Page 45 of D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding

For starters, I wasn’t expecting the decor to match the name of the venue. The lobby and waiting area were painted an eye-gouging gold-and-hot-pink combination with matching furniture that made me want to punch a plant and kick a pillow. It made me think of drinking Pepto-Bismol out of a golden chalice. It made me nauseous and gave me a headache. The only upside of that was Kris noticing my pinched expression and tucking me into her side, as she reminded me that my face was likely on camera and would be remembered exactly as it was.

Honestly, the fact that she stayed by my side, touching me in some way, was the only thing that made the visit tolerable. Every member of the staff seemed to be a teenager from a local high school. The tour guide was just a baby girl in her awards day dress who read off the information from the pamphlet but knew nothing beyond what had been printed. At one point, Mama asked her if the ministers they worked with were ordained, and the poor baby searched those three sheets of paper back and front before I told her not to worry about it.

“That wasn’t so bad,” Mama offered as everyone exited the building and headed toward the parking lot. D’Niesha snorted, earning a narrowed glare from Mama before she continued. “I just mean that it was an improvement over the last place.”

“It’s not hard to be better than a place called the Midnight Dungeon,” Josue quipped, his eyes on his phone as he typed furiously.

“Yo, what?!”

“Baby, no!”

“Bruh, were you even there?”

Laughter rang out, with just about everyone cracking up and Kris, Kiana, and Rhea shouting at him.

“I made that up, bro,” Ray laughed. “That’s not the real name of that place.”

Eyes wide, Josue looked around at everyone before swinging his eyes to Kiana, who was laughing harder than everyone else.

“That’s what you get for not paying attention,” she teased. “Coming along was your idea in the first place.”

Josue made a face before slipping his phone into his pocket. “Both of those places were wack, baby. I peeped that and checked out.” He shrugged as if it was no big deal, nonchalant as always. His laid-back manner seemed to be the perfect complement to Kiana’s high energy.

Kiana cringed and shot me and Kris an apologetic look before nodding at her boyfriend. “No, you’re right though. They were busted. Sorry, y’all.”

I shook my head. “No need to apologize for telling the truth. Both venues have been less than desirable.”

Kris’s warm hand settled on my waist as she stepped closer to me and I instantly had to fight the instinct to lean against her.

“If the last place is anything like the first, we might just have to make that Vegas thing happen.”

I gave her a sharp look because what the heck, but then she winked at me, the playful smile on her lips simultaneously informing me that she was playing the role she’d been assigned. This was one of those times when she was clearly giving good television, but I wasn’t even worried about that because that wink and smile made me want to fist her hair in my hands and pull her face to meet mine. The inclination was so strong that my fingers flexed and my lips puckered. Swallowing hard, I blinked and averted my eyes, sucking my lip into my mouth to stave off the intense yearning.

Sure, a kiss right then would have been fine—encouraged even—but I couldn’t make that move. It didn’t matter that everyone around us, with the exception of Rhea, thought that we were engaged. If Kris somehow read my mind and came to me, I’d be helpless to deny her, but just the thought of initiating any type of romantic affection in front of my mother stopped me cold. No one from Kris’s family would have batted an eye, but I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that Deidre Miller was suddenly 100% on board with this thing just because she seemed to be Team Kris. Decades of pretending not to see me didn’t disappear with the snap of my fingers, despite how easy Thanos made it seem, and that niggling fear of being found out gripped me tight enough that I had already taken a step away from Kris before I could even process that I was moving.

It was a small—tiny, even—movement but it felt gargantuan, and I couldn’t even look at her face because I knew that even if no one else noticed, Kris would. She would have realized that I’d put space between us, and she would hopefully understand why—but I couldn’t take the risk of glancing at her face to be certain, because there was the faintest of possibilities that it might’ve offended her and I didn’t have room for that guilt on top of all of the other baggage I was carrying around. Releasing a harrowed breath, I took a second, imperceptible step away from her.

Arms snaked around my waist and I was tugged back against Kris’s chest, startling me in the worstbest way.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she asked directly into my ear, her voice low and playful to mirror the outward appearance of her actions.

It was a wonder I was able to hear anything from the way my heart pounded in my chest and the blood rushed in my ears. Her arms surrounded me in a hold loose enough that I could just step away without friction, but tight enough that I understood the message.

“You know I’m not letting you get too far from me, preciosa. I’ll drag you right back and tongue you down in front of everybody. Keep playing with me.”

From the timbre of her voice, she’d intended it to be a threat, but all I heard was the promise of a good time.

“Don’t talk about it, be about it,” I murmured, my eyes on her fingers that were splayed across my stomach.

Kris’s response was to lift a hand and cup my chin, tilting my face to the side. Craning my neck, I made the awkward position not-so-awkward and stared at her expectantly. That selfsame grin that had gotten me into this position in the first place beamed down at me, making things heat and tingle beneath the surface of my skin. When her mouth met mine, I was surprisingly disappointed that she opted for keeping her lips closed. We were surrounded by our families, so I understood why she’d done it, but I was too-quickly becoming infatuated with the taste of her tongue and the way it felt sliding against my own. The desire that was ever-present since I’d first laid eyes on her began to make itself known, but before it could fully materialize and start to do wonky things to my body, Kris pulled back.

Before she could speak, I pursed my lips and pouted. “You said something about tonguing me down, but I see that was a lie.”

Chuckling, she shook her head. “Nah. I know how you can get and I’m not tryna give these people a free show.”

Bucking my eyes, I leaned away from her.

“How I get? What does that even mean?”