“Happy”
by Pharrell Williams started blaring from behind us while we were in the
middle of the wedding rehearsal, causing everyone to jump. Me, especially,
because that was what my boyfriend, Liam, had set as the ringtone on my phone—he
said it suited me—which meant I’d neglected to turn my cell off like I’d
intended to before we got started with all of this.
“So sorry,” I
said, rushing away from the stage to the front row of seats where I’d stashed
my purse. The song continued playing loudly the whole time I dug through the
depths to reach it. Before I could find the silly thing and answer it, Rachel’s
son, Tuck, broke into a song-and-dance routine as the music played, and
everyone started laughing. He’d been getting as antsy to be done as I had, so
at least this gave him a diversion, however small.
I finally fished
the phone out of the bottom of my bag, but only in time to see that I’d missed
the call. It had been Chris, my brother. He and our other brother, Ethan, were
back in Portland right now, trying to get all of our belongings moved from
Babs’s apartment into the house Liam and I had just bought.
We weren’t
supposed to be moving right now. We should have already been done with the
move, honestly, but there had been problems with the closing, and it had been
pushed back and pushed back, and we’d just finally sorted it all out two days
ago—right before Liam and I had to fly to Providence for the wedding. We’d
barely been handed the keys and been able to see the place while knowing it was
ours before we’d had to leave.
If I hadn’t
agreed to be one of Dana and Rachel’s bridesmaids, I would have tried to
convince Liam we should just skip the wedding. I couldn’t exactly back out of
it that late, though, so Chris and Ethan had stepped up and insisted they could
handle the move.
Let’s let them do it, Liam had said to
me when I’d voiced my concerns. They’re
grown men. I’m sure they’re perfectly capable of handling this on their own.
I wouldn’t have been
so worried about it if not for the fact that we were flying straight to Sweden
when we left here. We wouldn’t be going back to Portland for weeks, and I’d had
to leave my puppy, Puck, behind in my brothers’ care until we returned. If
anything went wrong, if they ran into problems… Maybe I was too used to being
the oldest sibling and taking all of the adult responsibilities onto my own
shoulders. The idea of sharing the load hadn’t been easy to adjust to. I was
having a hard time letting go.
That was why,
once I saw who’d called, I rushed out of the little chapel and into the hallway
to return Chris’s call. “What’s wrong?” I said as soon as he picked up the
line.
“Why do you
automatically assume something’s wrong?”
Probably because
the combined stress of buying a home, being a bridesmaid, leaving my puppy
behind, and preparing to meet Liam’s family in Sweden had all ganged up on me
and stolen my sanity. But I didn’t want to tell him that. He’d just tell me to
relax, which I was trying to do. I just wasn’t managing it very well. It was
weird; I didn’t usually let things get to me. Normally, stress just rolled off
my back. But not this time.
I could only
attribute that to the fact that meeting Liam’s family meant a lot to me—because
it meant a lot to him—and I didn’t want anything to go wrong. At the moment, it
felt like everything was set to go wrong.
“I’m just…” I
searched my brain for something I could use to put him off. “There’s just a lot
going on here right now with the rehearsal and the dinner tonight.”
“And the
bachelorette party later,” he added. “Don’t try to pretend you’re not going to
have fun while you’re there. This is supposed to be a vacation for you,
Noelle.”
“It is. And I’m
having fun. I promise.”
“Good. You
should.”
“Nothing’s wrong
with Puck?”
My puppy barked
in the background, as though he’d heard me say his name. At least that let me
know he was alive.
Chris sighed.
“Puck is fine. Stop being a worrywart. I was just calling to ask if you wanted
the downstairs bedroom set up as a bedroom or if you wanted it to be more like
an office.”
Oh. Yeah, so that
meant it wasn’t a “something’s wrong” sort of call. It was a “my brothers are
growing up before I’m ready for them to do anything remotely like that” sort of
call. Before I could wrap my head around what he’d asked, Liam came up behind
me and put one arm around my waist, taking the phone with the other.
“Noelle’s
supposed to be in the rehearsal right now, so I can answer any questions you
have,” he said smoothly into the phone. He kissed the back of my head and spun
me around, nudging me back into the chapel with a swat to my backside.
I scowled at him
because I was sure I was as red-faced as I’d ever been, but I hurried back down
the aisle and got into my original position. At least none of them were staring
at me when I returned, and Rachel’s daughter, Maddie, gave me a big grin when I
slid back into my spot. The wedding coordinator was still trying to put all members
of the wedding party where she wanted us, but at the moment she was working with
the groomsmen, so I was in the clear for now. She had her hands on both Babs’s
arms and was bodily shifting him into position, and he was blushing as
profusely as I’d come to expect from him more often than not.
