Wedding Haters (Event to Remember Series-Book 2) (19 page)

“Are you happy with it?” she asks.
“Everything needs to be perfect. I’m afraid we lost some momentum
with the Four Seasons falling through and now especially with the
owners stopping in to check it out.”

I wonder if she’s heard some of the rumors
also. I’m certainly not bringing it up because I don’t want her
spending the day stressed out.

“Everything looks perfect, and I’m sure the
owners will be extremely impressed,” I reply. It really does look
great, so I should take my own advice. Although, I was never
worried about how things would look. I’ve been to enough of
Sienna’s events and the décor is always fabulous. Craig is
extremely creative, and he pays great attention to detail. My
worries are more about a few of the guests and how they will
behave.

A few hours later, we’re in the changing room
putting the finishing touches on, and my mom has joined us and has
started crying about ten times. She keeps saying it’s because her
false eyelashes are bothering her. I don’t mind though because I’m
just happy she’s here, especially after our argument. She did tell
me that she was sorry that it seemed like she didn’t care about my
feelings. Thankfully she didn’t mention one word about Ellie and
Stephy not being in the wedding anymore. So I guess that means
we’ve made up. Craig is keeping us updated on guests arriving and
what they are wearing. Every time he comes back, he gives us a
play-by-play.

“Susan is in head-to-toe designer. She’s so
classy,” he says with excitement.

“Well, that’s no surprise. Cole’s father
always says that she alone keeps Neiman Marcus in business.”

Sienna quickly gets ready and then heads out
to supervise until it’s time to walk down the aisle. She’s doing a
great job on double duty as both wedding planner and
bridesmaid.

Grandmother joins us in the dressing room,
and she hands me a small golden box.

“Thank you!”

I carefully open the box. Inside is a
gorgeous gold charm bracelet.

“This bracelet was my mother’s, your
great-grandmother. If you look at the charms, they are from
different cities around the world. These are the places that she
was able to visit in her life; her father was in the military, and
they went to many exotic locations.” She looks at the bracelet and
smiles. “Because you are the first of my granddaughters to get
married, I want you to have it.” She opens the clasp and places it
on my wrist. I’m so choked up I just lean in and give her a warm
hug. For the first time in as long as I can remember she hugs me
back and holds me tight.

“Well then, you must finish getting ready.”
She looks away and pretends to get busy looking for something in
her handbag. It’s actually a very touching moment; one that I’ve
never had with her before and probably will never have again. She
and my mom leave to be seated with the rest of the guests. Just
Abby and I are left, and she gives me a tearful smile. We get
distracted admiring the charm bracelet.

Just then, Craig interrupts the moment when
he hurries into the room. “Oh no, oh no, oh no . . .” as soon as I
look at him, my back tenses up.

“What’s wrong?” I immediately start to panic.
He is about to tell me but pauses when Sienna returns. She’s as
white as a ghost. Crap! Someone better tell me what’s happened.

“How dare she,” Craig says. He is talking to
Sienna but then looks at me. “Your cousin Ellie is a piece of work.
She just arrived with her date.”

“So?”

“You’re going to love this!” he says
sarcastically. “Her date is the one and only, infamous Luke
Price.”

He has to be joking. “Are you joking?” I ask
deadpan. But he isn’t and there is nothing I can do about it. I’m
half dressed and can’t leave this room until it’s time for my dad
to walk me down the aisle to Cole who is waiting for me. I have no
time to remove Luke from the premises, and Ellie knows that. Most
of the guests are seated and I certainly don’t want any more bad
publicity.

Now I know why Ellie brought up Luke’s name
that night. She had every intention of bringing him to my wedding
even before I ‘uninvited’ her. I knew it; Ellie is never going to
change.

“I’m sorry. I wish I could do something about
this,” I tell Sienna. “Is Ace here? Did they see each other?”

I can’t believe this; my wedding is turning
into a reunion of the
Bachelorette
. We could totally film a
“Men Tell All” with Sienna’s men. First, I had to worry about Ace
and Jeff being around each other, and now we can add Luke into the
mix. This would have never happened on the beach in Hawaii. I
refuse to give Cole the satisfaction, so I won’t tell him that I
just thought about that.

