by Jolene Perry
***
I’m outside when the limo pulls up. My heart rate kicks up a few notches. Ziah is the first one to step out. I expect to see her in her dress, but she’s wearing a tiny tank top and a pair of jeans and running shoes. Only her. Her hair is all done though—curls and knots on the top of her head with little strands falling down.
Her eyes catch mine and holds them. She’s got a lot of make-up on—way more than usual—but she’s still gorgeous. Stupidly, I hold my hand up and give her a small wave.
“Ziah! Hurry. Derrick’s not out there is he?” Lora pulls her attention away from me as I walk over to see if they need any help.
“Hey,” I say to Ziah. “He’s not out here.”
“Hey,” she says.
“Crap. I’m stuck,” Lora says from inside the limo, and I hear girls giggling while they do whatever it is they’re doing in there.
Ziah takes a step toward me, her face looks so uncertain. “James is just a friend. It was a project. It’s not—”
“Dylan! Come here, man. I need your help.” Derrick steps outside, and all the girls start screaming and yelling for him to go away because he can’t see Lora.
Knowing they’ll lose it, and Derrick needs me for whatever, I smile at her and touch one of those strands of hair before I turn and jog inside—already missing her.
***
I clutch my phone to my ear. “What do you mean the cakes got ruined? Don’t we have like, insurance on them or whatever?” Again, I’m freaking out a little here.
The guy on the other end of the phone starts yapping like crazy, and what he’s saying doesn’t even matter. All I know is the cake got screwed up while they were putting it in the van, and Lora is going blow a gasket. And after all the cake I gorged myself with, I’m a little pissed about it, too.
My first thought is to tell my brother, but I also don’t want to stress him out. He’s tripping out about this day because he wants it perfect for Lora, but I know he really wants it perfect for both of them. He’s just as into this as she is.
Ziah. She’ll know what to do.
I hang up the phone, which probably isn’t cool, but we’ve got a wedding disaster here. I mean, the cake is important, right? Lora and Derrick put way too much into it for cake-tastrophe to screw it up.
So now I’m scouring Vista House like crazy trying to find the maid of honor because I’m the best man, and it’s our job to handle shit like this.
I hit the room Ziah was in last, but as soon as I raise my hand to knock my brother’s voice drifts out from inside. He’s not supposed to be in there.
“I love you, Stiches.”
Stiches? What the hell kind of nickname is that? And wait, I thought it was like the end of the world for the bride and groom to see each other before the wedding.
“I love you too.”
“Thanks for being cool about last night… Missing the rehearsal and the party.”
Guilt stabs into me. I screwed up last night, but I’m fixing this cake shit.
“It’s okay. It was important. You would have done the same for me and Ziah.”
“Yeah, but how am I going to know when to kiss you now?”
Damn…Derrick’s good.
Cake. Gotta figure out the cake. They’re obviously busy and will be for a while. I turn and head down the hallway. As soon as I round the corner, I run into Ziah.
Wow… do I run into Ziah. She’s in her dress this time and looks even better in it than she did when I saw her try it on. I’m man enough to admit my breath hitches a little. Girls are incredible. I wonder if this girl knows just how incredible she is.
“You look amazing.” I can’t help but tell her.
Pink colors her cheeks. “Thanks. We need to talk.”
“We do, and I’m not trying to put it off because there’s nothing I want to do more than talk to you—okay, that’s a lie. Looking like that there are a lot of things I can think of to do with you instead of talking, but unless we want our siblings to lose it, we have a cake emergency we need to figure out.”
She’s blushing until the last thing I said hits her. “What? Cake emergency? What happened?”
That’s when an idea pops into my head. The day I saw Ziah trying on the dresses, they’d eaten Voodoo Donuts. Lora brought them over one day.
“Holy shit, I’m a genius.” I laugh as I do a search on my phone for their number.
“Now’s not the time to be cocky, Dylan. My sister is going to go nuts if we don’t have a cake.”
“We do! We have a cake. Or we’ll have something. I’ll fix it.” I’m fully aware I’m not giving her much to go on, but I want to do this. To fix my screw up last night and all my other screw ups with this wedding stuff. “It’s under control. I got it.”
