Chapter Twenty-Three

Tori pulled her phone from her pocket to check for any messages. It was the big day already, and she’d left the venue half an hour ago to pick up Dani in the town car she’d rented while Wyatt stayed behind to keep an eye on things. Her old self would be calling and checking for updates every five minutes, but knowing he was there handling everything gave her peace of mind.

She checked the phone again.

Okay, so she wasn’t perfect.

“I can’t believe this is really happening. Three months flew by so fast.” Dani’s fingers fidgeted on her lap beside Tori in the back seat. She wiped her palms on her pink cotton shorts.

“Try not to be nervous, Dani. Everything is going to be great.” At least she hoped so.

“It’s not anything like that. I know this wedding isn’t exactly what Collin and I had pictured thanks to my mom, but I’m still really excited to see it all come together. I’m sure it’s going to be gorgeous.”

She had no idea, literally. Usually the bride and groom got to see the venue at the rehearsal the night before, but Tori had fibbed and said that the manor was overrun by workers fixing an emergency issue with the AC, which made it impossible to go see the space—but it would be fixed by morning, of course.

“I really think you’re going to like it,” Tori told her. Dani smiled sweetly at her, but there was a tightness to it that looked like she wasn’t fully convinced. She rested her head against the car window, gazing out silently at the town as it passed.

Tori’s phone buzzed in her hand, and a jolt of panic struck her heart.

Everything is beautiful. Don’t worry so much.

She released a breath, sitting back in her seat, and typed.

Why do you think I’m worrying?

His answer was almost instantaneous. Because I know you.

Tori smiled to herself as her face grew warm.

There was still no telling what would come out of a relationship if they tried, but she couldn’t keep denying those feelings to herself or to him. The thought of telling him felt like a little finger poking at her side. It was uncomfortable, and she knew it wouldn’t end until she just sucked it up and did something.

“You okay, Tori? You’re looking a little flushed.”

“I’m fine,” she assured her. Dani gave a little shrug and turned back to the window. The small, nagging finger poked harder. “Dani? What gave you the nerve to tell Collin how you really felt?”

Dani’s smile was big and genuine. “Is this about Wyatt? It is, isn’t it?”

“What? No! I—” It sounded like a load of crap even to her own ears. “How could you tell?”

“Oh please. You guys were obviously into each other that morning at Bread and Butter.”

Tori scoffed. “We couldn’t stop arguing!”

“Exactly. You were bickering as a way to release all that pent-up tension and attraction. It’s romance 101.” Geez, now she was starting to sound like Lettie. “I knew I liked Collin pretty quickly,” she went on. “He was cute, funny, sweet. But best of all, he was my best friend. Someone I didn’t think I could ever get sick of spending time with. Even watching the grass grow would be fun with him around. If he couldn’t see that for himself, then he was an idiot. But I wasn’t going to let his blind, oblivious butt determine my happiness for me. So I told him I liked him, and that I wanted to date him.”

“Just like that?”

She laughed. “Not just like that. I was terrified. Maybe he wouldn’t see it like I did or maybe he wasn’t attracted to me like that. But at least then it wouldn’t be my fault.” In a way, it made sense to Tori. She could be turned down, rejected, but it had to be better than doing nothing.

At least she’d be writing her own story.

“You should tell him soon, though, before you lose your chance. I know he doesn’t see it himself, but he’s actually not as invisible to women in this town as he and all the other guys seem to think, if you can believe it.” Her face scrunched. “Actually, you probably can.”

Amy at the flower shop. Her interest in him had been so obvious, and yet Wyatt had remained completely oblivious. Who knew how many more women in Bedland Shores were secretly crushing on him?

“Thanks, Dani.”

“No problem. And if it helps, he’s different around you. Not so quiet and to himself. I think he really likes you too.”

She’d been thinking the same thing, hoping that whatever she’d felt flowing between them was mutual. But none of that would matter if he chose to put his career first. She wouldn’t even be able to blame him if he did. It was what she’d been doing all this time.

“We’re here, Ms. Schaefer,” the driver announced. She hadn’t realized the car had stopped, but one look out the window at the hill she’d come to recognize so well proved his words. They were here.

Now she just had to explain where here was to Dani and hope she didn’t hate her for it. She shot Wyatt a quick text while Dani searched out the window.

“Here? But this isn’t the manor. What’s going on?” She looked frantically around the car and out the window again. “I’m starting to freak out here.”

“Dani, calm down.” Tori took one of her hands in her own. “You’re right, we’re not at the manor.”

“But my wedding! It’s only a few hours before I’m supposed to get married. I have to get ready.”

“Don’t worry. Everything is all set up for you at the new venue.”

“The new venue!” she screeched.

Tori cringed. It wasn’t Dani’s fault. She was a bride with stress already oozing from her pores. Tori could only imagine what this twist was doing to her. “There have been a few changes. I’ve got everything under control, but I wanted to surprise you.”

“On my wedding day?”

“Hey.” Tori squeezed her hand tightly, hoping the minor pain would help reel her back in. It seemed to be working; Dani took calming breaths and focused on Tori. “I told you when I met you that I was going to give you the perfect wedding. You may not know this about me, but I take my promises very seriously. Now, do you trust me?”

