Needing Happily Ever After - Elena Aitken Page 0,68

but she hadn’t given her any direction for a few minutes.

“Um…hold on.”

Katie turned around and sighed. Faith wasn’t even holding her camera. Instead, she was staring at her phone.

She’d had enough. This was torture. Katie left her tree and picked her way through the tall grass toward her friend, whose head shot up.

“Good timing. Let’s go finish up.”

“Finish up?” She groaned when she remembered what Faith had said about taking some pictures at the ceremony site. “Seriously? We really have to do that?” She crossed her arms like a pouty teenager. “I’m not sure how much you know, but Damon and I—”

“Oh!” Faith interrupted her. “Logan’s here. It’ll be faster to go there in the golf cart. Ready?”

Katie sighed as her brother pulled up with the little golf cart that he and Faith used to move around the property. With a resigned sigh, she got into the backseat and closed her eyes. Maybe if she stopped protesting, they could get this over with faster.

A few minutes later, the cart slowed to a stop and Katie opened her eyes. She instantly closed them again and shook her head. “No.”

“Come on,” Faith said quickly. Obviously anticipating the objection, she’d turned around and grabbed Katie’s hand. “I needed it to look real, and we needed guests for that.”

“No.” Katie shook her head again and forced herself not to cry. “Faith, I don’t know how much you know about what happened with—” She tried again, but once again, Faith cut her off.

“Come on. It’s just a few people. They’re going to pretend to be guests.”

It had looked like a lot more than just a few people, but Katie really didn’t want to open her eyes again.

“Katie, it’s not a big deal.” Logan spoke up. “Besides, if we don’t get these shots, it won’t look real for the ad campaign.”

Slowly, Katie opened her eyes and stared at her brother, whom, she noticed for the first time, wore a suit. “And I suppose you’re going to be my pretend groom?”

Instead of answering, he laughed, jumped out of the cart, and held out his hand to her. “Come on.”

“This is ridiculous.” She pressed her lips into a line and shook her head.

“We’re almost done,” Faith pleaded. “Please?”

“You owe—” She cut off her own words. Faith didn’t owe her anything. After all, she’d already thrown her a fake wedding, all because of Katie’s lies. If anyone owed anyone anything, it was her. And she knew it.

She took her brother’s hand. “Let’s get this over with.”

Katie tried not to make eye contact with the guests Faith had brought in for the shoot, but she did vaguely register Sarah and Brody as Logan, whose job clearly was to walk her down the aisle—probably so she didn’t bolt—and not to be her pretend groom, started doing just that. She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat and sent a silent prayer for the photoshoot to end quickly.

“It’ll be fine,” Logan whispered into her ear. “Trust me.” He winked at her and just before she could ask him why he was being weird, music started to play.

Wedding music.

This was too much. Sure, she could understand that Faith wanted it to look as real as possible, but music? It was all bordering on completely ridiculous.

She would have run, but Logan held her arm tight and started to walk down the aisle toward the front of the gorgeous ceremony space that was set up with a stunning arch, covered in fresh wild flowers and tulle that was blowing, just slightly, in the breeze. The sky had cleared, and the rain they’d had left everything fresh and greener than before. It was perfect. The only thing missing was the groom.

As if her thoughts had conjured him, Damon appeared, his father next to him. He didn’t look up as he helped Anthony to a front-row seat, next to…her mother? When Mr. Banks was settled, Damon moved into position under the arch, turned around and looked directly at her.

She was gorgeous. Even more so than the first time he’d married her—if it were even possible.

He dropped his head briefly and took a deep breath. Everything was on the line with this. It needed to work. As he lifted his head again, he caught his buddy Nick’s eye. Nick winked at him and nodded. It was such a small thing, but the support was appreciated and he was grateful that Nick had stuck around. He’d been a big help in pulling it all off.

He exhaled slowly and