And then on reflex, I lean forward to kiss her. She freezes and I freeze and things are suddenly awkward.
“Sorry… I just… Sorry. We’ll talk.” If she wants. For all I know we’re over before we even really started. I’m not sure I can blame her. Or maybe we’re fine. Yeah. We really need to talk. “I better go. I have to get us some donuts.”
I start dialing as Dad’s voice echoes in the hall. “Dylan?”
“Coming!” I give Ziah another short wave as I turn to catch Dad.
I walk away trying to figure out what I just said to her. There are a million things I want to say to her—that I need to say. For starters, I get it. Everything Derrick ever said about Lora, I get it, but I settled on ‘I have to get us some donuts?’ If she’s even half as confused as I am, we’re screwed.
***
A whole lot of money later, we have a shitload of donuts on order. Paul’s picking them up between the wedding and the reception. I finish setting it all up as Derrick and Dad step into the room.
“It’s time.” Derrick has a huge smile on his face. Dad gives him a hug and then me. Paul and Sam are here with us, too.
Everyone files out of the room, but Derrick’s lingering behind with me. “I’m nervous as hell,” he says as we step into the hall.
“That’s normal,” I say as if I know.
“Yeah…yeah. I know. I can’t wait. She’s incredible. I’m going to work my ass off every day to make sure I deserve her.”
I look at my brother, proud of him. He’s not the douche or the sell-out I thought he was. One day I’ll be lucky to be like him. “You already do, man. You got this.”
Then we’re ushered through a door and head up the aisle. The whole time I’m hoping I don’t mess this up since I screwed up the rehearsal. We get to the front and stand where we’re supposed to. The music starts, and then Lora appears. Her eyes catch Derrick’s, and he smiles.
“Yeah… I got this,” he whispers.
Behind Lora, Ziah steps out, somehow even more gorgeous then when I saw her a little while ago. She doesn’t look up at me, but I can see the concentration on her face. I know she was nervous about the shoes, but she looks like she’s doing it right to me.
“Yeah, I do too.”
Twenty-Eight
~ Ziah ~
I catch Dylan’s eyes as I step slowly down the stairs, and he’s smiling at me, which makes my heart stutter, which I’m terrified will make my feet stumble. Miraculously I make it to the bottom. Now I’m following my sister, whose short, lace train flows out behind her, and it hits me again what a big deal this is for her. For all of us, really.
Derrick’s it. My brother-in-law. My grin spreads as it hits me again that Dylan will be sort of my brother-in-law, too. Now that I’m thinking about him, I glance his way, and his eyes are still on me, making me blush. I have got to hold it together or I’m going to fall on my face.
Dad gives Lora a kiss on the cheek before putting her hand in Derrick’s, and I’m amazed he remembered to do that.
In what feels like seconds, but also hours because of my shoes, I’m holding Lora’s bouquet and looking at all our friends and family—Mom wiping her eyes and Dad looking both proud and stunned.
&nb
sp; Then I turn toward Dylan’s dad and the very well-dressed group sitting on the Gibson side of the room. And I think about Dylan and his mom and what a big deal it is for him to like me enough to move forward. I think about how Lora’s going to laugh and love the donuts because after losing the perfect wedding cakes, it’s the only way to make it better.
And Dylan did it.
I catch his eyes only once as Derrick leans over to put the ring on Lora’s finger, and the way he’s looking at me makes me feel like we’ll be okay.
After they kiss and we cheer, it’s time to touch Dylan again. I get to touch Dylan again.
“Hey,” I say as I slide my arm through his for him to lead me back up the aisle. I’m an idiot. Hey?
The photographer kneels down to take pictures of us, so I plaster on the smile I know Lora would want to see.
“I’m sorry, Ziah. I shouldn’t have bailed like that, I—”
“And I should have told you that James and I are talking as friends again.”
It sucks that we’re walking arm in arm and not talking somewhere private, but after being interrupted over and over, I can’t wait.
“I just freaked. It was me.”
“If you would have stayed on the phone, Dylan. I would have helped you. Gone with you, or…”
“I had to do this on my own.”
I finally laugh. “Let’s just say we both screwed up, is that cool?”
