Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 33887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
But Hale smirked.
“I need to tap this gossip vein of Chloe’s,” she noted. “I’m seriously falling down on my job.”
“Well, she knows it all,” Alex replied. “She makes it her mission.”
No change there.
“You two are next,” Elsa remarked. “How is wedding planning going?”
Alex made a face. Rix suddenly looked pissed. And Blake sighed.
Elsa didn’t miss any of it.
“What?” she pushed.
“Mother is a pill,” Blake said as answer.
“Everything is set,” Rix stated firmly, then he turned his attention to his woman. “So we can order the fucking invitations.”
Alex bit her lip.
“You need to order the invitations, Alex,” Blake pressed.
Alex said nothing.
“Spill,” Elsa ordered.
“We’re having the ceremony in Prescott,” Rix decreed. Alex opened her mouth, but Rix bit out, “Prescott.”
Oh shit.
Blake leaned toward Elsa and Hale and stage-whispered, “Mother is demanding it happen at the family estate in England.”
“Really? Why?” Elsa queried.
“Because she’s committed to the art of being difficult,” Blake answered. “We spent time there when we were younger, but it isn’t home. New York is where we grew up. And for Alex, Prescott is home now.”
“What Blake isn’t saying is that Ned is over her shit,” Rix shared tightly. “She doesn’t get under his skin anymore. And since Blake’s right, she made an art of doing that for the last three decades, she’s jonesing for a way to get her fix, and she’s using my woman to aid that cause.”
“They’re having a small ceremony in Prescott, and it’s going to be very pretty, if I do say so myself, since I’m planning it considering Alex isn’t a wedding-planning type of person,” Blake announced. “Then they’re going on a three-week honeymoon, which I am not planning, Rix is. But when they get back, they’re having a party here in New York for our people, mostly Dad’s cronies.”
“And that’s what’s going to happen,” Rix said to Alex. “Because that’s what we want, but also because my folks could make it, but most of my buds can’t afford to fly across a continent and an ocean for the sole purpose of watching us get hitched.”
“Maybe just a party there too,” Alex suggested.
Rix blew out such a huge breath, Hale felt it fan the room.
More leaning and stage-whispering from Blake. “She’s the family peacemaker.”
“Mum just wants to be a part of it,” Alex said stubbornly.
“No, my pushover of a sister,” Blake denied. “She’s perfectly capable of boarding a plane to Phoenix, then renting a car to drive herself to Prescott. What she wants is to be a pain in Dad’s ass. And barring Dad, Rix’s.”
“She barely remembers Rix’s name,” Alex mumbled.
“Hello?” Blake called. “She does, she just pretends she doesn’t so she can be a pain in your ass.”
“Are we talking about Helena?” Chloe asked as she wedged her ass on the arm of Rix’s chair.
“Is the temperature in this corner twenty degrees lower because her specter is hanging here?” Blake asked in return.
“No, it’s twenty degrees hotter because Rix looks like he wants to strangle someone, and the only one I know he wants to strangle is Helena,” Chloe replied.
“Fuck it,” Rix said. “I’m ordering the invitations when we get home.”
“No worries, my friend,” Blake put in. “They’re already designed and ready to roll. If I have the go ahead, I’ll do it.”
“You have the go ahead,” Rix stated.
“Wait—” Alex tried.
“No more waiting,” Rix gritted.
“But—” she tried again.
“If I corralled that pastor and made her marry us sitting right here, would you give a shit?” Rix asked.
“No,” Alex answered.
“Do you care how we do it?” Rix pushed.
“Well, Chloe and Blake found me the perfect dress,” she returned. “So, kinda, yes.”
“Does that dress say English garden wedding in June?” Rix kept at her.
“Not even close,” Chloe shared.
Rix took his woman’s hand and tugged on it so she was leaning over the arm of her chair and deep in his space.
“Baby, I get you,” he said gently. “You got your sister back. Your dad. You’re going for the trifecta. And I hate this for you, but there’s no getting around it. It’s not gonna happen.”
When Rix said that, Blake turned her head to mask her emotion, but Hale didn’t miss it.
And yeah.
That meant Blake got her sister back, and her dad, and it meant everything to her.
But Blake was Blake. She didn’t want to let it show.
“She got what she wanted,” Rix went on. “Your attention and your frustration. Enough. Let’s get married, for fuck’s sake.”
Not the most romantic statement, but it worked on Alex, Hale knew, because her face got soft, and she whispered, “Okay, honey.”
Rix kissed her.
She sat back and looked to her sister. “We’ll order the invitations and announcements.”
“Finally,” Blake said dramatically.
“My sister is pregnant?”
Hale froze solid, he felt Elsa do the same at his side, and the attention of everyone in their cluster went across the room, then shot right back to Hale and Elsa after Emilie’s words sounded in a shout from the dining room.