Danielle
You’re on your own there. There’s this tradition that says you can’t see the bride before the wedding. It’s bad luck.
Is there such a thing as bad luck in a pretend marriage?
Who knows. I never believed in this tradition in the first place, but Kylie might kill you if you don’t respect it. She’s a little crazy.
Is she coming to the wedding?
Other than securing the place and a photographer I trusted not to take any photos outside of what was requested or sell said photos to the media, I’d pretty much let Danielle plan the rest of the wedding. She knew I was bringing Freddie and Orlando as witnesses, so she didn’t have to bring anyone, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t want to.
Danielle
Yep, she’s my sole bridesmaid. The others need to have deniability when my brothers find out about this and throw a fit.
Me
I’m going to find a way to win them over eventually.
Good luck with that.
“Where are you taking Danielle for your honeymoon?” Orlando asked because he was a nosy shit who didn’t know when to shut the hell up.
“I’m not.”
“Seriously? Not even a mini-moon like Freddie did?” Freddie and his wife had done a weekend getaway after their wedding three weeks ago. They were waiting until summer to go on an extravagant honeymoon, when it was more convenient for his wife, who was an elementary schoolteacher.
“Seriously.”
“She’s marrying a billionaire and she’s not even getting a fancy honeymoon out of it?”
“Danielle isn’t like that,” I snapped.
Orlando just chuckled like the asshole he was.
My phone buzzed in my hand, and I gratefully turned my attention back to my texting conversation.
Danielle
Just pulled in.
Me
See you at the altar, Sunday School.
Right. I’ll be the one in white.
“Time to move,” I said, shoving the phone into the pocket of my tux pants.
I took my place at the altar with Freddie and Orlando beside me like they were real groomsmen and not only here to play witnesses.
The church was small—one of the main reasons I’d picked it—but it still looked notably empty with our zero wedding guests. Sunlight streamed through the tall windows that lined either side of the sanctuary, casting the room in a soft glow.
I still didn’t understand why this was so important to Danielle. I knew she was religious, but didn’t that make it worse? Who chose to say their marriage vows to someone in the house of their God when they didn’t mean it?
The doors at the back of the church opened, and Kylie entered in a tiny black dress that somehow managed to make her look even shorter than usual. Her gaze was sharp as she assessed me like she was making judgments based simply on how I was standing.
She didn’t say a word to me as she took up her spot on the other side of the altar and turned her attention to the back of the church.
