A Time for Hope (Lexi, #3)(47)



“His birthday? OH SHIT!” How could I have forgotten Alex’s birthday? And the worst wife of year award goes to… Lexi Stone, who’s too preoccupied with her own shit to remember it’s her amazing, wonderful husband’s birthday next week. Not to mention she had lusted after him for years and would have always had a cheeky cupcake in celebration every year on his birthday in a move straight out of the stalker’s handbook.

“Lexi, please tell me you didn’t forget Alex’s birthday is next week.” Sydney looked horrified.

The waitress who had been previously wounded by Sydney’s earlier categorization of “this place is terrible” (which we now knew to be accurate) cleared our abandoned attempts at finishing our drinks.

“No, no. I didn’t forget. It just slipped my mind. I’ve been so busy with the tour and the press, I hadn’t even looked that far ahead on my planner.” I would have remembered, maybe not today but I had faith that my brain had not completely lost its edge. Mental note - I need to utilize the reminders function on my iPhone. A cute little “ping” a couple of weeks before would be most appreciated. Let’s chalk it up to a learning curve and be thankful it’s not the day before.

“Well you better plan something and it better be epic. Tell me, what do you get the man who has everything?”

“You trying to give me a panic attack, let me plan the party and then I’ll worry about the gift.” What do I get Alex for his birthday? The typical present suggestions were pretty much redundant when your husband was a millionaire celebrity.

“As long as I get an invite. Considering I missed the wedding, it’s the least you can do.”

“Sydney, everyone missed our wedding, that’s what happens when you elope.” I still had to apologize for our lack of guest list, even months after the fact. I didn’t regret our spur of the moment romantic gesture but it saddened me that we weren’t able to share it with a few more people. Especially Alex’s family.

“Yeah well, you’re here for his birthday so you’ve got no excuse.” Sydney pointed out.

Wait a minute. Everyone would be here, well mostly anyway. I could contact Emma and Jackson and get them to fly up. Kate would too, if she could wrangle it. Sure a week wasn’t a lot of time but I knew I could make it work. Under the guise of Alex’s birthday we could renew our vows, an encore performance. Allow our friends and family to share it with us this time. We didn’t even have to tell them, not wanting them to feel obligated to dress up or buy presents. I wouldn’t even tell Alex, it could be a complete surprise.

“Actually you are right… we are here and that is a perfect idea!”

“Of course it’s perfect, I thought of it.” I could see the cogs in Sydney’s head turn as she mentally analysed our lack of conversation and tried to decipher which idea I was crediting her with. “What exactly is the brilliant idea we are talking about?”

“Alex’s birthday, what if we turned it into a surprise wedding? I’m going to throw a party so no one will be suspicious. They’ll just think it’s a birthday party. But what if we got all our friends and family and then boom, we renew our vows?” I shared my brilliant (sparked by her suggestion) plan. Sometimes I forgot that not everyone was privy to my internal, silent conversations. Technically it wasn’t always a bad thing as at least 50% of those conversations weren’t fit to be repeated.

“You want to plan a wedding in a week? That’s crazy talk. It takes time, months to plan a wedding.” Sydney scoffed at the suggestion of planning a wedding in a week, clearly not meeting her idea for a traditional timeline in nuptial planning.

“Last time I did it in a few hours so this is definitely an improvement.” Working under pressure is what I did best. A week would be a cakewalk next to the 3-hour race around in Miami I had subjected Alex to last time. Plus we already had the rings and we didn’t need a marriage license, so we were already ahead of the game. Not to mention I was fairly sure if I put some instruments in front of Alex, James, Troy, Jason and Dan I’d have a band as well. I don’t know why people get so stressed over weddings; this was going to be a walk in the park!

“You like to make things difficult for yourself don’t you?” Sydney was not buying into my this-is-so-easy-I-can-do-it-in-my-sleep attitude and I would happily prove her wrong.

“Alex will love it. I know it was hard for him not being able to share that day with his family. It’s the least I can do.” It would be the one thing he didn’t already have and better than any gift I could buy him. With Alex, I was always going to have to think outside the box. I didn’t think a bottle of cologne and a tie were going to cut it for any occasion.

“Well if you are going to do this, you are going to need my help.” Sydney insisted, straightening in her chair.

“Thanks Syd, but I know you are busy. I couldn’t ask that of you.” While I was sure the timeframe did not pose a problem, it would mean that every hour until that day would be consumed by this one event. My time was my own, sure I had a job but I could get creative with how I juggled things for a week, it’s not like I was going to fire myself. But I couldn’t ask that of someone else, especially someone who was already so busy with her own life.

“You didn’t ask. I’m telling you and you are going to need my help.” Sydney halted any further discussion. It was pointless arguing with her, she was headstrong, like I was, and I loved her for it. It was truly touching that she wanted to be involved and I would shut my mouth and try and take her (way too generous) offer graciously.

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