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“Yeah,” Dumbo echoes.
“You do. You’ll be valets the day of.”
“Sweet,” Tucker says, leaning over to high-five Dumbo. “TheFast and the Furious, baby.”
Trusting them with vehicles might be a mistake, but it was easier to give what I consider the main jobs to the guys who know the reality of the situation. We’ve got our own group chat and everything.
“More like: protect the Douglas’s landscaping so I don’t get blamed,” Logan says, narrowing his eyes at them.
Parker strong-armed her dad into letting us have the wedding at his fancy house, and since Logan is still not his favorite person, it would probably come back on him if we mess things up. Parker’s mom, on the other hand, was on board in an instant. With all the charity functions she hosts, she already has a tent, chairs and tables, and outdoor heaters since it will be cold all week. She even offered to pay for one of the companies she often uses to help set things up, decorate the tent, and serve the food.
“I think she’s considering this a trial run for me,” Parker whispered, clearly not wanting Logan to hear and feel pressured. She doesn’t need to worry. He told me he’s already picked out a ring.
Fast? Yes.
But not as fast as me, so maybe this helped move Logan along.
“Then I think we’re all good,” I say, scanning the sheet one last time.
“Forgetting something?” Van asks, rolling up a towel and whipping it toward my bare chest. “Don’t worry; I’ve got a perfect playlist for the reception.”
Iamworried. But honestly, I didn’t trust Van with anything else but music. Do I think there will be a lot of inappropriate songs geared toward getting people freaky on the dance floor? Yes. Is that my biggest concern right now? No.
My biggest concern isn’t the wedding at all. It’s the reality that I don’t know how Bailey really feels about me, and I’m still on the Parker plan of wife-ing, then wooing her. Even as backwards as it seems.
“Also, why didn’t you tell me your hot sister’s in town?” Van asks. “Don’t tell me you’re going to be one of those overprotective brothers.”
I laugh. “No. Have at it. Annie will chew you up and spit you out. We’ll find your remains scattered over three states.”
The guys laugh at this, but I’m only half kidding. Annie has needed a protective brother exactly zero times in her life. I won’t tell them how, a time or two, she played the overprotective role forme. My nickname would probably change from Speed Bump to something worse.
“Cool,” Van says with a smile, and I make a mental note to tell Annie how much I’d like to keep my best friend in one piece.
“And I,” Alec says with a flourish, “am ready to be your officiant.”
I still can’t believe Alec is legally ordained in the state of North Carolina, but it did save me a couple hundred bucks and the headache of finding an officiant. I’ll worry about why and how he got ordained later.
“Nothing weird, right? You’re going to keep it short and simple?”
“What do I look like?” he asks.
“The kind of guy who’d enjoy having a little fun messing with Eli on his wedding day,” Felix says. “And I highly suggest you don’t.”
“So, Eli,” Alec says, and if he hoped I wouldn’t notice the subject change and his lack of an answer, he’s going to be disappointed. “After seeing how organized and focused you can be, I thought maybe I, as official team captain, would ask you to be team secretary. I can get you a little plaque, a pretty pink pen, and?—”
“Shut up.” I toss the clipboard in my bag.
“Whatever you say, Madame Secretary.” Alec salutes me, and I think I’ve just earned another nickname.
If we had more time before the Appies head out for our long time on the road, I’d do more. As it stands, I feel pretty good about everything I’ve done. Shannon probably wishes she’d never given me her number because I’ve blown up her phone on a daily basis to make sure I know everything Bailey would want, from the number of people (not many) to the kind of flowers (calla lilies) to the flavor of icing (chocolate buttercream). I wasn’t about to have this be like the proposal, when I surprised her with the exact opposite of what she would have wanted.
Now, I just need all the things to come together.
And what I really don’t need is to get called into a meeting with Larry right as I’m about to leave the Summit. Especially when I see Malik slumped in a chair looking apologetic and Grant leaning against the wall looking ticked.
“If it isn’t our groom!” Larry says as I walk into the office, his smile as false as his celebratory tone of voice. “When will I be getting my invitation?”
I hadn’t planned on giving him one, honestly. I sit down in one of the hard chairs across the desk after giving Malik a quick nod and avoiding Grant’s face altogether. “We’re having a very small ceremony.”
