Winter Wedding (Blythe College #5) Read online

  “I don’t know what to do!” Aubrey’s mom cried out, sounding devastated. “I know Lexi needs me here. She’s like a second daughter to me and I love her as much as my own children. How could I not? She stole a piece of my heart the morning Aubrey and I met her.”

  “I know you love her, honey,” Aubrey’s dad reassured her. “We all do.”

  “But Jackson needs me too,” she continued.

  “He told you himself that you should stay until after the wedding. The doctors told him bed rest should work and you know he isn’t going to let her out of that bed for anything,” he reminded her.

  Trying to give them some more time to discuss this without us interfering, I tugged at Aubrey’s hand to stop her. Instead of stopping, she shook her head no and dragged me closer.

  “They won’t want to tell us anything if it’s bad,” she whispered.

  “Jackson doesn’t want to ruin Lexi’s day,” Aubrey’s mom retorted. “And that’s exactly what would happen if I leave now. But how will I ever forgive myself if Kaylie goes into premature labor and something goes wrong?”

  “You heard what he said. The doctors are worried there’s a small risk she might go into labor and want to do everything they can to get her to thirty-six weeks first. But there’s no way to know for sure if she’s going to go into labor early,” he said, attempting to soothe her.

  “She’s dilated, effaced, and lost her mucus plug already!” she shrieked. “Those are all signs of labor.”

  “Calm down. Getting upset like this isn’t going to help anything. You were dilated with each of the boys for weeks before you gave birth. It was only with Aubrey that everything went so quickly,” he reminded her. “And if the worst-case scenario happens, we can get you on a plane and home in a few hours easily.”

  “Not easily,” she argued. “I can’t exactly ask the bride or her father to pilot a plane in the middle of the wedding festivities.”

  “Shit,” he sighed. “I’ll talk to Nick and see if he can get one of his pilots out here just in case we need one. It’s ironic that he and Lexi are both pilots with planes at their disposal and they are the last people we can ask right now.”

  Aubrey’s skin paled as she clenched my hand while we listened to her parents’ conversation.

  “Go in and talk to them,” I urged her quietly.

  “Come with me,” she asked as she tugged me with her.

  I pulled my hand away and shook my head. “No, your parents need you. Go on,” I insisted until she turned away from me and lightly knocked on the door.

  As soon as she walked into the room, I raced away and ran straight to the guesthouse. Right past Drake and up the stairs into our room. I dove for the bed and buried my head in a pillow as the tears I’d managed to hold inside poured from my eyes. Sobs racked my body and I couldn’t stop shaking.

  Drake wasn’t far behind me. I heard his swift footsteps as he followed me into the room and his swearing as I crumbled.

  “Fuck, baby,” he breathed out as he climbed into bed next to me. “What happened?”

  “Kaylie’s on bed rest,” I whimpered.

  “Are she and the baby okay?”

  “I don’t know for sure. It sounded like maybe just a precaution, but what if it’s not? What if she goes into labor while everyone is here and something goes wrong?” I asked as I began to panic.

  “Then we’ll figure something out,” he promised me. “But let’s not borrow trouble, baby. You need to calm down. You aren’t going to do anyone any good if you make yourself sick. Shhh, baby. Everything will be okay.”

  “You don’t know that, Drake. Nobody knows. When my mom went into labor with me, I’m sure my dad thought everything as going to be okay and she died,” I whispered. “People die when they have babies. It happens. Even now, twenty-two years later.”

  “Yes, sometimes it does. And sometimes planes crash, but you love to fly,” he pointed out. “Life’s about risk, and I’m sure Kaylie and Jackson are doing everything they can to limit the chances of anything bad happening and are focused on the fact that the baby will be here soon.”

  “What if I’m never brave enough to try?” I softly admitted. It was one of my biggest fears, something we’d never talked about before now but should have if we were going to be married.

  “Try what?” he asked, not understanding what I meant.

