Page 37 of Wish For Me

“So are we doing this?” Paige asks, sitting up straighter, excitement gleaming in her eyes. “Are we having the wedding here?”

“It’s a lot to do,” Karen says, a little doubtfully. “Coordinating with the caterer, trying to arrange for all the other vendors you already have lined up to get out here, plus sourcing local places for chairs and tables and linens. This won’t be easy.”

“We did it for Eva and Will’s wedding,” Fox says. “It was smaller, but maybe we can get the same vendors for the tent and stuff.”

“And we’re all here,” Paige says brightly. “We have more than two dozen people to help.”

“But what about everything that isn’t here,” Everly says, releasing her dad. “I have all those decorations in LA and the favors and—” She gasps. “Oh my god, none of the wedding clothes are here! My dress!”

Suddenly we all seem very interested in our feet or the ceiling. There’s no way I’m telling Everly that her dress is actually here, in Alex’s closet, because she’s been fixing it for the last two weeks.

“We’ll have to make a trip back to LA,” Paige says. “Not all of us, but a few people can go back and pick things up while everyone else is helping out here.”

Everly looks at me. There’s excitement in her eyes, but I can see she’s trying to keep a lock on it for now. “Do you think your family will mind coming here instead of Napa? Because none of this is happening if your people can’t be there.”

“I don’t think any of them will mind.” I rub at the back of my neck, not sure how to bring up the fact that most of my family can’t exactly afford to just book another plane ticket at the last minute.

Reed does it for me. “I’ll take care of rebooking the flights,” he says. “Hell, we can charter some planes if we have to. At least to get all the family—both the families—here.” He already has his phone out. “We should get your mom and sister on a plane as soon as we can, they’ll probably want to help, right? We can have the label’s jet bring them as soon as they’re ready.”

Everly raises her eyebrows at me. “Think your mom will like to fly on a private jet?”

I shake my head, totally overwhelmed and excited at the same time. Which is pretty much what it felt like to fall in love with Everly in the first place.

“Are we doing this?” I ask. “You want to get married here?”

“I want to marry you,” she says fiercely. “And I think a winter wedding at the farm would be really beautiful.”

I shake my head. “Shit, Lele, I would marry you in a fast-food restaurant if I had to. You want to get married here, let’s get married here.”

She lets out a squeal and throws herself into my arms. I close my eyes, laughing as I breathe her in. Just a few minutes ago, I felt like everything was totally ruined. Now I’m pretty sure this is the best Christmas ever.

FROM THE RANSOM COUSINS GROUP TEXT THREAD

Fox:I regret to inform you that our cousin is crazy.

Will:You’re gonna have to be way more specific than that.

Fox:You know how I volunteered to go back to LA to help pack up all the wedding shit? BIG MISTAKE.

Rose:Why?

Fox:Everly rented an entire storage unit. A storage unit filled with random crap she thought she might use for the wedding.

Fox:I don’t even know what half of this is.

Fox:I’m taking a picture.

*Picture attached*

Silas:Is that a popcorn machine?

Nix:That would actually be dope, bring that back Fox.

Fox:I’m not bringing a popcorn machine on the plane.

Fox:Seriously, why do they have all of this??

Rose:Because Lele planned about a dozen different weddings before they settled on Napa.