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Alicia skipped down the stairs, her eyes bright. “Well, how’d it go?”
“Fine. We covered everything that needed covering and now, well …” I held up my hand.
Her lips split into a gorgeous smile at the sight of the ring. “Oh my God, it’s beautiful. The man has taste.”
“Sure does.” I dropped my hand to my side. “I would have been disappointed that he hadn’t let me choose my own, but it’s exactly what I would have gone for.”
She eyed me carefully. “I thought you two would, you know,celebrateyour decision, but you don’t look like a girl who just got railed.”
I felt my brows draw together. “Dax wouldn’t risk muddying the waters by bringing sex or emotion into the mix. To him, this is predominantly a business deal. He’ll ensure he’s pulled it off before he touches me. He won’t even do so much as kiss me until we’re pronounced man and wife.”
“Which will be when?”
“Next Saturday. I have eleven days before I’ll be pledging vows in front of a priest.” My stomach promptly began fluttering again.
“Luckily for you, you have the entire team at Sapphire Glade at your disposal to help make this wedding happen. If you need me to chip in, let me know—I’ll help in whatever way I can. You could let me and Harri choose the bridesmaid dresses,” she suggested, a note of excitement in her tone.
I sighed. “Fine, you do that.”
She beamed at me. “You know, I have to salute you for marrying someone like him. He’s just so …everything. In a good way. But it’s intimidating.”
For sure.
“I totally admire the people who work directly beneath Dax—I’m not sure I’d be all that productive if constantly around him. Hedemandsattention with his presence alone.” Her gaze fell to my hand. “And God, I want that ring. Can I at least try it on?”
“No. Now let’s eat. In fact, you can look at bridesmaid dresses online while I cook. Just don’t pick anything tooout there.”
“Why would you assume I might?”
“To poke at Harri, because you’ll get a kick out of seeing her panic that she’s got to wear some godawful monstrocity.”
“You know me so well.”
Chapter Nine
The next morning, after my team was finished cooing over my engagement band like it was a newborn kitten, I headed into my office.
Sabrina followed me, her smile bright. “That has got to be one of the most exquisite rings I’ve ever seen. The dude’s not playing around, huh?”
“Nope. Thanks to the amount of weddings we’ve helped organize, I know enough about rings to know that this wasn’t at all cheap.” I pulled my laptop out of my satchel and then set it on my desk. “Still, it won’t have put a dent in his bank balance.” It would be pocket change for someone like him.
“He didn’t need to spend that kind of dough on you, though. I suppose his intention is to make a statement that he has truly claimed you and is taking this seriously. I mean, it would be easy for people to assume that, because you’re both sticking to a pact, he won’t consider you a real wife. That ring says different.”
It did indeed, since … “He wouldn’t do something just for appearances.” Dax wouldn’t buy me an expensive ring simply because it would be expected of him. He didn’t give a damn what others expected.
Sabrina folded her arms. “So, what happens now?”
“Now, with the help of you and the rest of our team, I plan the wedding.” After placing my phone on my desk, I rested both my satchel and my purse against the wall. “We don’t have long to put it together.”
“We’ll make it work. Booking venues for a July wedding would usually be tricky at such short notice. But we have plenty of contacts who are chummy enough with you to be happy to take part in making your big day a reality, even if it means working at a faster speed than usual.”
“Hopefully. We’ve done the same for some of them in the past.”
“I can’t see them not returning the favor. And I don’t envision many companies turning down the opportunity to have some part in the wedding of Dax Mercier anyway, particularly when his bride-to-be is the daughter of Dane Davenport. If that means shuffling some things around, they will.”
“Fingers crossed.”
Unfolding her arms, she cocked her head. “Are you going to tell people outside your family about the pact or let them assume you and Dax have been dating in private?”
