Page 161 of The Duke Who Saved Christmas
I pushed open the door to the ‘bridal suite’ and paused.
The room was empty.
Hazel was nowhere to be seen.
“Hazel?”
Sniffles echoed from the direction of the bathroom, and I rolled my eyes, pushed the door closed behind me, and dumped my bag on the floor.
Here we go.
No, no.
I wasn’t going to think like that.
I was going to be nice.
My little sister was going to be married tomorrow. It was perfectly normal for her to be crying right now. I’d talked down more than one bride after their rehearsal dinner because reality had hit them. This was no different than all those other times.
I tried the door, but it was locked. “Hazel, are you in there?”
“Yeah,” she replied weakly.
“Can you unlock the door?”
I raised my eyebrows as the sound of shuffling reached my ears, and before I could think of anything else, the door unlocked, swung open, and I was smothered by my sister.
I stepped back to steady myself at her body weight slamming into me, but that was all I could do. Her arms were wrapped tightly around my middle, pinning my arms to my sides, and she wailed into my chest. Her sniffles were now thick, body-shaking sobs, and I just knew she was snotting all over my jumper.
I sighed. “Stop—”
“I’m sorry!” she cried, dragging ‘sorry’ out until it no longer formed a word but rather the strangled cry of an alley cat. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry!”
“Okay, okay.” I reached around as far as I could and attempted to pat her on the back.
“I’m sorry!”
“Yes, I hear you.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to the sound of her crying. “Hazel, I need you to do something for me.”
“Anything! Anything!”
“Stop this caterwauling.”
She sniffed, loosening her grip on me. “I’m sorry.”
“And stop apologising. I get it, you’re sorry.”
“No, I’msorry.” She finally let go of my arms and stepped back. She swiped her hands across her cheeks and peered up at me, her eyes still shining with tears. “I had no idea this was so hard. Planning a wedding. I didn’t know how much you did until we had to fix everything. And I made everything so much harder for you!”
Her tears started all over again, and I guided her towards the bed where I sat her down.
“I was so selfish!” She hiccupped and buried her face in her hands. “I didn’t help you at all! I just—hic—made everything so much harder for you! I just had to—hic—give you one song and I couldn’t even do that! I kept asking you—hic—to do more and more and I never did—hic—the one thing I asked to do! I’m the—hic—worst! No wonder you hate me!”
Oh, boy.
It appeared that this drama had given her a reality check.
Well, it was going to happen one day. Why not today?