Katie leaned
over so she could whisper in my ear. “Kally seemed really jealous when this
chick paired you up with Burnzie for all the wedding stuff.” Kally was what
everyone involved with the team called Liam. They all had nicknames for each
other. It could be a little confusing at times, but it didn’t take too long to
sort it out usually…especially since I knew most of them by their nicknames and
not by their real names, anyhow.
Had he really
seemed jealous? Liam knew there was no need for anything like that. I didn’t
want to be with anyone but him, and the wedding events would only last for a weekend.
Besides, it wasn’t as though I was going to be doing much at all with Keith
Burns. He was going to escort me out, and we’d stand next to each other at a
few points, and I was pretty sure she’d said that we would have to dance
together for one dance. That was all. But out of all the members of the wedding
party, Burnzie and I were the only two who weren’t already part of a couple that
had both halves involved in the wedding. It only made sense to pair us up
together.
I tried to brush
Katie’s comment away, but it kept niggling at the back of my mind while we went
through the rehearsal, which proved to be a whole lot of standing around and
waiting for instructions.
A few minutes
later, Liam returned to the chapel and took a seat in the back row, next to the
Storm’s goaltender Nicklas Ericsson. My focus landed squarely on Liam instead
of all the things the wedding coordinator was telling us. Sure enough, when we
ran through the way we would be exiting, with me holding onto Burnzie’s arm as
we walked down the aisle, I felt Liam’s eyes boring into the pair of us. Katie
had been right, even if I didn’t understand why any of this would make Liam
jealous.
Not long after
that, we finished up with the rehearsal, and we all went to a nearby steak-and-seafood
restaurant for the rehearsal dinner. Liam handed my phone back to me as we
walked out to our rental car. I dropped it into my purse before reaching for
his hand.
“Katie thinks
you’re jealous of Burnzie.”
He flashed me an
earth-stopping, heart-shattering sort of smile. “Katie’s very perceptive.”
We arrived at
the car, and he opened the door for me.
“You know
there’s no reason for that.”
He waited for me
to sit, then closed my door and went around to the driver’s side. Once he was
in his seat, he said, “It’s just that he’s getting all your attention for a
couple of days.”
“I wouldn’t say
he’s getting all my attention.”
“More of it than
I want him to get.” He put the car in reverse and draped his arm over the back
of my seat, looking over his shoulder to back out.
“But you’re the
only one getting my kisses.”
Liam gave me a
heated look and kissed the tip of my nose before shifting into drive.
“What did you
tell Chris about the downstairs bedroom?”
“That,” he said
silkily, “is a surprise.”
“A surprise, as
in they burned the house down and we have to start this whole process all over
again? Or a surprise, as in they made it into a shrine to Puck?”
Liam burst out
laughing, which brought a smile to my lips, too. “Is that what you want it to
be?” he asked. “A room for your dog?”
“Not
necessarily.” But now that I thought about it, it wasn’t a horrible idea. Puck
was getting bigger every day, quickly outgrowing all the dog beds and other
things we’d gotten for him. I was starting to think he might outgrow the
backyard of this new house sooner rather than later, and then I didn’t know
what we’d do. I might have to take him to the park a lot more than I’d
initially expected to. Of course, then maybe I could plan doggie dates with
Sara and Jonny’s dog, Buster. That would be nice. “Just tell me. Please,” I
begged.
Liam pulled into
the restaurant lot and found a spot to park. “If you insist on ruining my
surprise, I was thinking it could be more like a room to honor your parents. A
place we could fill with as many memories of them as we could. Your brothers still
have some pictures and a few other things that came from your parents. And
Ethan said he had a phone number for a cousin—someone who might have some pictures
from your parents’ wedding and other stuff like that. They’re going to make
some calls and see what they can scare up.”
My heart and
lungs had apparently decided to reposition themselves somewhere in the vicinity
of my throat. I couldn’t swallow past the huge lumps there. My parents had been
killed in a convenience store robbery several years before, and in the time
since, the house had been repossessed and then the car I’d been living out
of—that housed all of my memorabilia from my parents—had gone up in flames.
The
thoughtfulness behind Liam’s idea was stunning. I clutched his hand, drawing it
up to my lips so I could kiss his knuckles. “Really?” I finally squeezed out
despite my tears.
“Unless you
don’t want it.”
“I do. I want it
more than I could ever say.” I couldn’t imagine anything more perfect. Except… “Just
my family, though? Couldn’t it be about your family, too?”
“And mine, too,
if you want it to be.”
“I do.” I
threaded my fingers with his, tugging his hand closer to my body. “Do you still
have any of Liv’s wind chimes?” Liv had been Liam’s wife, but she’d died in a car
accident a couple of years ago. She needed to have a place in this room, too.
She would always be part of Liam, and I wanted to honor that. I wanted to honor
her as much as he was trying to honor my parents.
“I still have
some,” he said cautiously.
“Some that we
could bring to Portland? She should be represented.”
He swallowed hard, his
Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat, and a rush of peace washed through me.
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