Until the End (Sea Breeze #9)(61)

Oh, he was still a playboy. He was just my playboy.

I lifted my arms and let Willow drop the dress over my body.

“Sadie, Eva, Trisha, and Jess are all ready to go line up. I made sure before I left them to come back and check on you.

“Thank you.” I wasn’t sure how I would have done all this without Willow. My mother had her hands full with my little sister, Larissa. The idea of that just made me happy.

Willow had stepped up and been the best matron of honor on the planet. My maid of honor was Sadie, but Willow had left Sadie to take care of the bridesmaids while she took care of me.

“You’re welcome. I loved being a part of this,” she said, smiling at me in the mirror. “Let’s go do this thing.”

Larissa met me in a dress full of white tulle as I opened the door. “You look like a princess,” I told her as she spun around for me.

“Daisy May has a dress just like mine. Just like you said.” She beamed at me.

“I’m sure you both will be the prettiest princesses these people have ever seen.”

Larissa held up her basket. “It’s empty. Daisy May is keeping my petals until it’s time. I kept spilling ’em on accident. She didn’t want me to lose them, so she said she’d keep ’em for me.”

“Come with me. I’ll get you and Daisy May ready to walk down the aisle, and you can toss those petals all you want then. Just wait until it’s time,” Willow said, grinning at me as she moved Larissa back to the lineup.

The bridesmaids had already started to head inside as the music played. Sadie smiled at me. “You look beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

Her eyes flashed with humor and she leaned close to me. “Is it true you had a little pre-wedding activity?”

I blushed again. Apparently, they all knew what had happened.

“Figured it was. You are marrying Preston Drake, after all,” she said, then turned to walk through the doors.

“Girls, you two go once you see me get to the front,” Willow told them, and they both nodded.

“I got this,” Daisy May informed her.

I bit back a laugh. She really did know what she was doing. She’d done this a few times already.

Daisy May nudged Larissa. “Your turn. I’ll be behind you.”

Larissa shot me a toothless grin and headed down the aisle too fast, and she tossed all her flowers out before she got halfway there. But she was happy and adorable.

My dad walked up beside me and held out his arm.

“He makes you happy, right?” he said, staring down at me.

“Yes, Daddy. More than anything in the world.”

He nodded. “Then it’s time I gave you away.”

I patted his arm and held on as we walked toward the man of my dreams waiting on me.

Jason and Jess from Misbehaving

Jess

I stood in the mirror and looked at my stomach. It was at that point where I looked fat but not yet pregnant. I was not liking this phase of pregnancy. My boobs were bigger, and Jason loved that. Until today I hadn’t minded. I loved knowing I was carrying Jason Stone’s baby.

He had classes all day, and I wanted to surprise him at lunch. But when I texted him, he said he had to go to the library and get some research pulled from some blah, blah, blah stuff I didn’t understand.

By the time he had responded to my text, I was already on the Harvard campus and had to turn back home. Girls my age in tight tops and cute little skirts were all over the place. They were all smart and brilliant like Jason.

They looked like everything I wasn’t, and I hated them. I hated that he was there every day with girls like this. I was at home, pregnant, taking online college courses because my nausea had kept me from actually attending college in person.

While I’m at home, he’s here living this life of a college guy, seeing everything I took away from him. Tears welled up in my eyes as I stared at my own image in the mirror in front of me. I was ruining his life. I was nothing like what he deserved. I had my body and looks before, but now I was losing that. And what did I have to even compete with those girls?

I had nothing. I was exactly what his mother said: a weight around his neck.

“Jess, baby, are you crying?”

I jerked my head up to see Jason coming in the bedroom door, moving directly toward me with a purposeful stride. Seeing him dressed in his white oxford shirt and slacks, looking like one of those elite people I will never be, sent my tears into a full-blown sob.

I hadn’t made friends here because no one liked me. I wasn’t like them. I was different. Jason had even distanced himself from his friends at school, and I knew why. They didn’t like me. I wasn’t classy and rich.

Jason’s arms wrapped around me and pulled me against his chest. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?” His voice was so gentle and patient. Which only made me cry harder.

“You’re scaring me, Jess,” he said in a concerned tone as he ran his hand over my head and then cupped my face. “Tell me what’s wrong. I hate it when you cry.”

I tried to control my sobbing and wiped at my tear-streaked face, now worried because I was going to be all red and blotchy. Not exactly something a man wants to come home to.

“Did someone say something to you? I swear to God, if they did I’ll kill someone. . . .”