  “What if I’m too scared to get pregnant and decide that I never want to have children? Would you still be happy with me?” I worried aloud.

  “Alexa,” he sighed as he gathered me close. Tears were still streaming down my cheeks. “Yes. No matter what, I want you to be my wife. It seems like I’ve waited forever to be able to introduce you to people as my wife, and it’s not something I will ever regret. If we have children, don’t have children, or even adopt some, as long as I have you, I’ll have exactly what I want.”

  “God, I’m sorry I’m such a mess lately. It just feels like it’s all going to hell,” I cried, a little hiccup in my voice as I tried to catch my breath again. “My dress had to be changed because Sasha ruined one of the sleeves and I have no idea how it’s really going to look. And now, a million people will be here but not all the people who are most important to me because I need to make sure Aubrey and her parents get on a plane in the morning. Kaylie and the baby are more important. They need to be there to make sure nothing bad happens. Jackson needs his family.”

  “Close your eyes, baby. You’re exhausted. Everything will seem better in the morning,” he whispered as he rubbed my back with light circles.

  “I don’t see how, Drake,” I sighed as the adrenaline left my system and my eyes started drifting closed.

  “You leave that to me,” I heard as his lips caressed my forehead in a light kiss before he pulled me closer.

  With his warmth and strength surrounding me, I fell asleep thinking there was no way to solve this problem. I was going to be married in two days with nobody but my father to represent my family.

  chapter 5

  Drake

  Seeing the tears that streaked Alexa’s face even while she slept broke my heart. All I’d ever wanted was her happiness. Nothing else really mattered, and I felt like I’d watched her struggle long enough. Now was time for action. Rolling out of bed, I moved as quietly and quickly as I could. I had a lot to do before morning if I was going to pull this off.

  I threw on some clothes and grabbed my phone to fire off a few texts while I was on my way to the main house. By the time I got there, everyone was gathered in the kitchen. All eyes turned to me, and I could tell they were confused by my request to meet.

  “Alexa shared with me the news about the Kaylie’s bed rest and how she feels like you need to go back now in case anything goes wrong,” I told Aubrey and her parents.

  Mr. and Mrs. Silver looked at each other before he spoke. “We talked to Jackson and Kaylie tonight and decided we should stay until after the wedding. It’s only a couple more days, and Kaylie isn’t having any contractions yet.”

  “While I appreciate your willingness to stay for Alexa, she would never forgive herself if something went wrong,” I explained. “I don’t think you realize how tightly wound she’s been the last few months, and this struck her deep.”

  “Because of the way we lost her mom,” her dad interjected softly, his eyes meeting mine in understanding.

  “Yes,” I confirmed. “The wedding already made her miss her mom even more than normal, and then to have an issue with Kaylie’s pregnancy? It has her terrified.”

  “Megan and I can talk to her in the morning and alleviate some of her worries,” my mom said as she looked at Mrs. Silver, who nodded her head in agreement.

  “Bed rest isn’t a bad thing. The doctors just want to be careful so the baby can get closer to full term. In a couple of weeks, they’ll take her off the restriction once it’s safer for the baby to be born,” Mrs. Silver explained.

  “I don’t think she’s thinking clearly,” I replied, shaking my
head. “She already heard you and your husband talking and has it set in her mind that there’s a problem and she needs to fix it.”

  “She did?” she asked.

  “Yes, Mom,” Aubrey confirmed. “She didn’t want to come in because she said we needed to talk as a family, but we both heard your conversation before I knocked. It was pretty scary stuff, even for me, and I don’t have the same issues with childbirth that Lexi does because of her mom’s death.”

  “Which means she didn’t have a chance to hear what your mom had to say after she calmed down, thought it through more clearly, and stopped panicking,” Aubrey’s dad realized out loud.

  “And by the time she made it to the guesthouse, she was practically inconsolable. That’s why I think this calls for drastic measures,” I said, leading into my crazy idea.

