Part 10 (1/2)

”I don't even know why I'm crying,” I sputter, pulling away from her hug. I shake my head and try unsuccessfully to wipe away my tears with the back of my hand. ”I'm just...”

”I get it.” Julie smiles, tilting her head. ”Pregnancy sucks. But you look at it this way...you'll be a young mother, which is awesome. I know because I am one.” She puts her hand on her hip and winks. ”When all your friends are wiping snotty noses and changing diapers, you'll have a kid who can take care of themselves. It's amazing.” Her eyes light up a few moments later. ”Unless of course, ya'll decide to have more kids which would make me, Grandma, very excited.”

”I can't even imagine that right now,” I say with a laugh. ”One epic life changing thought at a time, please.”

Julie laughs. ”I have no advice for you on that one. Jace was our only child so I have no experience in raising more kids. But he was so easy. Such an easy baby. Hopefully yours will be, too.”

I nod even though I'm not really sure what part of raising a baby could ever be easy. I'm not even sure I still know how to change a diaper. It's been a long time since my little brother wore them. I'd like to think I did a good job in raising him as a baby, but truthfully, any time something was hard, I'd make Mom do it.

”So are you excited about the wedding?” Julie asks.

I nod. ”I'm really excited about my dress and everything, but it's kind of scary because it doesn't feel like it's as big of a deal as it should be. I keep seeing wedding shows on television and it's all so big and fancy and important...my wedding planning hasn't been like that at all.”

”That's because television makes everything out to be more dramatic than it really is.” She waves a hand through the air dismissively. ”Your wedding doesn't have to be that. Besides, a small wedding like yours will be amazing and you'll make so many great memories of it.”

”So it'll be small?” I ask casually, gnawing on my bottom lip. ”Can you tell me anything else about it?”

”Oh my G.o.d, I forgot!” Julie's eyes widen and she slaps a hand over her mouth. ”You don't know the venue! I can't believe I almost said it out loud. Jace would have killed me!”

”So everyone already knows my wedding location but me?” I laugh. ”This is probably the weirdest way to plan a wedding.”

”Don't worry, you'll love it,” Julie a.s.sures me. ”But let's not tell Jace that I almost said too much.”

The gla.s.s door slides open and we both spin around, eyes wide and guilty expressions that could be seen a mile away.

Jace stands at the doorway, a cup of coffee in one hand. He lifts an eyebrow. ”Am I interrupting something?”

”Nope,” Julie says, glancing at me with a smile. ”Just talking about...a sale at Nordstrom.”

”Bayleigh doesn't shop at Nordstrom,” Jace says skeptically.

Julie shrugs. ”All the more reason to talk about it.”

He rolls his eyes, showing us that he doesn't believe a single word of our shenanigans. When he wraps his arm around my waist and kisses me good morning, the smell of his coffee makes my stomach hurt. But I smile anyway so it won't upset him.

”Well, whatever you were talking about, I'm glad the two of you are having fun.”

”Oh we definitely are,” Julie says, smiling.

”Yeah and by the way,” I tell Jace. My heart starts pounding in my chest but I don't care. I'm going to say this. ”I'm not going to Ashley's stupid photography show.”

”Yeah,” Julie says defiantly. ”Screw that b.i.t.c.h.”

Chapter 17.

One week before the wedding I can always tell when it's Sat.u.r.day morning compared to every other morning. These are the days when Jace doesn't have to wake up before the sun, throw on some clothes and rush off to work. These are his off days. Well, usually. Spending Sat.u.r.day mornings in bed with him is one of my favorite things. The bed is always warmer when he's in it, snuggled up next to me. I can't imagine a better paradise than being curled against his chest in our plush mattress, in the place we've made a home.

Unfortunately, today is the last Sat.u.r.day Jace and I will have as single people. Next Sat.u.r.day we'll be married. The unfortunate part is not because of the marriage, obviously. It's because this is a freaking Sat.u.r.day, unofficially known as my snuggle day, and Jace is still up at the b.u.t.t-crack of dawn. His best man and best friend Park is arriving today and Jace has to pick him up from the airport because unfortunately for us, he's also not of legal age to rent a car.

