Mine To Promise: Small town secret baby romance.(Southern Wedding Book 6) (Southern Weddings)
Mine To Promise: Chapter 1

“What do you mean she fell?” I ask with my teeth clenched, one step away from a total panic attack.

“I mean, she drank a little bit too much sweet tea and she fell,” Zara says from the other end, trying not to laugh but laughing still the same. “It will be fine. We’ll take care of it.” Zara, the future groom Mathew’s aunt, was supposed to be taking care of things.

“Where is Ingrid?” I look over my shoulder to make sure no one sees me panic. “Can I talk to her?” Ingrid was in charge of serving drinks and food in the bridal suite, something we should have not been doing from the sounds coming through the phone. The bridal suite where they were supposed to be resting and waiting until the bride was ready. I can confirm they were not in fact resting and waiting.

I hear yelling from the other end of the phone, some giggles, well, lots of giggling, and then Ingrid comes on the line. “Hello.” She sounds like she’s one step away from losing it.

“There will be no more drinking,” I order. “It’s coffee and water and get them some food.”

“On it,” she replies and then quickly hangs up.

“She’s coming,” someone says, and then I turn to watch. I can hear myself breathing heavily but try to do it as silently as I can, which is proving to be harder than I thought. My heart is beating a million times a second, if that is even possible. I have never in my life been this nervous. Well, that isn’t exactly true. There have been other moments. Monumental moments, actually.

I can count on one hand when my life undertook a major change. One was the time I had my first ever one-night stand. The second was when I found out I was pregnant from said one-night stand. The third was being cut off from my whole family and giving birth alone. The fourth was getting this job, and now the fifth is them giving me the reins for this wedding.

I swear to God, I can feel the drops of sweat pouring off me as my hands shake. I look over at Clarabella, Presley, and Shelby—the four of us are hidden in the middle of a forest, waiting for the surprise proposal to happen. We all know Sofia is going to say yes; she’s been in love with Matty since they went to college together. Sure, they had a break between and he did get engaged to someone else, but that led them to be together again. I mean, it’s not every day your wedding planner is the ex-love of your life. It’s also not every day, you leave your fiancée for your wedding planner once you realize you’ve been in love with her and only her your whole life.

“The wait is killing me,” I whisper to Clarabella, who stands beside me. Shelby stands on the other side of Clarabella next to Presley. The three of them have the biggest and most prestigious event-planning business. They originally started out just doing weddings and then slowly started adding in corporate events. That took off so much, they have recently decided Clarabella, Shelby, and Presley would take care of the corporate side of the company, leaving Sofia to handle the wedding side. The first thing she did was officially place me as a junior event planner. I have been working under her to make sure I would be ready. News flash, I was not ready. I mean maybe I was, but I was definitely not ready for today.

When Matty came into the office last month to let us know he was proposing, we went wild. He then told us he not only wanted to propose to her but also get married at the same time. If I thought that was nuts, imagine my surprise when he left and the three of them looked at me and said, “Congratulations, you just landed your first client.” I was shocked to say the very least. I told them I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t ready, but push came to shove, and they said they were going to be there in case I needed them. From that day, the next two weeks were the most stressful of my life. Not only was I planning this wedding but I was doing it in secret, which made it even more stressful. Let’s just say, tonight I’m going to have the biggest drink of my life, then properly collapse.

“It’s happening?” someone whispers from beside me, and I see Sofia and Matty walk into the open space we spent the morning decorating. I wanted it to be magical, so the trees have tea lights wrapped around them. I made the men wrap every single tree you could see in the distance with lights. I got a lot of huffing and puffing, but for Sofia and Matty, they did it.

Sofia looks around confused, and then she gasps when Matty gets down on one knee. My hand goes to my heart. I don’t know about everyone else, but I stop breathing as we listen to him.

“Sofia.” You can hear the smile and love in the way he says her name. She doesn’t say a word. Instead, she steps back and shakes her head.

I don’t hear what she says, but I see Matty smile at her. It’s a look I see often. It’s a look I secretly wish for myself one day.

“From the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew two seconds later I had to know who you were.” She laughs at his joke. He calmly says the two words that will change them from dating to engaged. “Marry me?” he asks her, and I can’t stop the lone tear from running down my face. “After all the ways I practiced asking you this, the only two words I can remember are those two. When I was getting ready to propose to you, I went to my father and told him. He came with me to ask your father for your hand in marriage.” Sofia mumbles something, and then her laughter fills the forest. I look at the other side of the clearing to see her family there waiting for her to answer. “Yeah, well, he said no. Luckily for him, I was going to do it no matter what he said.” He takes the black box out of his pocket, and all I can do is hold my hands up and cross my fingers. My eyes are closed as I wait for the words. “So, what do you say, Sofia? Will you marry me and make me the happiest man in the world?”

