King (Sydney Storm MC 7)

Or a venue.

And we still haven’t decided on the reception.

He is freaking mad thinking I can make this happen in a week.

One freaking week!

The man has some wild ideas sometimes, but this one takes the freaking cake.

When he didn’t respond, I repeated myself. “King! We need to finish this discussion. The wedding—”

His mood shifted. No longer easy, his intensity returned. “Think about it today. We’ll discuss it more tonight.”

I stared at him, my mind spinning out of control over this. There were a million things I wanted to say to him, but I knew he’d shut down on our conversation. His mind had already latched onto whatever it was he had to go and take care of. So I took a deep breath and forced all my thoughts back into their box until later when he’d be focused on us again.

As he moved off the stool, I placed my hand on his arm and stopped him. I wanted to bring up Wolf with him before he left. “I don’t know if this is something I should tell you or not, but I spoke with Cherie yesterday and she told me that Wolf’s feeling some pressure at the moment.”

“We’re all feeling some fucking pressure at the moment, Lily.” His voice turned hard, causing me to doubt that this was a conversation we should even be having. But I’d heard something in Cherie’s voice yesterday that made me feel it was.

“I know, but I think something’s going on with him. Cherie seems stressed out. Maybe you should just check in on him or something.”

He stood and looked down at me with an expression that would send most away. “This isn’t your concern. And Cherie knows fucking better than to make it your concern.” Bending, he brushed his lips over mine and then said, “I’ll see you later.”

Clearly I’d overstepped. I wouldn’t make that mistake again.

After King put me on the spot about bringing the wedding forward, I called Tatum and told her I needed her right fucking now to help me work through it all in my head. Out of all the girls, she was the practical one who was good in situations I wasn’t. I would get lost in my emotions. She could separate the facts from the emotions and guide me.

She told me to give her an hour and then she’d be on her way. She also told me to call the others in case they could get to me sooner. “Your crazy is already hitting,” she’d said. “I can hear it from here. Hopefully someone else can get there sooner than I can, because we need to get that shit under control fast.”

Evie and Hailee were both busy, but Monroe came straight over and spent the half hour before Tatum arrived trying to take my mind off King and his half-cocked idea.

She wasn’t successful.

“I mean, does the man even understand how difficult it is to plan a wedding and get everythi

ng to line up perfectly?” I said to her as Tatum entered my kitchen.

Before Monroe could respond, Tatum held up her hand and took over. “Stop right there, Lily, and take a deep breath.” She dumped her bag on the dining table and removed her leather jacket. “And just on a side note, does anyone know how long this fucking rain is predicted to last?”

My brain raced at the thought of rain on the weekend. “Jesus, I am definitely not moving this wedding if the rain is going to last all week! I will not allow my mother to be right about a reception under a marquee!”

Monroe frowned. “What has Hannah said now?”

I exhaled loudly, trying to force the tension from my body. “What hasn’t she said? I don’t want to talk about her today. But I need to know the weather forecast before I make any decision about the wedding date.”

As I reached for my phone, Tatum stopped me. “Lily, slow down and let’s go over this. Tell me why King wants to change the date.”

“He doesn’t want to wait any longer and he also thinks I’m going to send both of us crazy if we wait another three weeks.”

Tatum nodded slowly. “I’m sorry to say it, but I tend to agree with him on this.”

The significance of Tatum agreeing with anything that King thought made me stop and really consider what she said. She pretty much never agreed with him. And if she did, she hated admitting it.

King knew my limits well, so he was probably right that another three weeks of this wouldn’t end well. I liked to bury my head in the sand about some things, and I was likely doing that about the wedding plans.

Bringing the wedding forward might have been the smart move, but knowing that didn’t mean my brain would easily accept it. Not when I felt so overwhelmed by the practicality of changing dates.

Not to mention the realisation that, if this all went ahead, I would be married in one week.