The Biker Alpha Who Became My Second Chance Mate Chapter 157

Athena

"Anyway," Sarah said, turning back to me. "The point is we should start early, you have two dresses to find and that's going to take some time."

"Okay," I agreed. "I trust you."

"Good," Sarah said. "Because I have a whole schedule mapped out for the next four months."

"Of course you do," I said with a laugh.

The rest of the morning passed quickly with more planning and list making.

Tristan and Orion disappeared at some point to go look at potential ceremony sites, leaving Sarah and me to continue working through details.

Around lunchtime my phone buzzed with a text from Leah asking if we wanted to meet for coffee to discuss more wedding plans, Sarah immediately agreed and we made plans to meet that afternoon.

"Should we invite Kiara?" I asked.

"Definitely," Sarah said. "She's the maid of honor, she should be involved in all the planning."

I texted Kiara and she responded almost immediately saying she'd be there.

A few hours later, Sarah and I were sitting in a coffee shop waiting for Leah and Kiara to arrive, Leah got there first, sliding into the booth beside me with a huge bag full of bridal magazines.

"I'm so excited," she said. "I've been waiting for you to get engaged forever."

"Forever?" I said. "Tristan and I have only been together a few months."

"Yeah but I knew it was going to happen," Leah said. "You two are so perfect together."

Kiara arrived a few minutes later, looking slightly nervous but excited, she slid into the booth next to Sarah and smiled at all of us.

"Thank you so much for asking me to be your maid of honor," she said to me. "I'm really honored."

"Of course," I said. "You've been such a good friend, I couldn't imagine anyone else doing it."

"I promise I'll do a good job," Kiara said. "I'll help with whatever you need."

"Actually," Sarah said, pulling out her phone. "I already started a group chat for all of us so we can coordinate, I added you and Leah this morning."

"That's nice, thank you.," Kiara said, checking her phone. "Oh wow, you really are organized."

"Sarah doesn't do anything halfway," I said with a grin.

"Neither do you apparently," Leah said, gesturing to the magazines she'd brought. "Two ceremonies? That's ambitious."

"I want both," I said simply. "I want the traditional ceremony for our closest friends and I want the white wedding for everyone else."

"I love it," Kiara said. "It's going to be beautiful."

We spent the next two hours going through magazines and discussing ideas, Kiara had surprisingly good taste and made several suggestions that I immediately loved, Leah was full of creative ideas, and Sarah kept us all organized and on track.

"So," Leah said at one point, looking at Kiara with barely concealed curiosity. "You're going to be working pretty closely with Derek on all this planning."

Kiara's expression tightened slightly. "I suppose so."

"That's going to be interesting," Leah said.

"Why would it be interesting?" Kiara asked, her tone carefully neutral.

"Oh come on," Leah said. "Everyone knows there's something between you two."

"There's nothing between us," Kiara said firmly. "We just don't get along."

"Right," Leah said, clearly not believing her. "Well, you're going to have to get along for the next four months."

"I'm perfectly capable of being professional," Kiara said.

"No one said you weren't," Sarah interjected, clearly trying to defuse the situation. "Leah's just teasing."

"I know," Kiara said, but I could see the tension in her shoulders.

I made a mental note to keep an eye on how things developed between Kiara and Derek.

I still thought there was something there worth exploring, but maybe I needed to be more subtle about pushing them together.

By the time we left the coffee shop my head was spinning with ideas and plans, but I felt good about the progress we were making, it was really happening, in four months I was going to marry Tristan.

When I got back to Orion's house, Tristan was already there, sprawled on the couch looking relaxed and content.

"How was planning?" he asked, pulling me down beside him.

"Good," I said, curling into his side. "Really good, we got a lot done."

"Good," he said, kissing the top of my head. "How's Kiara handling being maid of honor?"

"She's excited," I said. "And she promise not to murder Derek."

"And Derek?" he asked with a grin.

"Apparently you're sending him Kiara's number," I said.

"Already did," Tristan confirmed. "Can't wait to see how that goes."

"You're enjoying this way too much," I said.

"Maybe," he admitted. "But in my defense, it is pretty entertaining."

I laughed and settled more comfortably against him, thinking about everything we'd planned today, everything we still had to do.

Four months suddenly seemed like both forever and no time at all.

But I was ready for it, ready for the planning and the stress and the chaos, because at the end of it all I'd be married to the man I loved.

And that made everything worth it.

"Thank you," I said quietly.

"For what?" Tristan asked.

"For giving me this," I said. "For wanting the big wedding, for being excited about it, for just being you."

"You don't have to thank me," he said. "I want this too, I want to celebrate us with everyone we know."

"I know," I said. "But I'm thanking you anyway."

He kissed me then, soft and sweet, and I felt that familiar warmth spread through my chest.

This was real, this was happening, and I couldn't wait for it all to unfold.

Four months, I just had to make it through four months of planning, and then I'd be his wife.

Forever.

......

Three weeks had passed since we'd announced our engagement and started planning the wedding, and somehow we'd managed to survive without any major disasters, though Derek and Kiara were doing their best to test that theory.

I was sitting in the living room going through wedding binders that Sarah had made when my phone buzzed with yet another message in the wedding planning group chat.

Derek: The florist said they need a deposit by Friday. Someone should handle that.

Kiara: By someone, do you mean me? Since I'm apparently the only one who actually reads the emails they send?

Derek: I read the emails. I just don't feel the need to respond to every single one with a novel.

Kiara: It's called being thorough. You should try it sometime.

Derek: I'm plenty thorough when it matters.

Kiara: Could have fooled me.

I sighed and put my phone down, watching as more messages continued to come through, they'd been like this for three solid weeks, not quite fighting but not exactly getting along either, every interaction was laced with sarcasm and subtle jabs.

"Still at it?" Tristan asked, coming into the room and seeing my expression.

"They haven't killed each other yet," I said. "So I'm calling that a win."

"Low bar," Tristan said with a laugh, settling beside me and immediately placing his hand on my stomach like he always did now. "But probably realistic."

"I'm starting to wonder if I made a mistake," I admitted. "Pushing them together like this."

"Too late now," Tristan said. "They're your maid of honor and my best man, we're committed."

"I know," I said. "I just thought maybe being forced to work together would help them resolve whatever is between them, but so far all they do is insult each other."

"Give it time," Tristan said. "They've only been coordinating for three weeks, maybe they need longer to work through whatever their issues are."

"Or maybe they'll just keep insulting each other until the wedding and then never speak again," I said.

"That's also possible," Tristan admitted.

My phone buzzed again and I looked down to see Kiara had sent a message directly to me instead of the group chat.

Kiara: Is it too late to resign as maid of honor? Derek is driving me insane.