Taking Chances

“Babe, what’s wrong?”

“Do you know how much I love you?” He nodded and I continued, “Sometimes it’s hard for me to even believe you’re real, and that you’re here with us.”

He brushed back the hair covering my eyes and cupped my face, “I am here. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

“Exactly.”

“Harper, please tell me what’s wrong. Are you – are you getting cold feet?”

“No! I can’t wait to marry you Brandon. You’re so amazing, I wish I could tell you how wonderful you are and how much you mean to me. I just don’t understand how you can be mine. I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

He huffed a laugh and that dimple flashed at me, “Then why were you crying? I don’t understand?”

“I – Thank you for telling him about Chase.”

“I told you we would babe.” He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. “I’ll always tell him about Chase.”

“I know, just walking in and listening to you tell him stories was…I don’t know how to explain it. It was wonderful, it made my heart happy.” I said with a laugh.

His voice dropped lower, “You make my heart happy Harper.” He pressed his full lips to mine, moving them slow. His left hand dropped under his shirt on my body, his fingers teasing my waist, stomach and hips. “Have I told you recently how much I love you in nothing but my shirt?”

“Have I told you recently how much I love you in nothing at all?” I countered huskily, letting my fingers drop to the band on his shorts.

Brandon moved my hand away from his body, placing our intertwined fingers above my head on the pillow. “Not now babe.”

“What? Yes, now.” I hitched a leg around his hip, pressing myself to him.

He moaned and moved his hips against me before stilling and pushing me away, “You’re supposed to have sex after the wedding, not before it. Technically, I’m not supposed to see you today until you’re walking down the aisle.”

“And yet here you are.” I gri

“Here I am.” He agreed.

He pushed me onto my back and let the hand that was still on my waist trail down. I whimpered and wrapped my hands around his neck, covering his lips with mine. When his mouth made a trail down my throat I reached for his shorts and the doorbell rang.

“That didn’t happen.” I kept my hands possessively on his body so he wouldn’t move. The doorbell rang two more short times. I angrily slid out from under my fiancé and rushed to the door, “Are you serious?” I hissed when I flung the door open, “Liam’s sleeping!”

Carrie, Mom, Bree and Konrad all stood at the door.

“Nice outfit,” Bree snickered and her eyes widened when Brandon came to the door with a scowl on his insanely handsome face, “Oh hell no! No screwing until later!”

“Brea

“It’s kinda obvious friend.” She stepped in and grabbed my hand, taking me to the bedroom. “Take a shower and put on something comfortable, we’re going to be at the salon most the day.”

“I hope you realize you stopped us before it got to the best part. I’m going to be mad at you the rest of the day.”

“No you’re not. Wedding first, sex later.”

I rolled my eyes and stepped into the shower, “You sound like Brandon. Why is Konrad here anyway? Is he going to the salon with us?” I laughed and rinsed the lather out of my hair.

“No he’s here to hang out with Brandon until later. They’ll take care of Liam.”

My heart sank, “Oh, Liam.”

“No, no! We are not starting this again. You will be just fine. You guys need a honeymoon, end of story. You’ll regret it in a year or two if you don’t.”

“I know, but we’re parents. I feel horrible!”

“Seriously, you guys won’t even be gone that long. Most people take a week. You’ll be gone three nights, including tonight. Just think of it like a long date night.”

“Bree,” I sighed, “I really do appreciate that you are all doing this for us, but we’ve only ever been away from him for the longest seven hours. This is way different. Do you know that I’ve packed his suitcase four different times?”

“That’s just sad.”

I stopped shaving for a moment and pointed the razor toward her, even though she couldn’t see me, “When you have a baby, you’ll see. And I’ll be there to laugh at you for how ridiculous you are.”

“Are you done yet? You were supposed to have done this before we even got here.”

“Rude. Aren’t you supposed to be nice to me today since I’m the Bride?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be nice to me because I’m your best friend in the entire world, your Maid of Honor and I pla

“True,” I shut off the water and took the towel Bree was holding when I stepped out and grabbed her in a big hug, “You really are the best. I love you friend.”

“I love you too.”

Brandon walked in and when he saw us he held up his hands like he was surrendering and slowly backed back out. It wasn’t weird to see Bree and I hug, but I usually wasn’t naked.

“You’re not supposed to see her!” Bree said over my shoulder, “You’ve already seen her too much this morning. Go hide until we can leave.”

“Bree,” I whined and looked at the empty doorway, “I love you Brandon!”

You could hear the smile in Brandon’s voice, “I love you too sweetheart, I can’t wait to marry you. Bree keep your hands off my wife, you already had your chance to make her gay…too late now.”

Bree and I laughed so hard, tears were streaming down our faces. When I was finally able to take a normal breath, I wrapped the first towel around my body and grabbed another to get most of the water out of my hair.

After I was in my green Victoria’s Secret PINK sweats, and a plain button-up shirt so I wouldn’t mess up my hair later, we were off to the salon. I’d heard of Bridezillas, and brides that were so nervous they threw up or continued to cry; but I was so blissed out, all I could do all day was smile and laugh with the women in my life. We had the most amazing time at the spa, we got massages, manicures and pedicures, had our hair and make-up done, and had an endless flow of water, champagne and fruit and cheese platters. I guess they didn’t care that Bree and I were only nineteen.

We all looked amazing, and we weren’t even in our dresses yet. Everyone’s make-up was flawless, Carrie and Mom had up-dos, Brea

Even though they weren’t thrilled, I’d eventually gotten my way and helped everyone set up for the wedding, so first thing we did when we got there was check both rooms to make sure everything still looked perfect. The room where we would have the ceremony had soft lighting, and twinkle lights inside tulle going down each side of the aisle. We didn’t want too much in here, so other than large bouquets of white lilies, and some more lights, that was all there was in there. The room where we were having the reception was a different story. More white tulle filled with twinkle lights made soft arcs up to the middle of the room, making it look like we were in a large tent rather than a room. The tables had white table cloths, with green, silver and black tulle ru