Voyages and Vows

Grayson has been in love with Dani for as long as he can remember.

The problem.

She's about to marry a different man.

His duty as man of honor is to support her even if it kills him.

But when her jerk boyfriend leaves her at the altar, Grayson steps up and offers to marry her instead so her wedding that she ever dreamed about wouldn't be ruined....

Dani has been planning her wedding since she was five years old. Nerves and a little too much champagne before she walked down the aisle must make her crazy. When Jeremy leaves her standing there looking like a fool, she lets Grayson marry her, even though it could ruin their friendship.

But he had whispered to her that they don't even have to sign the marriage certificate.

After the wedding, Grayson takes her what was supposed to be her honeymoon and soon she's having feelings she shouldn't.

Is the last second wedding a recipe for forever, or disaster?

Grayson tried to ignore the knot in his stomach. But it twisted and turned, not letting go. He had a quick shower, threw on joggers, and took the elevator down to the main floor of the hotel with his stomach still bothering him. 

The little store was not stocked well, but it did have a small bottle of the pink stuff. He hoped it would help, but he wasn’t sure anything would at this point. Maybe he should grab the bottle of vodka instead. 

The woman at the counter looked at the bottle, then his face. She chuckled.

“Nervous?” she asked.

“You have no idea,” he replied. Half the hotel had been rented out for the wedding, so of course, the woman knew about it.

After she charged the overpriced bottle to his room, he escaped back upstairs and downed the whole thing.

It did not help.

He contemplated going back for the vodka but knew that wouldn’t be a good idea, even if it would make him feel better.

Cinco whined from the bed, and Grayson sank down and petted the Doberman’s head. He rested his snout on Grayson’s thigh. He always knew when Grayson was feeling down and had been the only one Grayson confided his worries in about today.

Grayson stared out over the stormy waters of Lake Michigan. The waves were higher than normal today. It would make for stunning wedding pictures. But the clouds might also release rain that could ruin them.

That might not be a bad thing.

He immediately felt guilty for the thought. He wanted the wedding to go well, not be ruined. He owed Dani that much.

Cinco whined again, bringing his thoughts back to the inside of his hotel room instead of three hours later on the beach. “Maybe we should go for a run.”

Cinco perked up, his ears alert and the stump of his tail wagging. Grayson glanced at the clock. He’d been up way too early anyway. Sure, he’d have to shower again, but it would be worth it if the run cleared his head. Not that he expected it to help, but it would at least pass the time.

He hooked up Cinco’s leash and went down the elevator. As he made his way out the back of the hotel and onto the beach, evidence of wedding set-up was everywhere.

Dani had been planning her wedding for ages, long before she even met Grayson. Her mom told him that the binder she had that held all her wedding ideas was started the year she turned eight. From then until she turned twelve, she was a bride for Halloween every year, and in high school, she simply switched to the bride of Frankenstein. Dani was unashamed of her obsession. And that was just one of the things he loved about her.

Grayson didn’t need to look closely at the flowers strung around. He already knew they were white roses with pale purple lilac sprigs. He had spent hours with the florist, Dani reiterating over and over again that they had to be the perfect shade of lavender.

The chairs had been set up on the beach, white and purple ribbons hanging from them, and a tent was going up next to the chairs.

Grayson had been concerned about her being overly obsessive when the real wedding planning finally started because he knew how much this meant to her. He had wondered if it would turn her into a different person.

But he never once saw her lose her temper with anyone. She’d shed a few tears when she found her budget wouldn’t cover the cake she wanted—a seven-tiered monstrosity from a baker she’d been following on Instagram for years. But she found a less expensive local baker and toned down the cake.

Grayson went behind her back, canceled the order, and paid for the Instagram baker. He couldn’t wait to see her face when she saw it.

There had been a few other things like that, but Grayson took care of them all. He wasn’t about to let her dream wedding become anything less than she’d imagined. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her. She was his best friend and had been since their freshman year in college. She deserved the world, and he did everything he could to make sure she got it.

He wasn’t sure when he’d fallen in love with her. It might’ve been that first night they met when he saw her across the room at one of the frat parties. It might’ve been the nights he spent tutoring her in biology. Though he suspected it was the night he kissed her for the first time.

He’d never forgotten that night. They’d been a little tipsy from a party and were out walking the campus. It was still early fall and not quite cold. She’d been telling him all about her dream wedding, and he couldn’t help himself. He kissed her.

Which was stupid really. What young college frat boy kisses a girl who just told him about the wedding she’d been planning since she was eight? 

He had.

And here he was.

At the wedding that was exactly the same as she’d always wanted.

Down to the heavily perfumed lilac sprigs.

He bounded down the sand with Cinco, eyeing the clouds. This would not bode well for the wedding. After they got farther away from the hotel, Grayson let Cinco off his leash, and he went racing out into Lake Michigan. Grayson hadn’t foreseen that. Though he should’ve.

He was too distracted by the pain in his stomach and the wedding.

It would take forever to clean Cinco up. He didn’t have time for that. As it was, he barely had time to get back and get ready.

He wished the day would stretch on forever and never get to the wedding. Then things would continue on just like they always had.

Instead, Dani was getting married.

And he wasn’t the groom.