Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 85608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
The wedding planner rushed by in mile-high heels as she spoke to the men carrying a circular wooden arch. I recognized her as the woman that Gavin and English had been speaking to that first night I was back in town. Nora.
She saw us, and her smile brightened. “Hi, y’all,” she said with a wave in our direction.
Gavin waved back, and then Nora was gone, off to pull off a five-hundred-person wedding for two American royal families.
The groomsmen were already standing under a gazebo. I could see Blake passing a flask to Malcolm. Locke waved Gavin over.
“You sure you’ll be okay?” Gavin asked me.
“Sure. You know me.”
He tossed me the keys. “If you get bored, you can head out and come back later.”
I stuffed them in my purse. “I’ll be fine. You don’t have to worry about me. Maybe I’ll get coffee or lunch for the bridesmaids. Maggie would appreciate that.”
Gavin opened his mouth to agree, but then his aunt Susannah appeared from inside the barn in a panic. She had a cell phone pressed to her ear. “What do you mean there’s no replacement?”
“Oh no,” Gavin muttered.
Susannah’s eyes widened at the sight of us. She put a finger to her mouth and then continued her conversation. She looked ready to yell at the person on the other line and then just ended up hanging up. “Fuck.”
Gavin laughed. “Aunt Susannah, you never cuss.”
“I know. I know. It’s just … Maggie is going to be so disappointed.”
“What happened?” I asked. “Someone had to cancel?”
“Yes. I need to get with the wedding planner.”
“She went that way,” Gavin said.
Susannah sighed. “She’s from Lubbock. I don’t know if she’ll have a replacement singer for today. We’ll see if she knows someone in town.”
“Singer?” Gavin inquired.
“The only thing Mags said she wanted was someone to sing that song that Grandma always sang to you kids growing up. You remember the one—‘Love Me Tender’?”
Gavin nodded. “Of course. She was always singing that.”
“We hired someone to perform it, and she’s sick. Laryngitis. Can’t sing for two weeks,” Susannah said in dismay. “I’ll have to find a replacement.”
Slowly, Gavin turned to face me, and I realized exactly what he was going to say before it left his mouth. “Whitley can do it.”
“Gavin,” I groaned.
Susannah’s eyes widened. “Oh my god, you sing? That would be a literal godsend.”
I opened my mouth to object. Because of course, I didn’t sing anymore. My parents had stamped that out of me. Years of chorus, singing in church, and filling in as a wedding singer weren’t exactly the making of a real singer. LA had taught me that having a good set of pipes didn’t mean anything. Now, they were only utilized when I was in the shower and on car rides.
“She used to be a wedding singer,” Gavin said instead. “Have you ever sang ‘Love Me Tender’?”
Only a thousand times.
Silently, I nodded.
Susannah grasped my hands tightly in hers. “Would you sing for us? I’d be eternally grateful. Margaret wouldn’t even have to know that there was a change. I don’t want to worry her. Please, Whitley.”
As I stood there, holding the hands of Gavin’s aunt, knowing this was the thing she needed to fix everything, I found it impossible to get the words out. To say no to this woman would be like kicking a puppy.
“Okay,” I agreed slowly. “Yeah. I’m a bit out of practice, but I can do it.”
It was Gavin’s look of admiration and intense relief that put me over the edge. A smile finally came to my lips as Susannah pulled me aside to walk me through the ceremony and everything I needed to know.
I glanced back once to see Gavin still looking at me. His hands in his pockets. A broad smile on his face. I quickly looked away. That man would be the death of me.
12
GAVIN
I never thought Whitley would agree.
Even as I’d suggested that she sing at my cousin’s wedding, I had been sure she’d throw it back in my face. She would have. If Aunt Susannah hadn’t plowed forward with the guilt trip, Whitley would have flown away like the lost, broken bird she was. I wasn’t going to regret that we got her to say yes because that meant, in a few short hours, I would finally get to hear those incredible vocal cords work.
Not to mention, I had a feeling she actually wanted to sing. She had just convinced herself that part of her life was over. As if there were a before and after singing. And I was here to show her that wasn’t true.
After Whitley was whisked away, I was pulled into the groomsmen troop. Locke’s other friends from New York had arrived. As well as his brother and sister—Micah and Margot.
Micah acted sullen, as if he’d been bullied into attending the event. Which … was possible. From my limited interactions with him, he thought the world shone out of his sorry ass. Margot, however, was Micah’s polar opposite. She was sneaky and cunning and hilarious. The youngest of the three and probably the cleverest. I rarely expected the youngest to be the peacemaker, but she wrangled both her older brothers and managed to make them both laugh.