  My dad nodded his head in encouragement, and I knew that, no matter what I said next, I at least had his support already.

  “By the time Alexa wakes up, I want everything ready so I can fly her back home.”

  “So she can see Kaylie and Jackson for herself? Can I come too?” Aubrey asked excitedly.

  “We don’t have time for you guys to take a trip tomorrow, Drake,” my mom argued. “You have the rehearsal starting at four, dinner right after, and then the ceremony is the next day.”

  “And that’s why I’m going to need all of your help to pull this off,” I said.

  “I’ll do whatever you need if you think it will help my baby girl,” Alexa’s dad offered.

  “Pull what off?” Aubrey’s mom asked, looking around the room in confusion.

  “I’m going to change a few things for our wedding day,” I began.

  “Unless this trip is extremely quick or your plan involves skipping the rehearsal entirely, I just don’t see how this will work. And how will we make the changes if you two aren’t even here to run things by?” my mom asked.

  “Ohmigod!” Aubrey gasped as she must have realized where I was going with this.

  Both men in the room were grinning at everyone’s reactions, and I thought they must have figured out part of my plan too. I took it as a good sign that neither of them were yelling yet since they were paying for the events we already had planned here.

  “The things I’m changing are pretty major and require both of us to be back in Alexa’s hometown,” I replied. “Because that’s where we’re going to exchange our vows.”

  My mom leapt from her chair and started pacing the room. “We have hundreds of guests coming for your wedding, Drake! You can’t just change the location to someplace several states away days before the one day before!”

  “When the girl I’m going to marry is a licensed pilot and so is her dad, I can,” I argued reasonably. “And I am going to do it because this is what’s best for Alexa.”

  “Calm down, honey. Let our boy explain what he wants before you fly off the handle,” my dad interjected.

  “I want Alexa to be able to marry me in a place where she’s surrounded by her loved ones,” I said as I looked towards Aubrey and her parents. “Without feeling guilty about them being there.”

  “Before you make a rash decision, let me talk to her when she wakes up and reassure her that there’s no need to feel guilty,” Mrs. Silver said.

  Shaking my head, I looked at Alexa’s dad next. “And I want her to feel closer to her mom too. As morbid as it sounds to start our wedding day in a cemetery, I want her to be able to put flowers on her mom’s grave before she walks down the aisle to me. So her mom is a part of our special day even though she’s gone. And the only way that can happen is if we go back.”

  Alexa’s dad’s eyes were filled with sadness as he returned my stare. “My gift will help her feel closer to her mom,” he reminded me.

  “I know, but I think she needs more. Plus, if we do this at the Silvers’ house, then Jackson could be there too. And she’s been sad that he won’t be here for her wedding day too,” I said, explaining the last reason why I thought this was the right decision.

  “How can we possibly move everything though?” my mom asked.

  “That’s the beauty of my plan. We don’t have to move everything—just the rehearsal and the ceremony. We can fly in tomorrow and take care of any details we can’t do over the phone. Then we get married in the morning and fly back for the reception,” I told them.

  “I have room for all of us on the plane,” Alexa’s dad said.

  “And the flight’s only a couple of hours. If we time it right, the reception can happen without any changes at all, Mom,” I pleaded with her, hoping she’d agree.

  “I think I know someone who can tape the ceremony so your guests can watch it from here if you wanted,” Aubrey offered. “I can make some calls and find a place that will set up a projection screen so everyone can see it.”

  “But we’d be abandoning everyone here,” my mom worried. “How will we explain this if we’re all gone?”

  “I’m sure your sister will be happy to be left in charge while we’re gone,” my dad told her.

  “Yeah. Aunt Marci would be perfect. You know she’ll be happy to help,” I agreed.

  “It doesn’t matter what I come up with, does it? You’re going to have a solution for everything?” she asked me.

