If these men were Avril’s family, and she was used to seeing such handsome men all the time… why the hell did Avril always choose such ugly guys for her dates?
I guess it didn’t matter anymore. It wasmethat Avril was marrying.
Anyway, I sat down in the empty chair—the only one facing them all down, as each of these men stared daggers at me.
They glared at me like they would happily rip me to pieces if I eventhoughtabout hurting Avril—and honestly, that put me at ease.
Avril had the survival instincts of a panda—which didn’t sound that bad, except that pandas are clumsy as hell, eat nothing but shitty bamboo and don’t even want to reproduce. Why are they so bad at existing, anyway? They should at leastwantto live, right?
So, it was good to see that Avril had so many men in her corner, ready to fight for her if one of her poor romantic decisions tried to waltz back into her life and make problems for her.
The man who was clearly pack lead—even seated it was obvious he was built like a whole mountain, with flowing auburn hair and biceps made for ripping apart the skulls of his enemies—he leaned forward, glaring down at me like I was some naughty pet his kids had dragged into his house and had just made a puddle on his shoe.
“What are your intentions with our daughter?”
Uhh. They knew that I was her fiancé, right? Did they just need me to say it out loud?
“I want to marry her.”
“How long have you known Avril?” A tattooed man with burn marks asked me next.
“About five months now.”
“Don’t you think that marrying her now is a little too soon?” The burned and tatted man asked next.
I scratched my head. Well,obviously,marrying someone after knowing them for a few months was too soon. But admitting it to her brothers and fathers seemed like it was backstabbing Avril somehow.
“I knew almost from the first moment that I met her I wanted to marry her. Ideally, we would have had more time to date, but Avril had already put her heart into all of the wedding planning. She really put together a dream wedding,” I shrugged. Avril had shown me some of the plans, and I had to admit that it was pretty intense. She hadspreadsheets. She was consulting Pinterest boards that she had made over adecadeago to color coordinate her wisteria archway to the seating sign. “I’m not going to be the man who takes that away from her. I want her to be happy, even if that pushes our relationship timeline forward a bit.”
“How do you feel about the fact that she originally started planning this wedding for another man?” asked her dad with long white hair and piercing blue eyes that were currently narrowed at me, as if he was laying a careful trap to catch me being emotionally toxic.
“I think that her ex was an idiot.” That was putting it mildly. I can’t even imagine how someone could have a girl like Avril in their grasp, and then decide to fuck it all up. “Anyone who would let a girl like Avril go is making a huge mistake. I will not be repeating his stupidity.”
I could already sense some of the tension in the room fading, as the glares on Avril’s fathers’ faces shifted to begrudging respect. Some of her brothers’ attention was fading as well. One of them had actually started texting somebody underneath the desk. Were the siblings bored because they didn’t get to beat me up? I guess that was a good thing? Did that mean that I was now allowed to marry Avril?
“And what do you do?”
“I’m a business owner. I own The Thirsty Pearl.”
One of her brothers muttered, “That bar has the best Pilsner. You can’t get it anywhere else in New Oxford.”
“Well then, you should come to the bar sometime.” I nodded respectfully to the men. This was weird, but I could vibe with their protectiveness. “Clearly, all of us are here because our love for Avril brought us together, and that deserves a celebration. Food and drinks are on me. We’re going to be family soon.”
The pack lead raised an eyebrow. “I like you. It seems like you make my daughter happy.” He smiled in a way that was casually menacing. “Make sure that things stay that way. I’d hate to kill you.”
CHAPTER 29
AVRIL
The Crystal Chateauwas like walking into a dream—from the enormous sparkling chandelier hanging over the grand marble staircase, to the vine frieze molding and the panes of pure white chiffon draped across the ceiling and the bouquets of white roses, carnations and baby’s breath standing on roman columns… it was more beautiful than I could have possibly hoped. Now that the moment was finally here, I thought that I would feel magical…
Instead, I was stressed out of my mind.
I was in the bridal suite and had already sent poor Cashmere, my maid of honor, out five times. The first time she came back as I was getting zipped into the crystal bodice of my tulle wedding ballgown was to let me know that the harpist had finally arrived and was currently playing “Young and Beautiful” by Lana Del Rey by the entrance. The second time Cashmere walked in—still the picture of serenity—while I was in the middle of putting on the hydrating primers and tinted moisturizer to make my skin look luminous and dewy, Cashmere let me know that, yes, the live artist had already arrived and was already setting up all of her paints and canvas.
Cashmere looked a little less serene the fifth time I sent her out. By then, the hair-stylist was shoving pins in my hair to keep the twisted half-up style in place, and making sure that my crystal tiara wouldn’t go flying off in the middle of the ceremony. My sister actually grabbed my arms and looked me in the eyes to tell me—yes, the photos with my mothers and sisters were already taken. My fathers and brothers were all lined up on the staircase at that very moment to get photographed—none of them, in fact, were brawling with anyone.
I had the wedding party arrive an hour early and had directed at least a hundred pictures be taken of them—which seemed excessive. Maybe I should trust that my family would go this one day without getting into a fight… My dads all swore up and down to me that they were retired and there was no reason for them to mess up their formal wear.
