Page 211 of Wait for Him

She gets three steps before stopping. "Actually, no. Get dressed and meet me in the lobby in twenty minutes. I want to take you somewhere. I'll call my driver."

I stare at her. "Should I be concerned?"

"Probably."

"Good enough for me. Yes, ma'am."

Then she's gathering the champagne bag and her shoes and herding me toward the pool gate in a soaking-wet dress while I'm still trying to process the last ten minutes.

Best failed wedding ever.

I love this fucking woman.

***

Twenty minutes later, I'm knocking on Bennet's door with exactly one intention. I got dressed in record time and texted Rose to meet me here instead of the lobby, because before she takes me wherever the hell we're going, there's one thing I want to do right.

The door opens, and the entire group is here.

"Shit. Hey." I look past Bennet into the apartment, where everybody is staring back at me. "Why is everybody here?"

"Heyyy," they say in unison, using that soft, funeral-adjacent tone people reserve for the recently jilted.

Bennet puts a hand on my shoulder like I might tip over. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm good." I can't help chuckling because the concern on their faces is so far removed from my current mood that it's ridiculous. "I'm fucking great, actually."

That only makes them look more worried.

Joe presses a glass of whiskey into my hand. "Come sit, man. Take a load off."

"For fuck's sake, is this about the wedding? Is that why you're all acting weird as hell right now?"

"Noooo. Of course not."

They exchange glances with the subtlety of a middle school play, and before any of them can come up with whatever lie they've collectively rehearsed, Blaire blows the whole thing up.

"Bennet called everyone here to make a plan," she announces. "Said plan was to go down to your apartment, kidnap you and take you out to get your mind off things. We were literally walking out the door when you knocked."

"Can you keep one secret from this man?" Bennet throws a hand toward me in despair.

"I want your blessing to be with Rose."

It comes out before I can find a smoother way to say it, and every person in the room shuts the fuck up.

Well. We're here now.

"I want to be with her. Formally. With your blessing. Forever. Marriage, the whole..." I take a large swallow of whiskey while the sentence falls apart in my mouth. Fuck it. I've spent enough of my life trying to find the perfect time and the perfect words for this woman. "I want to marry your sister."

I get one full second of silence before the room erupts.

"Fucking finally, holy shit!"

"Thought we were going to need another intervention."

"NOW we can celebrate!"

Jenn is already crying because Jenn has never met an emotion she couldn't hydrate through. Blaire is cheering, Joe nearly knocks the whiskey out of my hand slapping me on the back, and I'm standing in the middle of all of them grinning like an idiot.