  Nodding my head as I walked towards her, I looked down at my mom so she’d see how serious I was. “Yes, and if I don’t, I know you’ll help me find one. Because this is what’s best for Alexa. And I grew up watching you and dad doing anything you needed to do to make each other happy. To make Drea and me happy.”

  She started crying, and I hugged her close. “Well, I can’t exactly argue with that now can I?”

  “Nope, you can’t,” I said.

  “Well, then I guess I better get to work so we’ll be ready to leave in the morning,” she said.

  “Can you let Drea know about the change when she gets back?” I asked. “When I texted her, she told me she was visiting a friend in town.”

  “Sure, honey,” she agreed. “I’ll make sure your sister is ready for the flight in the morning too. And as long as she’s there already, I’ll call the owner of the dress shop and ask her to meet Drea there so she can pick up Alexa’s dress. They finished the additional alterations this afternoon and we were supposed to go back in the morning to get it.”

  “Thanks, Mom,” I said as I gave her one last squeeze before letting go.

  We spent the next thirty minutes running through the list of things that needed to be done in the next twenty-four hours if I hoped to pull this off. Once we divided everything up, they began leaving one by one to get a start on their lists until it was just Alexa’s dad and me left.

  “Thank you for loving her so much. For moving Heaven and Earth to make sure she has everything she could ever need. You are exactly what her mom would have wished for our baby girl,” her dad murmured as he patted me on the back before walking out of the kitchen.

  I took a moment to let his approval soak in before I shook it off. I needed to get moving too because I had a ton of stuff to do before Alexa woke up. Then I needed to convince her to agree to this plan too. Hopefully the toughest task on my list wasn’t going to be getting her to agree to this plan. Alexa and surprises usually didn’t go well together, and this was going to be one hell of a shock.

  chapter 6

  Alexa

  “C’mon, baby,” Drake whispered in my ear.

  I stretched and rolled over before I remembered everything that had happened in the last week. Wanting nothing more than to block it all out, I pulled the covers over my head.

  “No,” I grumbled. “I know I’m supposed to be doing a million and one things before the rehearsal, but I just can’t do it. I think I’m just going to spend the day in bed instead. It’s not like things could possibly get any worse even if I did.”

  The look of adoration that met my eyes when he pulled the blanket down made me feel bad for my pity party. It wasn’t Drake’s fault that things were going to hell with
this wedding.

  “Do you trust me?” he asked.

  “Of course I do,” I replied.

  As soon as I answered, Drake lifted me in his arms, blankets and all. “Then let’s get moving. I have a surprise for you.”

  There were two black stretch limos in the driveway that were being loaded up with luggage. Aubrey and her parents were helping put their stuff into one while Drake’s dad and mine were loading up the other. Drea waved to me from the back seat of the car as her mom followed her inside.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, confused by the sight in front of me.

  “I’m kidnapping you.”

  “Are things so bad that we’re eloping?” I half-joked, not expecting the worried look that entered his eyes. “Ohmigod, Drake. Seriously. We can’t do that. We have guests coming. Flowers and food and the baker. As much as I’d love for us to run off and get married without a care in the world, it’s just not possible.”

  “Trust me,” he requested, his eyes locked with mine. “I know what I’m doing here.”

  “And even if he didn’t, I do,” his mom piped in. “Now, you two get in this car and talk for a bit. We’ll ride in the other so you have some privacy.”

  I watched as she practically dragged our dads to the other limo before Drake climbed in ours and sat down with me on his lap.

  “What the hell?” I snapped at him. “I don’t understand what’s going on.”

  “You went to bed crying last night, Alexa. That’s not acceptable to me. Ever. And certainly not two days before our wedding.”

  “Drake,” I sighed. “I know you hate seeing me cry, but things were just crazy yesterday. And I’ve been under so much stress lately that it was almost a relief to let some of it out with a good cry.”

  “Nothing about what happened last night was good, baby,” he disagreed. “But today’s a new day, and I’m hoping you agree with what I’ve decided to do.”