Page 6 of Bumping into You

I chuckle at the misunderstanding as my stomach twists. An image of the fair lass passes through my mind. Her fitted clothes showing off her lean figure, her intoxicating scent. Shaking it off, I check in with the front desk to get my room key then make my way to the elevators.

Chapter 5

Gwen

After closing the door to my rideshare, I lean my head against the back of the seat. What is wrong with me today?

I’d slept through my alarm this morning, and now I’m running behind schedule. It’s unlike me to be late for anything, but I’d been tossing and turning all night, and I barely managed three hours of sleep.

Thankfully, my “oh, shit” alarm woke me up.

But I hadn’t had time to go through all my checklists or—most importantly—grab a coffee before catching my flight.

I’m thankful that I arrived at the hotel the day before the cruise sets off and had the time to check my emergency bag. I found out that I only have one bottle of Dramamine, my sewing kit is missing the black thread, my first aid kit only has Advil instead of both Advil and Tylenol, the thermometer stopped working, and I only have two bags of tissues. It’s unacceptable.

Have I ever not had something I needed in my emergency bag for an event? Never. Not once. And I especially can’t be missing anything for this event.

It’s the one event that I would never want to mess up or have something go wrong. Not that I ever want any event to go wrong, but this one is just more special than any other event.

I normally don’t accept events this far away from home. It’s harder to keep organized this far, but when your best friend forever is marrying your older brother, you must make an exception.

The couple is nauseatingly sweet, but I am super happy for them.

How could I not be? My best friend will soon be my sister-in-law. What more could I ask for?

My own happily ever after?

Ha. No, thanks to Bradley.

You’d think after being together for two years—yep, two years!—that he’d be used to how much I have to work. Boy, how wrong I was on that.

Do I work a lot? Yes. But even though Bradley thought I worked too much, I have done quite well for myself. Whimsy and Wonder Events by Gwen is now the biggest event-planning business in Chessie Valley, Tennessee, and is becoming a leading contender in Middle Tennessee. You don’t get to this level of success at the age of twenty-five without putting in hours of work and living and breathing the business.

I mean it’s not like I try to be a workaholic. I own my own business for Pete’s sake. How was I supposed to know he wasn’t happy?

Did he ever say anything? No. Of course not, because why should a guy try to communicate? Not when it’s easier to just leave me out of the blue.

Ugh. I’m better off without him anyway. I don’t have time for a relationship in my life. Not when my business is picking up steam. All those hard hours working and marketing and getting my name out there are finally paying off.

No worries, Gwen. You’ll pull this wedding off without a hitch.A quick rideshare drive to Target and I’ll have everything I need. Then I’ll get back to the hotel and double-check all my lists, every one of them.

What a day.And to add to it, I had that super embarrassing run-in with the deliciously sexy Irish man with the heart-stopping accent.

I mean come on, who sounds like that? Okay, well, just about everyone Holly and I met on our spring break trip to Ireland years ago, but still, we’re not in Ireland, are we?

And why didn’t I check my app or notice that my rideshare driver should have been female? I look at the dash where my actual driver, Miss Trudy, has her name and information posted. I should have noticed the man’s car had none of that. I’m just off-kilter today.

Would I have preferred handsome Niall to be my rideshare driver just so I could hear him talk in that sexy accent? Yes. Yes, I would have.

Do I need distractions like this before the most special event of my career? No.

I need zero distractions.

Nada, none.

Zip.

Irish accents have always been my Achilles’ heel. Holly practically had to drag me onto the plane to come back home after our week in Ireland. Plus, Niall was just too messy. Who has things strewn all over like that? What is he, in college?

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