“That’s probably not a great idea.” Faith yanked the glass out of my hand when it was still half full. “With everything that’s gone wrong today, you’d probably end up breaking something if you try to walk down the aisle after three glasses of champagne.”
I’d barely eaten anything today and wasn’t much of a drinker, so I couldn’t argue with her logic. “You make an excellent point.”
Allison eyed my stiletto heels and strode across the room to grab a few French pressed sandwich bites from the tray my mom had dropped off when she arrived. After dropping them onto a small plate, she brought it over to me. “Here, you’d better eat something while you still can.”
I shoved one of them in my mouth and hummed in pleasure at how delicious the sandwich was. I only managed to eat one more before the wedding planner knocked on the door to announce that it was time to line up. Setting the plate down to grab my bouquet, I heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness.”
Faith was the first one to the door as she mumbled, “If I ever fall in love, I’m going to give serious consideration to eloping. Then I won’t have to worry about all the stress of a wedding.”
After how our dad had reacted to the news of my courthouse wedding, I briefly considered warning my sister off an elopement. But then I decided against it because I could remind my dad of what she’d done whenever he complained about how Hudson and I got married.
I followed my bridal party out of the room and eyed the bathroom door. Figuring I had just enough time to run in and swish my mouth out with water before popping a mint—since I didn’t want to taste like champagne and sandwiches when Hudson kissed me—I poked Audrey in the back. “I’ll be back in a second.”
“You better hurry up,” she warned.
“I’ll be super quick,” I promised as I darted down the hall to the bathroom. Even though it didn’t take me long, Audrey was already all the way down by where my dad was waiting to walk me down the aisle. In my rush to join them, I tripped over my dress and would’ve probably broken something like Faith had said if someone hadn’t caught me from behind and settled me back on my feet. Glancing over my shoulder, I mumbled, “Thank you,” to the guy who’d saved me. He was wearing a black suit that looked as though it had been made for him and added to the air of danger he exuded. I didn’t recognize him, but Hudson had invited some people from work, and I could easily picture this guy doing heavily classified black ops work.
“No problem,” he assured me on a raspy growl.
My dad must’ve rushed over because he gripped my arm and asked, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I probably should’ve gone with a smaller heel.” I lifted the hem of my dress and wiggled my foot. “Luckily, someone was here to rescue me from myself.”
“Who?”
I glanced over my shoulder and realized it was just the two of us in the hallway now. It was as though the guy had disappeared into thin air, reinforcing my belief that he was someone Hudson worked with. But it didn’t really matter who he was because the music shifted to the bridal march. “Never mind, we need to get in there before anything else goes wrong.”
“Be careful, sweetheart. You don’t want to jinx yourself,” my dad rumbled as he tucked my hand in the crook of his elbow and guided me toward the doors.
My dad’s warning was the first thing that popped into my head less than ten minutes later when we were in the middle of the ceremony and the fire alarm went off. “You’ve got to be freaking kidding me,” I cried as Hudson swept me off my feet and rushed me out of the building.
The wedding planner guided everyone across the street, where we all waited until a fire truck came racing down the street and screeched to a halt in front of the building. Hudson held me close as a bunch of firefighters ran inside, while my mom and Faith each had one of our twins. Hope, my youngest sister who wasn’t even a full year older than my babies—because of course my dad wasn’t done knocking my mom up yet—was trying to get my dad to put her down.
Laughter bubbled up my throat, and I buried my face in Hudson’s chest while the chaos of our families surrounded us. My husband made soothing noises, stroking my back while I blocked everything else out except for the feel of being close to him. We stayed like that for however long it took the firemen to clear the building. When one of them crossed the street to speak to us, Hudson tucked me into his side.