“Ace saw him and he asked me if he should
kick him out. I told him no because there’s no need to create a
huge scene for people to gossip about.”

“I thought the same thing,” I tell her. This
really sucks. I would love for Ace to take charge and “remove” Luke
from the wedding. How hot would that be? OK, Madison, not exactly
the thoughts to have less than twenty minutes before you are
getting married. Thankfully, Sienna interrupts my thoughts.

“Never mind all of this, it’s time for you to
get dressed,” Sienna announces. Craig leaves, and it’s just the
three of us again. Sienna is understandably shaken up, but she
proceeds with professionalism and class like she always does.

I put my dress on and then turn to face
myself in the full-length mirror. I can’t believe I’m staring at my
own reflection. Abby starts crying right away and rushes to grab a
tissue so she doesn’t smudge her makeup. I look at Sienna.

“Well?”

“Perfection,” she whispers and gives me hug.
The three of us pick up our bouquets. My heart starts to beat
faster and faster.

It’s time. My dad joins me at the door, and
Abby and Sienna go on ahead.

“Cupcake, you look so very cute,” he says,
using his nickname for me. Ugh, I’m going to cry again.

“Thanks, Daddy.” I give him a big hug. As I
hug my father, it hits me that Ellie and Stephy may never
experience a moment like this. All of a sudden, I feel sorry for
them, and I guess I can understand what my mom always told me. I
hug my dad a little tighter right before I pull away. He takes my
arm and we walk.

Cole is waiting for me at the edge of the
beautiful balcony with the Pacific Ocean as our backdrop. Four
Seasons who? The ceremony goes too fast and half the time I feel
like I’m in a trance, but in a good way. I don’t even flinch when I
see Luke sitting amongst my wonderful friends and family. He really
has just as much nerve as Ellie. I look out and see my parents and
Cole’s parents. Susan is crying like a baby; I’m hoping those are
happy tears and not losing-her-baby-boy tears. I even catch
Grandmother dabbing the corners of her eyes. Today sure has brought
out a lot of emotion from her. I glance down at the charm bracelet
she gave me and smile.

The best part of course is that we finally
made it! Cole and I are finally husband and wife. Nothing else
matters at this moment. After our ceremony, we walk out onto the
beach hand in hand to have a few moments alone. Not exactly the
traditional walk “backward” down the aisle, but we aren’t exactly
the poster couple for traditional. Cole picks me up and spins me
around, and our guests are cheering from the balcony.

“You really did it; you actually married me,”
he says as he puts me back down. “Can we go on our honeymoon
now?”

“Yes, after the reception.” I grab his hand
and we walk back to our guests, or rather, I drag Cole back to our
guests.

The party gets started and everyone is having
an amazing time. The food is average, and much to my dismay, on the
buffet table in all its glory is a fancy platter of
pigs-in-a-blanket. Cole and Jeff are actually throwing them into
their mouths. I make a mental note to slap them both later for
this. So far, I’ve managed to avoid Ellie and Luke who are happily
walking around hand in hand talking to people. They both went up to
Cole and said congratulations. I really wish someone had taken a
photo of Cole’s face when Luke went up to him. As usual, Cole is so
oblivious. I guess he didn’t get the memo that Luke had crashed our
wedding. I wonder if they are really a couple or made some kind of
an arrangement just for tonight to torture me. Luckily, there are
plenty of people to greet and thank for coming. My plan is to be
“busy” the whole evening so I won’t have to talk to them.

Abby comes up to me with baby Ace.
“Everything is perfect. You can stop worrying now.” She gives me a
one-armed hug, and baby Ace grabs my necklace. I give him a kiss on
the forehead and pry his chubby little fingers off of my diamond
necklace. She’s totally right. Sienna comes running over to tell us
that the owners are going to peek in soon. I can tell she’s both
excited and nervous. I want to tell her that I think it’s a little
odd for owners to stop into an event, but then I remind myself that
it’s a brand new venue so I guess it’s OK. Not to mention I really
don’t know what normal is anymore.

Craig is in rare form tonight. He’s
relentlessly teasing Sienna about all of the men that are here
tonight. I make the mistake of telling him that it reminded me of a
“Bachelorette: Men Tell All” episode. I should have known he would
take that and run. He will be lucky if he still has a job tomorrow,
but it’s kind of funny.

