s no time,” English argued.
“What would be the point anyway?” Lark asked. “They’re not actually engaged.”
“They have to tell the world sometime, and we should have her drinking the entire time, so we dash the rumors that she’s pregnant,” Katherine said. I blanched. “I’ll host it. We’ll do it this weekend. It’ll be on Page Six by Monday.”
“Great,” I muttered.
With all of that planned, the girls hopped up to go and get shit done. I was lucky to have friends who didn’t look at me like I was a lunatic, but actually agreed to move the world for me. I hugged Katherine and Lark before they disappeared into a black Mercedes, leaving me and English alone.
“Well,” English said, “are you going to tell me what’s going on with you two?”
“Gavin wants to … date. You know, while we do this.”
English arched an eyebrow. “Do you want that?”
I bit my lip, looking down as we got out onto the New York City sidewalk. “I don’t know. Maybe?”
She took my arm and pulled me aside. “Maybe or yes?”
“Yes,” I whispered. “I want to date him. I want to try.”
English beamed and then dragged me into a hug. “Good. Okay, good. I feel a lot better about all of this if you’re happy.”
“It might all crash and burn.”
English snorted. “It’s you. That’s always a possibility. But hey, maybe you’ll fall madly in love.”
It didn’t seem likely, but I sure liked the sound of that.
19
GAVIN
“You’re marrying Whitley?” Court asked with wide eyes.
“Surprise.”
Sam must have heard it from Lark already because he clapped me on the back. “Congratulations, man.”
“Thanks.”
“Look, English told me what’s going on,” Court added hastily. “But I hadn’t heard it from your mouth, so I couldn’t believe it.”
“What’s to believe?”
“That someone could settle you down,” Camden filled in.
“Ah, well, you know …”
Camden arched an eyebrow in my direction. “Because that’s what’s happening, isn’t it? Some of this is an excuse to be with her.”
“No way,” Court said with a laugh. He shook his head. “Come on, Camden. This is Gavin. Since when hasn’t he been against marriage?”
“Since he stopped fucking everything that walked,” he said bluntly.
I didn’t respond to that. Just met Camden’s cool look with a resolute one of my own. He wasn’t … wrong. I’d stopped fucking around last year after Court and English’s engagement party. I’d sat on the sidelines at their celebration as they promised to say I do and realized that I had nothing. Lark and Sam were already married. Camden and Katherine had two kids and somehow didn’t just tolerate each other, but also loved one another. Court and English had long been smitten, but were officially tying the knot.
All of that, and what did I had? Some blonde on my arm, whose name I didn’t even remember. She’d tried to get me to bring her back to my place, but I wasn’t into it after that. I’d dropped her off and gone home alone that night. And I wondered why I hadn’t been able to pick up casual dating the way I had before that night.
I was a King. The eternal bachelor. I could get any girl I wanted. And yet one look at the girl with lavender hair, and I’d been willing to risk it all.
Was it ridiculous to want what my friends all had? Was it even more ridiculous to hope that Whitley came around too?
“You’re really doing this,” Court said, interpreting my silence as confirmation.
“He really is,” Sam said.
“I am.”
There was no use in denying it. Not in the minutes before our official engagement announcement would take place. If I was going to back out, now would be the moment.
And then Whitley entered our midst with my friends’ wives trailing behind her. My heart stopped in my chest. She was in a long-sleeved white dress that hit her knees. The material plunged between her breasts before cinching in a ribbon belt around the middle. Her bright pink hair had been artfully put up in a low bun with tendrils framing her face. She looked like a goddess, and I wanted nothing more than to scoop her up and carry her away from all of this.
“Well, that’s what we were going for,” English said triumphantly.
“What?” I asked dumbly.
Whitley laughed as I drew her into my arms and pressed a kiss to her soft pink lips. “You’re … kind of drooling.”
I snorted. “I would never.”