Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 130(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 130(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
Before I have the chance to say anything else, Cody shoves out of his chair, making it fall to the ground, and runs out the door. The rest of us are right behind him.
Hayden is sitting in the snow, telling everyone he’s fine and not to make a big deal out of it, as Derek paces back and forth in front of him.
Cody is kneeling beside him, running his hand over Hayden’s swollen ankle.
“Oh my God. I can’t believe you’re hurt. What are we going to do?” Derek looks up at me, wide-eyed.
“I’m fine, Bottom Boy.” Hayden attempts to stand with Cody and Frankie’s help, and it’s obvious he’s in pain. He bites back a wince, tries to take a step to prove he’s okay, but curses and almost falls, unable to put weight on it.
“We should get you to the ER and have it x-rayed,” Frankie says.
Fuck.
“I’ll go with you,” Derek says.
I glance at my watch. We have hours before the rehearsal, but who the hell knows how long a trip to the hospital will take. Still, it’s not as if we can’t take Hayden. “We’ll all go.”
We cut our skiing trip short and spend the next couple of hours at the emergency room. Derek is unusually quiet. Every time I try to speak to him, he brushes it off as if he’s fine.
It’s only a bad sprain, but Hayden still gets wrapped up and given crutches.
The mood on the way back to the lodge is somber. I’m pretty sure everyone knows Derek is freaking out, and we get back only about half an hour before the rehearsal is set to start. More guests have arrived. My mom is here, doing much better from her stroke. She has a caretaker with her.
“I got a text from Finn. He’s here. Sebastian too,” Cody says.
“Yeah, Donovan as well,” Frankie adds. They won’t all take part in the rehearsal and dinner, but we’re supposed to hang out with them afterward.
“Am I the only one wondering how we can expect Hayden to hobble down the aisle in crutches?” Derek throws his hands up in the air.
“Shut up. I’m fine. Nothing is keeping me out of this wedding,” Hayden replies. “It’s a sprained ankle and crutches. I won’t die, Derek.”
Gary puts an arm around Derek and adds, “It’ll all be okay. It’ll work out. Think of the stories you’ll have to tell!”
Derek frowns at him, so I pluck my fiancé from under Gary’s arm and tug him away. “We okay here?”
“I should have gone inside with you guys! If I’d gone in, Hayden never would have gotten hurt.”
“Did you turn off your psychic abilities or something?” I tease, and he rolls his eyes. “Hey.” I turn his face so he’s looking at me. “It’s fine. Gary is right. Like he said, we’ll have funny stories to tell. Everything is going to be fine, but this is your show. You want to postpone or something, we can.”
“What?” Derek screeches, and it’s very obvious I said the wrong thing. “You don’t want to get married?” There’s a panicked expression on his face. Oh, my poor boy. Can he really think I don’t want to get married?
“How did you get that out of what I said? Of course I want to get married. In fact, we have a rehearsal in twenty minutes, so if we don’t want to be late, we should get our asses ready.”
“Well, I already look fab,” Derek says. He’s putting on a show. I can see it.
“Yes, you do, but the rest of us need a little more work.”
“Sucks to be you.”
I can’t help but smile. “No…no, it doesn’t at all.” Not when being me means having him. “Come on. Let’s go get ready.”
Derek stops me with a hand on my arm. “I don’t know why I asked you that. I know you want to get married. My mind is playing tricks on me because I just… I want this and you so much.”
“And you have this and me, no matter what little mishaps happen along the way.”
He nods, pushes up on his toes, and presses a kiss to my lips before we head off.
The rehearsal is delayed by half an hour, but I tell everyone not to make a big deal of it. Our group all have cream pants and light-blue shirts for today. We’re an attractive group of guys, if I do say so myself, and again, I realize there is no one else I’d rather share this day with than all of them.
When we get down to the wedding hall in the lodge, everyone is already there. Steph is in planner mode. It might seem strange to others—having your ex-wife planning your wedding and officiating it—but it works for us.
“Oh my God!” Steph says. “I can’t believe you guys are late! Hayden is hobbling around on crutches, and he got down here before you did!” I shake my head, trying to warn her to chill out before she turns to Derek.