All's Fair in Love and Las Vegas

Chapter Fifty-Nine

        Astonishingly, Laura loved the idea of hosting the wedding at the greenhouse.

        More astonishingly, we got the reservation thanks to a last minute cancellation.

        Things had finally gone our way.

        That night, when Grayson got home from work, we ordered a pizza and had a date night–meaning we planned what our wedding could be. We stayed up until dawn, picking flowers and decorations and photography poses and the food and everything. We know there was a good chance Laura would shoot down half of it. But there were things I thought we might be able to sneak by. For instance, would she really notice if we added potato soup to the menu? Would she really care that we wanted flower petals thrown instead of rice? What could we really do beneath her nose?

        "Can we do a second round of desserts?" I whispered. Grayson and I were curled up in bed, deep beneath the covers and drowning in post-it notes. Planning our wedding was fun.

        "Maybe, what were you thinking?" he asked.

        "Root beer floats?" I asked hopefully.

        He laughed and wrote it down. "I don't know if she'll go for it, but I personally love it."

        I squealed and hugged him. "Okay!"

        He kissed my forehead. "You're in much better spirits, I noticed."

        "Yeah. I guess...I don't know, this past week has made me feel like a rebellious thirteen-year-old who hates all her parents' rules," I admitted. "Planning all this makes me feel slightly more independent. More my age."

        "I should hope so. You are getting married. Not many rebellious thirteen-year-olds can claim that," Grayson laughed.

        I laughed with him, curling up with my head on his chest. After a silence, I said faintly, "I just didn't think I'd ever get a wedding."

        "Why not?"

        "I didn't want to get married at all. And even if I had found someone, I probably wouldn't have been able to go all out. Just planned something small, maybe bought a dress. Order a cake from the grocery store," I said. "This is nice. It's not just being able to afford it, it's having people come and having a huge venue and..."

        "Someone caring about you getting married?" he finished softly.

        I nodded, my throat closing up. He smiled sadly and said, "If you ever do get married, I'll come to your wedding."

         "Um, not sure it's a great idea to invite my ex-husband," I admitted.

         He laughed. "Even then, I'll still come. Unless the groom hates me with a fiery passion. Otherwise, I want to see you on the happiest day of your life."

        "You know you already have, right?" I said softly.

        Grayson looked at me in surprise. "What? What day?"

        "My birthday," I said, snuggling closer with my arms around his waist. "That was the happiest day of my life."

        "That's sad, that your fake husband taking you out for your birthday was the happiest day of your life."

        "Maybe," I laughed. "But I had a lot of fun. And I got to spend the day with you; that's nice."

        I noticed he tensed a little, his breathing skipping just a beat. I looked up at him, silently asking what was the matter. But he cleared his throat and roughly said, "I'm glad I could give you that."