Dani took several more deep breaths before finally nodding.

“Good. Your bridesmaids are already inside with your dress and your makeup and hair team. But would you like to take a look at your wedding first?”

Lips clamped tightly between her teeth, she nodded again.

“Okay, follow me.” Tori stepped out of the car, followed by Dani in her pink shorts, light gray sweatshirt, and sandals. She stared up at the massive stone building in front of them, and her mouth fell open.

“I’m getting married at the old rope mill? Is that even safe?”

“I talked to the family that owns it. Turns out they had already started working to make the space available to rent out for events. I just convinced them to move up their timetable a little bit.”

“How’d you do that?”

“With a hefty deposit and the promise that they’d be featured in Bridal Belle Magazine.” It also helped that Wyatt had been there to smooth things over. Amy was still a little cold to her, at least until Tori had asked to use her shop for all the flowers.

They followed a white gravel path toward the door, the small stones crunching beneath them with each step. Wyatt stood waiting at the partially open door.

“How’s she taking it?” he asked Tori.

She gave Dani a quick once-over. “Pretty well, actually. How about yours?”

“Well—”

“If I see one more person standing around twiddling their thumbs…” Georgina’s unmistakable voice screeched from somewhere inside.

Wyatt’s head tilted. “Honestly, better than expected.”

Tori winced. She’d felt bad leaving him to explain things to Dani’s mother, and from the sound of it, she should. “I owe you two bottles of orange soda.”

“Thanks to Gammie these last few weeks, I’m all soda’d out. But I’m sure I’ll come up with another way for you to repay me.” There was that smirk paired with the playful glint in his eyes, the ones that made her stomach flutter and her heart race. She’d seen it more and more in the last month.

He took Dani’s hands in his. “Are you ready to see your wedding?”

“I think so,” she whispered. He kept hold of one of her hands, pulling her inside to a short hallway. A table was set up with blank wooden puzzle pieces scattered across it. On display in the middle was one large puzzle piece with the date, and above it in delicate calligraphy, Danica & Collin.

“Each guest will pick a puzzle piece to sign with whatever message they choose, and then you’ll be able to put all the pieces together and frame them as your guestbook,” Tori explained.

“That’s so cute. I really like it.” She still didn’t sound too certain about all of this, but at least it was a positive sign that she was open minded about the whole surprise wedding thing.

Wyatt then led them over a dark cement floor and through a set of French doors. Brick and plaster walls surrounded them in a moderate-sized hall brightly lit by indirect sunlight flooding the large windows at the far end with the gorgeous view of the ocean. In the middle of the room, light wooden chairs sat in rows on two sides, and at the end of each row stood a faux cherry blossom tree in full bloom. They created a tunnel of white down a blush pink aisle runner sprinkled with petals down to an arch formed by white drapes.

Dani stared for what felt like hours, showing no expression. Tori cast a desperate gaze at Wyatt, who merely shrugged by Dani’s other side. Tori started to panic—she’d completely messed up once again. Then Dani drew her hands across her cheeks, and Tori realized her shoulders were shaking.

“This is beyond anything I could have ever…” Her voice trailed off as she blinked away more tears. “Has Collin seen this yet?”

“Oh, he has,” Wyatt said.

“Actually, we were secretly conspiring with him the whole time,” Tori explained. “He said he thought you’d like it, but we were still nervous, of course.”

She shook her head. “I had no idea. I’m so going to kill him.”

“As long as you wait until the reception is over.”

“And,” Wyatt added in, “we got him to create an app for your wedding guests. Nothing too flashy, just a little geocaching scavenger hunt like the one he sent you on. Only this time they’ll stop at places in town that hold important memories from your relationship. The elementary school where you two first met, the beach where you told him to ask you out or else, your first date, and, of course, the spot where he proposed to you.”

“Oh my gosh, I love it!”

Tori grinned. “At each spot they’ll have to take pictures of themselves acting out those scenes in order to get to the next location. The whole thing should take less than an hour before they’re led here to the mill.” Luckily for everyone involved, this was a really small town.

Wyatt pointed to the corner at an opening that led to another room where the reception had been set up already. “We have a printer station through there for the guests to print out the pictures they took at any point after the ceremony. Two copies of each one, so the guests can take them home as keepsakes, and you and Collin can have your own copies for a good laugh whenever you need it.”

“I can’t really see Dad’s business friends doing all that.”

“Which is why we’ve narrowed the guest list to strictly family and friends, and sent everyone else a very classy, very expensive bottle of rosé to apologize for the last-minute change.”

“Really?” Dani’s eyes were wide as she looked to Tori for confirmation.

“Yes, really,” she told her. “No business associates, Dani. Tonight, you and Collin are just yourselves. Nothing more.”

“You have no idea what this means to me. This”—she looked all around her—“this is my wedding. It’s perfect. Thank you.” She wrapped her arms around Tori in an unyielding hug.

Tori squeezed her back just as fiercely. “You’re so welcome, Dani.”

“You ready for a few more great surprises?” Wyatt asked the bride the second she was released.

“I’m not sure how you can possibly top all this.”

Wyatt beamed down at her. “Just wait ’til you see who we got to cater.”