I wait for her to say yes, but instead, all I hear is gasps from all around me. I open my eyes in time to see the ring box flying out of his hand. My eyes follow the ring box to make sure I know where it lands. “Oh my God!” Sofia shrieks. “The ring!” she yells, and I hear voices.

“He had one job,” her father, Reed, says from the other side of the forest. I look at the sisters, who all shake their heads.

“She charged him,” Viktor, Matthew’s father, says coming out of their hiding place. “Was he supposed to let her fall?” Matty quickly reaches out and grabs the box. “He found it, you see,” Viktor proclaims loudly.

“This was supposed to be just the two of us,” Matty tells Sofia, and she just grabs his face and kisses his lips, saying something else to him.

“I really wish she would speak up,” Clarabella says from beside me.

“We should have snuck mics into their clothes,” Shelby hisses.

“Can you imagine if we did that, and they had sex before?” Presley looks over at us.

“Can you imagine if we did that and gave everyone headsets to listen to it? Or better yet, broadcasted it to everyone waiting at the barn?” Shelby shakes her head.

“Why would your mind even go there?” Clarabella chides. “It’s always the worst-case scenario.”

“No, it’s not true. Remember when Travis was going to get married, and our event space almost burned down, and then the ‘bride’”—Shelby uses her hands to do quotations—“ended up in the emergency room? I never once said we shouldn’t do this.”

“Yes, you did.” Presley laughs. “You said if Mom wasn’t going to kill me, I’d tell him to perhaps rethink things.”

I can’t help but roll my lips when I see Shelby tilt her head to the side as she remembers it. “I mean, if that wasn’t worst case, I don’t know what is.”

“I’m not saying no!” Sofia yells over her shoulder, making all of us look at her again. “I will never, ever say no.”

“Is that a fact?” Matty asks her, and I just smirk. “So, if I said, let’s get married today?”

“He did not,” Reed groans. “Did he just—”

“Here we go,” Shelby states, “do or die.”

“Why is it die?” I hiss. “Never die. Always live.”

“Matthew,” she says, and I hold up my hand.

“What if I said I took care of everything, and all you have to do is choose the dress?” She isn’t the only one who hisses at that. All the men do as well. You see, to pull this off, we had to sneak around and pretend it was going to be just an engagement celebration. But what they didn’t see was all the details we snuck in. They were so busy worrying about the proposal space, no one picked up on the fact we had wedding dresses delivered. We had to bring in Zara, who owns Zara’s Closet and is the most sought-after personal stylist in the world, to ensure all dresses were available. We swore her to secrecy, and it was hard since Matty’s mom is her twin. Do I think she kept her word? No. Do I think Zoe hid it well? Yes.

“How—how did you do all this?” Sofia asks, and I hear laughing.

“It’s go time,” I say, and the three sisters nod at me as we walk out of our hiding space.

“How do you think he did?” Shelby asks, and Sofia’s head whips around to stare at us. The sisters all look at her with a smile, and I wave awkwardly beside them.

“So, what do you say,” Matty asks her again, “want to get married?”

“You didn’t think we would miss this, did you?” Clarabella asks, shaking her head.

“We would have killed him if he did this without us,” Presley declares, smiling.

“So.” Shelby smirks at Sofia. “Are we doing this? Are we getting married?” She tilts her head to the side. “Today?”

All I can do is wait with bated breath. This is it. To tell you the truth, there was only one answer we were going with. No one ever thought about what we would do if she said no, not even me. “Yes.”

I can’t help but let out the biggest cheer, along with the girls. “Okay, people.” Shelby claps her hands. “We have things to do.”

“I thought we did everything we had to do?” Casey, Sofia’s grandfather, looks over at me, putting his hands on his hips.

I stare back at him, and if this was any other time, I think I would apologize to him, but I feel like I’m going to throw up, so instead, I just shake my head. “You thought wrong.”

“You.” Clarabella goes to Sofia. “Congratulations, but this is no time to celebrate.” She puts her hand around her arm. “It’s time to get you dressed and drunk.”

“Um,” Matthew asks, “does she need the ring?” He holds up the ring he crawled around for right after Sofia tackled him.

“She does.” I finally snap out of it and smile at him. “Go put it on her.” I clap my hands happily when he finally does.

“Sofia,” Matthew says, picking up her hand, “will you marry me?”

