Just a Girl - Becky Monson Page 0,83

you all like this,” she says, her voice muffled behind her hands.

“Oh, my gosh,” I say loudly. “When were you going to tell us?”

Holly looks up and then over at Logan, who gives her a small dip of his chin. “We only decided yesterday,” she says.

“So, you’re . . . getting married?” I ask, not able to believe what I’m hearing. It wasn’t that long ago that Holly was worried because she was feeling all these feelings and she felt like it was too soon. When did that change?

Holly takes in a big breath. “Yes,” she says. “Logan and I are getting married.”

The table erupts into everyone talking over each other, so many words and questions coming at Holly and Logan in rapid succession. When is it? How did he propose? Where’s the ring?

It turns out, after everyone settles down and Holly and Logan are able to answer the questions, that Logan asked her to marry him at the coffee shop where everything started for them. The Lava Java. He arranged it with the owner to go in after hours on a Sunday. She said yes, and the ring was too big, but she pulled out a chain hanging around her neck, and there, dangling on it, was a fairly large, round, diamond solitaire set in gold.

They don’t want a big wedding, because . . . well, Holly tried all that and would rather not do it again. And Logan isn’t a big wedding type of guy. So they want to keep it simple, invite some friends and their parents and make a weekend of it in Vegas. They want to do it sometime in October.

I smile at Holly when they’re done filling us in. She smiles back at me. There’s warmth there and also a tinge of concern on her part. I know, without words—as best friends do—that this wasn’t how she’d planned on telling me. And without words, I let her know it’s okay.

“Well, this calls for celebration,” Thomas says, tapping the side of his empty wineglass with his knife. “Drinks on Alex!”

We all laugh and give Alex a cheer.

“What?” Alex says, shaking his head at Thomas. “Okay, sure. Drinks on me.”

~*~

“Isn’t that crazy?” I say to Henry on the phone later that night. I’m lying in my bed, feeling a mixture of tired and giddy.

“I think it’s fantastic,” he says, his voice sounding even deeper over the phone.

“They’ve only been together like three months.”

“That seems rather short.”

“But they’ve known each other for a couple of years,” I say, not wanting Henry to judge Holly, even though it all did happen super fast. Which is not very Holly-like. But she’s been doing a lot of things that aren’t like her lately. I think I like this new Holly; it suits her.

“And this was your friend that’s been dating her ex-fiancé’s best friend?”

“And roommate,” I add with a laugh. “Yeah, Holly. And now she’s marrying her ex-fiancé’s best friend and roommate,” I say, attempting to imitate Henry’s accent and doing a miserable job of it.

“You should work on that accent,” he says, teasing me.

“What? I thought it was brilliant,” I say, attempting the accent again.

He chuckles. “I think just stick with the American accent thing, okay? Besides, your voice is quite sexy.”

“You think my voice is sexy?”

“I do,” he says, his voice a lilt.

“I wish you were here,” I say, my voice just above a whisper.

“Me, too.”

I turn over on my side, wrapping the hand that’s not holding my phone in my sheets. “So, listen, Holly and Logan are eloping in two months, in Vegas.”

I feel nervous telling him this because I’m about to ask him to go with me and I’m afraid that it might feel too big, too much, too soon. I don’t want to scare him off. But I want Henry there with me, and in the name of putting it all out there, I’m going to go for it.

“Brilliant, that sounds like a lot of fun,” he says.

“Want to go with me?” I ask. The words come out in a sputtering rush.

“To Vegas?”

“Yeah. I guess it’s not really eloping; they’ve invited our little group of friends, and their parents are coming.”

There’s a long pause on the other end. This doesn’t bode well.

“Henry?”

“I’m here,” he says.

“It’s not like you have to decide now or anything. It’s two months away.”

“Won’t that be weird?” he asks. “They haven’t even met me.”

“Well, we have two months. That should be plenty of time to get to know my friends. You’re