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Lisa shoots me a look. “She can come to the wedding as a guest.”
That’s better than nothing. I guess Lisa had to make some capitulations to get her there. I thought my idea of insisting she be on hand to touch up hair and makeup was good, but this is better. I like that she will be able to relax and enjoy herself. Plus, as the only groupie there, she totally will get her pick of Wild Hawks to fuck at the reception.
Lisa catches the look in my eye and snorts, rolling her own eyes.
“Mom is going to die at the amount of Hawks there.”
“He caved on that too?”
“Not yet,” Lisa sighs, plucking up the little button with her mom’s name printed on it. “But I have a plan.”
“Back door stuff?” I guess.
“Back door stuff,” Lisa agrees with a smirk. “He won’t last five minutes to agree to whatever I want to get that prize.”
There’s a sound at the door, and I glance over. Palmer walks in, nodding to me.
“You need a lift home, Shelley?”
That’s Palmer forfuck off now, Shelley. Lisa and I are going to fuck.
“Nope. I’ve got the Chevy,” I reply brightly, grabbing my wedding magazine. I’m still in the middle of helping pick out table settings. I’ll text Lisa my suggestions later tonight.
Shoving the magazine into my purse, I drop a kiss on her cheek, waving cheerfully at Palmer and letting myself out of his apartment. I hear the bedsprings on the way. I need to stop by Downtown tomorrow to look at furniture. I was serious about buying them a new bed.
Merch looks up from the football game on the TV when I walk in. The lights of the Christmas tree throw colors across his face. I smirk at them. He whined when I set the tree up, telling me it was silly and he’d never seen the need for a tree before.
But I turned those lights off when I left the apartment. Which means Merch turned them back on. Guess Christmas, and a tree wasn’t as silly as he originally thought.
Merch catches me grinning at the tree, and cuts me off before I can tease him.
“What’s with the magazine, kid?”
Dropping my purse on the sideboard I bought and installed, I kick off my shoes, crossing to him, and handing him the wedding magazine.
“I’m on table-setting duty.”
I snuggle up next to him on the couch as Merch flicks through the glossy pages, pausing when I point out the pretty table settings I was thinking of. He wrinkles his nose.
“It’s fucking Lena all over again,” he mutters. I bite back a smirk. Lena Shaw came to see how the renovations were shaping up the other day. They’re almost done. I’ll start actually looking after the kids there after Christmas in two weeks.
Lena Shaw dresses like a Southern debutante, even though she’s the VP’s old lady. Lena Shaw is my hero. Apparently, she’s from Pinedale too, but she’s almost thirty, so she was way ahead of me at school. Plus, I don’t think she went to Pinedale Prep. Wren mentioned something about Pinedale Baptist College. With her southern mannerisms, that makes sense.
He throws the magazine onto the coffee table, smirking at me, his eyes dropping to take in my jeans and sweater combo.
“Put on one of your Michelle dresses,” he tells me, shoving off the couch and hitting the remote to turn off the TV.
My eyebrows shoot up. Sometimes Merch likes to role-play with the twoMichelledresses I brought with me. I’d be down for that. Merch likes me to go all out, so I shower, carefully styling my hair and makeup.
When I emerge dressed nicely, I blink in surprise. Merch changed too. He’s standing in the middle of the living room, dressed in a new pair of jeans, with an ironed button-down shirt and sleeves rolled up to his elbows. This is new. Normally our role-play is only me dressing up.
As I walk into the room, my eyebrows raised, Merch looks me over, his eyes blazing. Smirking, he lifts his hand, throwing something across the room. I manage to catch it, turning the small black velvet box over in my hands. I keep my face neutral, but my heart slams in my chest. It’s a jewelry box.Ring-sized. Holy fucking shit.
Slowly opening it, my breath catches. It’s stunning. An emerald-cut diamond on a white gold band. It’s perfect.
“Put that on. We’re late.”
My eyebrows shoot up, a shaky breath leaving me as I giggle nervously.