“We don’t have time for this,” Presley states. “She already said yes, so just slip it on her. The girls are waiting.”

“Well, we’re trying to sober them up, but most of them are really excited,” Clarabella explains. “Your grandmother is losing her mind with all the dresses Zara was able to get. She even bowed down to her and then fell.” Casey takes a step forward. “She’s fine.” Then she mumbles, “Nothing a little makeup can’t hide.

“We have her,” Clarabella assures, looking at me, and all I can do is nod my head. “You two.” She points at Shelby and Presley. “Gather the men.”

“Gather the men,” Matty’s uncle Matthew says. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“I think it means if you try to run, she’s going to…” Matthew’s uncle Max tries to say without laughing but can’t stop, “lasso you.”

“Dibs,” Casey calls, folding his hands over his chest as Uncle Matthew glares at him.

Clarabella grabs Sofia’s hand and pulls her toward a golf cart. “Get in.”

“Where are we going?” she asks us, and all I can do is smirk at her. After all, the one thing I’m happy about is I didn’t blow the surprise.

I get into the back of the cart as Clarabella starts to drive through the path on the way to Sofia’s great-grandfather’s barn.

The sight of her pink tractor outside makes her gasp. I grab the clipboard from the seat beside me and look down at it.

“We have a lot to get ready for,” I say, getting out of the golf cart and looking toward the barn that is being transformed as we speak.

“Fun fact,” Sofia shares, “I was conceived in this barn.”

“Well, it’s full circle now,” Clarabella says. “Do you want to see the reception space or do you want to go and do the dresses?”

“Please, I trust you guys with my life,” she declares. “Take me to the dresses.”

“Yay.” I clap again. “I’m so excited, we all have bets,” I finally say as we usher her toward the side of the barn. As soon as we get close enough, I can hear the laughter and the giggles.

The door opens, and the squealing becomes even louder, and all I can do is watch in shock as the women try to blink away the drunkenness.

“It’s going to be fine.” Clarabella must see the frantic look I have on my face. “The only ones who need to be sober for this are Presley and Shelby.”

“What?” I blurt, thinking that there has to be more people sober for this.

“They have the men who are going to be putting the finishing touches on the ceremony space,” Clarabella informs me. “All we have to do is make sure no one’s boobs are falling out and all private areas aren’t showing.”

“Can we pick a dress?” Zara says, sticking her head out of the office.

I follow Sofia into the room and see that all my hard work from before has paid off. What was once an office is now filled with twenty mirrors all around the four walls, with tables of makeup in front of them and antique chairs. In the middle of the room are small round tables with benches so people can sit. “This is…” She looks up at the elegant chandelier hanging there.

“This is nothing,” I state, pointing at the door that leads to the reception space. “You should see in there.” I glance at Clarabella. “Now, if you don’t need me, I have to make sure everything is in place for the ceremony and the reception.” I look at Sofia. “You are my first client.”

“Well then, I guess I’m in the best hands,” Sofia replies, smiling at me. We have gotten very close in the past nine months, and I consider her my best friend. She has even helped me out babysitting Avery when I was stuck.

“I’ll see you soon,” I tell her as I turn and walk away from her and straight into the barn.

I barely make it out of the door when I hear shouting on the side. I walk over and see Casey and Matthew looking down at the shotgun in Casey’s hand. “I think as soon as they say I do, we do the gun salute.”

“What the hell are you two doing?” I storm up to them.

“We are going to shoot off the guns at the end,” Casey informs me. “We have enough guys.” I hold up my hand while he talks.

“Immediately no! There is no way you are doing that. I am drawing the line.” I look at Casey. “And you don’t even know how to hold a gun,” I hiss at Matthew, who just rolls his eyes.

“Yes, I do. Look,” he says, running over to the far end of the field.

“Oh my God, is he actually going to shoot a gun?” I ask Casey, looking around to see if there is anyone I can reason with.

“Don’t worry, I gave him a gun that fires blanks,” Casey reassures me, laughing, but all the laughing stops when we hear the shot being fired. “Dumbass,” Casey says, shaking his head.

Matthew runs back to us. “You see, it’s fine.”

“I see nothing of the sort!” I shout at him. “You.” I point at Casey. “No guns. You.” I point at Matthew. “No nothing. I want you to go help set up the ceremony space.” I point to the side where the rest of the guys are working. “If I even see a gun, I’m telling Billy and Cooper.” I mention their dads to them.

“Buzzkill,” Matthew grumbles, handing the gun back to Casey as he storms away, with Casey following him.

I close my eyes and look up at the sky. “This better be perfect.”