“Oh, please don’t scare her,” Jane declared.“It’s going to be such a wonderful day.”
“And you deserve an award for organizing it.”Roux raised her glass to toast.“To Jane’s wonderfulness… and her secret inner banshee.”
Yep, her friend could assert herself when needed.Moreso now that she had the entire Collier clan backing her up.Jane hadn’t changed, didn’t need to, but she did carry herself a little differently.She got that.She did.Knowing love was a true part of life brought security, the soulmate thing maybe wasn’t bullshit after all.Was it confidence?Perhaps Rylee said it better with “smug.”Regardless, Jane always found it easier to fight for others than herself.Another reason their secret plan was a good idea.
All reciprocated the toast and drank.
“You’ll have trouble when it comes to planning your wedding now, Jane,” Merci said.“From what I understand, you didn’t get a lot of input from the bride or groom.”
“We trust Jane,” she declared.“We asked her to plan the most perfect wedding she could, and we have full faith that’s exactly what it will be.”
“I don’t know if I’ll get married,” Jane said, forcing a smile.“I thought for a minute, but—I don’t know.”
“Don’t talk crazy.Knox is nuts about you.You’ll get married.”
“We haven’t talked about it for—I’m not sure he wants to.He hasn’t really wanted to talk about wedding things.He did at first, but…”
“Trust me,” Toria stated.“It will happen.”
“Wait…” Roux said.“I thought you and Knox got married on Crimson Isle a million years ago.”
The misconception was common and hilarious every time, until then anyway.Did Jane really think Knox wouldn’t marry her?No, she didn’t know he’d ask tomorrow, but had he somehow given Jane the idea they weren’t planning forever ever?
“No, that was… The media said so, but we didn’t really.”
“How long have you and Knox been together now?”
Jane perked up a little.“It’s been almost a year since our first kiss.”
“Which happened in the hotel Rox is getting married in,” Toria said.
“Yes!Day after the wedding will be the first anniversary.”
Which was no coincidence.
“You’ve been through a lot with him.”
“We’ve all been through a lot with our guys.”
No one could deny that.Barring Sequoia and her Breckenridge, Roxie and Zairn had been together the longest.Oh, no, sorry, her sister, Sonia, had been with Blayne for… some amount of time.With all its back and forths, she could be forgiven for blocking that relationship from her memory.
Speaking of… “How do you know?”Sonia asked.“How do you know he’s your forever guy?”
“You and Blayne fighting again?”Toria asked, used to the tides of Sonia’s relationship.“Sometimes fighting is good, it’s passion.Ask Rox or Roux.”
“If fighting is foreplay, I’m all for it.”Roux was quick to straighten a finger from around her glass to point.“But if he’s just being an asshole, get rid of him.Life is way too short for that shit.”
“You don’t know it,” Jane said.“You can love them with your whole heart, but all you can do is trust he feels the same.”
It wasn’t great to hear Jane insecure in her relationship.She always had been, sort of, but with the wedding and the Gramercy legacy board causing way more issues than any of them wanted to deal with, things had been on-ice for everyone.She hadn’t seen Zairn in person since leaving New York with Tripp and Sequoia two weeks ago.That hadn’t been the plan, not that there had been a specific plan beyond being at the church on time—so to speak.
She never doubted how Zairn felt, or her feelings for him, not since they’d smacked her upside her head.Their kind of security couldn’t be taught or bestowed.
“You have to love him more than anything else,” Roxie said.“More than anyone else.He has to be like the air you breathe.You can’t imagine the world without him, you wouldn’t want to be in it if he wasn’t at your side.It’s right when there is no life without your guy.”
“Aww,” more than a few of the girls swooned.
“Shut up,” she played, fighting to flatten the smile that fought for control of her lips.“Like you people don’t feel the same.”
