Page 70 of Under Pressure

“What about the hurricane?” Grace asked.

“We’ll get it over with before the storm hits,” Blue assured her. They were getting married early tomorrow.

“Get it over with? Who talks that way about their wedding?” Kate folded her arms over her chest and stared down her nose at Blue. “It’s Sean, isn’t it?”

Blue clamped her teeth together. Why did everyone jump to that conclusion?

Kate smiled dreamily. “The Clayton men sure have a way of making a girl’s head spin, don’t they?”

“You’d know better than I would,” Blue said in an almost whisper.

Grace glanced over her shoulder into Blue’s apartment and gasped. Straight down the hall, in the living room, Blue’s wedding dress hung on a mannequin. It was a two-piece with a removable lace, skirt train she was adding now for her new future. The under piece had a Queen Anne neckline and a mini skirt. She’d made it years ago, then put it away and hadn’t taken it out since.

Kate followed Grace’s gaze.

They made a beeline for the living room. “This is your dress? Oh my gosh, it’s stunning. I’m breathless.” Kate flapped her hands her many rings sending sparkles across the walls.

Blue rushed after them, leaving the door open behind her. She wasn’t sure why, but she was nervous for them to see the piece.

“This is the most beautiful dress I’ve ever seen.” Kate fingered the lace at the waist.

“You should have a wedding dress line,” Grace said as she circled the dress dummy, looking from every angle. Blue hadn’t tried it on in years, and when she’d pulled it out this afternoon, there were a few adjustments she needed to make. Mostly in the hips. “I’m just fixing a few things.”

Voices sounded in her doorway, laughing and talking way too loud, and Blue looked that way just as Jonah and two of his friends stepped past the threshold. All three of them were dressed in warm winter coats. Warmer than Blue thought necessary for the weather today. It was in the sixties in Diamond Cove right now.

Levi and Miles. Ugh. Part of the appeal of getting married so quickly was the small hope that Jonah’s friends wouldn’t show. At least there were only two of them. There could be a dozen.

Jonah smiled his megawatt smile at her. “Darlin’, look what the cat dragged in.”

Instinctively, she rushed down the hall to act as a buffer between them and her new friends. “Guys!”

Miles and Levi sandwiched her between them and hip-bumped her from both sides. She felt like a ping pong ball by the time they let her go. Jonah smoothed her hair down on one side.

“I can’t believe you finally tricked Jonah into marriage,” Miles said. He was the biggest in their group of friends. About the same height as Sean’s six foot three inches. He was also the one who instigated all their stupidest stunts.

Base jumping off a cliff with a rocket tied to their backs? Miles. Mountain biking through bear country with raw meat tied to their backs? Miles. Challenging bikers from the Capitol Crows’ biker gang to a race? Miles. That’d almost gotten them killed, but as Miles explained it, the threat of death had gotten them major ratings. Whatever they had to do for fame and fortune.

Levi stepped forward—he wasn’t a big guy, but he had a big, obnoxious personality, and a deep scar in his bottom lip on the right side that she’d never had the guts to ask about. “Now that you’re off the market, do you have any friends you want to introduce us to?”

Blue laughed but tried not to make it sound rude by covering it with a cough. Yeah, not in a million years would she ever set up one of her friends with Levi. As far as she knew the guy had four kids with four different women, and recently found out a fifth was pregnant . . . which had ended his relationship with baby mama number four. And he was only twenty-eight.

Kate and Grace came up behind her.

Levi perked up, glancing over her shoulder. “Ladies!”

“They’re taken,” Blue said defensively.

Levi stepped around her, hips jutted out, arms wide. “But it’s not official until they walk down the aisle, right?”

Jonah pointed at Kate. “Well, this one’s marrying Axel Clayton, so I’d say that’s pretty official.”

“No way!” Miles and Levi chorused together.

“Way,” Kate said, looking completely unimpressed.

The men started reminiscing over that concert of Axel’s they’d all gone to.

Blue turned to her friends, wanting them gone, but not knowing how to say it without being rude.

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