Page 65 of Forever After All

"Black?" I ask, sounding incredibly sceptical.

"You don't seem happy in any of them, and that's totally okay, but I think it's time you try something different." She pulls a strapless dress off the rack that is black and beaded. The bodice is a nude-coloured material, draped in black lace with heavy beading over it. The skirt is floor length and plain black with some accent beads dotted over it.

My eyes almost pop out of my head at how beautiful it is.

"Well, fuck," I say a little too loudly and giggle. "Sorry, I just didn't expect…well, that." I gesture to the dress as the beads shine under the spotlight, and my mouth pops open as she pulls it further into view.

"Do you want to try it?"

"I really, really do." I beam at her, and she directs me to the changing room. Helping me into the dress, she fastens the corset back with clips. My long hair falls over my shoulders, partially covering the strings at the back.

"I'll be back in a minute, okay?" she says as she leaves me to admire myself in the mirror. I never in a million years saw myself wearing black to my own wedding, but this is something else.

"Okay, ladies," I hear the consultant say at the front of the store. "Please close your eyes and no peeking." Then she heads back to collect me from the changing room.

She stands me back on the platform and adjusts the full skirt of the dress, fluffing it out to exactly where it needs to be.

"Okay, you can open them now," she says, standing back as my mum, Autumn, and Brenna open their eyes at the same time.

Immediately, my mum cries, followed by Autumn.

Brenna looks between the two crying women, then back at me. "Honestly, Alice, I don't cry, but if I did, then I would be right now." She smiles at me. "I think you've found your dress."

"Oh my, Alice." My mum squeals out her words between sobbing. "This is the one."

"I think it is too." I look at my best friend as she nods in agreement, her bottom lip trembling as she does.

Epilogue I

Alice - The wedding

We choose to get married surrounded by our friends and family, and what better way to do that, than at the Green family home.

Eighteen months after the proposal, it’s finally our wedding day. If Carter wanted to get married the day after he proposed, I swear I would have. But, no, he's the sensible one. He's the planner, and I am just the one that goes along with it.

Sawyer got himself ordained so he could perform the ceremony, and my soon-to-be husband has spent the last two days decorating the yard with lights, hay bales for seating, blankets, tables, and chairs. All with the help of his brothers. And not even letting me so much as look if I attempt to peek out the back of the house.

Even though we’ve been staying in the same house, we haven't seen each other since yesterday.

Carter has taken the tradition very seriously and spent lastnight at Autumn and Sawyer's house with his brothers. My mum, Claudia, Lainey, Autumn, Brenna, Lottie, Poppy, and I all crashed in the living room with sleeping bags, watchingBridesmaidsand eating pizza after Poppy fell asleep. Then we woke up this morning surrounded by empty pizza boxes.

Spending the morning with my bridesmaids means everything. I love the company of everyone else, but in the chaos of getting everything ready, I haven't stopped to take it all in. Autumn, Brenna, and Poppy look so beautiful in their deep green dresses. Autumn and Brenna's hair is curled and pinned to within an inch of its life.

Poppy's wild mop of hair is left to do its own thing. The rowdy little girl cannot be tamed. My heart squeezes in my chest, watching her run around and getting stains on her dress before the wedding has even begun. Watching a kid be a kid is one of the best things you can see, and I love to see her without a care in the world. I run my hands down over the front of my dress and touch my tummy for just a second. Brenna chases Poppy outside, trying to stop her from getting even more dirt on her dress.

"Oh, Ali. Just look at you, you are glowing," my best friend says to me in the empty room. "Your dress is so beautiful, your makeup looks incredible, you're oozing with happiness."

"Autumn, I'm glowing because I'm pregnant," I blurt out asI look down at the floor, and am met with complete silence.

After a few, long seconds Autumn steps in front of me and pulls my face up with her hands to look directly at me, "I'm sorry, what?"

"I'm pregnant," I repeat. "I found out two weeks ago." I bite my bottom lip as my face pulls into a frown, terrified to admit the secret I've been keeping from her.

I never wanted children.Well, I never pictured myself with children, but Carter and I haven't exactly been careful. The only shock here is that I haven't gotten pregnant sooner. The second I started to vomit, I just knew. I didn't need to do the test—I felt it to my core. But I peed on that stick anyway and got the confirmation in the form of three little words.Seven weeks pregnant.The small words seemed so big to me, looking down at the little plastic device in my hand.

Carter and I sat on the bathroom floor, our backs against the bathtub, looking at the stick, waiting for the result. As soon as the three minutes were up, I turned the little white case over and my hands started to tremble. I threw up immediately, I had to catapult myself to the toilet to stop myself vomiting on the floor. Carter held my hair out of the way and rubbed my back. I'm unsure whether it was from morning sickness or from the shock of discovering I’m pregnant. Maybe it was both.

"Princess, we're gonna be parents. Fuck, I'm so happy,"he said,hammering the news home, and it triggered another wave of vomiting.

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