Mine To Have (Southern Wedding 1)

"I asked if you were getting married anytime soon," I repeat the question, and this time my hand holds the glass of scotch harder than I did before as my heartbeat fills my ears.

"Nope." She shakes her head, taking a pull of her water bottle. She dabs her lips with a napkin. "Not anytime soon, that is." She looks around the venue now.

"Haven’t met the one?" I ask her, taking another long pull of scotch.

"Thought I did." She turns from me, looking at the dance floor away from me. "Didn’t work out."

I want to ask her who the guy was. I want to ask her if I was that guy. I want to ask her everything. I want to know everything. "How did you meet Jennifer?"

"Work," I say, and she just nods. "She was watching her friend’s cat for the weekend, and the cat ate her birth control pills."

She nods, not sure what to say. "Are you dating?"

"Not at the moment," she replies, and I’m pretty sure I’m a glutton for punishment at this point.

"How long were you two dating?" She turns to look at the bar as she spins the glass of scotch in her hand.

"About a year," I say, and her head just nods. "Did you open the practice like you wanted to?"

"I did." She smiles, and it makes what I did feel just a touch better. Breaking up with her so that she could open her practice was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.

"Bet your dad is happy you're home." I get up and lean against the bar. The sound of people on the dance floor clapping has me turning my head to look and see what is going on.

"Is he doing the Worm?" Harlow tilts her head toward my side to see what is going on. She is right in front of me, and I can feel her heat on my arm as she leans in. "Oh my God." She puts her hand on my arm, laughing. "He’s doing the full Worm." I look at the dance floor and see that Jake is now doing the Worm from one end of the dance floor to the other, and then he tries to go back while everyone cheers him on.

He gets up and high-fives Frankie, who takes off his jacket and looks like he’s about to get on the dance floor. "They are insane," I state, not moving because I’m afraid she’s going to let go of my arm.

I look to the side and see that Shelby is talking to a guy dressed in a black suit with a hat under his arm. She looks around the room, and when she finds me, she comes straight for me. "Okay, so your car is here.” I look at her, and Harlow’s hand falls off my arm.

My skin still tingles from where she had her hand on me. "My car?" I ask, confused.

"Did you listen to anything we spoke about at the wedding meetings?" she hisses out. "Like anything?"

"One"—I hold up my finger—"we didn’t have one."

"Well, I’m sure I mentioned it." She tries to remember and then flips her hands. "It was supposed to whisk you guys away like a glass carriage. But what now is more like a pumpkin since you were ditched on your wedding day. It’s going to take you away," Shelby says and flaps her arms like a bird. "You need to be outside in five minutes."

"Oh, are we going to throw rice and stuff?" Harlow asks, clapping her hands and laughing. She gasps. "Blow balloons?"

"You mean bubbles," Shelby corrects, and she laughs even harder now.

"If there was a bride, I’d say sure," Shelby says, then points at me. "But since he’s a lone wolf, he gets nothing."

"You know what you should have done," Harlow shares, and whatever she is thinking is really funny to her because she can’t stop laughing. Her laughter is infectious because now Shelby starts to laugh with her. "You should have married yourself," she finally says, and Shelby howls in laughter.

"I’m going to go and tell the driver if you aren’t there in five minutes that he can leave." She turns and walks toward the kitchen.

"What are you going to do?" She looks over at me with the loaded question.

"Want to get out of here?" I ask her, knowing that I’m putting myself out there to be crushed. But I also know that if I didn’t ask her, I would end up regretting not taking the chance. She just looks at me. "I mean, how many times can you say you rode in a limo with a jilted groom?”

"I don’t think anyone has ever done that," she points out. "But we should ask your sisters. They would know for sure."

"Or," I say with a smirk. "You could be the first, Harlow." I finish the scotch and stand. "Besides, I don’t want the night to end just yet."