“Shit, Avril. I’m so sorry.” Zane darted to one of my boxes of stuff, somehow locating a box of tissues, and handing it to me.
I set the box in the corner, away from the graphs for my seating chart. What did he… wait, did Zane actually think that I was going to start crying right now? OverDylan Kingston-Storm?
No. Absolutely not.
I had my big-girl pants on… despite moving back into my childhood home. I was handling all of this like an adult.
“Besides, I’m over it,” flicking the tissue box with one slightly chipped manicured finger… if that got any worse I’d have to go and get it redone, and Ireallydidn’t have the time.
Zane leaned in closer, narrowing his eyes at the changes that I’d made to the seating chart.
What?
Did he have a problem with the fact that I put him with the rest of my pack-less brothers? Why would he have a problem with that?
“You’re still working on the wedding stuff? I mean, people have all kinds of ways of processing their grief. If you need this as part of your healing journey—”
“No. What I need is a little bit of peace and quiet to finalize this seating chart, so that I can get started on the Acrylic seating board and the customized place cards—”
Zane waved his hands, cutting me off before I could even get into color coordinating the place cards with the table decor, not to mention how I needed to come to a final decision about the floral arrangements, and I hadn’t even gotten started on—
“Wait. Wait. Wait. So let me just see if I’ve got this straight. You need some time to finalize the seating chart… for the wedding to yourex-fiancé? Why? Please tell me that this isn’t some kind of manipulation tactic and that youareactually going to go marry that greasy little—”
“No, I am not going to marry him.” My words came out a little snappier than I intended, but I wastryingto concentrate. To reiterate—Iwasn’t the one who had barged intohisroom when Zane was right in the middle of trying to concentrate on something.
“Then, dear sister, can you please explain to me exactly why you need a seating chart if you aren’t going to have a wedding?”
“What? No, of course I’m still having a wedding.” I didn’t ever want to think about the savings I’d already poured into it... and if I tallied up all the labor that I’d put into organizing and planning, I would lose whatever was left of my mind.
“What? But youjustsaid that you weren’t marrying that cheating, lying piece of—”
“Keep your voice down,”I hissed at him. The last thing that I needed was for one of my dads to hear about thecheating incident and start a riot. I didn’t need their help. I had everything under control.
“No, the wedding is still on. I just need to get a new guy.”
“You’re going to just… find someone new to marry?” Zane scratched his chin, cocking his head at me like I was an interesting new animal at the zoo and I had suddenly hopped up on one foot and cartwheeled around the cage for his entertainment.
“Yeah, like it’s hard?” I rolled my eyes.
CHAPTER 3
AVRIL
Zane insistedon helping me set up my profile on some dating app. He even went so far as to go through my phone and pick the pictures. He had to scroll embarrassingly far back in my album to get to my pre-Dylan pictures… there also might have been a few hundred inspo pictures to help me make decisions for wedding themes and decor. Zane was saying something about headshots, body shots and lighting. Something, something—showing genuine authenticity. Whatever.
He even threw together my bio. I took a glance at it before it went live.
Beta hottie, looking for a supportive and committed partner. Loves exploring new bars and restaurants. Ready to settle down with the right person—well I guess that was better than saying I needed to find Mr. Right, right freakingnowif I had any hope of getting the right monogram for the cake-topper, the ceremony programs, the table signs and everything.
Perhaps it was more realistic to just scrap the monogram idea. Itwouldallow me to incorporate more of the thematic elements that I’d had to cut back on…but I had just found the perfect font for it.
Monogram plans could wait for at least another month. With any luck, I’d have Dylan’s replacement by then.
With a promise to Zane that I would give him all the juicy details, I finally got rid of my nosy little brother and went to bed.
I don’t know much about online dating, but I woke up the next morning to find two hundred and thirty-three matches.
I started to scroll through them, gasping a little. Why were all these menso freaking hot—before I realized…
