Free The Chapel Wars by Lindsey Leavitt

it’s family tradition.”
    I swallowed. The crumbs stuck in my throat. “Oh, Sam. No.”
    “You’ve never had a boyfriend,” Sam mumbled. “You wouldn’t understand.”
    “Understand what?”
    “True love.”
    I almost spewed on him. “That’s ridiculous.”
    “You are my
girl
best friend. This isn’t the kind of reaction you’re supposed to have, especially at a
bridal
convention. Five minutes here and girls will marry a hairbrush.”
    “So?”
    “So you sound too much like Grant and Porter. Don’t razz me on this.” He flicked some crumbs off his cheek. “Camille is the real thing. She’s my forever. As soon as we’re both out of school, we are getting married and leaving Vegas. We need to get away from her parents.”
    I felt sick to my stomach. They’d only been dating fifteen months. You can’t know forever in fifteen months. And how could they know each other at all when they spent 81 percent of their time together hooking up? I gave Sam’s arm a squeeze. How could a kid with such big muscles be so stupid soft? “I’m just worried that if things don’t work out, you’re going to crash hard.”
    Sam shrugged me off. “Then I do. Just because something might not happen later shouldn’t stop me from making plans now.”
    “But why make them before—”
    “I think that guy is waving at you.”
    I followed Sam’s gaze. That guy was Dax, and he was a mere fifty feet away at the tuxedo booth. He saluted me again. The combination of delicious food and a delicious Dax almost made me faint. I could never accuse Camille of acting Victorian again.
    Sam patted my back. “You okay?”
    I wiped off my mouth. “That’s Dax,” I said.
    “Dax who?”
    “Cranston.”
    Sam whirled around. “Why is a Cranston saluting you? Who salutes?”
    “Don’t embarrass me. He’s coming over.”
    Sam narrowed his eyes. “Tell me you’re not serious.”
    “He’s just a guy I’ve talked to, like, twice. And he’s in the wedding business, so we’re going to run into him. No big deal. Act professional.”
    “Professional? You look like you’re undressing him with your eyes. Does he look good naked?”
    I squeezed my eyes shut. “I swear, Sam. I swear I will rearrange your schedule so you don’t ever work with Camille again.”
    “Fine. Jeez. Protest much?”
    Dax weaved around a booth until he was only, what, three feet away from me? It had been eighteen days since I’d seen him. Those eighteen days had treated him well.
    I’m not going to pretend that I hadn’t thought about Dax. I wasn’t pining away, but I did see his chapel every day, and naturally that was going to lead me to think about who was inside. I kept wondering if things would be different if we had met in another way. If he wasn’t him and I wasn’t me. What if he was just some guy at my school, lending me a pencil or sitting at the table behind me in the cafeteria? Could there be more between us then? Would he want that? Would I?
    “Hey, Holly. Glad to see you here.” His smile was lazy and self-assured. His accent made my name sound like a ballad.
    Yes. Given different circumstances, I would want more. There was a lot to potentially want when it came to Dax Cranston.
    “Of course she’s here.” Sam slipped his arm around me protectively. “We always attend Bridal Spectacular. It’s a competitive market. Have to keep being excellent if we’re going to stay on top.”
    “Agreed,” Dax said.
    I squirmed away from Sam. “Dax, this is Sam.”
    “How you doing, man?” Dax held out his hand.
    Sam wrinkled his nose before giving Dax a limp shake. “Decent. Holls, we better go.”
    I gave Sam a look. He gave it right back. We actually had a ten-second conversation consisting of grunts and grimaces. Finally, I said, “Sam is my
employee
. We were just tasting cakes, but we’re done. Sam, why don’t you skip on back to the booth?”
    “What about you?” Sam asked.
    “I was just headed over to the fashion show if you