Back to our wedding—our first dance is so
magical. As we are dancing, I actually forget that we are at our
reception. I feel as if we are the only two people in the world.
Cole’s description was that he felt like we were alone, dancing on
the beach in Hawaii. I hit him on the arm; he really needs to get
over it because we are already married. I promise him that when we
renew our vows in twenty years we can do it alone in Hawaii.

When I finally remember that we’re still in
California, I look around the reception. The first thing I see is
Stephy dancing with Jeff. I thought she came with a date. “What is
Jeff doing with Stephy?” I ask Cole. He looks over and smiles. “He
asked about her a little while ago, and because Sienna hasn’t paid
the slightest bit of attention to him, I told him to go for
it.”

“Where’s her date?” I say, looking around.
Typical Stephy, she probably ditched him already. Good for him
though, that guy dodged a bullet. I bet he doesn’t even know how
lucky he is.

“I don’t know, but Jeff’s a great guy; so if
she likes him, then I say go for it. Sienna already had her chance,
and she didn’t want to be with him, so he is free to date anyone
else, and you have to admit that Stephy isn’t
that
bad.”

What’s he saying? Are we about to have our
first fight as a married couple? Luckily, the song ends and Sienna
calls us over for the toasts. During his toast, Jeff blabs on for a
while and tells some story about deep-sea fishing off the Canadian
coast and how he and Cole applied to be Canadian citizens. I have
no idea what the purpose of him telling that story is, but of
course, it’s probably just the alcohol talking.

After the toasts, Susan introduces me to the
president of her garden club. I try not to act surprised when she
tells me that she received my application to join. I glance at
Susan who gives me two thumbs up. Oh my gosh, this is really going
to suck. I have no choice because I can’t be blacklisted before
even moving into that neighborhood. So, I do what any new
daughter-in-law would do and tell her I’m looking forward to it.
While we are talking about the meetings for the next five months
(five!), Grandmother is walking by complaining to one of her
friends about the cupcakes.

“I don’t know why they would choose
cupcakes?” She emphasizes cupcakes as if it’s a dirty word.
“Supposedly, it’s some kind of trendy new thing. Seems juvenile to
me.” I can’t believe she’s still talking about the cupcakes. Is it
really that big of a deal?

I notice Craig whispering to Sienna. He grabs
her hand and pulls her out of the ballroom. Something’s going on,
so I decide to follow them, and any reason to get out of this
garden club discussion is worth it. On my way to the door, Aunt
Kate stops me and tells me congratulations. She was another person
I was trying to avoid only because of everything that happened with
my cousins.

“It’s a beautiful wedding,” she says, pulling
me in for an awkward hug.

“Thanks, Aunt K! I’m so glad you could come.”
I don’t know what to say. Should I bring it up? She doesn’t say
anything, so I don’t say anything.

I escape Aunt Kate and rush to the door to
follow Sienna and Craig. I’m shocked at what I find in the hallway.
“What the @#$*!” I say louder than I should have. A few people must
hear me because they turn to look at me. As if Luke crashing wasn’t
enough, this is ridiculous and I can see the horror on Sienna’s
face.

Chapter 15

“Excuse me, can I ask what you are doing at
my wedding?” I demand.

There, standing in the lobby with Sienna and
Craig, is Carrie, Sienna’s former boss and her friend
Elizabeth—probably two of the worst human beings ever.

They both give me a once over, clearly
examining my wedding gown. My gown is exquisite, so I know they
aren’t judging it unless there is a bead or a stitch out of place
that I can’t see. I do a quick check of the front.

“Oh yes, I remember you,” Elizabeth says.
“Didn’t I have to ask you to leave an event at my home?”

So this is a true story and not one of my
finer moments. I was helping Sienna with an event, had a little too
much wine, and got caught making out in the coat closet with
Elizabeth’s boy toy of the week. When she found us, she quickly,
and not so quietly, asked me to leave. That doesn’t matter though
because that was a million years ago, so I just ignore her.

“I’m sorry but this is a private event, and I
don’t remember sending you an invite.”