“Start over?” he asks as he tips his head toward mine. “Do you still want to?”
“Yeah. I want to. But no more disappearing. Talk first, okay?”
“Deal.” His breath hits my neck and shoulder sending shivers through me. “I’m totally falling for you, Hanes.”
I stumble, nearly fall, but he grabs my waist, holding me up. I can hear the photographer clicking away, and my face gets hot. So much for playing it cool.
Dylan’s eyes meet mine. “Don’t worry, Ziah. I got you.”
And he does.
Right there, a few feet off the end of the aisle, I drop my bouquet to throw my arms around Dylan’s neck and give him a kiss that makes Derrick and Lora look like amateurs. We’ll definitely be okay.
Epilogue
~Dylan~
Lora squeals like a five-year-old when she sees the donuts. She’s like a Disney princess on crack.
“You did this?” Her eyes are wide as she turns toward me.
“I shrug. Someone had to step in and save the day.”
“Oh my God!” Her eyes water all up as she slams into me and chokes me with her hug. “You’re the best, Dylan.”
I have no idea what to do, so I stare at Ziah over her sister’s shoulder before patting her back a few times. Ziah’s smile hits me in really good places, and I can’t wait to get her on the dance floor.
Derrick rests his arm over Ziah’s shoulders, and I sort of pry Lora off me. No reason for Derrick to be so close.
I tell Lora, “I think there’s another guy who wants his hands on you.”
She blushes and glances at the floor. “Seriously, Dylan. Thank you.”
“No problem.”
Derrick winks and drops his arm from Ziah about two seconds before I grab her waist. “Dance with me, Hanes.”
“I’m not gonna want to let you go,” she warns with that crazy sexy smile of hers.
“I’m totally okay with that.” And as she moves with me, and I breathe her in, all I can think is this isn’t so bad. All of it. Having a girl and a sister-in-law. My family becoming bigger. Hell, maybe even Dad will get a girl. Not that I want to think about that too much.
I squeeze Ziah tighter and look at the smiles on everyone’s faces.
I actually lied. This is better than not bad. It’s perfect.
The End
About Nyrae:
When not playing with her kids or spending time with her husband, Nyrae Dawn can almost always be found with a book in her hand or an open document on her laptop. She couldn’t live without books—reading or writing them. Oh, and chocolate. She’s slightly addicted. Nyrae is a romantic at heart, living her very own happily-ever-after in California with her gorgeous husband and two incredible kids. You can find Nyrae online at www.nyraedawn.blogspot.com
Other books by Nyrae:
CHARADE
MEASURING UP
FREEING CARTER
WHAT A BOY WANTS
WHAT A BOY NEEDS
About Jolene:
Jolene wears juvenile T-shirts, worn-out chucks, and eats too much chocolate. She writes. A lot. She makes up words, drinks Shirley Temples, and suffocates a little without her iPod. Jolene once used her degrees in political science and French to teach math to middle-schoolers. Now that she’s all grown up, she tells stories. You can find Jolene online at www.jolenesbeenwriting.blogspot.com
Other books by Jolene:
FALLING
ALL I WANT
10 WEEKS
INSIGHT
MY HEART FOR YOURS
SPILL OVER
KNEE DEEP
NIGHT SKY
Nyrae’s Acknowledgement:
As always thanks to my girls. I am blessed with the best daughters in the world. My husband who is a huge support to me. My mom and all the rest of my family. My wonderful friends who are always there for me. Wendy Higgins, Steph Campbell, Kelley York, Jolene Perry for continuing to experience this publishing journey with me. Cassie, Wendy, Jess, Heather, and Leigh for the beta reads. To all the readers out there who pick up this book or any of my other books, THANK YOU. I couldn’t do this without you!
Jolene’s Acknowledgement:
To my EVER-patient family. Seriously. No one around here knows what five-minutes means, because when I say I need five more minutes, it’s never only five minutes…
Author Wendy Higgins who read not just the first, but the second version of this book. And Leigh T. Moore whose mad editing skillz are legendary. And ALL of the people that Nyrae mentioned above that helped get Dizzy ready for the world. I’m SO grateful to all the people that still love to read!!!!!!
