Page 19 of Needing Happily Ever After

He was about to protest again, but with impeccable timing, the subject of their discussion chose that moment to appear. “Hey, guys.” Katie waved from the open door of the barn. “Do you have a minute?”

Logan looked from his sister back to Faith and shook his head. “I meant it.” He turned away before she could say anything else, not that it would have made a difference.

“Hey, Logan,” Katie said as he walked toward her. “Where are you—”

Her words trailed off as Logan pushed past his little sister and out the door, leaving her to look back at Faith, bewildered.

Katie looked to Faith for some kind of explanation as to what was going on with her brother, but her friend could only shrug.

“Ignore him,” Faith said. “He’s in a mood.” She waved her hand to dismiss Logan and held her arms out for a hug.

Katie crossed the space and was about to hug Faith, when the other woman reached up and snatched her hand. “Whoa. That’s quite a rock.”

She instantly blushed and shook her head. It was quite a rock. She hadn’t really expected Damon to buy her a ring, and she’d definitely not expected him to buy such an extravagant one. Or, if she was being honest, one she loved quite so much. She’d wanted to ask him whether it was a loaner, or whether they could return it when all of this was over, but it hadn’t really been a good time in the park with all sorts of people—some she knew, most she didn’t—congratulating them on their very public official proposal.

“It’s nice, isn’t it?”

“It’s gorgeous,” Faith gushed as she turned Katie’s hand back and forth, examining the ring. “And you know how I feel about these things. Even so, this ring is absolutely stunning. I love how it’s completely untraditional and yet, so…” Faith dropped her hand and laughed. “He did good, that man of yours.”

“Yeah…” She snatched her hand back and tucked it in her pocket, out of sight. A wave of self-consciousness washed over her and she suddenly felt untethered and completely out of her depth. “Yeah,” she said again. “He gave it to me Saturday. I mean, he would have…and yes…he is…I mean…he did do really well.” Her face heated with an unexpected blush as she stumbled over her words. “I mean…he is really good. I mean…ahh…whatever.”

Faith tilted her head and gave her a strange look. “You okay?”

Shit.

She was already screwing this up, and Faith was probably the easiest person to lie to about all of this because it was no secret that she didn’t even like love. If she couldn’t even fake it with Faith, she was in serious trouble.

Katie took a deep breath and regained her composure. Slowly, she released it and nodded. “I am. Thank you. It’s just…this is still all so new and I’m trying to wrap my head around it all. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind, you know?”

Faith laughed. “I certainly don’t. But I could imagine. It did seem to come on pretty fast. I know your mom was—”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Katie held up a hand and shook her head. “Not right now, please.” She couldn’t deal with her mother. Not yet. At least, not without backup. And especially not now that the wedding was going to happen right away. Which was the whole reason she’d gone looking for Faith. After leaving ElkView just over an hour ago, Damon had a few things he needed to take care of, but with time running out on wedding preparations, Katie didn’t want to wait to talk to Faith.

“I actually need to talk to you about the wedding plans. Things have changed.”

“Changed?”

Katie nodded. Changed was an understatement.

Faith laughed again. “I’m sure I can handle it. But not inside. Come on.” She grabbed Katie’s hand. “It’s way too nice of a day to be inside. I need to feel some sunshine on my face.”

Relieved to have a little reprieve, at least for the moment, Katie happily followed Faith out into the sunshine.

“Let’s sit by the river,” Faith said. “I just need a break from this barn and tablecloths and…all of it.”

It was Katie’s turn to laugh as they walked across the grass to the riverbank. “How are you doing with all of this? Is it getting easier?”

“If by easier, you mean that I now know the difference between mulberry, plum, chartreuse, and mauve, yes.”

Katie sucked in a breath. “I hate to tell you this, but chartreuse is actually a shade of light green.”

“Dammit!” Faith slapped her hand on the grass as she sat down, but dissolved into giggles. “I will figure this out. Also, I better make a note to check the napkins for next weekend’s wedding.” She shrugged and laughed again. “Honestly, it’s not too bad. I think I needed a break from the city and the nine-to-five of an office.”

Faith had been working as a paralegal in the city before Hope had asked her to come home to help. Katie couldn’t help but admire the way she’d dropped everything, including—according to rumors—a guy, and moved back to Glacier Falls without hesitation.

“Although,” Faith continued, “it would be nice to get outside and actually enjoy the mountains a little bit. What’s the point in having this amazing backyard if I don’t have time to enjoy it? And I think I’m actually getting paler.” She shook her head. “It’s practically summer—I should have a tan, or at least the start of one, not the other way around. I spend so much time inside or out at night that people are going to think I’m a vampire.”

There was no way anyone would mistake Faith for anything else besides beautiful. She and Hope had always had tall, perfectly curvy figures that along with their long blonde hair and blue eyes made them some of the prettiest girls in town. When they were growing up, Katie had spent far too many hours longing for hair just as blonde as theirs. The day her mother had caught her trying to bleach out her own dark locks with peroxide was definitely not one of her proudest moments. But she’d only been ten and didn’t know that the only thing peroxide would do to her hair was turn it orange. Thankfully her mother had taken pity on her and hadn’t let her go around with orange streaks, but instead had gone to the store to buy a box of dye. She’d spent hours covering her color mistake and drying Katie’s tears.

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