He leans over my side of the bed and kisses me on the forehead. ”Be back before you know it,” he whispers.

”Not true,” I whisper back. ”I already miss you so you can't be back before I know it. Because I know it right now.”

”What am I gonna do with you?” he says, a.s.saulting me in an onslaught of kisses to my cheek, neck, shoulder and lips.

I giggle profusely, twisting left and right because he hasn't shaved in a couple of days and his scraggly facial hair tickles like crazy. When he stops, I catch my breath and push him away. ”Go get your friend,” I say, rolling my eyes. ”Ya'll better bring me back a cheeseburger.”

”It's six in the morning,” Jace says. ”What do you want a cheeseburger for?”

I sit up on my elbows and give him the most serious look I can muster. ”Are you seriously going to question your pregnant fiance's food cravings?” I stick out my tongue.

”You are the biggest dork in the world, but I love you so much.”

”I love you, too,” I say, rolling back over in bed, pulling the covers up to my neck as sleep starts to fall over me again. ”Cheeseburger,” I whisper as I snuggle under the covers some more. I'm pretty sure I feel him plant a kiss on my cheek one more time before he slips out the door. I think I smile, but I'm too sleepy to know for sure.

I slip on an oven mitt and pull out the tray of cinnamon rolls a few seconds before the timer goes off. My phone still hasn't rang since this morning when Becca called to let me know she was leaving her house and would be here soon. We have a whole day of last minute wedding prep to do, and she was supposed to arrive like, right now. That's why I timed the cinnamon rolls perfectly.

With the cinnamon rolls on the counter and the oven mitt off my hand, I grab my phone to check it for any missed messages. No word from Becca. I frown and begin frosting our breakfast, hoping she gets here soon. I don't know if it's because I'll be a mother soon, or if I'm just going crazy, but I hate waiting on people. All I can ever think about is that they probably got in some horrific wreck and are lying dead on the road right now, unable to tell me.

There's a knock at my door, and I leap off the barstool, running toward the door at full speed. I swing open the door without checking the peephole first. ”Thank G.o.d you're not dead!” I say in a voice that's terrifyingly like my mother's.

Becca rolls her eyes and pushes through the door with about six big bags in tow. ”Why would I be dead?”

”Because you took so long to get here,” I say, helping her with the bags.

”You're ridiculous. Do I smell breakfast?”

”Yep. You'll be happy to know I didn't burn the bottoms this time.”

”Woohoo!” She high-fives me. ”You're going to be an excellent wife one of these days. Now we just need to teach you the super tricky skill of boiling water.”

Now I'm the one rolling my eyes. ”I know how to boil water.”

She slaps a hand to her chest in surprise. ”Jace is such a lucky man!”

I grab a frosted cinnamon roll and shove it in her mouth. ”Here, eat this so I don't have to keep listening to you talk.”

Becca helps herself to two cups of coffee while I drink hot chocolate in order to avoid caffeine for the baby. I never knew she was such a huge coffee drinker until lately. She claims she picked up the habit at the place where she works. Apparently they all drink coffee like fiends over there. I'm a little jealous of her job because when she talks about it, you can tell she really loves it. I hope I will love my job just as much when I'm working full time at the motocross track.

”So what all did you bring me?” I ask after we've eaten. I drop to the floor and start digging through the bags. One is a paper shopping bag made of pearly thick paper with satin ribbon handles.

”Oooh!” Becca swoons, darting to the floor next to me. ”Those are the RSVPs! Every single person we invited has replied. That has to be some kind of world record or something.”

I dig into the bag and pull out about fifty envelopes, all addressed to Jace and me in Becca's lovely cursive handwriting. The RSVP cards are printed on the same cardstock and in the same elegant style as the invitations, but I never got to see them because the invitations had the address of the venue. The paper is hand dyed with turquoise at the top and purple on the bottom, the colors fading between the two in a beautiful ombre.

One part of me absolutely loves that Jace planned the location of our wedding in secret and the other part of me is going completely crazy, dying to know where it'll be. It is supposed to be a small wedding with a small venue, that's all I know. We both didn't want some crazy big location, but when I search online for small wedding places in Texas, nothing quite looks like something Jace would choose.